Todd Rundgren

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by uzn007, Jun 2, 2017.

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  1. uzn007

    uzn007 Pack Rat Thread Starter

    Location:
    Raleigh, N.C.
    Man, I love his classic 70s albums, but the guy makes McCartney look focused, know what I mean?
     
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  2. Ephi82

    Ephi82 Still have two ears working

    Location:
    S FL
    A Wizard, a Star by Paul Myers. A must read biography on this great artist and producer.
     
  3. micksmuse

    micksmuse Forum Resident

    Location:
    san diego
    when you have a mind like that it usually is unfocused.
    btw: there is a youtube up of his commencement address at berklee this year.
     
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  4. uzn007

    uzn007 Pack Rat Thread Starter

    Location:
    Raleigh, N.C.
    Yeah, I just saw that. Haven't had a chance to check it out yet. That's pretty cool on Berklee's part, given that TR seems to have fallen pretty much completely off the mainstream radar in the last decade or two. The first side of Faithful is basically a Berklee senior project. :D
     
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  5. Cake

    Cake Forum Resident

    Location:
    Reseda, CA, USA
    Is there ever going to be a box set of The Nazz? Seriously!
     
  6. rodentdog

    rodentdog Senior Member

    Todd certainly follows the beat of his own drum(machine).
    Saw him again on his last tour.
    I nicknamed it "Techno-Todd Tour" (just for fun). At least He didn't do "Muskrat Love".
    He is in my top 3 of most cd's, b**tlegs, albums.
    If you don't care for one album, wait for the next one, it's not going to be the same.
     
  7. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Seen the castle 2 LP the other day for 5.00 a bargain, but I already have the orig USA pressing + MFSL gold cd.
     
  8. DRM

    DRM Forum Resident

  9. Mother

    Mother Forum Resident

    Location:
    Melbourne
    My top 10 Todd Albums currently:
    1. Ballad
    2. Wizard
    3. Todd
    4. Something/Anything?
    5. Faithful
    6. Back to the Bars
    7. Hermit of Mink Hollow
    8. Runt
    9. Healing
    10. Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect
     
  10. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    My top 10 Todd /Utopia Albums
    1. Ballad
    2. Wizard
    3. S/A?
    4. T O D D
    5. Faithful
    6. Oops
    7. Hermit of Mink Hollow
    8. Runt
    9. Healing
    10. Utopia
     
  11. drewslo

    drewslo Forum Resident

    Nice top 10. I would trade "Ever Popular" for "Initiation". The other essential Todd solo release is "Liars". Also can't go wrong with "Nearly Human" (especially live versions of songs).
     
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  12. head_unit

    head_unit Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles CA USA
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  13. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    He was way ahead of the pack in the seventies albums wise, great live performer as well.
     
  14. head_unit

    head_unit Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles CA USA
    For me, no question
    #1 Todd Rundgren's Utopia-as a little kid I saw the back of this and freaked out that any non-classical song could be over 30 minutes ("The Ikon"). So, I had to buy it, and still love it to death.
    #2 I guess is Another Live still referencing the same period. But maybe Adventures In Utopia is #2.
    #3 (or 4) would be Oops! Wrong Planet, some cool crazy pop stuff on there.
    #4 (or 5) Nearly Human, which I think has some of his best writing.
    Then maybe the Utopia Network pop album, liked that tour with Willie on the motorcycle drum kit. Or Liars which was also a great tour, and I love the vibe the album starts off with. And how can you go wrong with lyrics like "Men are stupid! Women Are Evil!" :p
    All the rest of the catalog I like to one extent or another, but while I like the early Todd stuff I just do not worship it like many do. Oh gotta throw in a bone for "Fascist Christ"-just that song would make a great career.
     
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  15. bRETT

    bRETT Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston MA
    Agreed, it's my favorite Todd album and one of the greatest in all of prog. But...You wouldn't have known The Ikon was 30 minutes from the cover, since the timings aren't listed. You had to see the label to find out. (I actually heard it on FM radio and was thinking, "How long is this thing?"

    Unless of course, your first copy was the CD.
     
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  16. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Beatles nerds appreciated
    Deface The Music.
     
  17. Chris DeVoe

    Chris DeVoe RIP Vickie Mapes Williams (aka Equipoise)

    Todd could make a ferret on crystal meth look focused.

    Liars is the one Todd album I wish I could make everyone who dismisses Todd's later career without hearing it listen to. As I said in an earlier thread, in my opinion, it's the finest album ever produced by an artist in their 4th decade of recording. Beyond that, he's worked his butt off trying to keep touring fresh, re-inventing how he goes out every time. The recent White Knight tour had Todd performing in front of two LED video walls, with his crack band sandwiched between them.

