| Todd Rundgren |
Rundgren on March 25, 2009 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida |
| Background information |
| Birth name |
Todd Harry Rundgren |
| Born |
(1948-06-22) 22 June 1948 (age 64)
Upper Darby, Pennsylvania United States |
| Genres |
Rock, progressive rock, soft rock, power pop, pop rock, hard rock, blue-eyed soul, comedy rock, rap, proto-punk |
| Occupations |
Musician
Songwriter
Musician
Producer
video director
recording engineer
computer programmer |
| Instruments |
Vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards, drums, saxophone, theremin |
| Years active |
1967–present |
| Labels |
Ampex, Bearsville, Warner Bros. |
| Associated acts |
Nazz, Utopia, The New Cars, Meat Loaf, Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band, Edgar Winter, David Sanborn, Mark Klingman, Daryl Hall, Hello People |
| Website |
www.tr-i.com |
Todd Harry Rundgren (born June 22, 1948) is an American multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and record producer. Hailed in the early stage of his career as a new pop-wunderkind, supported by the certified gold solo double LP Something/Anything? in 1972,[1] Todd Rundgren's career has produced a diverse range of recordings as solo artist, and during the seventies and eighties with the band Utopia. He has also been prolific as a producer and engineer on the recorded work of other musicians.
During the 1970s and 1980s, Rundgren engineered and/or produced many notable albums for other acts, including Straight Up by Badfinger, Stage Fright by The Band, We're an American Band by Grand Funk Railroad, Bat Out of Hell by Meat Loaf, and Skylarking by XTC. In the 1980s and 1990s his interest in video and computers led to Rundgren's "Time Heals" being the eighth video played on MTV, and "Change Myself" was animated by Rundgren[2] on commercially available Amiga Computers.
His best-known songs include "Hello It's Me" and "I Saw the Light" which have heavy rotation on classic rock radio stations, and "Bang the Drum All Day" featured in many sports arenas, commercials, and movie trailers. Although lesser known, "Couldn't I Just Tell You" has had a major influence on artists in the power pop musical genre.[3]
Rundgren was born in Upper Darby, on the edge of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He began his career in Woody's Truck Stop, a Philadelphia-based group based on the model of Paul Butterfield Blues Band. However, Rundgren and bassist Carson Van Osten left the band to form the garage rock group Nazz in 1967 with Thom Mooney (drums) and Robert "Stewkey" Antoni (vocals and keyboards). The group gained minor recognition with the Rundgren-penned songs "Open My Eyes" and "Hello It's Me". (He later recorded a solo, uptempo version of "Hello It's Me"; it became one of his signature songs.) Nazz released three albums during this time—Nazz (1968), Nazz Nazz (1969), and Nazz III (1971). [4] "Open My Eyes" gained belated recognition thanks to its inclusion in Nuggets (1972), the genre-defining anthology of American 1960s garage punk and psychedelia compiled by musician Lenny Kaye. The group's second LP was originally intended as double album (titled Fungo Bat), but instead a truncated version was released as Nazz Nazz in April 1969. Rundgren and Van Osten left the band shortly after. Under Stewkey's leadership the band continued (with new members) until 1970, and their label released a third LP Nazz III on which most of Rundgren's vocals on the unreleased songs from the Fungo Bat sessions were replaced by Stewkey's.
Rundgren's distinctive style was informed by a wide variety of musical influences—British pop-rock (notably Pink Floyd, The Beatles, The Who, The Yardbirds, Cream and The Move), the intricate vocal harmonies of The Beach Boys, classic American rock'n'roll, Broadway musicals, the operettas of Gilbert & Sullivan and American soul and R&B, but as his music evolved he demonstrated an increasing interest in other genres as well, such as hard rock and experimental music.[citation needed]
Particularly during the early years of his career, Rundgren's songwriting was heavily influenced by the music of singer-songwriter Laura Nyro:
- "I knew her fairly well. I met her right after Eli and the Thirteenth Confession. I actually had arranged a meeting, just because I was so infatuated with her and I wanted to meet the person who had produced all this music. We got along, and we were kind of friendly, and actually, after I met her the first time, she asked me if I wanted to be her band leader. But the Nazz had just signed a record contract and I couldn't skip out on the band, even though it was incredibly tempting."[5]
Rundgren's debut solo album Runt (1970) includes the strongly Nyro-influenced "Baby Let’s Swing", which was written about her and mentions her by name.
