Todd Rundgren

Maybe the audience participation is why Todd keeps doing "Muskrat Love". Otherwise the only thing it seems to have for the band is a chance for Jesse to use his guitar pedal that makes squirrely rodent noises. I doubt he finds many other places to use that pedal and he has to justify its purchase somehow!

 

The current King Crimson lineup holds a reciprocal photo session at the end of each show where the band photographs the crowd and vice versa. It's pretty funny to hear Fripp explain it.

 

"I Will Wait" is definitely a Todd song (and Todd performs it solo, too). First off, the lyric mentions "the reunion of '66," which was Todd's class. Kasim was born in 1955 and would have been 11-years-old in 1966.

But more to the point, Kasim is actually quoted as saying it's a Todd song in the liner notes to the Trivia album, written by Brett Milano. This quote explains how he came to sing "I Will Wait," and I never forgot it because it's pretty amusing:

"Other tracks showed a more characteristic Utopia sound. Rundgren and Sulton both got the spotlight with ballads-Rundgren with "If I Didn't Try" (which appears to be about his determination to keep Utopia afloat against the odds, though he maintains that, "It wasn't anything that specific"), Sulton with "Maybe I Could Change" and "I Will Wait," the latter his favorite Utopia song. "It's brilliant and I wish I'd written it. But I heard Todd play the demo and said, `Man, that's great.' And he said, `Good, because you're singing it.'" "

Source:
POV, Oblivion, and Some Trivia liner Notes

 

The chorus of "I Will Wait" is like an arrow to my heart. The harmony during the "... Though the hour is getting late..." line makes me almost weep.

 

Oh boy. Not poor Linda again.

I believe he officially stated that relationship was the inspiration for most of the songs on the first few records of his in the early 70s until he finally free with AWATS. So grad he did, he could have become a sappy James Taylor type artists if he kept it up.

 

Cool video about the No World Order tour:

 

I think a more interesting comparison would be with John Cale. Like Todd John Cale's followed his muse wherever it takes him & has covered a very wide range of musical styles. Like Todd he's a multi-instrumentalist & is enjoying a long career, without getting the recognition his talent deserves. True, he wasn't able (or didn't want) to come up with power pop hits such as "Hello it's me" but he has written some very accessible songs. E.g. he wanted Frank Sinatra to cover "I keep a close watch". If you like Todd because of the unpredictability of not knowing what he'll come up with next then you might enjoy John Cale.

 

Two links, comin' atcha...
First from ultimate classic rock dot com: Alex Lifeson and Todd Rundgren Guest on new John Mayall album.
From consequence of sound dot net, an audio interview from Louisville KY's 91.1 FM WPFK; Kyle Meredith ...With Special Guest Todd Rundgren: Rock Legends Todd Rundgren, Uriah Heep, and The Guess Who Wax Nostalgic and Go Back to the Future.

 

At last!

Somebody included a TR record in their BBC Desert Island Discs.

Nice choice, Kelsey! (bonus points too for 'Wichita Lineman')

 

I was returning from my annual trip to Toronto this week and I was thinking this: I have the first two studio releases, Runt and Runt: The Ballad of Todd Rundgren on vinyl and I always said that if they were ever released on cd I would buy them. This led me to buy The Complete Bearsville Album Collection. Pretty smart on my part.
This led to this pondering...
Q: Does anyone know if Mr. Rundgren has ever made, in recent times, "We Got to Get You a Woman" (styled "We Gotta Get You a Woman" as a single and on Bearsville pressings) as part of his setlist?

 

At least once that I know of: there's a 2013 live recording of Todd with the Metropole Orchestra in the Netherlands that came as a bonus disk with some editions of his album "Global". That disk has a bunch of less-worn songs done up with really nice arrangements that include a full rock band plus orchestra. One of the songs is (ta-da!!) "We Gotta Get You a Woman". Since then Todd has done some some other concerts fronting an orchestra, and I believe he may be using the same charts, so maybe he's done it live a few times since then. But this is the only recorded version I'm aware of except for a '70s bootleg I have where he does a smidgen of it during a 30-minute version of "The Ikon". Otherwise, he seems to shy away from this artifact of his callow youth.

 

The Metropole Orchestra concert disc you're speaking of is included in Todd's record, State. At least mine is.

 

Todd fan Lion Kezer did an astounding job of assembling a concert videos from a dozen fan videos of two different Metropole orchestra shows.

This is the second one, with guest vocalist Mathilde Santing.

 

Quite right! I was thinking one thing and typing another.

 

It's a great, unique Todd disc!

