Getting into Todd Rundgren - where to next?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by warewolf95, Nov 12, 2017.

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  1. Deano6

    Deano6 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Plymouth, NC, USA
    Yes, these are the ones I like best. The self titled three sided album is my fave. Also love Deface The Music and Swing To The Right. POV has got a couple of winners also.
     
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  2. telecode101

    telecode101 Forum Resident

    Location:
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    The only Utopia record that was too gimicky for me was deface. The rest I got into.

    Fwiw. I got and listened heavily to Disco Jets. It's a Utopia record that was never released when they made it but a label recently released it. It's actually a very fun record. I wonder if Utopia and TR would get gotten a more intense cult following if they had actually released it back in 70s. It's just fun to listen to.
     
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  3. warewolf95

    warewolf95 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Greenville, SC
    Thanks for the opinons. :)

    I've sampled Deface the Music.

    It's extremely weird listening because it, of course, is literally meant to be a rip-off of various Beatle songs, so it's like "wait, I know this song, but it doesn't sound like this" and makes me feel very odd, haha.
     
  4. William Smart

    William Smart 21st Century Schizoid Man

    Location:
    North Haven, CT
    A Wizard A True Star has always been my favorite. But everything up to the first Utopia were real good. He kind of lost me at Ra. if possible get them on vinyl.
     
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  5. telecode101

    telecode101 Forum Resident

    Location:
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    OP. As I see from your avatar, you might be a Prince fan so perhaps the appeal is that TR made some of his records similarly in that he played all instruments on some of the records he released.

    Early TR is sort of a amalgamation of various music trends at the time. There were other lesser known artists of his generation who had a similar thing going for them. The Beatles influence and recording everything themselves.

    Check out Emit Rhodes. Sound a lot like early TR (or early TR sounds like him). Maybe because they had access to the very similar equipment and were using similar techniques.



    TR sort of broke out into prog rock and then 80s pop and kept going with it even to this day. He's pop with heavy influence of beatles, prog rock, soul, et.c. He really excelled at mastery of vocal arrangements. He did vocal arrangement for Celin Dion records and some others -- which I think is justified. On records like Healing and Hermit and Tortured Artist Effect.. if you pay attention to how he arranged the vocals, its very impressive work for a non-musically trained artist. I think its the Rodgers and Hammerstein influence in him.
     
    Last edited: Nov 13, 2017
  6. strummer101

    strummer101 The insane on occasion aren't without their charms

    Location:
    Lakewood OH
    Nah. This was his 3rd album-side piece. 4th if you count side 1 of Wizard, which flows like one.
     
    Last edited: Nov 13, 2017
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  7. telecode101

    telecode101 Forum Resident

    Location:
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    i think you hear the R&H influences in different songs buried in his records. this is from when i think he was strongest vocally. he is still a strong vocalist. he did some colab with swedish dj's recently as a guest vocalist.

     
    Last edited: Nov 13, 2017
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  8. strummer101

    strummer101 The insane on occasion aren't without their charms

    Location:
    Lakewood OH
    to name a few...

    A Cappella - an album featuring vocals only
    New World Order - rap/electronica, including a program that allowed you to construct your own versions of the songs
    With a Twist - Bossa Nova Todd
    Up Against It - a full blown stage musical
    State - much of it a Todd-ified take on modern dance/pop sounds
    Runddans - a trippy, progressive collaboration (with guys I never heard of before)
    White Knight - collaborations with an eclectic slew of artists

    Yeah, I'll have to disagree.
    :tiphat:
     
  9. telecode101

    telecode101 Forum Resident

    Location:
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    Yeah.. i quite like his more recent work. I sort of drop off as a listener for a while after his WB record deal died and he was releasing on smaller labels. I have yet to hear with a twist and state.
     
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  10. strummer101

    strummer101 The insane on occasion aren't without their charms

    Location:
    Lakewood OH
    His recent work is difficult for old-guard Todd fans to appreciate (I am one of those old Toddheads). But it's still Todd, meaning the melodies, quirkiness, and song craft is still there in abundance. I don't think he dropped off. At all.
     
  11. telecode101

    telecode101 Forum Resident

    Location:
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    yeah. it doesnt sound like the stuff from the 70s .. so that's understadable. to each his own. if you prefer the older stuff than just keep spinning that. the great thing about this era is that there seem to be a lot of labels catering to older fans and i see lots of TR and Utopia. A lot more releases in recent years than when I was getting hard core into them in the 90s. Back then it was just Rhino and the Bearsville catalog and whatever new stuff he was doing at the time. The more recent releases are quite excellent. I recently listened to the Utopia live at the Waldorf release. Excellent live stuff from the era. Very good sounding release as well.
     
