Todd Rundgren

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Todd Rundgren (born June 22, 1948 in Upper Darby, a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and record producer.

Early career

Rundgren began his career in Woody's Truck Stop, a Philadelphia-based group based on the model of Paul Butterfield Blues Band. However, he wanted to pursue a more pop/rock-oriented sound, and left the band to form the garage rock group Nazz in 1967, which gained minor recognition with the songs "Open My Eyes" and "Hello It's Me." (He later recorded an uptempo version of "Hello It's Me" solo; it became a Top Ten hit and remains one of his signature songs.)

Solo work

After leaving the Nazz in 1969, Rundgren alternated production work for other groups with his career as a solo artist. His first solo project was 1970's Runt, which was shortly followed by two highly acclaimed albums, 1971's Runt: The Ballad of Todd Rundgren and 1972's Something/Anything?. Of particular note is the fact that Rundgren wrote, played, sang and produced everything on three of the four sides of the latter album, and he has often recorded in this way since then. His music during this period (later classified as an early form of power pop) was profoundly influenced by soul music, 60s pop/rock (especially The Beatles and The Beach Boys,) and the work of singer-songwriters like Carole King and Laura Nyro. However, he sometimes demonstrated an interest in other genres as well, such as heavy metal and experimental music.

Though Rundgren never completely abandoned his popular music influences, by the mid-70s many of his compositions were stretching themselves into something akin to progressive rock. 1973's transitional A Wizard, a True Star caught the beginning of this trend, which came to fruition in 1974's Todd and 1975's Initiation. His music during this period addressed cosmic themes, showed a strong interest in spirituality (particularly Far Eastern religion and philosophy,) and displayed the musical influence of psychedelic rock as well as the avant-garde jazz fusion of contemporary acts such as the Mahavishnu Orchestra and Frank Zappa. When touring, the music was presented in a lavish stage setting that echoed the ambitious space-themed shows of acts like Parliament/Funkadelic. Rundgren (who had adopted an outlandish space-rock image on stage) was often seen playing the eye-catching psychedelic Gibson SG guitar that Eric Clapton played in Cream. (Rundgren reportedly returned the guitar to Clapton decades later.)

His 1976 album Faithful marked a return to the pop/rock genre, featuring one side of original songs and one side of covers of significant songs from 1966 such as "Good Vibrations" and the Yardbirds' "Happening Ten Years Time Ago" (incidentally, the B-side of that Yardbirds single gave the Nazz its name). Faithful was followed by the well-received Hermit of Mink Hollow (1978); this included the hit ballad "Can We Still Be Friends," which was accompanied by an innovative self-produced music video. Subsequent solo releases included the album-long concept work Healing (1981), the New Wave-tinged The Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect (1983) and the eccentric (but mostly accessible) A Cappella (1985), which was recorded using Rundgren's multitracked voice accompanied by arrangements constructed from programmed vocal samples.

Nearly Human (1989) and 2nd Wind (1991) were both cut live: the former in the studio, the latter in a theater before a live audience which was instructed to remain silent. Each song on these albums was recorded as a complete single take with no later overdubbing. Both albums marked, in part, a return to his Philly soul roots. 2nd Wind also included several excerpts from Rundgren's musical Up Against It, which was adapted from the screenplay (originally titled "Prick Up Your Ears") that British playwright Joe Orton had originally offered to The Beatles for their never-made follow-up to Help!. After a long absence from touring, Rundgren hit the road with the large and versatile Nearly Human-2nd Wind band, which included brass and a trio of slinky backup singers (one of whom, Michele Gray, Rundgren married). He also toured during this period with Ringo Starr's All-Starr band.

The next few years saw Rundgren re-inventing himself again, recording under the pseudonym TR-i ("Todd Rundgren interactive") for two albums. The first of these, 1993's No World Order, consisted of hundreds of seconds-long snippets of music that could be seamlessly combined in various ways to suit the listener. Initially targeted for the Philips CD-i platform, No World Order featured interactive controls for tempo, mood, and other parameters, along with pre-programmed mixes by Rundgren himself, Bob Clearmountain, Don Was, and Jerry Harrison. The disc was also released for PC and Macintosh and in two versions on standard audio CD, the continuous mix disc No World Order and, later, the more song-oriented No World Order Lite. The music itself was quite a departure from Rundgren's previous work, with a dance/techno feel and much rapping by Rundgren. The follow-up, 1995's The Individualist, featured interactive video content that could be viewed (and in one case, played -- it was a simple video game) along with the music, which was more rock-oriented than No World Order.

