Todd Rundgren: C or D

t/s: oblivion vs. P.O.V.

circle of amour by prince sounds pretty todd-y.

Imago... I'd also be interested to know what you'd think of the first Utopia album (this one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Todd_Rundgren's_Utopia_(album) ), since it was his full-on prog album.

Not Imago here, but if I may interrupt, I'd say it was...

http://lyriki.com/images/thumb/a/a4/AlbumArt-Various_Artists-Best_Prog_Rock_Album_(2003).jpg/250px-AlbumArt-Various_Artists-Best_Prog_Rock_Album_(2003).jpg

Oh, and Evening Star, stick with the 35-min synth composition ('A Treatise on Cosmic Fire'). I've always loved the first half of this, and then, about 30 years later, I finally learned to appreciate the rest of it!

"The Ikon" is really quite amazing - one of the greatest (and longest) prog epics. I never came around to "Treatise" but the start of part three (when things really start to go into full freak mode) is entertaining.

i adore the main riff of "the ikon". those first two utopia albums are so much fun. i could listen to Mid70s Todd and Roer jams forever.

roer = roger powell

that part in the Ikon when it turns into one of Todd's trademark awesome R&B ballads - the "you don't have to be afraid" bit, it always floors me because its really out of nowhere.

heres the real question - is he worth seeing live nowadays? he's coming to Milwaukee and tickets aren't really too bad - my Dad is big into Todd and I was thinking about taking him.

I saw him live last night. full on EDM for the most part! The only old song he played was "secret society" from POV, wtf. Oh and he did EDM covers of "personality crisis" and "prime time". 3 piece band, electronic drum kit (think it was prarie prince), lasers, multiple pairs of scifi goggles. Some great guitar solos from Todd and the other guitarist, but todd was mainly singing and dancing. Idk, it was weird.

― brimstead, Saturday, July 13, 2013 7:17 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Most of his new stuff is still really soulful, though, he opened with "truth" from Liars and that's kind of where the new stuff branches out from.

my bad, didnt fully read the thread - I dunno if that's good or bad, I don't think either of us have heard anything even up to POV, but his new stuff does get good reviews. interesting

i just remembered that he DID play a medley of "hello it's me"/"i saw the light"/"can we still be friends" for the encore. all sidechain-y dance pop versions.

I'm astounded by how great the second side of Faithful is - combine it with side one of Initiation and you've got a hell of a record

for all the praise "Couldn't I Just Tell You" seems to get, "Love of the Common Man" is basically just as good, and maybe even more repeatable

IDM covers of "personality crisis" and "prime time".

I was just gonna ask "The Tubes' "Prime Time?" and then I went to youtube. Uh, yeah, that's kinda goofy. The synths sound way too thin and cheesy.

Love of the Common Man is great

this guy is a piece of shit

a soulless fake prog nilsson is no way to go through life, son

There is nothing fake about Rundgren's prog.

Ummmm

a soulless fake prog nilsson

Even if this was true, it sounds like it would be pretty cool.

soulless? have you heard "the last ride"?

when i met her, it felt like the first time i heard "bang on the drum all day"

haha this dude makes my skin literally crawl so there's really no reasoning w/my unfettered hatred y'all!

and i respect the classic rock canon too! seriously! name me someone who respects it more! you can't! but i can't hang w/this dude so gross

Haha M@tt, thanks for the new DN!

Todd's career is kinda like Stephen King's to me; I've hung with him through some ill-advised crap, and there's a bunch I've skipped entirely, but I think when he's on he's pretty great. sund4r otm upthread re: post-Beatles/Beach Boys pop-rock, 70s singer-songwriter tunes, post-Hendrix guitar solos, eccentric 1-minute art-pop songs, Zappa-meets-Yes epic prog, soul-pop balladeering, electronic new wave... and I would add yacht rock. And Prince.

i just tried again today, i always try again with certain classic rock artists that i don't like

maybe next time

he also produced stage fright by the band like shit, kinda irritated by that as well, they had andy johns version of the songs on the expanded reissue, sounded so much better

"Couldn't I just Tell You" flies by in a warp of ecstasy and guitar

The single mp3 in my collection with the highest play count is Tic Tic Tic, It Wears Off. I wish it had an ending, though. So suspenseful!

You should check out The Nazz

maybe you needn't try again with Todd. he irritates most of the people who actually like him so what chance do you have?

"fake prog" is a strange accusation though. he went prog when he was on the verge of becoming a huge pop star, so it's hard to me to not believe he's sincere about it. that first Utopia album is legit as hell.

I feel like as a person, deep inside he is not prog. He could make any type of prog music but it would not resonate with me. He's a prog studio gangsta.

There's also something about him that makes me want to punch him for no reason at all.

envy

I mean, for this song alone... how the hell was this not a huge hit? Love this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNN96qYE9kg

I completely refuse to engage with this on any level although I'm getting an ulcer...

Ladies, ladies settle down like I said I'll keep at it

gym coach

Hit the showers champ

how the hell was this not a huge hit?

i like todd and i like "love of the common man," but it could've used a better singer tbh.

Utopia's "Freak Parade" is really great".

Still need quite a lot of his albums. Hermit Of Mink Hollow or Wizard A True Star are my favorites.

Black Mariah!

4 disc "at the bbc1972-1982" came out this week.

wonder if it has the old grey whistle test performance of "tiny demons", just vocals and guitar. it's good stuff.

