Conference marvin::uk_music

    sorry for being ignernt....
    who is todd runtergarden?

    Sounds like a Swedish footballer to me.

    Didn't he play He-Man in `Master of The Universe'?

    I remeber that song that went "I don't want to work,I want to bang
    on the drum all day!"	He's been out for a while. I can remeber
    a song he had out when I was in grammar school. I think he had a
    band called "Eutopia" if memory serves me well.

Not sure if I should admit to knowing this but :-


He was the guy who played guitar on the album that spoiled a million parties :-

		Meatloaf's "Bat Out of Hell.."


Put it down....I've got a gun...Get away from that record player....BANG!


			Aaaaarrrrggggghhhhhhhhh! 


Another victory for good taste and music...

				rik...:-)

    .6�He was the guy who played guitar on the album that spoiled a million parties :-
    .6�		Meatloaf's "Bat Out of Hell.."
    
    Hear,Hear...and well said,Rik...jasus the amount of times I went to
    a party and found a couple of nerds playing and replaying the bloody
    album over and over again...sorta gave credence to the ol' chestnut
    "You'll always find him in the kitchen at parties(too bloody right,Matey
     if they keep playing that f****** Bat Out Of Hell album!)"  :-)(-:
    
    Other albums that fall into this category would be(and they are not all
    bad albums in their own right...just got played to death)....
    
    Bedsit Images - Al Stewart
    Rumours - Fleetwood Mac
    Thriller - Michael Jackson
    Stop Making Sense - Talking Heads
    
    - Dave "who's favourite album to play at parties is a mid to late
            seventies *new wave* compilation called THAT SUMMER"
    

Actually, Todd has produced a lot of albums for other artists over the years,
ranging from Grand Funk Railroad (he produced the 'American Band' album) to
Meatloaf to Psychedlic Furs ('Forever Now'). I've always been a big fan of 
his production work.

Todd also, of course, produced albums both solo and with his band Utopia. My
favorite album of his is 'Something/Anything', which contain the hits "Hello
Its Me" and "Saw The Light" and "Black Maria". He's been sort of a cult hero
for most of his career, and I'm just superficially familiar with his work. I'm 
sure someone out there can give a much more coherent and insightful overview 
of Todd's career.

alan

      
  Okay since I started this whole thing I'll set out as much of T.R's
  working history as I know.Most of the following albums I own so I can 
  vouch for their exellence.

  Date       Title                                   Musicians 
  1970  Runt                                           Solo  
  1971  Runt the ballad of Todd Rundgren    Hunt and Tony Sales (Of Tin 
                                            Machine fame)
  1972  Something/Anything?                 H+T Sales,Walter And Randy Brecker
                                            of Steely Dan,Rick Derringer,John
                                            Siegler.
  1973  Todd (Double)                       Host of stars as above.
  1973  A wizard a true star.               As above plus David Sanborn.
  1975  Another live (Utopia)               Roger Powell and John Wilcox amongst
                                            others.
  1975  Initiation                          Members of Utopia plus Dan Hartman
                                            and Edgar Winter and more.
  1976  Faithful (1st side all covers of    T.R. John Siegler Roger Powell
                 Beatles Hendrix etc)       John Wilcox.
  1977  Ra  (Utopia)                        T.R. Roger Powell Kasim Sulton
                                            John Wilcox.
  1978  Hermit of mink hollow               All by T.R.
  1978  Back to the bars (live double)      Utopia,Rick Derringer,Hall & Oates
                                            Stevie Nicks,Spencer Davis etc.
  1979  Adventures in Utopia                Utopia.
  1980  Deface the music.                   Utopia.
        A collection of Beatles sound-alike
        songs.
  1981  Healing.                            Everything by T.R.
  1982  Swing to the right.                 Utopia.
  1982  Utopia
  1982  The ever popular tortured artist    Everything by T.R.
        effect.
  1983  Oblivion.                           Utopia.
  1985  POV                                 Utopia.
  1985  Acapella.                           Voices only.All T.R's
  1989  Nearly Human.                       T.R + some of the Tubes Utopia
                                            Bobby Womack and Clarence Clemons.
    ?   Oops wrong planet                   Utopia.
  There is also a duet with Bonny Tyler called "Loving you's a dirty job" a
  Jim Stienman song.
  Production credits include,as you know."Bat out of hell"  Meat loaf
                                         "Skylarking"       XTC
                                         "Remote control"   The Tubes
                                          An album by Sparks
                                         "Abandoned luncheonette" Hall+Oates
  That's about it as far as my knowledge of the man goes but my advice to any 
  one who likes "real music" is to go out and listen to "Nearly human" a
  classic by anyones standards.The early stuff is more experimental and
  immature sounding but is a must for real fans.
  Your opinions are welcome.

  
  
     
    
    

    

    >An album by Sparks
     
    Really, well I just had to check when I read this.  
    It was I believe their first album just called "Sparks" and reissued
    along with "A Woofer in Tweeter's clothing" (or something similar)
    as the double album "2 originals of Sparks".  I think this is the
    only album where the Mael brother with the moustache has long hair.
    Just for comparison Sparks have had many other good producers i.e.
    Muff Winwood, Tony Visconti, Rupert Holmes, Giorgio Moroder, Mack
    (who ? some friend of Giorgio apparently).
    
    TP

    
    Where to start ...?
    