Nazz manager Michael Friedman who had joined Albert Grossman management brought Rundgren to the firm where he became both a solo artist and producer for many artists in the Grossman stable.
Rundgren playing in concert during his early years
After leaving the Nazz in 1969, Rundgren relocated temporarily to New York and began working as a producer for other groups. He also apparently considered working as a computer programmer.[6] Ultimately, he became one of the first artists signed to the Bearsville Records label established by Albert Grossman, and in 1970 he formed the 'band' Runt, consisting of himself, Hunt Sales on drums, and his brother Tony Sales on bass (the Sales brothers are the sons of US comedian Soupy Sales and went on to play with Iggy Pop, David Bowie, and Tin Machine). Rundgren himself wrote, produced, sang and played guitars, keyboards and other instruments. Whether Runt is best described as a band or simply as a pseudonym for Rundgren as a solo artist is unclear—for the album Runt (1970) the group appeared to be a bona-fide trio, but on their second album Runt: The Ballad of Todd Rundgren (1971), Hunt Sales plays only on two tracks and is replaced by N.D. Smart on the rest of the album. Furthermore, only Rundgren is pictured on the covers of both albums, and both albums have been subsequently reissued with the same titles and cover art, but bearing the artist credit "Todd Rundgren". Whether a solo project or a band, Runt had a #20 hit in the U.S. with "We Gotta Get You a Woman" in 1970, and two other Runt songs placed in the lower reaches of the Hot 100.
By 1972, the Runt persona/band identity had been abandoned, and Rundgren's next project, the ambitious double LP Something/Anything? (1972) was credited simply to Rundgren, who wrote, played, sang, engineered, and produced everything on three of the four sides of the album. Something/Anything? featured the top 20 U.S. hits "I Saw The Light" (#16; not to be confused with the Hank Williams song of the same name), and a remake of the Nazz near-hit "Hello It's Me", which reached #5 in the U.S. and is Rundgren's biggest hit. The former song featured Rundgren on all vocals and instruments. On his ensuing concert tour, his backing band was the Hello People, whose own album he later produced.
Although he opposed the use of drugs during his days with Nazz, in the early 1970s Rundgren changed his views and began experimenting with various mind-altering substances including marijuana, LSD and the stimulant Ritalin and this had a marked effect both on the style of his music and his productivity:
- "It (Ritalin) caused me to crank out songs at an incredible pace. 'I Saw the Light' took me all of 20 minutes. You can see why, too, the rhymes are just moon/June/spoon kind of stuff..."[7]
Speaking of the effect on A Wizard, A True Star, Rundgren commented:
- "With drugs I could suddenly abstract my thought processes in a certain way, and I wanted to see if I could put them on a record. A lot of people recognised it as the dynamics of a psychedelic trip—it was almost like painting with your head."[7]
Though he often revisited the classic popular song format, during the early 1970s Rundgren's music began to incorporate elements of progressive rock. 1973's transitional A Wizard, a True Star marked the beginning of this trend, which came to fruition with his next two solo albums Todd (1974) and Initiation (1975) and the early recordings under the aegis of his new group project Utopia.
A Wizard, A True Star, which was sequenced as a continuous medley, featured a wildly eclectic range of songs set in dazzling arrangements and production, with Rundgren experimenting with the synthesiser and exploiting virtually every studio effect and technique then available. Backing musicians included renowned horn players Michael Brecker and Randy Brecker, guitarist Rick Derringer and several other musicians who subsequently joined the original incarnation of Utopia. Although it featured predominantly original material (including the anthemic "Just One Victory", which became a concert favorite), the album set a pattern followed on subsequent solo albums, with Rundgren recording cover versions of his favorite songs—in this case, "Never Never Land", from the Broadway musical version of Peter Pan, and a medley of soul classics, including a unique version of the Capitols' "Cool Jerk" played in the 7/8 time signature. The album was also notable for its extended running time—over 55 minutes in length, compared to around 40–45 minutes for a typical pop-rock LP of the period. This reflected Rundgren's skills as a mastering engineer, since this extended running time took the album close to the practical maximum for an LP. Due to the inherent physical limitations of the vinyl LP medium, on records with running times over 45 minutes there is an unfavorable trade-off between duration and the audio quality and volume. On the album cover, packed with his handwritten notes, he advised listeners to crank up their Victrolas accordingly.
