Last Thursday, I caught the Arena tour at Slim’s in San Francisco. Another great show in a series of concerts stretching out (for me) over 30 years. Todd was in fine form; joking with the audience about recording the gig with their phones, ripping off blistering lead guitar licks, and almost falling off the stage at one point when he over-rotated on his trademark song-ending spin. (“This stage is too friggin’ small!”)
Todd has a huge body of work as a composer, performer and producer, but he remains pretty much a cult figure. I think that is by partly by design; he could have been famous as a pop hitmaker and stuck with material like “We Gotta Get You A Woman”, “Hello, It’s Me” or “I Saw The Light”. Instead he went his own way with progressive, experimental, and downright non-commercial projects.
I know there are at least a couple of fans here–someone posted a while back about the upcoming performances of “A Wizard, A True Star”. Beyond us two Rundgren fans, I’m curious about what other Dopers think of him.
I’m definitely one of the them. I have tickets for the upcoming AWATS show in Akron, Ohio and attended the Rundgren Radio Birthday Bash in Las Vegas, but didn’t have the money to camp out on his lawn for the his 60th birthday.
I’ve seen the Arena show a few times, and can’t say that it is a side of Todd I’m all that fond of - and frankly it was done better with the “Power Trio” tour a decade ago. But the thing is, if you don’t like what he’s doing now, wait a bit and he’ll do something completely different.
For instance, I loved the whole “semi-rap” thing he did with The Individualist and No World Order, which he got into to try to understand the music one of his sons was into (he has three, Randy, Rex and Rebop - as well as his daughter Liv who was sired by Stephen Tyler when his ex Bebe had an affair). The No World Order tour was amazing, a tiny “theater in the round” stage with built-in sound, light and video, dancers, LED signs flashing the lyrics, cameras dropping into the audience - completely nuts! Two tours later he toured a Tiki bar set up on the stage of a theater playing to a small number of tables as if the whole evening was a theatrical production about a band playing a Tiki bar. He was one of the pioneers of recording every note on an album by himself, but he’s done other albums setting up a recording environment on a stage and doing everything live with a huge band.
The UK music mag Mojo had a great article about Todd a while ago called “Pop’s Lost Genius”. My joke is that Todd is the only artist who could do a one-man “Behind The Music”, that every time he was going to get a huge break, he’d do something to screw it up. Every episode of “Behind The Music” features the “…tragedy struck” moment. One of Todd’s many ones would be his appearance on “The Midnight Special”. Here he is, with a perfect pop ballad that should have become a massive, chart-topping hit, and he appears with his hair dyed a dozen colors with feathers glued to his eyelashes! One of the executives at Bearsville Records (his old label) posted on a Todd forum about how when they heard the piano-only version of A Dream Goes On Forever they were all picking out the color of the expensive new cars they were all going to buy. He says Todd saw the dollar signs in their eyes and said: “That’s just a demo. I’ll be back.” then he added the drum machine and the synth parts. Which I love, but it was really no longer a simple, romantic ballad that the record company could sell as a 45 to millions of people.
Todd is an innovator, far beyond what most people can appreciate, unfortunatly including me. He is actually “too cool”. I like all his old stuff, but am too un-savvy to really get his latest. Hell, I’m online with 28 kps right now! :eek:
I saw him live in a tiny club in Vegas years ago and he was just a Right-On Cat! I seem to recall even sitting at the bar with him and having a beer. We were all kinda wasted. Maybe it happened, maybe it didn’t.
rundgren is a genius…i have always thought so. wizard/true star is one of the weirdest albums of all time. the transition between ‘you don’t have to camp around’ and the weird noise-song that comes before it is brilliant. that album is out of this world. runt is also an incredible album. something/anything was the first TR album I ever had; it was given to me for my 17th birthday and i listened to it over and over and over.
Check out this clip from the “Ra” tour: “Singring and the Glass Guitar” solo. Todd climbs the pyramid with his (pre-Prince) Ankh Axe and swoops down through a billow of smoke. Wild!
Heh…that’s one of my YouTube uploads. From his “Prog Rock” days.
Bebe Buell (Todd’s faithless ex-girlfriend) said she met a very young Prince backstage at a Todd concert, and he told her that he loved Todd’s music “…and I play all the instruments on my album just like Todd!”.
Back when I was a smartass with zero social skills, my first girl friend (to-be) approached me and eventually turned me into a functioning human. I’d say it was largely due to the fact that I was a skinny, long-haired guy with a narrow face, and she was a Rundgren fanatic.
So, you better believe I appreciated Todd Rundgren.
Some of his music is pretty good too. International Feel King Kong Reggae Last Ride
Most of Something/Anything.
It was a clash of two very creative people with huge egos (Todd and Andy), but with the passage of time Andy has come around to appreciate Todd’s work on the album. From what I understand, they wanted to produce it themselves, the record company insisted they needed a producer and they picked Todd fairly randomly. So he was imposed on them, and Todd was reportedly not interested in spending time experimenting in the studio - his approach was, you write the song, then you come into the studio and record the song. Since they were recording at Todd’s backyard studio, he’d leave and call from the house asking if they were ready to record, which apparently annoyed Andy to no end.
Todd’s unlike most producers in that he has often contributed songs to the bands he’s produced. The Tubes’ Remote Control featured a couple of his songs, Shawn Cassidy’s Wasp was a mixture of Todd originals and covers of songs by other artists.
I’m one of those who were at Toddstock a year ago. It was a life-changing experience.
I also was at the Vegas Rundgren Radio Bash, and will definitely be at the AWATS show in Akron. Hope to see some of you there.
AWATS was my “Initiation” to Todd. A friend kept trying to turn me onto Todd with it, which I simply hated and didn’t get for a long time. But now I consider it a true masterpiece in the same vein as Sgt Pepper’s.
I remember astonishing a DJ at the radio station I worked at years ago, when on hearing a song by some now-forgotten group, noted that Todd Rundgren must have produced it (he had). Just one little trademark Rundgren harmonic transition that no one else could have done.
I am gradually picking up his/Utopia’s old albums at sales, and catching up on stuff I missed.
Speaking of production, the new album just released by the New York Dolls which Todd produced at his home in Kauai has been very well received by critics too.
Sounds like it was Bourgeois-Tag or The Pursuit of Happiness both of whom Todd co-wrote songs for. From what I understand, it has quite a bit to do with having received no formal instruction - just banging away on a piano. That, and he will use time signatures rarely seen in pop - I have no idea what time he used for the song “Healer”. That, and his patented “trashcan drums”.
We probably met. I was there with my brother (he’s thin and bald, I’m fat with long hair and glasses), and we were staying at the Golden Nugget.
Let me jump on the bandwagon of those who think he’s a genius. One of his projects that I don’t think has been mentioned so far is his work on Meatloaf’s Bat Out of Hell. The man is a brilliant musician and I understand he’s pretty good at computer software.
I’m a fan. A friend of mine is currently writing a book on Todd’s production work, so he’s been interviewing everyone from Andy Partridge to Daryl Hall to Patti Smith to Todd himself (Rundgren invited him to stay at his place in Hawaii for a few days), though, strangely, Meat Loaf refused. Anyway, just thought I’d pimp my friend’s book a bit.
Though I think his quality has dropped off a bit as he’s aged (I’m hard-pressed to think of an artist this isn’t true of), he’s still definitely got it. Though I have to say, Utopia has always sucked, IMO.
He is actually “too cool”. I like all his old stuff, but am too un-savvy to really get his latest. Hell, I’m online with 28 kps right now! :eek:
