Very true! And don't forget prog-rock with Utopia. I played "Ra" for a friend who was a huge prog fan, and he thought it ranked up there with the best from Yes and ELP!
It was a wonderful overview of his career, and one of the best parts is that he was able to finally meet and work with Mathilde Santing, one of the best interpreters of his work. They did Love In Disguise from Up Against It. Broadway producer Joseph Papp, hired Todd to write music for Joe Orton's rejected script for the Beatles and was probably expecting Todd to write a bunch of faux-Beatles songs. Instead Todd decided to write show tunes.
The Prince comparison is a good one. Brilliant musical minds who consistently were unable to make the records sound as good on wax as it no doubt sounded in their mind
I actually liked quite a bit of “Todd”, but the causal listener burned by Wizard couldn’t be convinced to give him another chance.
While I can't pick individual songs, I'm sure Prince was a Todd fan. It's there in his music, especially early on.
Todd and Prince were on the same episode of Saturday Night Live (not at all clear why they had two musical guests on the same show.) Todd did Time Heals and Healer while Prince did Party Up. https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1635158519878626 They had supposedly met before. Todd's ex-girlfriend Bebe claimed that Prince had gotten backstage at a Todd show, and Prince was a besotted fan boy "...and I play all the instruments on my music just like Todd!" Did it happen? Who knows, Bebe has a serious credibility problem and once claimed Little Red Corvette was about her, that Prince was singing "Bebe, you're much too fast." Todd's song Flaw from Liars is supposedly about her. He said there was one song for each of the three main women in his life - Happy Anniversary for Michele ("Men are stupid, women are evil"), Past for Karen Darvin ("But then I realized, We are not even friends and I was so surprised") and Flaw for Bebe ("So why you gotta be such a lyin' ass motherf***er?")
I think the problem is that, other than with a few exceptions like The Cars and a few one hit wonders, the public has been done with straightforward melodic rock and power pop since about 1967. People have said in this thread that Todd was inconsistent, and that's true, but it doesn't explain why songs like Love in Action and Crybaby weren't big hits. The public heard those songs and they turned away cause they are dumb animals that want novelty, attitude, and style over melody. It's happened over and over again... every time some pop-rock artist comes along that should "rule the charts," they are mostly ignored. Badfinger, Big Star, The Connells, late period XTC, Jellyfish, Trashcan Sinatras, New Pornographers. (While writing this I thought of another big exception... Weezer!)
Something tells me Rundgren has asked himself this question more than once. He's a very talented guy, but he was destined for cult status, partly because of his penchant for self-indulgence and partly because of this fallacy that every white guy who write moderately catchy songs should get a free pass onto the singles charts. Whenever someone goes on about supposed "pop geniuses" and puzzles over why so-and-so clever tunesmith wasn't a superstar, they never look at the context of what actually was popular during said artist's heyday. What from A Wizard, a True Star should have been a huge hit single in the spring of 1973? What was it about Deface the Music that should have taken the charts by storm in 1980? Look at the charts from those times and you have your answer. Hit records are simply the ones that strike the marketplace the right way at the right time, and Rundgren has hit that bulls-eye about as many times as he deserved to, IMO.
The work of all three is over a lot of people's heads, and they're three very highly touted artists. Maybe some people feel they've been told they should like them, and if they don't "get" Joni, SD, and Todd, they don't have any taste. Todd may be as famous as he wants to be at this point, who knows? He's had some hits, and gotten away with doing pretty much as he pleased for a long time. I always loved his singing.
Todd is from a generation that does not have the chart obsessions that people here do. He could have been as successful as Hall and Oates with a similar sound. But he would have died that way. I have heard him say with his own voice that he had it all worked out: He was a big time producer and supported his art with it. He made more off the studio and he was cool with that. No one could make a case that the outcome was not for the best.
Maybe I wasn’t clear in what I said. Todd never tried, because he wasn’t interested in making a big name for himself, or a big statement. He just gave us a ton of great stuff.
The flaw is in the charts and not Todd. How many old chart songs are as popular as todds material right now? Could Petty write or sing this? Play This Game - Live, Drunk
One thing I noticed when I used to evangelicalize for Todd/Utopia was that some people, especially women, didn't like his voice. Why? Dunno. Sounds great to me. DQ: If he'd "played this game" as a pop star -- as in, no "AWATS," etc. -- would he be more famous today than he is? Or just a has-been with a string of soft-rock '70s hits who got run off by disco. Maybe it all worked out for the best. See you in Denver, Utopians!
I adore Todd; he is still a superstar to me. I can't understand how I missed the original broadcast of his SNL appearance--I must not have been checking TV Guide's listings carefully enough that week. I hope to go see him in Atlanta with my best friend during his Utopia reunion tour.
One thing I've finally learned over the years is that it is impossible to convince anyone of Todd's genius if they don't hear it. But if I could ask you one favor? Please listen to the song drewslo posted. In it, he's backed by an amazing band (the music starts at 1:37), and it's one of my very favorite of his performances, emotional and heartfelt. The lyrics are not clichéd, using mathematics as a metaphor to describe a relationship that could never be. Structurally, it draws on inspirations like Burt Bacharach and Laura Nyro. He definitely has the goods.
Didn't care for that song. Also, I amended my original post as I realized it was a mistake to say he didn't have the goods. He's obviously a very talented musician, capable singer and accomplished producer. I just don't think he had enough great tunes to be more famous than he is.
Famous is relative. Maybe he's not famous in 2018, except by his long term fans. But who from the seventies (or eighties) is still relevant except by the old fan? I remember buying a copy of the The Nazz album at a flea market at Upper Darby High School in 1992, thinking the irony of this being where he got kicked out of school. What a great album!
Meh... he comes off as self-important and humorless. He writes decent songs but his singing voice isn't particularly distinctive
Yeah. The guy who wrote "An Elpee's Worth of Tunes" and "Eastern Intrigue" and did an entire album's worth of spot-on Beatles parodies is humorless.
The episode of Darrel’s House with him (at Rungren’s House in Hawaii) was one of the best. Blew my mind how good he was.
