Todd Rundgren - Solo, with Utopia, and selected productions.*

I'll move onto Todd Rundgren's first work, after leaving Nazz. I have not included Nazz III because he left the group after Nazz Nazz and most of Rundgren's vocals on the unreleased songs from the Fungo Bat sessions were replaced by Stewkey's.


RUNT - 1970

Runt is the self-titled debut of the band Runt, first released in 1970 on the Ampex Records label. Many regard the album as Todd Rundgren's debut solo album, as all later reissues (including the 1990 CD reissue by Rhino) credit the album to Todd Rundgren rather than to Runt. At the initial time of release, however, "Runt" was identified as a trio consisting of Rundgren (guitars, keyboards, vocals), Hunt Sales (drums) and Tony Sales (bass). The entire album was written, produced and sung by Rundgren, who also played all of the instruments other than bass and drums.

Initially dividing critics upon its release, the record runs the gamut from blues-styled guitar workouts (Birthday Carol, Broke Down and Busted), power pop (Devil's Bite, Don't Tie My Hands), Laura Nyro-styled piano pop (We Gotta Get You a Woman, Baby Let's Swing, The Last Thing You Said), rock n' roll (Who's that Man), piano ballads (Believe in Me, Once Burned, the middle section of Birthday Carol) as well as more experimental numbers (the sarcastic, prog-rock tinged I'm in the Clique, There Are No Words).

Upon its release in June 1970 the album was issued with 10 tracks. After We Gotta Get You a Woman became a hit single, Ampex decided to press more copies of the LP in November 1970 to keep up with demand. A rejected 12 track master of the LP was accidentally sent to the pressing plant resulting in approximately 5,000 mis-presses. Instead of throwing out the LPs, Ampex decided to sell them anyway, unmarked, as a sort of surprise to the purchaser. There are rumours of an 11 track pressing but none have been documented. This album as well as Runt: The Ballad of Todd Rundgren were issued in 1971 on the Bearsville label, being distributed by Ampex at the time. In mid 1971 Bearsville was purchased by Warner Bros. distribution, and plans were made to re-release both albums in 1973 as a "twin pack" entitled Todd Rundgren's Rack Job. The album got as far as test presses and album art but was shelved as Rundgren wanted to release an album of new material instead.

Contents

1 Standard Track Listing
1.1 Side one
1.2 Side two
2 12-track mispressed vinyl release, November 1970
2.1 Side one
2.2 Side two


Standard Track Listing
Side one

"Broke Down and Busted" - 4:32
"Believe in Me" - 2:04
"We Gotta Get You a Woman" - 2:52
"Who's That Man?" - 2:59
"Once Burned" - 2:09
"Devil's Bite" - 3:53

Side two

"I'm in the Clique" - 4:57
"There Are No Words" - 2:12
"Baby Let's Swing"/"The Last Thing You Said"/"Don't Tie My Hands" - 5:28
"Birthday Carol" - 9:14

All songs by Todd Rundgren.

12-track mispressed vinyl release, November 1970

side one

Broke Down and Busted (same as standard version but with short intro from There Are No Words)
Believe in Me (alternate mix)
We Gotta Get You a Woman (alternate mix)
Once Burned (same as standard version)
Who's That Man? (same as standard version)
Hope I'm Around (not on standard version, but an alternate version was included on his second album)
Devil's Bite (alternate mix with extended guitar solo)

Side two

I'm in the Clique (same as standard version)
There Are No Words (same as standard version)
Baby Let's Swing (full length song, not part of a medley)
Say No More (not on standard version)
Birthday Carol (partially the same as standard version, but with some brief alterations)

All comments welcome. Discussion is good

 

I may come back and included Naz III, if enough folks think it's important to add. Putting Runt before Naz III will not interrupt the flow anyway, since Runt III was a later release (1971).

 

This is not intended as criticism (and I love TR) but just to mention that my favourite album by album threads are the ones that move s-l-o-w-l-y as it gives a chance for occasional visitors to comment before the thread moves on to the next album etc. I'm not sure what the optimum interval is, and of course it varies depending on the level of interest, but anything more than 1 per week is exhaustingly fast for me

Tim

 

I'd also suggest that we ask a gort to rename the thread Todd Rundgren Album by Album thread

Tim

 

I have a copy of the 12-track version of Runt (it cost $60 on eBay), and I love it, especially the full-length version of "Baby Let's Swing". I wonder if the master tapes for the 12-track version still exist.

