Sometimes I Don't Know What to Poll: ILM Artist Poll #107 - Todd Rundgren - RESULTS

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#1 - 666 points - 14 votes
Paul Shaffer & the Party Boys of Rock 'N' Roll - The World's Most Dangerous Party (1993)

(cue someone saying that record is actually really good)

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#1 - 502 points - 14 votes - 7 first place votes
XTC - Skylarking (1986)

Interesting that I was the only first place vote for The Dolls s/t.

I like that record better than the Grand Funk Railroad album, but I feel he did more for them than the Dolls, so I ranked it higher in this list.

Full list of productions -- apologies as I didn't put the #1s in the spreadsheet but just belt-and-suspender'd counting them when putting together the results:

XTC - Skylarking 502
New York Dolls - New York Dolls 281
Psychedelic Furs - Forever Now 269
Hall & Oates - War Babies 256
Patti Smith Group - Wave 227
Badfinger - Straight Up 225
Meat Loaf - Bat Out of Hell 148
Cheap Trick - Next Position Please 138
Sparks/Halfnelson - Sparks/Halfnelson 119
Steve Hillage - L 110
The Band - Stage Fright 106
Grand Funk Railroad - We're An American Band 104
The Tubes - Remote Control 94
The Pursuit of Happiness - Love Junk 59
New York Dolls - Cause I Sez So 56
Laura Nyro - Mother’s Spiritual 56
Jill Sobule - Things Here Are Different 45
Todd Rundgren - A Wizard/A True Star 40
The Lords of the New Church - Killer Lords 33
Bourgeois Tagg - Yoyo 33
Utopia - Oblivion 30
The Lords Of The New Church - Is Nothing Sacred? 28
Badfinger - Ass 28
Bad Religion - The New America 28
Tom Robinson Band - TRB Two 26
Utopia - Deface the Music 24
The Pursuit of Happiness - One-Sided Story 22
Shaun Cassidy - Wasp 22

Who's up for some albums?

Albums!

*raises hand*

Ok, quickly, before we pivot to that -- a word that Skylarking ...

Like a lot of voters, Skylarking was my #1 but it also kind of reminds me that Todd's production "style" isn't really a style (nothing else in his catalogue really sounds like it) so much as an approach. He clearly goes in to these sessions with the goal of getting the record done -- you can see why he was in high demand as a producer for so long: he got records finished on time and on budget. He had a knack for getting bands on the charts who hadn't gotten there before or in a very long time -- Psych Furs, XTC, Meat Loaf, maybe even Badfinger, who didn't really have a solid record start-to-finish until Straight Up. It doesn't always work -- clearly, he couldn't get Laura Nyro to work quickly and as much as I like the Cheap Trick record he did (including "Heaven's Falling" which he wrote), the album stiffed.

But in general, Todd pushed artists to do something a little different than they had done to that point. Not only does that seem to run counter to the whole "just get the record done on time" mandate he was under, but from what I can tell, even when it created a little tension in the studio, it resulted in a better record that the artist tended to look back fondly on. And it allowed him to work with an incredibly diverse collection of talent that almost defies categorization.

Anyway, that's Todd's legacy as a producer in my book -- and yet another reason I love him, even when he's producing records by artists I don't care for.

(ABOUT Skylarking, that is ...)

Ok, onto albums!

Part 2: Albums
17 ballots

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#20 - 45 points - 2 votes
Utopia - Swing to the Right (1982)

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#19 - 50 points - 2 votes
Utopia - Disco Jets (rec. 1976, rel. 2012)

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#18 - 64 points - 2 votes - 1 first place vote
Nazz - Nazz Nazz (1969)

Haven't heard any of these three! I'll comment later tonight.

Glad I helped #20 and #19 to chart. Politics and goofing around. Always room for a bit of both.

wow wonder who voted Nazz Nazz #1

I completely forgot about that Disco Jets album but it's pretty entertaining. definitely one of those 'way better than it looks' sorta albums

Swing to the Right is solid!

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#17 - 72 points - 3 votes
Todd Rundgren/Emil Nikolaisen/Hans-Peter Lindstrøm - Runddans (2015)

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#16 - 87 points - 3 votes
Nazz - Nazz (1968)

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#15 - 91 points - 3 votes - 1 first place vote
Todd Rundgren - Nearly Human (1989)  

I figured Nearly Human might be higher - it might be my favourite 1980s Rundgren album. Parallel Lines is very good.

Runddans probably one that would be higher if anyone heard it. it kind of got buried behind Global, which was much less interesting.

