Todd Rundgren - S/D please

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"Something/Anything" would be the natural starting point as far as albums go. "Wizard/True Star" is patchy to say the least, but I know that album is loved by a lot of his fans.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 22 April 2003 09:02 (10 years ago) Permalink

you doneed a comp. you don't want "todd" thass for sure (not that i dislike it...its just,ahem, so not his pop album). parts of something anything and wizard are his best pop, its just there so much else there too. Runt is pretty consistant. Hermit of mink hollow is good.
there's another thread somewhere, i'm sure. you do a search?

― gaz (gaz), Tuesday, 22 April 2003 10:40 (10 years ago) Permalink

I'll second Hermit of Mink Hollow if your looking for somewhat "normal"...

I'll also suggest "Back to the Bars" - Todd's greatest hits, live. (I lived off that record in 7th grade.)

― dave225 (Dave225), Tuesday, 22 April 2003 10:59 (10 years ago) Permalink

Search: "Real Man" and "Initiation" off Initiation

― Joe (Joe), Tuesday, 22 April 2003 11:20 (10 years ago) Permalink

Utopia's Deface the Music(a Beatles pastiche) is a corker.

― Jez (Jez), Tuesday, 22 April 2003 12:26 (10 years ago) Permalink

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― Alex K (Alex K), Tuesday, 22 April 2003 13:39 (10 years ago) Permalink

Best places to start are definitely the two Runt albums, _Something/Anything?_, and Utopia's _Deface The Music_. Search the first two Nazz albums as well - both are amazing.

― mike a (mike a), Tuesday, 22 April 2003 13:42 (10 years ago) Permalink

i don't know whether it's the wizard or the true star side, but side one, with "l'internationale", "sunset boulevard", "zen archer" etc. is a beautifully self-contained 20-something minutes

something/anything is the super-over-long one, but todd is pretty excessive (despite "heavy metal kids" and a few other songs)

― george gosset (gegoss), Tuesday, 22 April 2003 13:52 (10 years ago) Permalink

"Todd", "Something/Anything" and "Wizard" are all highly recommended -all disgracefully self-indulgent of course. Todd was Prince before Prince was Prince.

― Dadaismus, Tuesday, 22 April 2003 13:55 (10 years ago) Permalink

heh, my two favorites are 'Todd' and 'A Wizard a True Star'. i think his weird stuff is his best. and it's really not that weird. it's all just your subconcious trying to tell you to be afraid. it's just him twidling a few knobs here and there on top of some mightily impressive songs. there are some jokey bits, but they're really not that annoying in the least.

― JasonD (JasonD), Tuesday, 22 April 2003 14:45 (10 years ago) Permalink

Ditto re Wizard and S/A. I probably like the first half of Wizard better than even the best S/A stuff, which don't get me wrong is great.

Healing is pretty fucking weird too, esp. the first track and "Golden Goose" (destroy: "Compassion").

I should like A Capella more, but I just don't.

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 22 April 2003 15:00 (10 years ago) Permalink

tiny demons is a great song, heh heh

― gaz (gaz), Tuesday, 22 April 2003 21:48 (10 years ago) Permalink

you don't want "todd" thass for sure (not that i dislike it...its just,ahem, so not his pop album).

"Tood" isn't all that different from those other two albums, only it has a lot more use of synths.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 22 April 2003 21:52 (10 years ago) Permalink

"Deface The Music" is IMO the best thing he ever did, but it obviously isn't "representative". I'd rather recommend it to Rutles fans than to Todd fans. :-)

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 22 April 2003 21:53 (10 years ago) Permalink

Todd! Again!! There's plenty of other "how to buy Todd" threads round here somewhere, but I'm basically in agreement with Mr Applestein (hi Mike!!). The entire Nazz back catalogue has just been reissued in the UK in a handy 2CD pack, which gives you the 3rd LP too (with the impossibly great "You Are My Window"). In addition to all recommendations upthread, the LPs he made for Warners in the 80s (A Cappella & Nearly Human in particular) are great, "what can I do now?" records.

― harveyw (harveyw), Wednesday, 23 April 2003 11:38 (10 years ago) Permalink

Yes, Nazz should be added to any list of Todd Rundgren recommendations.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 23 April 2003 12:17 (10 years ago) Permalink

Yes - start at the begining (Nazz), it'll make the Runt - Wizard era material that much better.

― christoff (christoff), Wednesday, 23 April 2003 13:05 (10 years ago) Permalink

2 years pass...

izzat love is one of the best but maddeningly short songs ever.

