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

sure I've said this already, but at Brooklyn bowl in 2016, which is by far the best show I ever seen him do, he and the band busted out "Determination" and I done lost my shit… and "wolfman jack" and "you cried wolf" are good examples of how, when Zappa did pastiche, it bespeaks "this shit sucks, look how easy it is to play relative to Varese, it's so teenage, you're a banal asshole if you like this kind of music," todd says "I love this kind of music and I want this to be as good for listeners and for me as 'Get Ready' or Stubborn Kind of Fellow' is."

"Determination" is so great in the context of Hermit of Mink Hollow -- unlike so many other tracks on there, it explodes out of the speakers with that crystalline guitar figure at the beginning. And then the hooks keep coming -- by the time it gets to the "I'm looking for someone/Someone strong enough to believe in" refrain, I'm completely spent. What a song.

one of my very favorite moments in his entire catalogue : "Three days in the rain and I ain't had no sleep/But I won't break down now, I got a promise to keep"

I burned wayyyyy out on determination as a kid but yeah it fucking owns

the chords and backing vocals in the “looking for someone” part are eternal

#34 - 88 points - 4 votes
Todd Rundgren - "Parallel Lines" - from Nearly Human, 1989
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-28Gg9I2dJk

My favorite performance of that song BTW 👆👆

#33 - 92 points - 7 votes
Todd Rundgren - "Black Maria" - from Something/Anything, 1972

#32 - 93 points - 3 votes
Todd Rundgren - "Boat on the Charles" - from Runt. The Ballad of Todd Rundgren, 1971

Sorry, that's supposed to have four votes, not three. So:

#32 - 93 points - 4 votes
Todd Rundgren - "Boat on the Charles" - from Runt. The Ballad of Todd Rundgren, 1971

Save some results for tomorrow huh?

Half today/half tomorrow seems reasonable. Realizing I should have voted for "I Don't Want To Tie You Down"--such a gorgeous song

Love ‘Parallel Lines’...I remember reading that he broke the Backing Vocalists (including his current wife and I think subject of the song)when recording it. So worth it though.

"Boat on the Charles" was my #1 pick. Just a perfect mixture of sardonic tone and despairing feeling, moving into exaltation.
"Parallel Lines" would probably have been my pick from Nearly Human if I'd had room.

Yep -- and with that in mind, allow me to correct that entry for the second time:

#32 - 93 points - 4 votes - 1 first place vote
Todd Rundgren - "Boat on the Charles" - from Runt. The Ballad of Todd Rundgren, 1971

"Boat" reminds me a bit of Steely Dan. Nice song; I just didn't give it a vote since it's not one I spent much time with before this poll. "Is It My Name?" was top 5 for me. Love "Marlene" and "Tie You Down".

As for the saving results for tomorrow, my plan had been to either leave 20 or 25 for tomorrow. But I'm happy to throttle the rest of today's entries a bit if people would like more time to catch up.

Boat’s gorgeous, really love the production on the ballads on ballad (lol)

One more for today ...

#31 - 93 points - 6 votes
Todd Rundgren - "Hideaway" - from The Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect, 1983

I wonder why he used trad drums on "Hideaway," being that the rest of the record uses Linn drums…

Never noticed before but Todd is channeling a strong Phil Spector vibe on the cover of ‘The Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect’...

Still don't know How "Wolfman jack" couldn't at least get to #35, given that he was just about the number one cat when he was alive.

I think Todd Rundgren is an uncool name - it’s down there with Zombies’ drummer Hugh Grundy as least attractive rock star name

Once I was on a road trip with my cousin and I put on "Sometimes I Don't Know What to Feel" just as we happened to be driving over a really foul-smelling river. He asked who the song was by and when I told him it was Todd Rundgren he said "That's funny, because that's exactly how I would describe this smell. Smells like Rundgren." Now I think of that whenever I hear "Is It My Name?" which up until then I'd always assumed was about Todd's reputation.

Yeah, I always thought "name" meant "reputation" there. It's funny to think of it as being about the name "Todd Rundgren" sounding dorky.

Speaking of cousins, somebody just posted in a Friendbook private group about his cuz Russell Mael.

I hadn't heard two of the songs so far in this rollout: "Drive" reminds me a little vocally and melodically of something Adrian Belew might have done around this time; the performance is strong but the song didn't win me over. "God Said" is philosophically sound, but I don't like preaching (even atheistic preaching), and I can't imagine loving a record with that production.

Preempting NTI from making the joke of “Flappie” coming in at Number One.