 

A snowy spoon of powder.

 

Looks like a really cool tour. If this is the promotion of the book, it's a combination of a concert and readings from the book. These are all pretty small venues, and he's playing two nights at each of them, which should make it a pretty pleasant tour for him - wander around, see the sights, visit friends.

TODD RUNDGREN "THE INDIVIDUALIST" U.S. TOUR

April 10, Wed Atlanta, GA - Buckhead Theater - 8PM
April 11, Thu Atlanta, GA - Buckhead Theater - 8PM
April 13, Sat Washington, DC - State Theater - 8PM
April 13, Sat Washington, DC - State Theater - 8PM
April 16, Tue New York, NY - Town Hall - 8PM
April 17, Wed New York, NY - Town Hall - 8PM
April 19, Fri Boston, MA - Berklee Performance Center - 8PM
April 20, Sat Boston, MA - Berklee Performance Center - 8PM
April 23, Tue Chicago, IL - Athenaeum Theater - 8PM
April 24, Wed Chicago, IL - Athenaeum Theater - 8PM
April 27, Sat Toronto, ON Canada - Danforth Music Hall - 8PM
April 28, Sun Toronto, ON Canada - Danforth Music Hall - 7PM
May 1, Wed Philadelphia, PA - The Fillmore Philadelphia - 8PM
May 2, Thu Philadelphia, PA - The Fillmore Philadelphia - 8PM
May 5, Sun Cleveland, OH - Ohio Theater at Playhouse Square
May 6, Mon Cleveland, OH - Ohio Theater at Playhouse Square
May 9, Thu Los Angeles, CA - The Wiltern - 7PM
May 10, Fri Los Angeles, CA - The Wiltern - 7PM
May 12, Sun San Francisco, CA - Palace Of The Fine Arts - 8PM
May 13, Mon San Francisco, CA - Palace Of The Fine Arts - 8PM

 

Current Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nominee Todd Rundgren will be embarking on the world’s first hybrid concert/book tour this spring, highlighting both his hits as well as “deep tracks” spanning his 50-year career.

Produced by Live Nation and presented by SiriusXM, the North American leg of the tour starts in Atlanta, GA and hits major markets before wrapping in San Francisco, CA. The North American dates will be preceded by dates in Europe/UK and followed by dates in Japan.

Rundgren’s long-awaited autobiography, The Individualist: digressions, dreams and dissertations, is being released by Cleopatra Press on December 21,documenting his life through his 50th birthday. The concert set list will mirror that time period, consisting of song selections from the inception of his musical career through 1996, with intros & stories behind the songs and Rundgren’s impressive career.

He will be playing back-to-back shows in the ten North American markets in order to be available for books signings and local TV and radio appearances on the second show day in each city.

Tickets go on sale Monday, December 10 at 10AM Local Time. Two-day ticket packages along with single-day tickets, will be available in each North American market.

 

I'm pretty certain that this is not the world's first hybrid concert/book tour.

 

The Fillmore is a dump. Pass

 

As long as there is no "Muskrat Love" I'm in. HA!

 

Ray Davies for starters. Kristin Hersh has done a couple, Johnette Napolitano too. Then there's "Springsteen on Broadway."

 

For years I've been fascinated by this concert poster,
created by Stainboy (Greg Reinel), for Mr. Rundgren's
appearance at the House of Blues, Orlando FL in
2004, in support of the Liars album:

Todd Rundgren and The Liars, Wednesday 19 May
2004, House of Blues, Orlando FL.

The inscription at top of the poster is as follows:
"The godless ones don't understand how the company
runs".

Not being familiar with the song, I did some digging
and in order found:
1) the meaning of "Mammon", provided by Wikipedia
2) that the words on the poster are a truncation of two
lines of lyrics from "Mammon":
And you rage and fume at the godless ones
'Cause they don't understand how the company runs.

YouTube has a video for the song, taken from the
aforementioned cd.

I was talking to someone this past Tuesday who had
attended a show on this tour (one of many she's seen
over the years with her husband) and she told me it was
the most intense live performance she'd ever seen him
give.

By the way, the list for next years Individualist tour has
now replaced the term "US" with "World".
Good thing, because I was prepared to burn all of my
atlases!

 

My current Top 10 Todd/Utopia albums:

01) A Wizard, A True Star
02) Todd
03) Nearly Human
04) Deface The Music
05) The Ballad Of Todd Rundgren
06) Liars
07) Initiation
08) Ra
09) Healing
10) White Knight

Sorry for waking the dead.
I didn't want to start a new thread.

 

good lord