Todd (1974) continued in this vein and featured similarly diverse material. Alongside originals such as "A Dream Goes On Forever" and "Heavy Metal Kids", both of which became concert staples, Rundgren also satirised his chosen profession with the song "An Elpees' Worth of Tunes" and revisited his teenage obsession with the music of Gilbert & Sullivan in a rendition of "The Lord Chancellor's Nightmare Song" (from Iolanthe).
By contrast, Rundgren's work with Utopia (see below) and his next solo album took him decisively into progressive rock. Initiation (1975) addressed cosmic themes, showed a strong interest in spirituality (particularly Far Eastern religion and philosophy), and displayed the musical influence of psychedelic rock, as well as the avant-garde jazz fusion of contemporary acts such as the Mahavishnu Orchestra and Frank Zappa. Once again the original LP issue saw Rundgren pushing the medium to its physical limits, with the side-long suite "A Treatise on Cosmic Fire" clocking in at over 35 minutes.
When touring, Rundgren presented the music in a lavish stage setting that echoed the ambitious space-themed shows of acts like Parliament/Funkadelic and he adopted an outlandish space-rock image on stage, including multi-coloured dyed hair. In this period he regularly played the eye-catching psychedelic Gibson SG (known as "Sunny") which Eric Clapton had played in Cream. After he had stopped using it ca. 1968, Clapton gave the guitar to George Harrison, who subsequently 'loaned' it to British singer Jackie Lomax. In 1972, after meeting at a recording session, Lomax sold the guitar to Rundgren for $500 with an option to buy it back, which he never took up.[8] Rundgren played it extensively during the early years of Utopia before retiring the instrument, which he eventually auctioned off; he now owns a reproduction.[9]
| “ |
If I get that one minute of total illumination then I don't care if my whole career goes down the drain. I'd know there was an answer to everything—to existence, to death. |
” |
NME—September 1974[10]
His 1976 album Faithful marked a return to the pop/rock genre, featuring one side of original songs and one side of covers of significant songs from 1966, including the Yardbirds' "Happening Ten Years Time Ago" (the B-side of that Yardbirds single gave Nazz its name) and a nearly identical re-creation of the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations". Faithful was followed by Hermit of Mink Hollow (1978); this included the hit ballad "Can We Still Be Friends" (covered a year later by Robert Palmer), which reached #29 in the U.S. (Palmer's version reached #52) and was accompanied by an innovative self-produced music video, and the album became the second most successful of his career (after Something? Anything!), reaching #36 in the U.S. During 1978 Rundgren undertook an American tour playing at smaller venues including The Bottom Line in New York and the Roxy in Los Angeles; this resulted in the double live album Back to the Bars, which featured a mixture of material from his solo work and Utopia, performed with backing musicians including Utopia, Edgar Winter, Spencer Davis, Daryl Hall and John Oates and Stevie Nicks.
Rundgren performing in 1978
Subsequent solo releases included the album-long concept work Healing (1981) and the New Wave-tinged The Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect (1982) which included a cover of The Small Faces hit "Tin Soldier". The latter album also marked the end of Rundgren's tenure with Bearsville Records. He then signed with Warner Bros. Records who issued his next album, A Cappella (1985), which was recorded using Rundgren's multi-tracked voice, accompanied by arrangements constructed entirely from programmed vocal samples. "Bang the Drum All Day", from The Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect was a minor chart hit which has become more prominent in subsequent years, having been adopted as an unofficial theme by several professional sports franchises, notably the Green Bay Packers, and becoming popular on radio, where it was often featured on Friday afternoons."Bang..." was also used prominently in a Carnival Cruises television advertising campaign. It is now considered one of Rundgren's most popular songs.[11] In 1986, Rundgren scored four episodes of the popular children's television show Pee Wee's Playhouse.
Nearly Human (1989) and 2nd Wind (1991) were both recorded live—the former in the studio, the latter in a theater before a live audience, which was instructed to remain silent. Each song on these albums was recorded as a complete single take with no later overdubbing. Both albums marked, in part, a return to his Philly soul roots. 2nd Wind also included several excerpts from Rundgren's musical Up Against It, which was adapted from the screenplay (originally titled "Prick Up Your Ears") that British playwright Joe Orton had originally offered to The Beatles for their never-made follow-up to Help!. 2nd Wind was Rundgren's last release through a major label and all his subsequent recordings have been self-released.