    He's making albums on his laptop these days, and some object to that, but it allows him to produce them on a consistent basis. The quality of the songwriting is as good as it has ever been, and I think I can make a case that it is far higher quality than his early, most loved work like Hello It's Me, which he dismisses as whiny and self-involved.
     
  18. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    A special mention to Initiation especially Fair Warning & Real Man / side 2 over 35 mins long of synthesized noodling.
     
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  19. DRM

    DRM Forum Resident

    An older person like me is no one to really be an expert on what is "modern" and "cutting edge".

    But this digital album is as Cutting Edge, Modern, and Well Done as anything I'm hearing...when I DO take the time to listen to SOME new music:

    Actually, quite excellent.

    Todd Rundgren, Emil Nikolaisen, Hans-Peter Lindstrom - Runddans - Amazon.com Music

    This is my review of it, for what it's worth, via Amazon.com:

    "Todd has regenerated and transformed the musical landscape of 2015 with this landmark and coherent work of art, paradoxically so, given its fractured and complex nature. Building off of what came before but not glorifying it, recreating the sound stage moment by moment, as each new epiphany appears and then suddenly disappears into the stratosphere, as it unexpectedly shifts to something completely different and seemingly out of place, but not in actuality. I hear (and see) sheets of sound as though they were literal plates of glass/windowpanes visible to the eye in this "music", clashing digital sounds as physical as life itself, transistor radio like moments, deliberately distorted sounds, nothing to compare it to, reaching back to past albums misses the point, this is beyond Now or Yesterday.

    With random blips, unrecognizable barely audible noises, constant collisions of styles, interweaving voices, confrontations of genres...searching and trying to find its cosmic way as the Search For Meaning and a Core To Hang Onto Takes Precedence...all the while ultimately winning the listener over with sudden twists and turns, cosmic beeps, blips, psychedelia, space music, hard core, moving swirls of sound, intentional distortions, and something new around every corner. The music soars, struggles to find its place, often transcends, as it assimilates everything in its way, sorts it out, accommodates it as it sees fits, expertly synthesizes it all, and then leaves behind the rest with no regrets or afterthought. Processing this album is no small accomplishment. And neither was making it.

    Kudos to the Creators. Beyond derivative and trendy, not even in that hemisphere. This is Todd's most creative and challenging work ever, his Magnum Opus not yet fully understood or appreciated, immensely satisfying, cathartic, and above all...hard fought. What is Todd hiding? Not Much. This is revealing music. Similar to a Musical and Psychological Rorschach Test for the listener. A mirror into one's soul rather than some music to hide behind.

    Toward the end of this otherworldly creation, a phone connects the creators and they talk electronically about what they've produced. Then a digital drum rhythm begins pulsating hypnotically. The effect is one of digital floating and breaking apart. Soon, there's a quiet interlude, as is the case in a few other parts of the album. I view this as Todd getting quiet and still, closer to the Creator. Beyond the Maddening Crowd. His digital human molecules have broken up and split into pieces. His identity, who Todd thought he was, is fractured, splintered and busted apart, smashed to smithereens.

    But it's a breakthrough, not cause for grief or loss. "I think I'm going out of my head." (with a nod to Little Anthony & The Imperials")
    "Put Your Arms around me." He sees the curvature of the earth. The climactic breakthrough has finally arrived. All of the false starts, struggles, peaks and valleys...all of the "almost getting there"....is gone. Face to Face. Eye to Eye. This is a meeting of the Heart and Soul...and Mind.

    The earthly striving and temporary identifications have split apart and fallen by the wayside.

    It's a Cosmic Meeting that Todd has been working toward all of his life.

    "Put your arms around me, I think I'm going out of my head."

    And out of his body, at last.

    Digital Transcendence of the Highest Order."
     
  20. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Tiny Demons
    Underrated or what?
     
  21. Rfreeman

    Rfreeman Senior Member

    Location:
    Lawrenceville, NJ
    One of two people in rock I would not hesitate to call a musical genius. And his work is far more accessible than Zappa's.
     
  22. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Like the Todd/Nazz book vol 1.
    V 2 Utopia.
     
  23. DRM

    DRM Forum Resident

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  24. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Last edited: Jul 19, 2017
  25. Folknik

    Folknik Forum Resident

    That timing blew me away,too. To my knowledge it was the longest single piece of rock music ever squeezed onto one side of an album until Todd himself topped it with the 36-minute "A Treatise On Cosmic Fire" (a multi-layered suite with individual movements but it still all runs together and has one collective title).
     
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