Todd Rundgren – Initiation

Just found out that I have one of these winchester ones. Is there a reason why they are going for so much?

For ages, I had the first 30 seconds or so of 'Real Man' on a tape that I recorded off of late-night NYC radio in the early 90s (WNEW or K-Rock). It gets to the middle of the first verse before it abruptly cuts off - too pretentious and wimpy for my teenage ears. Little did I know.

Initiation is a weird album among weird albums made by a strange man who bucked all convention. This is the height of Todd's synth era. There's nothing that sounds like it until much later in the 70's and 80's. It prefigures Synth-pop down to the gated-reverb sounding snare drum and overall production. There's prog moves galore, as evidenced by Side 2, which is a 36 minute long suite.

The sound is very strange and thin, which is due to over an hour of info being crammed onto one LP. 'Treatise' was actually sped up so that it would fit on one side, giving it an 'Uncle Meat'-era Mothers and video game music, cartoonish feel. You gotta love the note on the back of the record that tells buyers to "record it to tape" for better sound. We couldn't get it to sound right, may be you can!!

Hopefully we'll get a double LP reissue for the 50th that includes a pitch/speed corrected version of 'Treatise'

Did Todd get into Scientology? It sounds like it here.

Absolutely love this album! Two completely different sounding sides of music that are both astonishing for 1975.

Hopefully one day we'll get to hear the original pitch and speed of this album. And on 2 records, too

While nowhere near his best work, this Todd album is not a bad LP at all, and should not be dismissed. Side 1 has some silly, catchy, experimental, and weird memorable tunes. Side 2 is an experimental/electronic suite that while getting a little boring at times, works in an overall sense. This side has some moments even memorable enough to get as stuck in your head as some of Side 1's tracks. Initiation is basically 2 albums, as most know, both in terms of length-over 1 hour and 5 minutes, but also with musical content. While sharing a similar atmosphere, the sides differ quite a bit with side 2 being fully instrumental. Obviously, I've never asked the guy, but I'm sure this took a ton of work to put together, as 36 minute experimental piece such as this is no small feat. Side 1 is just pure Todd.

Music On Vinyl need to re-release this, along with the other Bearsville albums they have forgotten!

Someone help with this record I don't get it ... There' Columbia pressings and Capitol and unknowns it seems... Is there a better US pressing then others ... I mean are the imports better I can't imagine ... But the record is just noisy because of the grooves ... Why can this be released on a 2 LP set and be done with this problem... My God Poor Todd... They did that actually with A Wizard A True Star and actually there was a big improvement. This one which I have ... https://www.discogs.com/Todd-Rundgren-A-Wizard-A-True-Star/release/5836469

This pressing is awesome. I have compared it to this release Todd Rundgren - Initiation and it beats it hands down. The difference in detail is too profound to be missed by even the tinniest of ears.

I just don't get why the critics have to bash this and all of Todd's mid-period albums - to many Todd fans like me, they are all complete masterpieces! Listen to what the 5-star reviewers say. This album is eons out of its time, considering what was beng cranked out in 1975. From the catchy "Real Man" to the mind-blowing "A Treatise on Cosmic Fire" (considered the birth of modern electronica), this album is awesome all the way through! Todd and Frank Zappa have a lot in common with eachother musically. They both marched to the beat of their own drum and weren't afraid to take risks with their music. It wasn't about radio play with these guys, it was all about pushing the envelope and trying something different, which is what probably frightens the critics because they don't quite know how to categorize what they hear, so they tear it apart instead. Five stars all the way!