Emitt Rhodes
The American Dream - AM Records 1979 Comments:Emitt Rhodes, who saw decent success with the group Merry-Go-Round in 1967-68 , recorded in 1969 his first solo album for AM Records.
Actually it was ooriginally intended as Merry-Go-Round's second album, but the group had disbanded in late 1968 and to fulfill contractual obligations with the company singer / songwriter Rhodes started recording new songs, on some with help from Merry-Go -Round drummer Joel Larsson.
This became the album "The American Dream" which was released in 1970. Several songs were Merry-Go-Round recordings from 1968, among these "Till the Day After," "Come Ride," Pardon Me" and "Holly Park."
Musically Merry-Go-Round were very inspired by British pop (The Beatles!) and this shows very clearly on most of their recording; not least on "The American Dream", where both instrumentation and songwriting are very close to the Beatles' sound around 1967-68.
Some songs may appear too close to the Beatles, but since Rhodes is an undeniably great songwriter, you bear with him. The album is actually very consistent, and only the somewhat overproduced "Come Ride" falls through.
"Mother Earth", "Pardon Me" and "Hollywood Park" almost sound like outtakes from "Magical Mystery Tour" - and good ones as such.
"Let's All Sing" has a great guitar riff and is overall quite charming. More personal and thoughtful are songs like "The Man He Was" and "Someone Died".
Later versions of the album also include the exquisite Merry-Go-Round song "You're a Very Lovely Woman".
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