"I Went To The Mirror" - I never thought it would ever be performed live on day. But who know? Maybe he did on other tours as well. I would love to know how some of these songs worked in a blues style.
I suspect Todd's definition of "Blues" is going to be wider-ranging and more inclusive than other folk's definition. It was a fun tour though. Found a full concert video!
My personal theory, based on nothing, is that Todd was ADD or ADHD. The only drugs he's ever been known to use were marijuana, magic mushrooms...and Ritalin, which is an incredibly strange drug of choice. So he's always had this wide range of interests and styles, which has worked against him in terms of success.
Well, that, and the fact that most people are narrow-minded, which is putting it lightly. Todd's had his best commercial success with beautifully written mid-tempo love songs, aside from Bang On The Drum, which is basically a novelty song. Todd was never a heavy boozer? That actually makes sense.
If you have Amazon Prime, the Roy Firestone interview of Todd at the Franklin Institute in 2010, generally considered one of the most in-depth and wide-ranging interviews ever conducted, is available for free viewing. This was mistakenly put up instead of the Todd and Healing show videos. Hopefully they'll fix it and put up the real ones, but in the meantime fans should watch these interviews. Firestone is a famous sportscaster and professional interviewer, in addition to being a really big Todd fan. Just search for Todd Rundgren and they'll pop right up.
"There's nearly everything from weird electronic experiments to pop ballads, from complex progressive rock to straight ahead rock'n'roll." Agreed, he's a genius. Listen to more or less anything of his 70's output then listen to anything else. Its a shame he seems to know he's a genius but none the less, I love his stuff.
I have enjoyed pretty much his entire output, and don't think he ever lost his gift for pop melody. He fought against doing the stuff that was too easy for him. I'm not sure I understand the objection to his knowing he's a genius. "Genius" is one of the most abused and overused terms in music, but I can make a case that Todd is one of the few who would be considered a genius even if he had never written a single note. So how can he ignore it? He's one of those people who are so far ahead of everyone else that the majority don't pick up on it until years later. Here's an interview where he talks about storing music on your home computer and streaming - in 1978. From the Onion AV Club: In the interview, Rundgren dismisses the then current tech of the “videodisc” as it is not an erasable media and suggests that in 25 years, every home will have a “resident computer in their home with a billion bytes of memory in it, and this will be standard.”Rundgren states “The economic structure will shift itself. You’ll no longer go out and buy permanently recorded things, because, eventually, they do one of two things—they wear out, or you wear out. You get tired of them and don’t want them anymore.” Streaming services such as Spotify and Tidal allow users to listen to music without purchasing it from any home computer or their phone, so if it wears you out as Rundgren suggests, users can just click on another record. That is some seriously impressive prognostication.
I've been watching this interview again, it really is exceptionally deep. Part two, wrongly identified as the Healing part of the Todd/Healing concert, 16 minutes in, has the most Todd has ever talked about his daughter Liv and her mother. Roy Firestone: A woman, whose name we will not mention, called a press conference one day and told the world this was not your daughter, that is Steve Tyler's daughter and this child was wrested away from you - maybe I'm being a little overly dramatic - and I wondered how it affected your life. Todd: It was awful. It was...first of all, it was a direct betrayal. I knew from the beginning that Liv wasn't my daughter. I remember signing Liv out of the hospital, I said: "Bebe, I'm going to sign this as her father...and you are never to bring this up again. I will be Liv's father for the rest of her life and you are not to say otherwise." But it got to the point when Liv was 13 and her mother was taking all the money we would send to her and spending it on herself and we would say "We have to get custody of Liv." And I think when she realized that, that's when she blew the whistle. And I didn't speak to Liv for like four or five years after that. Um...it was...it was cruel. It was cruel to everybody. That's how selfish some people can be. Roy Firestone: When you see Steve Tyler, is it cordial? Todd: It's no problem. We attended Liv's wedding together. Of course she's divorced now [chuckles]...but we were there together. I don't see him often, but I have no animus to him. He really didn't have anything to do with it in that sense. He...I don't know what exactly went on...in his family when that was announced. I suppose I should have some sympathy, but I...
Chris, my only "issue" with him knowing he's a genius is that I understand him to be an arrogant so - and - so (as we would politely say in England) which isn't pleasant. Read some of the stuff about his time recording Skylarking with XTC. - But like I said, I love his stuff...
Andy describes him and Todd as "two Hitlers in one bunker." The thing is it's created all sorts of myths, like the one that nobody ever worked with Todd twice. It's not true.
It is true however that nobody ever worked with Todd MORE than twice. And out of all the people he produced, the only ones that ever came back were the Grand Funk, the Pursuit of Happiness and the New York Dolls (after 35 years). (Edit: Sorry, the Tubes too).
He said in interviews that he's not been particularly interested in working with the same artists over and over. He's been the equivalent of a corporate turnaround artist, someone who comes in to save the company - which he definitely did in the case of XTC. Andy has never been able to forgive Todd for saving his bands career and giving them their most well-beloved album.
He's credited Todd repeatedly for doing that. What he's said was that Todd was personally difficult to work with, which other artists and even the "Wizard, A True Star" book have confirmed (This may not still be true, who knows?). Andy is certainly strong-headed as well.
If you're interested in Todd and his work, you really should listen to this Roy Firestone interview. It's nearly three hours long, and gets more deeply into his life than almost any I've ever heard - the one our Forum mate @LaserKen did approaches it, but it doesn't get as far into his family history.
And of course all the people who helped him out with White Knight - Daryl Hall, Moe Berg of TPoH, Trent Reznor, Joe Satriani, Donald Fagen, Joe Walsh, Robyn. A shocking number of friends for a misanthrope. Again, listen to the Roy Firestone interview if you have Amazon Prime. He talks about working with The Band, and it was a pretty miserable experience for him as well - freezing his butt off in a unheated shed because they wanted to record in the Woodstock Playhouse and it being nearly impossible to get all of them together at once.
But he remains good friends with both. Two different Live From Daryl's House, one at Todd's house. Again, if he was as big a jerk as Andy Partridge painted him, how do all these other people stand him? Granted, he has a very sarcastic sense of humor (I've been on the receiving end personally) but some people have to be able to handle it to have worked with him for decades.
It's not like Todd is a jerk or that he can't sustain friendships, but what I can glean from people who've worked with him is that his bedside manner isn't especially warm, so if that's what you need you're not gonna get it. Plenty of artists have felt comfortable with him, Andy Partridge obviously didn't. And I think that experience hurt the both of them, since Todd genuinely admired XTC.
In the Firestone interview he had very nice things to say about The Pursuit of Happiness - primarily that they showed up well-rehearsed and ready to record, and he was able to record their album in just over a week. I guess he just doesn't have a whole lot of patience.
