Sunday, June 22, 2008

Happy Birthday Todd Rundgren

Todd Rundgren turns sixty today, so happy birthday Todd. Awesome first name, by the way. I’ve written about Todd before, so this is kind of a follow-up in regards to that first post. I downloaded the majority of Utopia’s Oblivion before being banned by the uploader, an occurrence which is frustrating, but I think I figured out why it happens to me on a regular basis. At first, I took it personally. But now I realize, thanks to a message from a user who also chose to ban me, that I have been frolicking along, downloading as I please, while letting no-one take a look at my own goods. You see, I had to re-add SLSK several months back and I inadvertently neglected to change my configurations. So when I downloaded whatever I wanted from your files and you attempted to look at mine, you would be met with a big fat no. Sorry about that.
I guess that is what happened with the person I was downloading Oblivion from. The bitch of it is, this seems to be the only person on Earth that actually has Oblivion, so every time I go and look for the remaining tracks I need, and the same dude comes up. I’ve spun the few tracks that I did manage to glean and they were even more uneventful than I remember them. First of all, what the fuck is with the drum sound on that album? It seems that in the process of trying to sound “modern” back in 1983, they actually managed to secure the entire album in ice and, to that point, the album even sounds retarded by 1983 standards.
I’m showing my gayness here, but I still think the song “I Will Wait” is a wonderful slice of love-song pap and I continue to get a kick out of “Winston Smith Takes It On The Jaw.” It seems that everyone circa ’84 was into the whole George Orwell trip.
Both of those songs, by the way, don’t appear to be Todd Rundgren composed tunes.
Yes, it seems that Rundgren has spent the past quarter-century M.I.A., releasing product that isolates him further from the mainstream and fringe fans (like myself) that enjoy his stubbornness but don’t appreciate his apparent laziness at creating an album that’s listenable from start to finish.
I think it came to a head when I received a Todd Rundgren album at the radio station that I was working for that declared it to be a live recording. Upon further examination, I learned that the fans who were allowed into the venue were met with a note that informed them that they needed to shut the fuck up during the performance. That’s right: fans were not allowed to clap, hoot or holler before, during or after each song. What’s the point? I think Rundgren gave some lame ass excuse, but if you’re not interested in creating a true live document, why not forgo the inclusion of an audience? Just rent the fucking venue and record your shit.
More recently, there was the announcement that Rundgren had signed on as a member of The New Cars, a project started by Cars’ guitarist Elliot Easton and keyboardist Greg Hawkes after Ric Ocasek advised them that he would not be interested in a Cars’ reunion. To his credit, Ocasek realized that bassist/vocalist Ben Orr was fucking dead and, therefore, a true Cars reunion would never be possible.
To side-step such a dilemma, Easton and Hawkes then hired Todd Rundgren to fill in for the missing Ocasek, while occasionally allowing him to sing a few of his own songs too. Now, not only is this a pretty shitty thing to do, it doesn’t bode well for Todd that his main motivation for this decision was, as he admitted to, money.
If money is such an important factor, Todd, then why did you release an album created entirely from your voice (A Capella)?
Rundgren is such an unbelievably frustrating artist that you wonder if there’s something in his wiring that has him intentionally sabotaging any chance of consistency in career path. I understand the need to be challenged, but serious, is there any challenge to covering “Just What I Needed?” Where is the challenge is trodding out the hits for another Ringo Star All Star Band tour? What’s the fucking reason why you made those drums sound so retarded on Oblivion?
Happy birthday, Todd. You frustrating and contradictive sell-out.

3 comments:

DJMurphy said...

First up, PM me bro; I think you know how to get in touch with me thru the regular channels. Use the subject line "Oblivion", and it'll refresh my memory.

Second, I hate to be a Todd apologist here, but here goes: I probably wouldn't be such an apologist had the bastard not made such amazing music once upon a time. Yes, this is the guy who's given us stinkers like No World Order and The Individualist, but even those two discs had a few worthy moments. But he also gave us Hermit Of Mink Hollow, The Ever-Popular Tortured Artist Effect, Something/Anything?, and A Wizard, A True Star. He also produced Skylarking. 'Nuff said on that.

Minor point of correction: A Capella was the voice-only album, not Nearly Human, which had actual band members, not just a Todd-plays-all album.

Next, the 2nd Wind album you mention (live, but no folks clapping) has some great moments on it, and to a point, I have to defend his decision. The thought behind it (so I believe I read) was to create an atmosphere where he and the rest of the musicians were forced to get it right in one take, to be on their A game, capture that visceral energy of a live concert, yet not have all the applause or clams present in a typical live recording. For some of the songs, the proof is in the pudding; "Change Myself" and the title track are great-to-memorable, as are the trio of songs which were originally written for the play Up Against It. Overall, it's no masterpiece of an album, but has enough moments to say I'm glad I own it. Joe Jackson had excellent results with this same live-to-two-track- in-front-of-a-silent-audience process with his wonderful Big World album. The difference with Joe is that unlike Todd, he had an album-and-a-half of great material, as opposed to half-an-album's worth.

Oblivion isn't the strongest Utopia LP, but it does have worthy cuts. "Crybaby" is a flat-out classic; "Itch In My Brain" and "Welcome To My Revolution" are great, "I Will Wait" is a worthy song. But yeah, the drums are weird, the synths are dated, and overall, the gee-whiz-look-at-this-cool-machine factor sometimes took precedence over how-can-we-make-a-stronger-album?

And no excuse for the New Cars thing, other than I heard he was broke and needed cash. For what it's worth, Kasim Sulton also played as part of the New Cars, which made it a half-Utopia tour. All of his recent activity hasn't exactly been raking in dough for him, and he needs to get cash in order to continue to live in Hawaii.

He is a stubborn sonofabitch, but the fact that he has released great stuff gives me an ember of hope that he might be able to do it again. Kudos to him for arsing himself enough to continue to try; I'll be watching. Happy Birthday, Todd Rundgren!!

Todd Totale said...

Corrected to reflect the A Capella.
You're also right about "Crybaby," that's one of the songs that I didn't get from the download.

Anonymous said...

Producer - New York Dolls -s/t. That's all I needed from him.