Emitt Rhodes

Artist: Emitt Rhodes

LP: Mirror

Song: "Mirror"

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I picked this album up for a couple bucks a few months ago just because I thought Emitt was so handsome, but it turns out there's a lot more to this guy than just another pretty face. Born in Decatur, Illinois in 1950, Rhodes worked with several different groups before deciding to write, play, and record music all on his own inside his parents' garage in Hawthorne, California. After the critical and commercial success of his 1970 self-titled solo LP (which seems like one I need to hear), Emitt Rhodes was dubbed "the one-man Beatles" for his catchy musical style that clearly owed much to the popular hit-makers, especially Paul McCartney. Released in 1971, Rhodes' followup LP, "Mirror," didn't do as well as the first record, and his label sued him for breach of contract, since Rhodes couldn't churn out a brand new LP with the arrival of each new moon. After his third LP failed to make the charts (and took over a year to complete), a burned-out Emitt Rhodes withdrew from the music scene at the age of 24—another sad, but typical, case of "the music industry" finding, mining, suffocating, and discarding the talent and promise of a gifted young musician in the relative blink of an eye. You can read all about the life and career of the one-man-Beatles on Emitt Rhodes' website here, and find out what he's been up to lately on Wikipedia here. Notes, photos, and lyrics from the "Mirror" LP are included below.