Esoteric Recordings are pleased to announce the first ever official release of TODD RUNDGREN AT THE BBC. This four-disc collection comprises three CDs and a DVD (NTSC / Region Free) featuring all of the surviving radio and television broadcasts in the BBC archive transmitted on radio and television in the UK between 1972 and 1982. The set features on CD Todd's solo 1972 BBC Radio One ""In Concert"" performance, recorded soon after the release of his seminal album ""Something Anything"", the classic 1975 performance by Todd Rundgren and Utopia at Hammersmith Odeon, London, (including a previously unreleased track 'Something's Coming') - on the first ever UK concert tour of Todd Rundgren and Utopia, a 1977 performance at the Oxford Polytechnic by Todd Rundgren and Utopia (promoting the ""Ra"") album, and a DVD featuring three different performances for the classic ""Old Grey Whistle Test"" series; the 1975 Todd Rundgren and Utopia session, a film of Todd Rundgren & Utopia at the Bearsville Picnic in 1977 (performing 'Singring and the Glass Guitar') and the entire recordings made for a 1982 solo Todd Rundgren Whistle Test special (including two songs not featured on the original TV broadcast). This set is sure to delight the legions of Todd Rundgren fans and is a superb document of Todd's continuing development as both a solo artist and with his band Utopia between 1972 and 1982.

i think it's weird he's not mentioned more as a progenitor of electronic pop

$12.49 on Amazon MP3, price is certainly right

26 tracks of this on Spotify.

anything ever come of his collaboration between Lindstrom, Todd Rundgren, and Serena-Maneesh?

might have to go see this latest Todd tour, in which he's onstage with 2 female singers and a DJ/keyboardist who apparently will be Dam-Funk (!!?)

Highly recommended for all early-'70s Todd lovers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqW7EfA3VWE

might have to go see this latest Todd tour, in which he's onstage with 2 female singers and a DJ/keyboardist who apparently will be Dam-Funk (!!?)

I think I might take my Dad, who has been a fan of Todd for four decades now, but I agree, I kinda want to read a review or two first

the fact that it's Dam-Funk is sort of encouraging, because i still believe he can do something not-terrible with EDM/modern electronics, he's just really out of touch and needs a young person to steer him.

speaking of todd and electronics, has anybody heard the pure electronic "sequences" at the end of this disc? http://www.discogs.com/Todd-Rundgren-SomewhereAnywhere-Unreleased-Tracks/release/2414213
seriously insane proto-techno.

you should, though don't expect to hear any of the classics, when I saw him it was nearly all 21st Century stuff. who knows though he changes it up a lot so maybe he is touring the classics now

If he wanted to do Liars all the way through I'd be up for that show.

fuck, yes

I just realized he’s playing in early May in Boston. Just got tickets.

I watched a couple recent live videos of his within the last six months or so and I remember thinking that the vocals sounded pretty capital r ruff but hopefully he was having an off night…he also fell flat on his face at the end of one of the tracks which was just hard to see tbh. He did spring right back up though…

Vocally or physically? Yikes

I saw him about 5 or 6 years ago, he sounded great. Dude tours a lot though so idk how he sounds night to night

Yeah I saw him 6 years ago and he mostly played new stuff I didn’t recognize. He did a medley of hits, iirc and closed with “one world” (which fucking rocked). He also played “secret society” for some reason??

Also saw the live Wizard show he did in SF in 08 or so, completely brilliant and perfect, insane amount of costume changes despite no gaps in between songs, spectacular performance, the band nailed it (kasim, prairie, young Todd clone)

Only other time I saw him was on the Arena tour and I don’t remember him playing anything before 2000 besides… “number one lowest common denominator” or something? rocked but idk kinda boring tbh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ro9g_ZZ88xk

This is the one I was thinking of…I just browsed some other stuff from 2023 where he sounded better though (I had to be sure) so I doubt this is the usual Todd experience.

its definitely not he never tripped over a speaker any of the times I saw him

#Runt4Prez

Was wondering why he was playing Sugar Land, but then looked it up and he was opening for Daryl Hall at The Smart Centre (Todd's second time playing the venue: he opened for Yes there in 2017).

Terrific looking setlist for that '23 show:

Real Man
Love of the Common Man
It Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference
We Gotta Get You a Woman
Buffalo Grass
I Saw the Light
Black Maria
Unloved Children
Hello It's Me (Nazz song)
Sometimes I Don't Know What to Feel
I'm So Proud (The Impressions cover)
Ooo Baby Baby (The Miracles cover)
I Want You (Marvin Gaye cover)
The Want of a Nail

Imagine being an old person in 1973 who dozed off during Carson and who suddenly woke up during this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGcqnb0LFTw

My favourite live clips from that moment are British glam bands on Top of the Pops, but that one's right up there too. He seems so aware of how ridiculous he looks--if CHiPS had done a glam episode, that's about what their costume department would have come up with--and delivers the song beautifully anyway.

well im an old person now but i saw this on the old grey whistle test when i was 17 and i thought it was a bit silly (and i was right)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgJRtI3CUdk

smash the glass guitar todd!

kinda wish Utopia's prog phase lasted a bit longer I mean "Communion with the Sun" is so fucking good

smash the glass guitar frogsbs!

going to see him tonight!

Folks: it was good

Did he do Weezer hash pipe?

no but he did the song he did with Mr. Weezer

anyway for those who are curious - vocally he was pretty good, a bit weak at first but I think he was just saving himself for the 2nd half where he did a lot more challenging stuff. not gonna spoil the setlist but he did a few absolute showstoppers which would immediately be followed by TR-i stuff, which I thought was hilarious. I mean hey, it worked, in fact I think all his post-Nearly Human material comes off way better live than on the record