    Todd is the orginal 'boy genious' for sure, and has made albums that 
    range through all sorts of styles - ballad, metal, soulish etc.
    
    I first caught wind of him via 'A Wizard A True Star', saw him (and 
    the new Utopia) at Kebworth, UK in 1976, and there was no looking 
    back from then on.
    
    I have *all* is albums, except for 'Adventures' and 'Initiation' 
    (copies bought of the latter were poor pressings).
    
    By the way, 'Wizard' was released before 'Todd' and not after.  Also, 
    'Oops' was released after 'Ra' (probably 1977).  You also missed out 
    the 1974 (I think that's correct) 'Utopia' album, released after the 
    double 'Todd'.  It does all get a bit confusing sometimes, with some 
    albums names being similar, and different line-ups of his band.  
    Also, 'Initiation' was released before 'Another Live'.
    
    He began as part of The Nazz - a sort of US Move/garage band.  His 
    second solo album 'Runt' is excellent, featuring the Sales brothers.
    
    He certainly caught the imagination of the US public in 1972 with 
    'Something/Anything'; the great 'I Saw The Light' was a US hit.  
    Around this time, he was featured at the time, in adverts holding a 
    stick of dynamite - 'Go ahead, ignore me' was the caption.
    
    'Wizard' was another very fine album - great soul pastiche and lots 
    of other styles.  Also, from this album, came what was to be his 
    personal statement - 'Just One Victory' - a brilliant song!!!
    
    So, he was on course, still, although the double follow up 'Todd' was 
    a bit much for some people, with some fairly cerebral and self 
    indulgent stuff.  'Heavy Metal Kids' was a superb hard rockin' one 
    from this album.
    
    Then, things started to go off track a bit.  He got together a big 
    band, Utopia, and started playing, I suppose it could be called 
    cosmic rock!!!  he blew out a lot of fans, although the 'Utopia' 
    album contains some great stuff (eg. 'Freedom Fighters').  He went 
    even further with the next release, 'Initiation'.  I remember him 
    doing 'Real Man' (another brilliant single) on 'Whistle Test'.  It 
    looked like, at this time, he was getting a bit lost, and some were 
    starting to question his talents.  By the way, this album was, at the 
    time, the longest ever released; 69 mins I think - a testament to 
    Todd's engineering abilities, if not necessarily his artistic ones!
    
    Then the 1975 single live album came out, 'Another Live' - 3 new 
    songs and old faves, plus a great cover of the Move's 'Do Ya' (miles 
    better then the ELO's version, I.M.O.).  He was back on track for 
    sure; this was the last album with his big Utopia line-up.
    
    Then, the boy wonder, came up with 'Faithful' - one side of 
    immaculate 60's cover versions - could you really tell if 'Good 
    Vibrations' was Todd or the BBs?  Anyway, it was very clever, and 
    maybe a bit pointless.  The other side, by the way, had some 
    marvellous stuff on - balads, rockers - the lot.  He was back!  This 
    is when I saw him at Knebworth for the first time, with Kasim Sulton 
    playing.
    
    I've since seen him on three other occasions, and I believe that it 
    is quite a few years since he came to the UK.
    
    'Ra' was a pretty good album, and 'Oops' had some good stuff too; 
    but, for my money, most of the Utopia stuff from here was going down 
    hill.  I left him round about 1980, backtracked many years later, and 
    was quite disappointed with the Utopis stuff he'd put out.  Sure, 
    each album contained at least one or two classics, but some of the 
    stuff wasn't too hot at all.  The last Utopia album, POV' (Point Of 
    View) contained 'Mated' - a song taken high in the US charts by a 
    double act (can't recall their names).
    
    Meanwhile, his solo stuff continued at the same time.  'Hermit' and 
    'Tortured' were great, and 'Acapella' was very unusual - well 
    received by the crits too - I saw a folk outfit at the Bracknell Folk 
    Festival doing 'Honest Work' (I think that's the title) - it sure 
    surprised me to hear a cover of this!!!
    
    Also, the guy who did 'Favourite Waste Of Time' (a UK no. 1 I think) 
    followed up with 'One World;, a Todd song from 'Swing To The Right' 
    (or 'Oblivion, can't remember) - it bombed!
    
    He's also produced Steve Hillage and Tom Robinson - plus, just about 
    every one else!
    
    I think he's being doing some Broadway/Stage musical work lately, but 
    there's never much in the press these days.
    
    The US notes files have stuff on him - certainly some of the 
    archived conferences, if not the current one.
    
    There's a Utopia double play compilation tape out (89, I think), and 
    the Todd 'Anthology' (Castle Comunications) - totally brilliant, and 
    including his great 'Tiny Demons' single, given away with 'Healing'.  
    Castle have also re-released doubles of solo and band single LPs put 
    together at cheap prices.  Oh, yeh, there's also another compilation 
    very similar to 'Anthology'
    
    So, all I can say is that he certainly was a 'guru' for me at one 
    stage.  He was certainly my 'main man' for a few years, and I still 
    love him to this day ...
    
    Dave.

    I've met him.
    
    Well, actually I was waiting in line to get a copy of Swing to the
    Right signed by him to give to one of my mates who's a TR fan. (You
    don't think I like his stuff do you?)
    
    Anyway I think the conversation went something like this:
    
    Me:	Hello Mr Rundgren, good luck with your tour
    TR: Yeah.
    
    Steve.