I did consider including “Flappie” on my ballot. 🪦

I’m kinda with Halfway re “Godsaid”, having just listened to it, but I do enjoy what Todd’s singing voice evolved into in the noughties and the song is intriguing enough that I will probably give Liars a go now.

the criticism of Liars is valid - half the time I really enjoy it, the other half I wind up thinking "the songs are great but they sound like demos"

"God Said" was high up on my ballot b/c it was such a showstopper when I saw him. At that point I hadn't heard any of his 21st century albums so, Todd being Todd, I was unfamiliar with like 80% of the material that was played. And a lot of it was really good - like several times I thought "his new albums are reviewed rather poorly, maybe this song is a cover?". That song in particular was amazing - it just had this totally enveloping, almost transcendental sound to it. Then I tracked down all the studio albums and...yeah. You can tell he's using the same one-man approach he's been doing his whole career but the software he's using kind of strangles the life out of some of these tunes. Liars in particular seems to depend on what system you're hearing it on, sometimes it's great, sometimes it's "is it really supposed to sound this way?"...like stuff gets buried in a way you wouldn't expect from such an adept producer. But I'll never forget how great that tune was live and that's why I voted it so high.

Eh, I dunno. The "sounds like demos" thing applies to most of Todd's output in the last two decades -- but not Liars IMO. "Truth" is a Balearic jam -- and the 5.1 mix he did of the album is actually quite good. Anyway, I don't want to derail things, so I'll just point to the review I wrote for Stylus at the time and quote the relevant part on "God Said":

The hard look in the mirror of "God Said". With its neo-Bacharach-ian chorus, heady sense of atmosphere and endlessly-repeated refrain, "Just get over yourself", "God Said" joins "Afterlife" as one of Liars' most gripping personal moments—not quite bitter, the song, like much of the album, ends up saying a lot more about its author than its subject.

Also: the bass throb has a distinctly ZTT flavor to it, which was kind of a new muscle for Todd.

Ok, let's move onto the top 30!

#30 - 94 points - 5 votes
Todd Rundgren - "Cold Morning Light" - from Something/Anything, 1972

#29 - 99 points - 4 votes
Todd Rundgren - "Initiation" - from Initiation, 1975

#28 - 99 points - 5 votes
Todd Rundgren - "Zen Archer" - from A Wizard, a True Star, 1973

Voted for this one

I had the same experience with ‘Hawking’ off ‘Almost Human’...saw him play it live and it was transcendental...he has some many overlooked gems in his catalogue

Is that an accordion on "Zen Archer" or a harmonium?

"Initiation" and "Zen Archer" both in my top 5, both dense psychedelic masterpieces

xp I'd bet on harmonium but not totally sure

the way the arrow pans from one speaker to the other must've blown a lotta minds in 1972

Actually Ralph Schuckett credited here w/accordion, so maybe it's accordion: https://discordpod.com/listen/2018/10/2/008-feat-dave-weigel-todd-rundgren-a-wizard-a-true-star-1973

Not sure what the source of those credits are, because the original liner notes just list the musicians, not the instruments they play

Yeah, Myers talks in his book about how there was a band one some AWATS tracks and others were Todd solo -- he cites Moogy Klingman as playing the piano on "Never Never Land" and I'm assuming that's him on "I Don't Want to Tie You Down" as well.

Not sure if there was ever a reissue of the record that assigned credits properly or whether it was simply discussed with Todd directly.

Initiation is one I didn't really know until the poll. There's a piece of me that wishes he had done more prog supersession stuff like this with folks like Bernard Purdie and David Sanborn (who interviews Todd in the Parallel Lines performance linked upthread).

#27 - 100 points - 5 votes
Todd Rundgren - "Cliche" - from Faithful, 1976

#26 (tie) - 108 points - 5 votes
Todd Rundgren - "Don't You Ever Learn?" - from Todd, 1974

#26 (tie) - 108 points - 5 votes
Todd Rundgren - "One More Day (No Word)" - from Something/Anything?, 1972

I was so hung up on "Cliche" in 1991 that I tried to figure out how to play it: I think it may be in some open tuning, or maybe that harpsichord tripped me up… and I think the clavinet is second only to the backing vox arrangement in making "One More Day" the titanic achievement that it is…In one way Todd is Zappa with heart, in another, probly more significantly, he is the white Stevie…

“cliche” is incredible

“cold morning light” kinda brings back bad memories lol

“initiation” and “zen archer” both amazing, obv

A lot of the last batch would be in my top 31 - 60 range, but I love "Don't You Ever Learn" as part of the amazing two-song climax to Todd.

Scott Miller, in his book Music: What Happened?, has a write-up on "Cliche":

"This perfectly delightful song unfortunately illustrates a certain creeping crumminess to the sound of many mid-seventies mainstream recordings. The FM radio era just brought an aesthetic requiring too many tracks too laboriously recorded: the industry had iron-poor blood. The emotional analog is the self-conscious and bloodless romantic encounter portrayed with a keen eye and ear by Todd: 'And if the very next words leaving her lips could decide/If he'd go or if he'd stay/She would play that old cliche'".

#24 (tie) - 113 points - 6 votes
Todd Rundgren - "Be Nice to Me" - from Runt. The Ballad of Todd Rundgren, 1971