Emitt Rhodes - Emitt Rhodes ABC/Dunhill DS 50089 1970 Another of my favorite records here. Emitt Rhodes is one of those guys where you hear the music and think, why the hell didn't he make it big? The fact that he's not a household name calls into question the rationality of the universe, or at least, that of the record business and popular culture (the questioning of the rationality of which is, of course, not at all counter-intuitive.) In fact, it's something of a tale as old as time, of a young genius chewed up and spit out by the music biz before he stood a chance of satisfying the commercial obligations and expectations placed upon him. As singer-songwriter of the brilliant yet short-lived psych-pop outfit the Merry-Go-Round, he had already penned an enduring classic "Time Will Show the Wiser," later made famous by Fairport Convention. (Which, speaking of, warrants a separate post of its own.) This, his subsequent solo release, was a critical smash and a modest commercial success, but his contract with ABC/Dunhill called for an album every six months for three years, which was much more than the young pop auteur was prepared to deliver. The label sued him for a quarter of a million dollars (far, far greater than the $5,000 advance he spent on recording equipment.) They withheld royalties, and (in one of those self-defeating shoot-yourself-in-the-foot strategies labels so often seem to adopt) refused to promote the two follow-up albums. That'll show him, they said, I suppose. Needless to say, his career as a pop star didn't survive. What did survive, however, is this quite amazing 1970 album, recorded in solitude by the artist over the course of a year in his parents' garage. It is pretty much the perfect pop album, the best Paul McCartney record you never heard. Indeed, I've heard him dismissed as a McCartney imitator, which is not an inaccurate description by any means; but it really fails to get across the unique and subtle brilliance of the songwritin...