They Say It’s Your Birthday: Emitt Rhodes

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Feb 252014
 

They Say It’s Your Birthday celebrates an artist’s special day with other people singing his or her songs. Let others do the work for a while. Happy birthday!

At the time, did you consider yourself to be a Baroque popper?

No… to put myself in a category, okay, pop, yeah, definitely pop. But ‘Brrr-roke?’ Come to think of it, I was brrrroke my whole life! Yeah, a brrrrrrrroke popper! That’s exactly what I am! — Emitt Rhodes, in a 2010 interview

If you want the prototypical example of a record company killing the goose that laid the golden egg, look no further than the story of Emitt Rhodes. An incredibly talented teen who’d had a couple local hits with his band the Merry-Go-Round, Rhodes released a self-titled album in 1970 that featured him on all vocals and instruments, and which earned favorable comparisons to Paul McCartney’s similar one-man-band home-recorded solo debut released earlier that same year. But after that, the suits stepped in, and it was all downhill.
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Under the Radar: Strolling Scones

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Jul 062012
 

Under the Radar shines a light on lesser-known cover artists. If you’re not listening to these folks, you should. Catch up on past installments here.

A good ’60s cover act has two duties: 1) come up with a creative, memorable name to help them stand out among their peers, and 2) play the songs that everybody knows. The Strolling Scones handle the first part with an enviable nonchalance – how could anybody forget that name? But when it comes to the second part, they go in another direction entirely. Continue reading »