What's so great about Todd Rundgren?

TODD IS KING - PRINCE ONLY A PRINCE NEXT TO HIM!

AND HE DID THE FIRST INTERACTIVE CD!

AND HE'S STILL POST-POSTMODERN - HIS STUFF SOUNDS AS THOUGH IT HAD BEEN RECORDED LAST WEEK!!!!!!!

I told this to the girl I fancied on the school bus in '79 but she gave me the wide body swerve. Probably liked Racey. Pleb.

I reckon Norman Phay will have summat to say, espec. about Utopia.

Robin C and I definitely agree on the genius of "Skylarking."

The most frustrating thing about Todd (in my opinion) is that he constantly derides what I think is his greatest talent, ie his innate ability to throw off intelligent emotional melodious pop as if it were the easiest thing in the world. Yet he bangs on about Powerbooks & iMacs & CDroms & er...concepts. Lester is right: Todd is great great great, but if you've only heard his Mahavishnu-Ork-styled recordings, I can imagine why you might not agree. Have a listen to Runt, The Ballad Of TR, Something Anything, A Wizard A True Star, Hermit Of Mink Hollow, A Cappella, Nearly Human, With A Twist. Or get "Go Ahead, Ignore Me", a double CD comp of his best music, compiled by Paul Le...oh, you guessed.

A Wizard, A True Star is kerazzy. Even if everything he did was rubbish he would be excused for Open My Eyes by Nazz.

Roy Wood is fantastic and a lot odder than you would expect from Blackberry Way and that Christmas thing. Boulders and Mustard are excellent but mental, the first ELO album is mental and indeed Wizzard Brew is mental and shrouded in noise and static, it would seem deliberately. He's also one of these obsessive one man bands who plays all the instruments (guitar, bass, drums, violin, brass, bagpipes! etc)as well as writing and producing.

In fact the Move albums after the first one are fairly odd too and not at all what you would expect from the singles.

As an aside I seem to be attracted to these one man band guys eg Roy Wood, Paul McCartney, Emitt Rhodes, Prince, Jason Falkner who are able to write, arrange, produce and play their whole album. Hell, Roy Wood even painted the cover art.

Anyway, I'm rambling.

I think "Open My Eyes" was the song. This may have been the first mention of the Move that made me want to investigate them because it's such a great song. In general I like most of TR through the "Todd" album, and very little thereafter.

Biggest compliment you can pay anyone, surely?

Anyway, Todd Rundgren. The good doktor = correckt, esp about utopia. Terry Sh U should not allow that silly old fart PauL LeSTeR from uCuNT colour yer opinions of TR 'cuz he (todd) fuxing rules u see... he has a face like a horse, and (allegedly) an enormous swinging 3rd arm. On the cover of "Todd" he sports k-kewl dyed blue and pink hair. I wish I possesed all these attributes. As for Utopia, WTF do u need to know? They has 4-part vocal harmonies that sounded like angels on helium. One of their songs was about RA the SUN GOD. Another was about the god ov some hippie community being trapped by EV0L FUX0RZ inside a glass electric guitar. it r0x0xr3d, and had great tunes to boot. When they toured for this, they had the sphynxes face at the back of the stage, a wire frame pyramid that todd used to climb to play guitar solos, and fountains of water which squirted high in the air during the drum solo. Also they had roger powell, who was a fuxing great synthi wizard type. WTF more do U want from a rock band, eh!!?? Not only this, but he produced "Remote Control" by the Tubes, which sounds just like Utopia. Todd = Godd as far as I'm concerned.

Roy Wood was fuxing ace as well. "Shazam" by the move = r0x0r, fux0rz!!

Any volunteers? Warning PB: you're using up your leeway with me big time.

DISCO JETS

mother of god, where has this "lost album" been all my life??

todd goes haywire synthtastic disco beck/hammer prog!!

i'm still kind of floored that this even exists...

He wrote "Hello, It's Me" and "Open My Eyes". That's what's so great about him.

Where can you get that disco jets album from...?

don't bother,doesnt worth it

never really understood the love for this dude.

I listened to the second disc of Something/Anything today on a work road trip and I remembered exactly why Todd meant something to me for so many years.

sympathy for being cuckolded by Steven Tyler...?

YES THAT'S IT EXACTLY THANK YOU SHAKEY MO COLLIER

I do like Open My Eyes and Skylarking and Hafnelson so he's not all bad

Todd is God

Todd Rundgren has written some good songs all the time. Particularly in the late 60s and most of the 70s. All of his albums are more or less patchy, but some of them - like "Something/Anything" still work as rather good overall. "Something/Anything" is particularly great if you disregard the side that was recorded live in the studio.

he's wildly inconsistent, but side 'b' of faithful is awesome. the only other one i like a lot is something/anything?

never really understood the love for this dude.

he wrote great pop tunes if you're into that sort of thing

i didn't revive this thread to hear everybody's opinion about todd again! let's talk about lost albums and shit.

sonnyboy: it's on this: http://rateyourmusic.com/release/comp/todd_rundgren/lost_demos_and_albums/

zeno, not worth it??? was it the star trek them that turned you off???

i mean, i understand why he wouldn't release it (or why a label wouldn't want to) but it is really really nice (i know that sounds like faint praise but it just makes me feel nice and cozy)

geir what about "you left me sore" for crying out loud??

too racy for you?

he was fucking killer when i saw him live a few months ago w/kasim and prarie prince. i was not expecting much, but his voice is still very strong. and he laid off the newer stuff for the most part and played a lot of unexpected songs (drive, one world, broke down and busted...) as well as some choice classics and the obligatory "i saw the light" (which didn't sound too great, but i'm probably as tired of that song as he is)

disco jets kinds sux.

kinda, mostly even