After a long absence from touring, Rundgren hit the road with Nearly Human—2nd Wind band, which included brass and a trio of slinky backup singers (one of whom, Michele Gray, Rundgren married). He also toured during this period with Ringo Starr's All-Starr band.
The next few years saw Rundgren recording under the pseudonym TR-i ("Todd Rundgren interactive") for two albums. The first of these, 1993's No World Order, consisted of hundreds of seconds-long snippets of music that could be combined in various ways to suit the listener. Initially targeted for the Philips CD-i platform, No World Order featured interactive controls for tempo, mood, and other parameters, along with pre-programmed mixes by Rundgren himself, Bob Clearmountain, Don Was, and Jerry Harrison. The disc was also released for PC and Macintosh and in two versions on standard audio CD, the continuous mix disc No World Order and, later, the more song-oriented No World Order Lite. The music itself was quite a departure from Rundgren's previous work, with a dance/techno feel and much rapping by Rundgren. The follow-up, 1995's The Individualist, featured interactive video content that could be viewed or in one case, played; it was a simple video game along with the music, which was more rock-oriented than No World Order.
Rundgren returned to recording under his own name for With a Twist, an album of bossa-nova covers of his older material. His Patronet work, which trickled out to subscribers over more than a year, was released in 2000 as One Long Year. In 2004, Rundgren released Liars, a concept album about "paucity of truth" that features a mixture of his older and newer sounds.
In early 2008, Rundgren launched his official Myspace page. Later that year, he released the rock album Arena. In concert, he had been performing the album in full and in sequence before its release.
Rundgren released the live compilation album, For Lack of Honest Work, in 2010. The album was advertised as a collection of bootleg recordings that were approved by Rundgren himself.
April 2011 saw the release of Todd Rundgren's Johnson, a collection of Robert Johnson covers which had been recorded more than a year earlier. On another 2011 release, scheduled for September 13, a further album of covers entitled re:Production sees him performing tracks he had previously produced for other acts, including Grand Funk Railroad's "Walk Like a Man" and XTC's "Dear God."
Rundgren's back-up band for A Wizard, a True Star evolved into the first version of Utopia, a larger prog-rock ensemble, which included multiple keyboards, synthesizers and brass and featured a character completely disguised in a silver suit, "M. Frog Labat" (Jean-Yves Labat de Rossi) on synthesizers, who also put out his own electronics/keyboards-based solo album. This incarnation premiered on 1974's Todd Rundgren's Utopia, which was book-ended by the 14-minute "Utopia Theme" (recorded live in concert) and the 30-minute suite "The Ikon", which occupied the whole of Side 2 of the album. Like Wizard, the album also showcased Rundgren's skills as a recording and mastering engineer, clocking in at over 30 minutes per side.
A slightly altered version of this group performed on the eclectic 1975 live album Another Live. It featured three new extended progressive tracks (which appear only on this LP), a version of "Heavy Metal Kids" (from Todd) and covers of "Something's Coming" (from "West Side Story") and "Do Ya" by The Move. By the time this album was recorded the Utopia lineup included keyboard player/trumpeter/vocalist Roger Powell and drummer John "Willie" Wilcox.
In 1976 Siegler left Utopia and was replaced by Kasim Sulton (bass, keyboards, vocals), who had previously played with New York singer-poetess Cherry Vanilla. This formidable ensemble was widely regarded as one of the best live acts of its day—all four members were highly accomplished on their main instrument as well as being able to play multiple other instruments, and all four could sing lead vocals.
After 1977's prog-rock fusion homage, Ra, Utopia moved toward a more concise pop-oriented style with 1977's Oops! Wrong Planet, which included "Love Is the Answer", later a hit for England Dan & John Ford Coley, followed by the more successful Adventures In Utopia in 1980, which spawned the hits "Road to Utopia", "Set Me Free" and "Caravan". During that year Utopia also acted as the backing band for the Rundgren-produced Shaun Cassidy solo album Wasp.
