You do have a point. I think they each realized that such sniping was childish and unproductive and they had already said what they had to say about the subject. It was best not to give the rock press any more fuel for an artificial feud.
The only time he's really done anything with a Gospel flavor is the song Love My Life from the album Nearly Human. He used it as the show closer on his recent Clearly Human virtual tour. But it's definitely part of his mix of influences. When he did the two album tour of the double album Todd and the album Healing, he hired choirs at each location. I saw several shows on that tour, and the best choir was from a Black church in Muskegon, Michigan. After the show I got to talking to a couple of the ladies of the choir about their experience working on this project, one of whom volunteered "that boy's got soul!" which I took to be pretty authoritative. The funny part is, Todd's done two albums in exactly that way - White Knight, and the upcoming Space Force. Both were done entirely by trading files back and forth. It's just both were done with, presumably, more organized people. He was able to make successful songs remotely with Donald Fagen, Rivers Cuomo, Robyn, Joe Satriani, Daryl Hall, Trent Reznor, John Boutté... Exactly. What does Todd Rundgren know about production anyway? It's not like he produced an album that sold 43 million copies... oh wait... I have no particular opinion about Kanye one way or the other, although I do know a lot of people that I respect who think he's a musical genius. The voting membership of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?
It is quite likely that he didn't get paid if his contributions were not used. A friend of mine does occasional session work and it seems to be a thing that working for the biggest artists carries the highest risk of being stiffed even when they do contribute something to the final release. That said I don't think this spat is about the money.
Hey, If you produced the first New York Dolls record......You've earned the RIGHT to tell anyone to f$%k off that you damn well please.
Long time Rundgren & Utopia fan here. I read that article yesterday. It sort of sounds like a bit of a fluff piece. Sounds like trying to gain some kind of traction to piggy back on the RRHF induction that is coming up. Just mass media generating more social media noise for the sake of generating noise to try to sell clicks. I also am a Kanye fan and tried to listen to that new release of his. I could not get past the firsts 3 songs before giving up. It really sounds like Kayne full of himself. I guess I will need to give it a second chance.
^^ That's pretty much the reason he has such a huge cult following. He would have been just another blue eyed soul artist from the 70s.. but the musical ground he covered and work he left behind with his own records and the Utopia records is astronomical and light years ahead of what people like Boz Scaggs or Three Dog Night did. He totally deserves to be in the RRFH for influencing the sound of a lot of 80s alternative rock records IMO..
IIRC, he did a track on Todd (Songs of 1984) which I thought had a bit of gospel. Also,, A Capella (if you can get past the sampling) does have gospel flavor to it. I would not be surprised if the trading of files with Kanye was some sort of work related to Space Force and you *migth* hear a Kanye colllaboration of Space Force. I really like White Knight. One of my fav releases of last 5 years. So far not that keen on what I hear from the new one that is coming up.
Sounds more like his bone to pick is he doesn't even know as he's not told whether his stuff is good, bad, used or not, etc and it's the lack of communication he's bemoaning in his rant. I can empathize but frankly can't understand why he'd ever care about being on a KW album to begin with.
The less said about Kanye West the better. I prefer when Todd was thinking about how he related to artists like the Mahavishnu Orchestra or XTC.
Sorry, but isn't Kanye West the "Legendary Music Icon?" He seems a lot more relevant than Todd Rundgren.
I find Kanye West fascinating as he has such a huge fan base and usually universally critical approval and considered a genius. And while I’m not really a hip hop fan and probably wouldn’t recognize that which people find so appealing, any time I hear the guy talk or stuff like his book of inspirational quotes or whatever he just seems like the opposite of a genius. Nevertheless I can understand Todd trying to add something to the project as he is someone who seems open to experimenting. But I also understand why it ultimately would be frustrating for him as he’s from a background where producing was more personal or driven by a focused direction rather than having lots of additional collaborators doing disparate things to ultimately use or discard later.
And the vast majority of music critics who got over hating hip hop just because it wasn't catered for their generation. My dislike of his personality keeps me from listening to him, but he has three or four albums that are modern day classics (yes, there are classic albums made after 1978)
Doesn't seem that uncommon a scenario. People with zillions of dollars t o spend on a particular album will try all sorts of things, including collaborations that they decide to junk (see Chinese Democracy). Todd Rundgren is famous for mapping out a strategy and sticking to it, and is really into not wasting money, so I can see where this ruffled his fur.