Rundgren returned to recording under his own name for With a Twist, an album of bossa-nova covers of his older material. His Patronet work, which trickled out to subscribers over more than a year, was released in 2000 as One Long Year. In 2004, Rundgren released Liars, a concept album about "paucity of truth" that features a mixture of his older and newer sounds.

Utopia

Rundgren's back-up band circa A Wizard, a True Star proved to be the first incarnation of Utopia, which featured Tony and Hunt Sales (the sons of 60s television comedian Soupy Sales) on bass and drums respectively, and M. Frog Labat on synthesizers. Utopia would reform again in 1974 as a larger prog-rock ensemble which included multiple keyboards, synthesizers and brass. They premiered on 1974's Todd Rundgren's Utopia, and went on to record the 1975 live album Another Live. In 1976, Rundgren re-established Utopia as a tight, disciplined four-piece group that became a popular recording and touring band of its day. Favoring pop and anthemic rock over the group's earlier synthesizer experimentation, this core Utopia lineup featured Roger Powell on keyboards, Kasim Sulton on bass, and Willie Wilcox on drums, although all members played multiple instruments and sang both lead and harmony vocals at times. After 1976's prog-rock fusion homage Ra, Utopia moved toward a more pop-oriented style with 1977's Oops! Wrong Planet and the more successful Adventures In Utopia in 1980, which spawned the hits "Road to Utopia", "Set Me Free" and "Caravan". Other releases include Deface the Music (also 1980), an uncanny Beatles homage that borders on parody; their pop-referenced, self-titled album Utopia (1982) as well as their 1983 Oblivion, which showed a cynical side of Utopia while mimicking the rock-umentary parody, This is Spinal Tap by sporting a black cover; 1985's P.O.V. includes "Mated", later a staple of Rundgren solo tours. Rundgren eventually disbanded Utopia in the mid-80s; they released Trivia (1986) as their "swan song" effort.

Eventually, Oblivion, P.O.V. and Some Trivia was released in 1996, an effort by Rhino Records to re-release selections from the Todd/Utopia discography.

(Additions referenced from [1])

Production, video & other work

In addition to his own recordings, Rundgren has produced albums for the Sparks, New York Dolls, Badfinger, Grand Funk Railroad, Hall & Oates, Ian and Sylvia, Meat Loaf, Patti Smith, The Tubes, Tom Robinson Band, XTC, Bad Religion, Cheap Trick, Bourgeois Tagg, The Psychedelic Furs, The Band, and many others. The troubled XTC sessions produced the album Skylarking, now considered a high point for band and producer despite its acrimonious origin. Rundgren's production of Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell resulted in that album becoming one of the very top selling LPs released in the 1970's. The industry regard for Rundgren's production work has been a lofty one: Jim Steinman, with whom Rundgren worked with on Bat Out of Hell, has said in interviews that "Todd Rundgren is a genius and I don't use that word a lot." [2]

Rundgren has long been on the cutting edge of music and video technologies. His music video for the song "Time Heals" was the second video to be aired on MTV (after the Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star"), and a video he produced for RCA (accompanied by Holst's "The Planets") was used as a demo for their videodisc players. His experience with computer graphics dates back to 1981, when he developed one of the first computer paint programs, dubbed the Utopia Graphics System; it ran on an Apple II with Apple's digitizer tablet. He is also the co-developer of the computer screensaver system Flowfazer.

In the 1990s, Rundgren was an early adopter of the NewTek Video Toaster and made several videos with it. The first, for "Change Myself" from 2nd Wind, was widely distributed as a demo reel for the Toaster; he also used the system for videos from No World Order (songs "Fascist Christ" and "Property"). Later, he set up a company to produce 3D animation using the Toaster; this company's first demo, "Theology" (a look at religious architecture through the ages featuring music by former Utopia bandmate Roger Powell) also became a widely-circulated item among Toaster users. Most of Rundgren's Toaster work is available on the video compilation The Desktop Collection.

