Emitt Rhodes Documentary – it’s here!

Finally!

After having a premiere at the Rome International Film Festival in Italy last October, the Emitt Rhodes documentary,  The One Man Beatles, is going to make its US debut Thursday July 8 at the Don’t Knock The Rock film festival in Hollywood. The film features interviews with The Bangles, Keith Olsen, Ray Paul, Michael Penn, Allison Anders, and of course, Emitt Rhodes.

Trailer

From the Italian film festival publicity blurb: “A young director crosses the ocean to find Emitt Rhodes, the mysterious forgotten American pop star from the 1960s/70s, once dubbed as the secret alter ego of Paul McCartney. But these theories are refuted by Emitt himself, flushed out and placed in front of a video camera after many years spent holed up in his house full of old guitars and vintage amplifiers. His words reveal a past filled with regrets. His voice and his music proving his pure talent.”

In conjunction with the release of the film, Permanent Press is releasing a single by Ray Paul that was intended to be on the Emitt Rhodes tribute album Rhodes Of Perfection (currently put on hold by Brewery Records). Ray’s cover version of the Emitt Rhodes composition ‘Til The Day After” has just been sent to radio and will appear on the August 2010 radio industry trade CD Sampler A Taste Of Triple-A.

Rhodes and Paul have a long history; they performed together in concert in February 1997 in Santa Monica, California and some footage of that show is included in the film. A collaborative single, “Some Sing, Some Dance“, released in May 2000, received airplay on 55 Hot A/C  and A/C stations.

Listen to “Til The Day After“

Listen to clips from Emitt’s discography

Emitt Rhodes website

Ray Paul website

Emitt Rhodes, At Last

I guess this will need a revision soon...

Funny how things circle around and back again. I bought and liked Emitt Rhodes‘ debut album when it first came out, but somehow I didn’t catch the insatiable bug for his music that so many other power pop lovers seem to have caught. Besides, I’m in New York City and I’m being bombarded with all kinds of sounds as the music of the 60s come crashing to a halt and FM radio finally cuts the umbilical cord to AM radio. Rock stars were dying, The Beatles were defunct, psych and garage and prog and glam and metal and a hundred other things were coming at me at warp speed. Can’t blame me for not following every single tangent. And by the time this one hit the wall, I didn’t even notice.

Several years later, I’m working in a Syracuse record store (which used to be a prestigious job. Hell, I had to audition!) and Ray Paul‘s 45 comes across the desk. Looks interesting, so I play it. Sounds great, so I buy it. Ray is from Rochester, just an hour or so up the road, but that’s a million miles at the time. And those other singles are telling me things like “God Save The Queen” and “So It Goes” , so a momentary pleasure is enjoyed and the single gets added to the collection.

Maybe two decades later, I finally meet Ray Paul in California at Poptopia. It’s ironic; he now lives in Los Angeles while I’m in his former hometown of Rochester.  I tell him the story about the single; he tells me about his friendship with Emitt Rhodes. (I don’t remember if we met Emitt that night – Ray and I  tipped more than a few pints that evening along with a couple of magazine editors). Within another year or two, he and Emitt release a new single on Ray’s Permanent Press label. I catch the bug.

And today, a decade after that meeting, Ray – now a friend as well as a musician I enjoy - emailed me with great news. The Emitt Rhodes film documentary, “The One Man Beatles“, will premiere  at the Rome International Film Festival on October 21st & 22nd. Ray was interviewed extensively for the film, along with Keith Olsen, Michael Penn, The Bangles, Joel Larson, Allison Anders, Janice Fortier, Dan Mayer and Jim Rolfe.  “The film, which is in the running for best documentary in  the festival, includes several songs which will be on the forthcoming  CD performed live in the studio by the new Emitt Rhodes Band. English narration is currently being put together for the release in the USA.”

The film announcement is exciting enough, but a new Emitt Rhodes album?? Wow!! Now that Ray lives in Rochester again, I guess it’s time to celebrate with a few pints on this coast.

A link to the film festival website.

Don’t know Emitt Rhodes? Here’s a link that will fill you in while you await the new film and album (and – hopefully – some live performances?)

Emitt wiki page

Ray Paul‘s MySpace page.

Permanent Press Records