in praise of Runt:The Ballad of Todd Rundgren poll

long flowing robe bleeding chain letter?
or just boat on the charles?

trivia:

The album cover was designed by Ron Mael from Sparks.

On the day he shot and killed John Lennon, Mark David Chapman left an eight-track tape of Rundgren's album The Ballad of Todd Rundgren, along with other artifacts, in his New York hotel room in an orderly semicircle on the hotel dresser. "I left it as a statement, I guess,"

Upon its release, Rolling Stone called The Ballad of Todd Rundgren "the best album Paul McCartney never made"

Had to go with "Wailing Wall"...Oh God I love you Todd

wailing wall always reminds me of neil young, after the gold rush era.

whoa, never seen that cover before.

The album cover was designed by Ron Mael from Sparks

I thought he only designed the inner sleeve?

Hmmmmmmm, difficult choice! But I'll go for "Chain Letter"... I'll go away and think about it some more

"Oh God I love you Todd"

but God is Todd..

and the answer is "boat on the charles".
it's (one of the) mose beautiful written and arranged song ever recorded.

another unuseful trivia:
"including one of the first uses of the talk box effect, later popularized by Peter Frampton" (in track 2 - The ballad)

The album cover was designed by Ron Mael from Sparks

I thought he only designed the inner sleeve?

Tom is correct, Milton Glaser did the cover.

blame wikipedia

"the range war" for me

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Ha--one solid album.

Ha ha, popular poll

yea, wtf?

Poll fatigue

I couldn't pick one from memory, and never got around to re-listening.

guh

how the hell did this only get seven votes. this album is a total freakin classic. had I been around it would have been "Boat on the Charles" but maybe "Range War". "Best album Paul McCartney never wrote" - damn right!

"Range War" is beyond classic, but many other songs here rival it.

oh wait. by "Range War" I meant "Chain Letter". both excellent but "Chain Letter" is one of his best

Been listening to and loving this all week, so thanks for reviving the thread. "Hope I'm Around" would have gotten my vote. Never knew that Todd had a son who's been a career minor-league baseball player since 2001.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=rundgr001rex

Todd and Carole King sounded so so alike around this time.

If you told me that "I Saw the Light" and "Hello It's Me" were the two greatest singles ever released by someone in a calendar year, I wouldn't disagree. (Obviously, a lot of people could lay claim to that distinction.) Right now, this sounds almost as good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8QOlBgHEj4

Todd and Carole King sounded so so alike around this time.

he did kinda go all-out to imitate her on his first three or so

there are some much better songs here than Hope I'm Around

This is the best Rundgren "rock" record imo

only 22 when he recorded this.amazing.

Ended up buying this for someone as a Christmas gift. The highs aren't quite as sublime as Something/Anything, but it's more consistent--I can happily play it from start to finish. I'll stand by "Hope I'm Around" as the best slow song, and best overall; I've come to love "Long Flowing Robe" almost as much.

I would never have guess 22 either. Much of it has a kind of melancholy that suggests twice that.

"guessed"

"I'll stand by "Hope I'm Around" as the best slow song, and best overall"

always skip that. for me the best one is Bleeding. it's so perfect.

"I would never have guess 22 either. Much of it has a kind of melancholy that suggests twice that."

not to mention hige musical skills - he wrote those smart melodies and played all instruments by himself

Posted this as one of my 20 favourite albums in one of those Facebook things. I made the call before re-listening to it, then spent a week in the car with it. Song to song, it's great. My three least favourite are "Range War," "Chain Letter," and "Parole," and they're all pretty good. Everything else, good to great. "Long Flowing Robe" and "Hope I'm Around" are, for me, right up there with "We Gotta Get You a Woman" and Something/Anything's three or four masterpieces.