(Emitt Rhodes)
Australia
#2 Brisbane
Single on Columbia January 1969 by Brisbane band formed 1964, originally called The Tropics. The single was recorded in Melbourne, produced by notable New Zealand expat producer and A&R man at HMV, Howard Gable.
The Avengers competed in the national final of the Hoadley’s Battle of the Sounds in 1969.
They also charted with their second single Tweedle-e-Dee (1969, #13 Brisbane), an original song written by the single’s producer, Terry Britten from The Twilights.
Not to be confused with:
• British band The Mighty Avengers (So Much
In Love)
• New Zealand bands The Avengers (Wellington) or Ray Woolf And The Avengers (Auckland)
• numerous other bands called The Avengers worldwide.
References, further reading:
1. The Avengers at Andrew Ainsworth’s Brisbane Scene blog.
2. Some singles produced by Howard Gable, list at 45cat.
3. The Listen Listen page by Brisbane Music Graveyard has both sides of the single for
streaming or downloading, plus information on the band.
(Emitt Rhodes)
USA
Original version
Single on A&M by Los Angeles band of singer-songwriter Emitt Rhodes (1950-2020), formed 1966 after he left British Invasion-oriented band The Palace Guard.
The Merry-Go-Round released several singles 1967-68 and an album (1967) on A&M before disbanding in 1969.
After The Merry-Go-Round, Rhodes went solo, playing all the instruments on a self-titled album that he recorded in a studio he built at his parents’ house. Emitt Rhodes (1970), reminiscent of The Beatles (especially McCartney), was well received and is regarded as a major work of the 1970s. Other albums followed in the first half of the 70s before he went into producing and engineering, although he has released further material in recent decades.
An iconic cult figure in American pop music
Mark Deming at All Music
Sources:
1. The Merry-Go-Round, band biography by Tim Sendra at All
Music.
2. Emitt Rhodes biographies at The Great Rock Bible, All Music, and Wikipedia.
Recommended reading: The excellent official Emitt Rhodes site at emittrhodesmusic.net.
(Emitt Rhodes)
USA
Later version
B-side on Kyra by band formed in 1969 by students of Wilson High School in Youngstown, Ohio.
The single was recorded about 70 miles away in Pittsburgh at the studios of Hardman Associates, run by radio and film actor Karl Hardman (Karl Schon, 1927-2007).1 He also owned the label, named after his daughter Kyra Schon.
The A-side is Freedom, an original by L.A. Freeway bassist Daryll Plant.
Ohio music site Buckeye Beat notes that their live sets included heavier and progressive sounds of the day like Led Zeppelin and Santana.
L.A. Freeway did not survive its members’ high school graduations and it disbanded in 1972.
Footnote
1. Karl Hardman and his business partner Marilyn Eastman are now remembered for their roles in Night Of The Living
Dead (1968), the cultish horror film produced by their company Image Ten, Inc. Daughter Kyra Schon was in the film too.
Selected sources:
1. L.A. Freeway: Band history
at Buckeye Beat.
2. Karl Hardman: Biography at Image Ten website.
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