I think that Todd Rundgren is one of the greatest artists to grace this earth

It’s unfortunate that most people only know this guy from Hello, It’s Me. Shit, most people couldn’t even recognize the writer of that song. Todd Rundgren had such an insanely impressive 3 album run not in sales (in fact by the release of ‘Todd’ in 1974 he was practically bankrupt from committing “career su!cide) but in the fact that he single handedly wrote, produced and (with the exception of the second half of his break out album ‘Something, Anything?’ and some keyboard parts on the next 2 albums) played every instrument on these albums. The albums in question are 1972’s ‘Something, Anything?’, 1973’s ‘A Wizard, A True Star’ and 1974’s ‘Todd’. Each album gets more psychedelic. Todd implements synths and early EARLY synchronized drum machine grooves. I actually have no idea how or what he could’ve used for a drum machine in 1973, but there must’ve been something. Not to mention that he’s an incredible guitarist and showman. Todd plays guitar, piano + synths, bass, drums and pretty much anything else out there. I’ll talk about my favorite cuts from the three albums I’ve highlighted.

For ‘Something, Anything?’ I personally think ‘The Night The Carousel Burned Down’ is a masterpiece of writing, but also great use of sound effects: https://youtu.be/YcRm7hgpaXY?si=drQsLboWSlJoFKo5 At the end of a rather pretty sounding songs, these distorted carnival type sounds slowly get more and more prevalent and fucked up until eventually they break and the song ends with just piano reverberating outwards. Another great cut on this album and an early example of a quantified song with a drum machine is the Breathless Instrumental: https://youtu.be/FJC1wlduXPU?si=EZ3EUFPRNtoAIb7C This, from 72, sounds like it could’ve been used in early Nintendo games

I choose the song ‘When The Shit Hits The Fan’ for the next album ‘A Wizard A True Star’. This is kind of the climactic moment at the end of the first half of the album, a half the almost feels like just one giant connecting song, before it transitions into the closing reprise of ‘International Feel’, a song im sure some of you have heard of. There’s again elements of almost Mario Kart Music foreshadowing here. The great thing about this album, and the next, is that Todd hand built a studio with everything from the soundboard used to the speakers. Supposedly things were being held together by gum. https://youtu.be/4lUJ0oWA3vI?si=5S5aDbqB-v_y5ZgQ

For the last album I wanna talk about, my personal favorite 1974’s ‘Todd, I choose a few. I literally can’t highlight just one for this. The first is the long and psychedelic track ‘The Spark Of Life’ https://youtu.be/yZGco2x5ffg?si=V8P331D9eCLX_XSL With its swirling, building synths and again what seem to be quantified drums from some kind of machine, this track is another one that just build and builds and builds until you feel like your transcending time. It gets very intense at the end. The next track is actually 3 put together in a medley. The medley includes the songs ‘Useless Begging/Sidewalk Cafe/Izzat Love’. I’ll link the only video I could find, but it only has the ending of ‘Useless Begging’ not the whole song (it’s not the best of his either way) https://youtu.be/T0gELdn5Of0?si=dA0JITO2Hv2L1tPS What’s cool and what’s really the main point of this centers around the middle track ‘Sidewalk Cafe’ because the first track, a piano ballad, slowly segways into this electronic sped up instrumental that again has what appear to be quantified drums and heavy synths. This instrumental then builds up its reverb at the end and then cuts the reverb and breaks hard into ‘Izzat Love’. I just think that for the time this was a really crazy in and out transition. The last track and last thing I want to talk about is the second to last song on the album called ‘Don’t You Ever Learn’. https://youtu.be/Mr4cxSSpJbM?si=DVmFvUW4nKjhZ8h7 I could honestly just let this one speak for itself, but I’ll just say it again uses heavy synth layering and it builds up in its instrumentation as the track goes along. It opens with just these extremely ominous piano chords that kind of lay out the structure of half of the song. It’s one of the most mysterious songs I’ve ever heard and if the album ended with this I wouldn’t mind at all. Check this shit out seriously.

Ok I know I just wrote a paper on this guy but he deserves it with everything he’s done in his long music career. This didn’t scratch the surface of Todd’s genius at all. He still tours and makes music today as well and im gonna see him live soon and try to meet the guy.