 

Got ya. I'll slow it down a todd, I mean tad, to allow everyone who's interested a chance to comment. Feel free as well to back step anytime and comment on a previous release.

 

Two good suggestions. In doing The Weller threads, I can only say that you are right about pace. But I've also included interviews, live shows and the singles as well. Someone like Todd deserves to be savored so hopefully the thread will unveil itself as you so aptly suggested.

 

Was just about to post the same thing myself, then noticed this. Vinyl diehard, as threadstarter, what do you think?

Will chip in with some thoughts on the Nazz later if I have time.

 

I agree with that. Let's have a Gort rename the thread "Todd Rundgren - Album by Album.

 

Jumping in a bit late, sorry! Great thread. Really, any Todd fan MUST have all the Nazz stuff. Essential. It shows the formative Todd finding his initial footing, and it's fascinating to hear his immense musical growth in just two album sessions (Nazz Nazz and Nazz III being one session.)

The first Nazz album wears its influences all over the place, but is undeniably an amazing debut album. Nazz Nazz seems more mature and focussed, with mind-boggling stuff like "Letters Don't Count" and "A Beatiful Song" among others. IIRC, Todd had no input in the song lineup/running order of that album, but it works really well. Nazz III is a bit hodge-podge, but as others have stated it has many gems to be heard, "Take The Hand" being one of my favorites.

 

From TR fan site:

Moogy said it at his concert last night so I guess it's OK to start spreading the news! 1/29 at Highline Ballroom in NYC = Utopia Mark II reunion concert featuring Todd Rundgren, Moogy Klingman, Ralph Schuckett, John Siegler, and Kevin Ellman!!!!!

 

John Seigler (sic?)

 

"Hang On Paul" seguing into "Kiddie Boy" seguing into "Featherbedding Lover" was my first indication of the budding guitar prowees of Todd. His early Clapton fixation in full bloom while playing the guitar and he fairly quickly developed his own style as he moved into solo territory. "Nazz III" and "You are My Window" and some of the other mellower, keyboard written materiel is where the Laura Nyro fixation becomes evident.

The other members supposedly hated the mellow things that Todd was writing under the Nyro spell and depending on which members you speak to led to Todd leaving the band.

 

I agree with slowing things down - I'm listening to these as we go through them and I'm only on the Fungo Bat Sessions right now.

 

This is very cool! My favorite Todd stuff. I wonder if they will attempt a full length version of "The Ikon"?

 

My assessment of Runt

Runt represents Todd's great foray into Laura Nyroesque songwriting and away more from the Who like stylings of the Nazz. In essence,the album sets some kind of standard of what his work in the near future would be like. It's funny how some of these musical motifs were to be found on successive albums. That being said,it was an auspicious debut even with the title of Runt...he was hardly the runt of the litter!




Broke Down and Busted: Early 70s blues rock with some nice background vocal work by Todd The Godd himself. A nice way to open the album though not wholly indicative of what direction he was taking on the album.Todd's guitar playing is simple technically speaking yet it works within the context of the tune extremely well.

Believe In Me: Much more like a Nyro tune than what the album started off like. Very much like Marlene from Something/Anything musically speaking.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gtst6lex24Y


We Gotta Get You A Woman: Rundgren has eschewed playing this pop nugget for some time now. I wonder if he is embarrassed by the lyrical and musical simplicity of the tune. It bears a resemblance to Nyro's early work before she went over the proverbial rails. A nice pop song which could mean many things to many people. The piano shuffle in the tune resembles I Saw The Light as well presaging it in some way. Todd's reference to his own need for a woman at the end was a nice touch as well.



Who's That Man: Todd at his Whoish best. Very reminiscent of 5:15 though this came out quite before that did! Still one of the ties that binds Todd to his past. A decent guitar solo here but nothing special to be honest. The Jerry The Killer Lee Lewis inspired piano part works well with the tune.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2FFgOYdLfI

Once Burned: Sort of like a distant cousin to Steely Dan's David Palmer tunes like Dirty Work/Brooklyn. The vocals are distant here, I wonder what was done to them in terms of processing. Fillerish to a certain degree.