Other releases include Deface the Music (also 1980), an uncanny Beatles homage that borders on parody; the more politicised Swing to the Right (1982), incorporating more new wave elements; their pop-referenced, self-titled album Utopia (1982), as well as Oblivion (1984), which showed a cynical side of Utopia, sporting a black cover; 1985's P.O.V. includes "Mated", later a staple of Rundgren solo tours. Rundgren eventually disbanded Utopia in the mid-80s; they released Trivia (1986) as their "swan song" effort. However, in 1992 a brief tour of Japan reunited the Rundgren/Powell/Sulton/Wilcox lineup, and "Redux '92: Live In Japan" was released on Rhino Records.
Eventually, the compilation Oblivion, P.O.V. and Some Trivia was released in 1996, an effort by Rhino Records to re-release selections from the Todd/Utopia discography. In addition, many Utopia concerts from the mid-1970s onwards were taped (e.g. their 1975 London debut, recorded by BBC Radio) and these were widely bootlegged by fans, although some have since gained an official release and can now be obtained as commercial digital downloads from iTunes.
In addition to his own recordings, Rundgren has engineered and/or produced albums for many notable acts. Sparked by his dissatisfaction with the sound quality of the Nazz albums, Rundgren learned how to engineer and master his own records and since 1970 he has overseen production of all his solo recordings and those by Utopia. His earliest outside credits were as producer on a long-unreleased Janis Joplin track (recorded with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band) and as recording engineer for the LP Stage Fright by The Band. Other notable production credits include Halfnelson (first incarnation of Sparks), New York Dolls, Badfinger, Grand Funk Railroad, Hall & Oates, Ian and Sylvia (on their "Great Speckled Bird" album), Meat Loaf, Patti Smith, Shaun Cassidy, The Tubes, Tom Robinson Band, XTC, Bad Religion, John Sloman, Cheap Trick, Hello People, Hiroshi Takano, Bourgeois Tagg, Dragon (aka Hunter), 12 Rods, The Pursuit of Happiness, The Psychedelic Furs, Steve Hillage, The American Dream, and many others. The difficult XTC sessions produced the album Skylarking, now considered a high point for band and producer despite its acrimonious origin. Rundgren's production of Meat Loaf's Bat out of Hell (on which he also played lead guitar) helped that album become one of the top selling LPs released in the 1970s. The industry regard for Rundgren's production work has been a lofty one: Jim Steinman, with whom Rundgren worked on Bat Out of Hell, has said in interviews that "Todd Rundgren is a genius and I don't use that word a lot."[12]
Rundgren has long been on the cutting edge of music and video technologies. His music video for the song "Time Heals" was among the first videos aired on MTV, and a video he produced for RCA, accompanied by Gustav Holst's The Planets, was used as a demo for their videodisc players. His experience with computer graphics dates back to 1981, when he developed one of the first computer paint programs, dubbed the Utopia Graphics System; it ran on an Apple II with Apple's digitizer tablet.[13] He is also the co-developer of the computer screensaver system Flowfazer.
In the 1990s, Rundgren was an early adopter of the NewTek Video Toaster and made several videos with it. The first, for "Change Myself" from 2nd Wind, was widely distributed as a demo reel for the Toaster; he also used the system for videos from No World Order (songs "Fascist Christ" and "Property"). Later, he set up a company to produce 3D animation using the Toaster; this company's first demo, "Theology" (a look at religious architecture through the ages featuring music by former Utopia bandmate Roger Powell) also became a widely-circulated item among Toaster users. Most of Rundgren's Toaster work is available on the video compilation The Desktop Collection.
Rundgren composed music for the 1986 TV series Pee-wee's Playhouse and Crime Story as well as the movies "Undercover" (a/k/a "Under Cover") (1987), and Dumb and Dumber (1994), plus background cues for several other TV shows. He hosted a syndicated radio show called "The Difference" in the early 1990s.
In 1986 he sang a duet with Bonnie Tyler: Loving You's a Dirty Job but Somebody's Gotta Do It, released (also as a single) on Bonnie's album Secret Dreams and Forbidden Fire.
As the Internet gained mass acceptance in the mid-1990s Rundgren, along with longtime manager Eric Gardner and Apple digital music exec Kelli Richards, started Patronet, which offered fans (patrons) access to his works-in-progress and new unreleased tracks in exchange for a subscription fee, cutting out record labels. The songs from Rundgren's first Patronet run were later released as the album One Long Year. Since then, Rundgren has severed his connections with major record labels and continues to offer new music direct to subscribers via his website, although he also continues to record and release CDs through independent labels. (However, as of November 2007, the PatroNet.com website offers the following message: "PatroNet is undergoing a major software revision and is not accepting memberships at this time.")
