To commemorate the announcement of Utopia’s 2011 fall tour of the U.S., here is a re-post of my review of Paul Myers’ excellent book about Todd Rundgren. This article originally appeared in December of 2010 on Crawdaddy.com. –rh
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Paul Myers has penned the definitive Todd Rundgren biography. Dispensing with the typically invasive biographical method of delving into a subject’s personal life, Myers here instead sticks to the real meat of the matter: the artist’s work. Dedicated solely to Rundgren’s music and production, the book is a much more intriguing and respectful biography than one could ever pen in the more traditional vein. Salacious anecdotes and personal memories spewed, deciphered and interpreted with a vengeance by all and sundry often adds up to a disrespectful treatment of the subject and ultimately a violation of their privacy. Let’s leave that shit to Kitty Kelley, shall we? Myers’ respectful approach is best exemplified by his decision to dedicate no more than a single paragraph to Todd’s tumultuous break-up with Bebe Buell.
Though Todd’s tongue had already taken up permanent residence in his cheek by the time the young man named his 1973 magnum opus A Wizard, A True Star, time has proven this title to be apt, accurate, and certainly suitable for this book’s title as well. A willing participant in the interview process for this book, Todd’s every contribution is insightful, revealing, acerbic, and often funny as hell. From the first few pages his quotes are brutally honest, including very frank discussions about experimenting with drugs.
Myers has a keen eye for the crucial and heretofore unseen pieces in the puzzle. Todd may have had a tumultuous relationship with his father when he was a boy, but imagine the impression it must have made on the young lad when dad built his own hi-fi system by hand.
Young Todd’s high school band experience morphed into Nazz and a subsequent recording contract as a solo artist. First establishing himself as a hit-maker as early as 1972, Todd was soon tapped to produce other artists, as well. With “Hello It’s Me” topping the charts, Todd was busily constructing his first studio in a friend’s loft apartment on 13th street in New York City. Making it up and learning the ropes as he went along, Todd mastered the rules of performance and production as he simultaneously went about breaking them to suit the needs of his impeccable ear. In retrospect, it is amazing how the first fruits of Todd’s improvised construction of a recording studio from the ground up resulted in the psychedelic masterpiece A Wizard, A True Star. This was just one of what would be a string of wildly diverse and endlessly inventive self-produced solo LPs from Todd.
In the early 70s, Rundgren settled comfortably into the producer’s chair and helped birth two hard rock classics of the era: The New York Dolls’ debut album and what would turn out to be Grand Funk’s biggest selling LP, We’re An American Band. I found it interesting to learn how the title track from the Grand Funk LP was quite contrived and meticulously crafted to give the band its first number one single.
Todd’s production resume’ reads like a who’s who from almost every imaginable subgenre of rock music from prog to punk. The list of enthusiastic contributors to this book includes Patti Smith, David Sanborn, Hall & Oates, Steve Hillage, Jim Steinman, Meat Loaf, Flo & Eddie, as well as members of the Psychedelic Furs, Badfinger, The Tubes, Cheap Trick, The New York Dolls, XTC, and Utopia.
Though its members seemed to grasp that Utopia was not a top priority to Todd or his label, he did keep them busy as hired hands whenever possible. Sidemen on countless projects, Kasim Sulton and Prairie Prince were employed by Todd numerous times including the sessions for the first LP by 70s teen pop idol Shaun Cassidy.
No one in the music business was busier or in higher demand in the 1970s than Todd Rundgren. A staggering number of hit records were produced by him at this time including Meat Loaf’s seminal Bat Out Of Hell LP. Though the torrid and complicated back history of that legendary album is well known by now, it is curious to contemplate how the backing band assembled by Todd for those sessions was one half Utopia and the other half from Bruce’s E Street Band.
In the 80s, Todd’s already busy production schedule kicked into high gear with a steady stream of artists passing through his studio. At this time Todd kept himself busier than perhaps he cared to be, in order to keep his ill-fated video production studio afloat. In addition to his reputation as an audio production genius, Todd was an early proponent of video and computer technology. He often found himself way ahead of the curve with these emerging technologies and many of Todd’s experiments failed to generate much notice or sales. The advent of the personal computer marked a major turning point for Rundgren. Ushering in the modern era of digital recording, it made the producer’s role obsolete. Now any kid can record a whole album on a laptop in his bedroom. On the other hand, it also opened up a world of possibilities for King Tinkerer Todd and he continues to explore new technology.
Over the course of literally hundreds of sessions with dozens of artists displaying varying temperaments, there were bound to be clashes in the studio between hard headed artists and their sarcastic, self-assured and sometimes condescending producer. In the long run and in spite of their strong differences at the time, many found that Todd was almost always right in his convictions. In addition to his role as producer, Todd is also a multi-instrumentalist who contributed mightily to hundreds of these sessions. It seems like every single artist he worked with over the years has nothing but good things to say about him. Many credit Todd with making them better musicians and songwriters. Others say he broadened their horizons and in numerous cases his efforts propelled them to greater fame. He looms like a mischievous guardian angel over the careers of countless recording artists.
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