Rundgren composed music for the 1986 TV series Pee-wee's Playhouse and Crime Story and for the 1994 movie Dumb and Dumber, plus background cues for several other TV shows. He hosted a syndicated radio show called "The Difference" in the early 1990s.

As the Internet gained mass acceptance in the mid-1990s, Rundgren and longtime manager Eric Gardner started Patronet, which offered fans (patrons) access to his works in progress and new unreleased tracks in exchange for a subscription fee, cutting out record labels. The songs from Rundgren's first Patronet run were later released as the album One Long Year. Since then, Rundgren has severed his connections with major record labels and continues to offer new music direct to subscribers via his website, although he also continues to record and release CDs through independent labels.

The New Cars

In late 2005, rumors began circulating that the influential Boston-based band The Cars were planning to re-form despite bass player Benjamin Orr's death and the oft-mentioned refusal of former lead singer Ric Ocasek to even consider any reunion. Soon the rumors mentioned that Rundgren had joined Elliot Easton and Greg Hawkes in rehearsals for a possible new Cars lineup. Initial speculation pointed to The New Cars being fleshed out with Clem Burke of Blondie and Art Alexakis of Everclear. Eventually it was revealed that The New Cars were to complete their lineup with veteran bass player and former Rundgren bandmate Kasim Sulton and studio drummer Prairie Prince, formerly of The Tubes, who had played on XTC's Rundgren-produced Skylarking and who has recorded and toured with Rundgren.

In early 2006, the new lineup played a few private shows for industry professionals. The band sounded amazingly unchanged from their 1970s/80s incarnation, and many for the first time noticed how similar Rundgren's vocals were to Ocasek's.

Rundgren has referred to the project as "an opportunity ... for me to pay my bills, play to a larger audience, work with musicians I know and like, and ideally have some fun for a year."

The New Cars' first single, "Not Tonight," was released on March 20, 2006. A portion of the song is featured on a promotional teaser for the band online. According to a March 14, 2006 press release announcing The New Cars, a greatest hits collection, The New Cars: It's Alive, will be released May 9 on Eleven Seven Music. (Release is now delayed to June 6 in North America and June 12 in Europe.) The album will include classic Cars songs recorded live plus never-before-released studio tracks.

The new lineup will play live on The Tonight Show and make other media appearances before commencing a 2006 summer tour with the re-formed Blondie.

Ocasek has had revenge of sorts; on the April 17, 2006 edition of The Colbert Report, show host Stephen Colbert placed Rundgren "on notice" at the behest of Ocasek.

Miscellaneous

Rundgren helped raise actress Liv Tyler, who was led to believe that she was his daughter until she was 11. Her biological father, however, is Aerosmith's Steven Tyler, whose drug excesses during Liv's childhood led to her mother Bebe Buell's paternity deception.

The song "Bang the Drum All Day", from The Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect, was used in several TV commercials during the late 1990s and became an unofficial anthem of the Green Bay Packers and a sports arena favorite. The Cincinnati Bengals continue to play it following every touchdown. It was also used by the New York Knicks after taking late leads during the mid-90s.

His son, Rex Rundgren, is a shortstop in the Florida Marlins organization. Currently, in the 2006 season, he is beginning his third season with the Class AA Carolina Mudcats, for whom he has played since 2004.

Todd also composed and recorded theme music for the American pilot for cult UK sci-fi comedy Red Dwarf. It was never aired.

On the day he shot and killed John Lennon, Mark David Chapman left a Todd Rundgren album in his New York hotel room as some sort of statement. [citation needed]

Discography

Solo

Studio albums

Live albums

With Utopia

(Corrections/additions reference: [3])

  • An Elpee's Worth of Productions -- tracks from albums Rundgren has produced
  • Reconstructed -- techno remixes of Rundgren and Utopia tracks by other artists
  • Todd Rundgren and His Friends -- various artists remake and remix Rundgren songs
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