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

‘The Last Ride’ was my no 1...every time I hear it, it never fails to slay me...there’s a live version from ‘75 with Luther Vandross on BV’s and I always wonder what a great soul voice ( Marvin?, Donny? Luther) would of done with it...the duet with Daryl Hall is lovely

One of the things I learned from the Myers book mentioned earlier was that, after making most of his money in production royalties from GFR and Meat Loaf, he lost a lot on various creative schemes, like a video studio he tried to set up. The creation of the New Cars, which was conceived as a quick cash infusion, actually lost him hundreds of thousands of dollars.

you could say it was a lemon

given the number of people he has onstage during each of his tours I kinda doubt he's just doing it for the money. he's old but seems to be in decent shape, his voice & chops are still there, and he's still doing new albums regularly, so why not?

I read a pretty interesting post the other day about how Todd's career is full of near misses, he always seems to be backing the wrong technology or winds up being *too* early an adopter

Oh man, I forgot that that shit was in the book… I watched a video of some ted-talkish thing he did where he was completely all in for streaming, to the point of parroting tech bro cant…along the lines of "music should be like running water in your house": like I understand that he's been into the komputah as long as the oldest tech big shots have, he's a true believer, having moved to SF in the 80s to be around ground zero of tech, but I would almost expect him to be a bit less sanguine, in that the environment for him as a lifelong, very well known musician sustaining his livelihood in his late 40s through the beginning of his twilight years has unquestionably been made much more difficult…

He wants you to buy his t-shirt if you're going to stream his records.

his attitude on the subject was definitely better than a lot of 70s megastars who responded with some form of "downloading is literally stealing and I'm going to die if you don't quit it"

A lot of 70s megastars have died, however... coincidence?

Posting this little old thing I threw together before I forget:

The Official Runtian Ballot of James Redd and the Blecchs

Couldn't I Just Tell You
I Saw the Light
Open My Eyes
Hello It's Me
Can We Still Be Friends?
We Gotta Get You a Woman
Be Nice To Me
It Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference
A Dream Goes on Forever
I Went to the Mirror
Cold Morning Light
Marlene
Love Is the Answer
Hideaway
All The Children Sing
Love of the Common Man
A Treatise on Cosmic Fire
Black Maria
Initiation
Wailing Wall
Drive
You Cried Wolf
Bag Lady
International Feel
Tic Tic Tic, It Wears Off
Zen Archer
Sometimes I Don’t Know What To Feel
Just One Victory
Love in Action
Long Flowing Robe
Albums
A Wizard / A True Star
Something / Anything?
Runt. The Ballad of Todd Rundgren
The Hermit of Mink Hollow
Initiation
Production
New York Dolls s/t
Straight Up
Forever Now
Stage Fright
Wave
Skylarking

Formatting got a little messed up in pasting but not gonna sweat it.

just gonna leave this here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFXGDy1cFiE

Good guitar solo!

KILT PERIOD

24 year-old Patti Smith comparing Todd Rundgren to Mozart, Smokey Robinson, Ronnie Spector, Ravel, and Crazy Horse in her August 1971 Rolling Stone review of Runt pic.twitter.com/0F7U7b4zjR

— Eric Harvey (@ericdharvey) April 4, 2021

Because they are Runts too?

The only way I remember the spelling of this Paul Myers is because of the jazz guitarist who spells it Paul Meyers. Then there is yet another Paul Myers associated with Leopold Stokowski.

In Woodstock now, but no sign of the hermit yet.

Not at the Glen Ford, I mean Glenford Dike.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZERNLvgboT4

Couldn’t I just tell you I’m a Heavy Metal Kid?

Heh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF8IoZowV4k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VL4pGazRA8

Finally watched the Tower Block Dreams doc last night. Nearly jumped out of my chair when I heard this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVE9YSBfILE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7VzCia1mjA

RnRHoF for him or The Dolls?

Wow

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E1J_YT4VgAEoxmi?format=jpg&name=large

Swing To The Right is a lot of fun, I don't know why for so long i ignored listening to the Utopia stuff, there's no major distinction between Todd solo and them. IT'S ALL TODD.

I shoulda voted for “born to synthesize”, def over “black and white” at least. the vocal processing is otherworldly and I love the weird eerie high pitched ring that permeates the whole track… plus the jolting chords at the end. hell of a track. love how he sings ‘like waves on still water’.

Yeah, I just checked: I was the lone vote for "Born to Synthesize." IIRC, it was a bit of a controversial "Todd has really gone around the bend" track on Initiation. But you nail what I love about it ... it's kind of the essence of that period for Todd: super blue-eyed soulful vocals ... over the top, almost new age-y lyrics ... and so electronic it's downright dirty as fuck in places. I love it.

the qualities NTI mentions are also in abundance w/r/t to another artist who TR is not nearly associated enuff with: which is to say, Todd is the white Stevie, or rather, Stevie is to Todd as the Clinton diaspora is to the Zappa universe…

I’ve always thought Prince … but there’s def. some overlap w/r/t both.

Wasn't Todd one of the first (if not the first) "omg dude played all the instruments on his albums!" artists? I think that's where a lot of the Prince comparisons come from.

well Stevie and Todd both got to that point at the same time… to say that Stevie isn't in the same class as Todd and Prince on this score cuz he used other musicians throughout the 70s and didn't tend to mess with bass guitar and guitar is unnecessarily pedantic…on many many many of his recordings he isgenerating every sound…

I personally rate Stevie Wonder above both Todd and Prince in just about every category, which is why I think we tend to see a lot of comparisons between Todd and Prince, but not so many between Todd and Stevie (at least I don't.)

Ralph Schuckett died about two weeks after his mention on this thread. RIP.

https://www.uncut.co.uk/reviews/xtc-skylarking-705/