Devil's Bite: A relatively nasty piece of rock on the album with an interesting juxtaposition between the main vocal and the background one. A bit of it sounds like Woman From Tokyo by Deep Purple. Elements of it are sort of power popish and Todd plays some nice guitar on this track. Very well cast to the song at hand I might add.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBaZfaTOxxI



I'm In The Clique/There Are No Words: Rundgren's weirdness streak shows up yet again or is it the Zappa influence? Or is he the original rapper as opposed to Lou Reed then? The loose arrangement works despite its sloppiness. It sounds like the end of an early King Crimson tune! There Are no Words is an early attempt at some accapella then? We know how that turned out lo so many years later didn't we? An interesting afterthought to the main tune. The melody is somewhat muted and striking all at the same time. There is something both haunting and sacred about it simultaneously speaking.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8gbiumhU60


Baby Let's Swing/The Last Thing You Said/Don't Tie My Hands: It starts out as a tribute to Stand By Me and then becomes an all out homage to Laura Nyro. It's amazing how he celebrates Laura's shuffle so passionately and simply all at the same time:

Laura, I saw you open in LA
There's something I gotta say
Laura, you know it's really been such a long, long time
And you know Laura, I knew you'd make it good someday
And you knew it anyway
Laura, I know that maybe this is the wrong, wrong time
But Laura where did that magic go
It's so hard, it's so cold down here
Did you have to leave me behind?
I wish that I could make it
But how I love to shuffle (how I love to shuffle)
Baby let's swing
Now I love to shuffle
Ever since I heard you sing (since I heard her sing) .

Even more amazing how the tune transforms into a tune dedicated to lost love. A link that works quiet well, if you don't know who the Laura he refers to is.......The middle section is somewhat reminiscent of the Nazz. No matter how much he tried to break free he was dragged back in. A medley of three songs that works rather effectively. Now I think I know where Paul Weller lifted the idea for Trees from!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1gTUQuJncc&feature=related


Birthday Carol: The sort of magnum opus of the album. We are treated to string quartets and various phases here. The bluesiness of the tune is married with a Zappaness that is undeniable. It begins out as a string section which seemingly doesn't fit into the song.Then the tune becomes the blues version of something out of Hot Rats.This song also hints at how Tom Scholz of Boston was influenced by Todd's phrasing guitar wise. The piano ballad part of it is very interestingly produced. Very simple and to the point at first . However is a very diffuse tune that goes everywhere over the music map doesn't it? Todd's heartfelt lyrics really work well with the music. He's not exactly poetic here but the musical arrangement marries well with the entire piece. Could it have been edited a bit? Sure but for some damn reason this all works together.Yes it's a bit pretentious but not all songs could be out of The Band /Van Morrison school of earnestness and rootsiness either.In essence, it's Nyro meets Zappa with a classical influence thrown in for good measure!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFdww0nNtfc

Say No More: This is Todd's response to Nyro's Captain St Lucifer(and half the tunes on New York Tendaberry for that matter) albeit without the histrionics and dynamics that were so important to that tune. Not a bad nicking from Todd actually. He does a decent job of doing his own thing while keeping Nyro's spirit intact.

Say No More:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkbVX1RSc44

Captain St Lucifer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9j0LoXNkyQ

 

A lot of the Nazz band dynamic was reportedly being undermined by manager John Kurland pitting various band members against others. This combined with TR's search for a more personal musical direction seemingly doomed Nazz.

 

A lot of great songs, especially Birthday Carol. The song and vocal on Who's That Man kind of reminds me of a rocking Gram Parsons.

 

Great summary of the album. I don't have this one, but I probably soon will.

 

The Sales Brothers were inspired by Fleetwood Mac's "Rattlesnake Shake" for the rhythm section of "Broke Down & Busted". "Once Burned" was inspired by Todd's work engineering The Band's "Stagefright" album. You can hear him imitating their vocal sound on it (Richard Manual?) and Levon Helm's drumming style.
Todd made this album after producing and engineering a lot of Albert Grossman's Bearsville artists. Todd got restless and wanted to eventually make his own album.
The different styles in a way were meant to represent Todd's different chameleon-like abilities as a producer. "We Gotta Get You A Woman" was a fluke hit so Todd unexpectedly went on to have a solo career rather than being just a producer. I'll come up with a list of some of the Bearsville productions when I get a chance.....

 

Around the 2 minute mark in Birthday Carol I hear the genesis of the Utopia Theme from the first Utopia album.

 

Runt highlights...

