Originally part of the 1960s psychedelic scene, Rhodes pioneered upbeat powerpop and inspired generations with his home recordings
Emitt Rhodes in 2016. Photograph: Timothy Norris/Getty Images
Emitt Rhodes, the cult US musician who helped shape the powerpop genre, has died aged 70.
His death was confirmed by Tony Blass, who produced a 2009 documentary about Rhodes, The One Man Beatles. Blass said he was “honoured and blessed to have worked and spent time with him”.
Rhodes was born in Decatur, Illinois in 1950, and grew up in Los Angeles. He played drums with garage rockers the Palace Guard, immortalised on the scene-encapsulating Nuggets compilation with their song Falling Sugar.
The Merry-Go-Round, circa 1967. Photograph: GAB Archive/Redferns
Still aged only 16, he then fronted psych-pop band the Merry-Go-Round. They had a hit with the song Live, which chimed with the free spirits of the hippy era, but the band only released one album and broke up in 1969.
Rhodes went solo and built a home studio in his parents’ garage, where he wrote, performed and produced three albums almost entirely on his own. “I was a drummer and I had a piano and I had a guitar and I just started there,” he said in 2001. “The next thing I knew I wanted to play the violin and the sax and the flute and the harmonica and the banjo and everything. I’m a tinkerer. I would buy an instrument and an instructional book, and just play scales for an hour a day until I felt comfortable doing it.”
His first, self-titled album was a success, reaching No 29 in the US charts (Wes Anderson later used its song Lullabye in his film The Royal Tenenbaums). His melodic style has often been compared to Paul McCartney’s, and as well as helping to forge the positivist powerpop genre that flourished in the late 1970s, his home-recording approach was influential on generations of independent and lo-fi musicians.
He took an extended break from recording after legal disputes with his record label, instead producing other artists’ work until 2016, when he recorded another solo album, Rainbow Ends. It featured guest appearances from musicians who admired him including Aimee Mann, Richard Thompson, Jon Brion and more.
His songs have been covered by Fairport Convention, the Bangles, Linda Ronstadt and others. Susanna Hoffs of the Bangles paid tribute, saying “peace & love, dear Emitt Rhodes”. Indie band Field Music hailed his debut solo album as having “the precocity of Todd Rundgren and oodles of McCartney melodicism”.
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