― jobless, Monday, 25 April 2005 18:08 (8 years ago) Permalink

'Eavy Metal Kids, dude.

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Monday, 25 April 2005 19:11 (8 years ago) Permalink

"Time Heals," "One World."

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Monday, 25 April 2005 20:27 (8 years ago) Permalink

5 years pass...

One thing that puzzles me about Todd Rundgren is that, surely, listening to his albums and not least his production work for other acts, he is undoubtedly an audio freak who is really into as perfect audio as possible.

What puzzles me then is the fact that "A Wizard a True Star", "Todd" and "Utopia" were, from what I know, single albums, yet with a playtime of 60 minutes plus. Wasn't Rundgren aware of the fact that squeezing more than 30 minutes into a vinyl side would reduce the sound quality?

― You're Twistin' My Melody Man! (Geir Hongro), Saturday, 27 November 2010 01:32 (2 years ago) Permalink

As much as I love Todd, in no way would you call him an audiophile. Most of his records sound thin and toppy. A bit like Prince he is more concerned about getting ideas down than the fidelity of his recordings. I'm sure that having so much music on one side of vinyl didn't help matters but none of his albums are good examples of great engineering...

― sonnyboy, Saturday, 27 November 2010 16:56 (2 years ago) Permalink

And I imagine he wouldn't have taken kindly to someone telling him that his records would sound better if only he didn't put so much material on them

― Tom A. (Tom B.) (Tom C.) (Tom D.), Saturday, 27 November 2010 17:03 (2 years ago) Permalink

I LOVE "A Treatise on Cosmic Fire" from Initiation, but that is pretty much *the* example for TR's "excesses". Still, are there any examples even in the most outré prog rock that are as ambitious as that?

― that's a nice look, isn't it? (corey), Saturday, 27 November 2010 17:31 (2 years ago) Permalink

"Initiation", now there's another extremely long single album. :)

― You're Twistin' My Melody Man! (Geir Hongro), Saturday, 27 November 2010 22:59 (2 years ago) Permalink

International Feel = one of the great album openers imo.

― ball (Hurting 2), Saturday, 27 November 2010 23:05 (2 years ago) Permalink

So is "All the Children Sing" from Hermit of Mink Hollow — So jubilant!

― that's a nice look, isn't it? (corey), Saturday, 27 November 2010 23:09 (2 years ago) Permalink

God I love Todd...

― sonnyboy, Sunday, 28 November 2010 00:19 (2 years ago) Permalink

Wasn't Rundgren aware of the fact that squeezing more than 30 minutes into a vinyl side would reduce the sound quality?

Yup:

"!IMPORTANT NOTICE!

I’m sure you’ve heard this before, but due to the fact that you can only put so much music on a piece of plastic before you start to loose (sic) some of the sound, and due to the fact that I have exceeded what is considered the practical norm by at least 6 or 7 minutes per side, you will probably want to crank up your Victrola as loud as it will go to get the full enjoyment contained on this here L.P.

Thanx"

- from the AW/ATS liner notes.

― Vaguely Threatening CAPTCHAs, Sunday, 28 November 2010 02:46 (2 years ago) Permalink

If Nazz counts, search "Forget All About It."

― billstevejim, Sunday, 28 November 2010 07:05 (2 years ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

I think I'm starting to figure out Todd's career arc - he pretty much dominated power pop early on with the Nazz, and by his second solo album he had perfected the ballad and had nowhere to go besides A) commercial success (achieved on his next album) and B) far out acid freak territory that the fans would love and the critics would hate (AWATS and Todd). After that I don't think he had any idea what to do, challenging himself by recording a capella albums, note-by-note recreations of classic rock hits, forming his own prog band (even though prog had pretty much expired). I don't think he "lost it", I think he just stopped caring after a while. Anyways, thanks for reading.

― frogbs, Tuesday, 8 May 2012 18:53 (1 year ago) Permalink

Then, at one stage, he just thought fuck it and just made an effort to make a great pop album again, and "Healing" was his best in ages.

― The GeirBot (Geir Hongro), Tuesday, 8 May 2012 22:47 (1 year ago) Permalink

My favourite Nazz song outside of "Open My Eyes":

― clemenza, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 01:12 (1 year ago) Permalink

"Healing" is pretty fantastic...

― henry s, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 01:21 (1 year ago) Permalink

What's the best compilation?

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 01:49 (1 year ago) Permalink

― henry s, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 02:54 (1 year ago) Permalink

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