Rundgren produced the 1999 debut album for the band Splender, entitled "Halfway to the Sky."
In the summer of 2001, Rundgren joined artists such as Alan Parsons, The Who's John Entwistle, Heart's Ann Wilson and Ambrosia's David Pack for the successful "A Walk Down Abbey Road" tour, in which the musicians played their own hits alongside Beatles favorites. The also did a short tour of Japan in Winter of 2001. John Entwistle's guitarist/vocalist, Godfrey Townsend acted as musical director for the tours and stayed on for the following year's "sequel" tour which included Todd and Parsons returning, with a slightly changed lineup which featured Jack Bruce of Cream, Mark Farner of Grand Funk Railroad, Christopher Cross and Eric Carmen. Godfrey also brought drummer/vocalist Steve Murphy on board for "A Walk Down Abbey Road's" 2002 Summer tour.
In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks Rundgren created the score for the film 'A Face to a Name', directed by Douglas Sloan (filmmaker). The film depicted the many photographs of NY's missing that were displayed on Bellevue Hospital's 'wall of prayers' following the attacks. The film was part of a special screening at the Woodstock Film Festival in 2002.[14]
Rundgren toured the US and Europe in 2004 with Joe Jackson and the string quartet Ethel, appearing on Late Night with Conan O'Brien performing their collaborative cover of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". (video)
In 2009, Rundgren produced Cause I Sez So by the New York Dolls. In October, in one of the last concerts at the famed Wachovia Spectrum, Rundgren and Philadelphia area musicians The Hooters and Hall & Oates headlined a concert titled "Last Call". Tickets were as low as $6.00, the deep discount reflected ticket prices in 1967 when the Spectrum first staged concerts.
The year also included a lecture at DePauw University in Indiana, in which he discussed "Music, Technology and Risk-Taking."
In late-October to early-November 2010, Rundgren was the IU Class of 1963 Wells Scholars Professor at Indiana University. He taught a course with IU Professor Glenn Gass entitled The Ballad of Todd Rundgren.
In late 2005, rumors began circulating that the influential Boston-based band The Cars were planning to re-form despite bass player Benjamin Orr's death and the oft-mentioned refusal of former lead singer Ric Ocasek to even consider any reunion. Soon the rumors mentioned that Rundgren had joined Elliot Easton and Greg Hawkes in rehearsals for a possible new Cars lineup. Initial speculation pointed to The New Cars being fleshed out with Clem Burke of Blondie and Art Alexakis of Everclear. Eventually it was revealed that The New Cars were to complete their lineup with veteran bass player and former Rundgren bandmate Kasim Sulton and studio drummer Prairie Prince of The Tubes, who had played on XTC's Rundgren-produced Skylarking and who has recorded and toured with Rundgren.
In early 2006, the new lineup played a few private shows for industry professionals, played live on The Tonight Show and made other media appearances before commencing a 2006 summer tour with the re-formed Blondie.
Rundgren has referred to the project as "an opportunity ... for me to pay my bills, play to a larger audience, work with musicians I know and like, and ideally have some fun for a year."
The New Cars' first single, "Not Tonight," was released on March 20, 2006. A portion of the song is featured on a promotional teaser for the band online. A live album/greatest hits collection, The New Cars: It's Alive, was released in June, 2006. The album includes classic Cars songs (and two Rundgren hits) recorded live plus three new studio tracks.
Rundgren, (with
Tony Levin, right) at the Danforth Music Hall in Toronto, September 4, 2006.
In April 2009, Rundgren discussed his career during an Ubben Lecture at Indiana's DePauw University. In September 2009, Rundgren assembled a very limited-engagement tour with Jesse Gress, Kasim Sulton, Prairie Prince, Greg Hawkes, Bobby Strickland, and Roger Powell (and his wife Michele as costume designer and back-up singer for the concerts finale'), covering his 1973 album, "A Wizard, A True Star." The shows included a complete, start-to-finish rendition of the album, with multiple costume changes and theatrical props to accent the songs. The opening band for the shows was Utopia, with Roger Powell, Kasim Sulton, and Prairie Prince.