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  12. AveryKG

    AveryKG Sultan of snacks

    Location:
    west London
    Lots of good stuff already suggested, but Todd's output from the 1990s doesn't seem to have been mentioned much (although I see @strummer101 has covered some of this while I've been writing):
    2nd Wind (the "cod-Sondheim" album)
    No World Order (the "rap" album)
    The Individualist (a "songs" album again for want of a better term, though they're all quite long; between 4-9 mins)
    With a Twist (Todd's "greatest hits" such as they are, reimagined bossa nova style, as far as I can tell a bit of a love-it-or-hate-it album among Todd fans).

    Also agree about Todd never really having "lost it". His two most recent releases, Runddans and White Knight would be candidates for my TR/Utopia top ten.

    The Utopia stuff is a little more patchy (agree about the initial Todd Rundgren's Utopia though, 'The Ikon' is just awesome), but the only substandard solo Todd releases IMHO are Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect and One Long Year and even they have their moments. Oh, do we count Johnson? Avoid that one.
     
    Last edited: Nov 13, 2017
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  13. m5comp

    m5comp Classic Rock Lover

    Location:
    Hamilton, AL
    But Tortured Artist gave the world "Bang the Drum All Day"!:rolleyes:
     
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  14. dance_hall_keeper

    dance_hall_keeper Forum Resident

    For me, there's a reason for that.
     
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  15. pbuzby

    pbuzby Senior Member

    Location:
    Chicago, IL, US
    Similar for me, except that I enjoy Hermit Of Mink Hollow.
     
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  16. npc210

    npc210 Forum Resident

    I think Something/Anything and Mink Hollow are the best starting points as proper albums go. AWATS is his best album, I think. but it's too out there for neophytes.

    Yeah, the Bearsville albums box set is an incredible value if you're willing to dive headfirst into Todd's music. The guy is an amazing musician/songwriter.
     
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  17. bmoregnr

    bmoregnr Forum Rezident

    Location:
    1060 W. Addison
    I hope we get some @warewolf95 level reviews @warewolf95 , replete with bolding and exclamation points if warranted. It'd be fun to see how these fall for you given your wide tastes and good ears.
     
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  18. maxnix

    maxnix Forum Resident

    I can't recommend Liars strongly enough. I've been a fan since the Nazz, and this has become my go-to album after AWATS. It has everything I like best about him.
     
  19. warewolf95

    warewolf95 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Greenville, SC
    You're not wrong about me being a Prince fan. :D

    Thank you for the educational post - I didn't even know about Emit Rhodes. Now I have another artist to check out. :)
     
  20. warewolf95

    warewolf95 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Greenville, SC
    :p Haha

    You should've been there the first time I heard "Utopia". I was like "WHERE HAS THIS BEEN MY WHOLE LIFE!?" :D
     
  21. Chris DeVoe

    Chris DeVoe RIP Vickie Mapes Williams (aka Equipoise)

    Something I ran across in a review of Acapella



    Todd Rundgren is a man who, quite frankly, doesn’t seem to give a damn. Which is how an artist should be. He does whatever he feels like, making ultra-poppy tunes followed by odd time signatured guitar freakouts and sonically strange tone poems. Then he does the opposite of all of that.
    ...
    So why is Todd Rundgren so underrated? Probably because he never stood still. Case in point: After terminating his long time deal with Bearsville Records in 1984, Rundgren signed a peculiar contract with Warner Brothers. As he explained to Keyboard magazine in 1987: “It's basically a three album deal, but they have to put out every album I give them, and they can decide whether they consider it a deal album or an album outside of the deal. They know that if I have one album that’s a big hit, the greatest likelihood is that I’m going to do the polar opposite on the next album … If I deliver an album that they think is commercial, then it goes on the contract and it’s one less album I have to deliver. But if I deliver an album and they say, ‘this is another one of your wacky experiments,’ then they have to put it out anyway, and the 100,000 people who buy all my records will buy it anyway. Since Warner Bros. doesn’t count it as part of the contract, they don’t count it as having been advanced on, so I get paid from the first record sold … I might wind up making 20 records for Warner Bros. before we actually get the three that they actually want, but they’ll all come out.”
     
  22. warewolf95

    warewolf95 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Greenville, SC
    That's a pretty cool thing. :)
     
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  23. bRETT

    bRETT Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston MA
    Interesting that he only wound up doing two more for Warners after Acapella.
     
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  24. warewolf95

    warewolf95 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Greenville, SC
    Playin Ballad for the first time right now.

    Long Flowing Robe - Holy crap I love this.

    The Beatles, Oasis, later XTC....those are my loves.

    Todd, what I've heard so far, is definitely fitting right in!

    :)
     
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  25. jmpatrick

    jmpatrick Forum Resident

    Location:
    Detroit, MI
    HIGHLY recommend this book, if you don't already have it.

    [​IMG]
     
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