I expected to vote for Runddans but when I went back to it I found it to be pretty unfocused. I couldn’t argue it’s better than the best of Todd’s 70s and 80s output. There was a marvellous remix EP that the label spun off Runddans featuring The Boredoms’ EYE, Tim Gane & Sean O’Hagan, and Erol Alkan - but it didn’t feel right voting for any of those in Tracks either: a step too far removed from Todd.

that's part of the charm imo - it's like an updated and more interesting version of "A Treatise on Cosmic Fire". it's only got a few real memorable bits (the "put your arms around me" part, the wanked-up guitar solo, and that glitched out phone conversation) but I always have a blast listening to it

Co-sign. I loved Runndans -- in particular how after, like, 12 or 13 minutes, just as it achieves this cosmic perfection with the ecstatic guitar solo he throws the thing into a blender and chops it up to smithereens before moving on to something else. It's like this perfect metaphor for his career.

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#14 - 93 points - 4 votes
Utopia - Adventures in Utopia (1979)

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#13 - 97 points - 3 votes
Todd Rundgren - Liars (2004)

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#12 - 104 points - 4 votes
Todd Rundgren's Utopia - Todd Rundgren's Utopia (1974)

I am on record about Liars -- it was my #2, which felt right to me as I really like probably all but two of the tracks on it (and enjoy those fine anyway). I also think it is easily the best of his Todd-in-a-Box all computer productions.

Adventures is, like, the polar opposite of Runddans - it couldn’t be more focused, even if that focus is on airplay and arena tours. Comfort food from first to last.

Voted for TR’s Utopia as well. At one point, every song was on the long list for my Tracks ballot, although I rowed back in the end.

Adventures in Utopia was supposedly the soundtrack to an imaginary TV show -- Kasim Sulton said they were thinking of having a cartoon series and that Todd had a script he'd written he was pitching to people, with them as computer scientists and "fabulous gadgets."

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#11 - 122 points - 5 votes
Todd Rundgren - The Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect (1983)

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#10 - 132 points - 5 votes
Todd Rundgren - A Cappella (1985)

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#9 - 158 points - 6 votes
Todd Rundgren - Initiation (1975)

Initiation 2 lowww

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#8 - 252 points - 9 votes
Todd Rundgren - Healing (1981)

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#7 - 279 points - 10 votes
Runt - Runt (1970)

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#6 - 289 points - 12 votes
Todd Rundgren - Faithful (1976)

It just hit me that we're doing a top 20 albums countdown for a single artist.

(Only did a tracks ballot myself. I am a comparative dilettante.)

Yep – I thought about how many to roll out but given the diversity of the ballots and massiveness of his output, 20 felt very doable.

Yeah, zero shade intended tbc. Just marvelling at the immensity and diversity of his catalogue.

I'm not sure I ever listened to all of Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect and had always been a bit wary. However, after I listened to Runt. The Ballad on Spotify, the player went straight to "Influenza" and I was surprised by how likeable it was.

I like Initiation and the first Utopia a lot - they were well-represented on my ballot.

Here’s what I’m thinking:

Leave the last four albums for tomorrow, so anyone who wants to catch up tonight can and still not miss all the fun. Then, the first half of the tracks rollout tomorrow after that finishes and then the rest of the tracks for early-ish Friday.

How does that sound, fellow Todd-ites?

Assuming there isn't some huge upset in the top 5, I voted for every album in the top 10 except for Faithful and A Capella, both of which have one song I love and a lot of stuff whose appeal is more hypothetical than musical. I am, however, pleased that the top 10 countdown includes an album with a song where the singer gets his jaw nailed open by an ogre, which I believe is a first-time occurrence in an ILM poll.

the yardbirds cover on faithful is AWESOME. the others are completely unnecessary but really well executed and enjoyable to me. i have nothing bad to say about side two, that's a solid block of quality todd there, imo.

I've always thought there was something radical about an established artist releasing an album (well, half an album) consisting of by-the-numbers cover versions. Like, no matter how experienced you are you can always gain something by attempting to see through somebody else's eyes. But yeah, maybe more fruitful to the artist than the listener.

its definitely cool in a "he can do everything your favorite band can do" way. every song he covers there was known for being an intricate studio production, I imagine some of the original artists wondered how he did it. on the other hand they're so close to the originals I can't imagine why anyone would want to listen to it more than once. the second side is really great though - "Love of the Common Man" is kind of the perfect power pop song. iirc Utopia is the backing band there so it kind of foreshadows stuff like Oops! Wrong Planet

It's typically perverse that what could have been his return-to-pop album gets diluted by the 60s covers stunt. Still, there's something out-of-focus or laboured about side two of Faithful as well, although I know it's a favourite of many.