Believe in Me - Such a sweet ballad. I think Todd not being affraid to express his vulnarability is something that I've always valued. His songs are very human and honest and mixed with the deceptively childlike simplicity of songs like this the sentiments work well. It's easy to relate to this side of Todd I think.

We Gotta Get You A Women - Groovy, though some of the performances in the verses are a little too loose to really groove. A good pop tune though in the S/A style and one of the highlights of the album for me.

Baby Let's Swing (Medley) - The original Baby Let's Swing is a bit too long for me and doesn't really go anywhere. The medley version has 'Last Thing You Said' which is my fave part of the medley and personally I'd have prefered a full length version of this song than either the medley or the full 'Baby Let's Swing' (is there a full version of this? I've never heard it.) It flows together quite nicely though, especially between the first and second tracks. I'd also have prefered 'Don't Tie My hands' as a full song much more than 'Devil's Bite' or 'I'm in the Clique', it rocks Nazzlike so I like.

Birthday Carol - Another epic in the mould of 'A Beautiful Song'. Grooves pretty well and the lyrics and concept of the song are really sweet and interesting. I'm not 100% sure about having the 'freak out' near the start as well as the end, maybe it would be better starting with the 'I was born' section, but it's a lovely song nontheless and probably my personal highlight of the album. Very Beach Boys at times. Lovely.

Overall: Not one of my fave TR albums in either configuration. Not sure why, I think it has all the ingredients which made S/A a success but there's always seemed like something missing to me, maybe it lacks a direction, it seems a bit aimless at times and occasionally sloppy. It's a great start though and shows that Todd was quite capable of writing S/A quality pop songs right at the start of his solo career.

My ideal track listing would probably be....

1) Broke Down & Busted
2) Believe in Me
3) We Gotta Get You a Woman
4) Once Burned
5) Baby Let's Swing (full)
6) The Last Thing You Said (full)
7) Don't Tie My Hands (full)
8) Say No More
9) There Are No Words
10) Birthday Carol

 

Actually, there is a full-length version of "Don't Tie My Hands" recorded by TR sometime in the late '70s or perhaps 1980. A much more rockin' version that sounds very much like the then-current Utopia lineup. It's on the Japanese rarities collection Demos & Lost Albums.

 

Second Solo Release - Runt: The Ballad of Todd Rundgren

Okay, it's been about 24 hours since I started on TR's first solo work, Runt.

On we go to the second.

Runt. The Ballad of Todd Rundgren is the second album by American singer-songwriter/musician Todd Rundgren, released in 1971. The album is perhaps Rundgren's most concise and straightforward, featuring mostly piano-led pop songs and ballads.

As with his first album, this album was initially credited to "Runt". However, while it could be argued that "Runt" was a trio for that first album (consisting of Rundgren, Tony Sales and Hunt Sales), here things are not so clear cut. Rundgren himself wrote, produced and sang every tune on The Ballad of Todd Rundgren, as well as handling all guitars, keyboards, and various other instruments (including one of the first uses of the talk box effect, later popularized by Peter Frampton). Tony Sales plays bass throughout Ballad, but his brother Hunt Sales (who played drums on 'Runt') plays drums only on the last cut and conga on track number 8. All other drum tracks are played by N.D. Smart, who later became a member of the Hello People and was Mountain's first drummer. The album cover was designed by Ron Mael from the band Sparks.

In mid 1971, Bearsville was purchased by Warner Bros. and plans were made to re-release both Runt and Runt. The Ballad of Todd Rundgren as a "twin pack" entitled Todd Rundgren's Rack Job in 1973. The album got as far as test presses and album art, but was shelved as Rundgren preferred to release an album of new material.

Track listing
All songs written by Todd Rundgren.

Side one

"Long Flowing Robe" – 3:30
"The Ballad (Denny & Jean)" – 3:30
"Bleeding" – 4:05
"Wailing Wall" – 3:05
"The Range War" – 2:38
"Chain Letter" – 5:02

Side two

"A Long Time, A Long Way to Go" – 2:12
"Boat on the Charles" – 4:28
"Be Nice to Me" – 3:27
"Hope I'm Around" – 4:55
"Parole" – 4:22
"Remember Me" – 0:51

Another release I don't have. I just have Something/Anything (MFSL) presently of TR's solo work. I got into Todd through Utopia. I mean to learn/listen to a lot more of his material.

 

This beautiful album is quite underrated. It is also my "go-to" CD when I am feeling stressed and don't know what to do with myself.