Before he became Patti Smith’s lead guitarist, Lenny Kaye compiled the 2 album set, Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era. Released in 1972, the two-LP set covered American garage rock and psychedelia from the years 1965-1968 and was a major influence on punk rock. Rhino Records reissued an expanded version of the set in 1998, with 118 tracks in total. I’m profiling and rating each of these 118 tracks, working backwards.
Track 52/118: Live by The Merry-Go-Round
Release Date: 1967
From: Los Angeles, California
Aphoristic Rating: 9/10
LIVE – The Merry-Go-Round [2:32]
(Emitt Rhodes)
Personnel/EMITT RHODES: vocals, guitar * GARY KATO: lead guitar, vocals * BILL RINEHART: bass, vocals * JOEL LARSON: drums
Produced by LARRY MARKS
Recorded in Los Angeles, CA
A&M single #834 (3/67); Pop #63
Emitt Rhodes
We’ve already encountered Emitt Rhodes in this series – he was the 15-year-old drummer on The Palace Guard’s ‘Falling Sugar’. Clearly talented, Rhodes sought more of the spotlight. It started when he took a solo turn at Palace Guard gigs to sing The Beatles’ ‘Michelle’, accompanying himself on guitar. Still merely 16, Rhodes left The Palace Guard to form his own band.
Rhodes formed The Merry-Go-Round with lead guitar Gary Kato. The pair were joined by bassist Bill Rinehart, formerly of the Leaves, and drummer Joel Larson, formerly of the Grass Roots, who’d also worked with Gene Clark on his 1967 album Gene Clark with the Gosdin Brothers. Rhodes was the principal songwriter for The Merry-Go-Round. The Merry-Go-Round only released one album, 1967’s self-titled record.
I’m already a fan of Rhodes’ 1970 self-titled album, and ‘Live’ is strong enough to make me want to check out its parent album. The band are clearly Anglophiles, and this song sounds like the harmony-based bands of the British Invasion like The Beatles and The Hollies.
‘Live’ was covered by The Bangles on their debut album.
Rhodes went on to release four solo albums in the early 1970s. Most notable was his 1970 self-titled debut, on which he played all the instruments himself.
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Very catchy, very Kinks-like. And no detectable Yardbirds infliuence.
Yeah, it’s definitely on the harmony and folk-influenced end of the spectrum.
A minor diversion. All the rest of the songs will go back to sounding like garage versions of the Yardbirds. Not that that’s a bad thing.
Great tune with a catchy melody. I also love the harmony singing. BTW, I also went back to check out “Falling Sugar” by The Palace Guard – another nice song!
Max had posted some Emitt Rhodes stuff lately too. His solo debut isn’t miles away from McCartney.
You know I like this song and Rhodes. It’s a crime he wasn’t as well known. I found out that his record company put out an unfinished album by Merry-Go-Round and renamed it Emmit Rhodes and released it at the same time as his real album was climbing the charts.
Graham…every time I come to your site I always click “follow” and get an error message…tonight I didn’t get the message! I am following you once again. That will help me not be as late as I have been.
Yeah, it’s a shame that solo debut wasn’t more successful- he only released a handful of solo records l, and probably would have recorded more if he’d met with some success.
I imagine there’s a caching plugin messing with it or something. It’s good to have you back as a follower.
That fate seemed to affect many power pop artists.
I’ve tried to be on time but it’s hard to do at times when I wasn’t reminded…I’ll still be late but hopefully not as much. I couldn’t believe it went through.