In December 2009, Rundgren once again took the AWATS Live show on the road with four shows in California. Roger Powell returned to his real job in the computer/software industry and was replaced by Ralph Schuckett, who played keyboards on the studio recording of the original album.
The AWATS show has had two European dates as well; playing in London, England at the Hammersmith Apollo on February 6, 2010, and the Paradiso in Amsterdam, Holland on February 8, 2010.[15] Rundgren opened the London and Amsterdam shows by showcasing his new project, entitled 'Todd Rundgren's Johnson'; consisting of Rundgren, Jesse Gress (guitar), Prairie Prince (drums) and Kasim Sulton (bass) reworking Robert Johnson songs.
In January 2010 Rundgren gave his first ever concert performance in Australia as a participant in the Rogue's Gallery show, produced by Hal Willner for the 2010 Sydney Festival. In October 2010 Rundgren returned for a three-date tour of Australia performing his 'Johnson' project, with concerts at The Basement, Sydney, the Great Southern Blues Festival at Bateman's Bay and the Corner Hotel in Melbourne. The band consisted of Todd, guitarist Jesse Gress, Australian bassplayer Damien Steele Scott and Australian drummer Mick Skelton.
A Photographic Journal of each American show was created by rock photographer J Bloomrosen.[16][17]
In October 2010, Rundgren was selected as the Class of 1963 Wells Scholars Professor at Indiana University (Bloomington). In that capacity, he taught two weeks of a four-week, one-credit hour honors seminar designed for 22 Wells Scholars (HON-H300: The Ballad of Todd Rundgren). Co-teaching the class was IU Professor of Music Glenn Gass—whose relationship with Rundgren helped make the professorship possible—and IU Distinguished Professor of Sociology Bernice Pescosolido, who was instrumental in helping to plan the course.[18]
In September 2010, Rundgren performed his "Todd" and "Healing" albums live for the first time ever in Akron, OH and followed that up with five more of the album concerts in Muskegon MI, Indianapolis IN, St. Louis MO, Glenside PA, and Morristown NJ. A large LED display and lasers were on display throughout the shows with Rundgren and the band dressed in extravagant costumes. Rundgren brought out his SG Gibson "The Fool" replica guitar and also performed a few songs on the piano. The band consisted of Jesse Gress, Greg Hawkes, Prairie Prince, Bobby Strickland, and Kasim Sulton. Led by Choir Master Dirk Hillyer, local choirs from near each venue joined the band during parts of the "Healing" album set which added a brand new element to the music for fans that had only heard it by listening to the album. The shows closed with the song, "Sons Of 1984" which included fan participation even after the band left the stage. In March 2011, Rundgren took the "Todd" and "Healing" albums live concerts back on the road for a mini-tour and included stops in Hartford CT, Boston MA, Red Bank NJ, Toledo OH, and Columbus OH.
In January 2011, a reunion of the most of the members of the 1974 Utopia personnel (Rundgren, Klingman, Shuckett, Siegler, and Ellman) was held for two nights in New York City, with proceeds to defray medical treatment for Klingman who was battling with cancer. Material was drawn from the 1972–1975 catalogs of Rundgren and Todd Rundgren's Utopia. Both shows sold out in just three days which may have influenced the idea for a full tour that took place in November 2011 as "Todd Rundgren's Utopia". The original plan for the tour included Moogy Klingman but his health condition worsened during rehearsals and he died before the 12 concert tour was finished.
In September of 2011, for the first time ever with a symphony orchestra, Todd performed two concerts in the Netherlands backed by the Dutch Metropole Orchestra. On June 1st and 2nd of 2012, Todd will perform in two concerts accompanied by the Rockford Symphony Orchestra at the historic Coronado Performing Arts Center in Rockford, IL. The concerts will be Rundgren's first ever symphonic shows in North America.
Rundgren will tour with Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band for the third time and for the first time in 13 years, in the summer of 2012.
Rundgren's son, Rex (born 1980), is a baseball player (Infield position) for the Somerset Patriots of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball.[19][20]
For the first nine years of her life, Liv Rundgren Tyler (born Liv Rundgren) was raised by Rundgren and her mother, Bebe Buell, as though Rundgren was Liv's father. At Liv's birth, Buell had claimed that Rundgren was Liv's biological father. At age nine, Liv Tyler discovered that she was Steven Tyler's daughter.[21][22][23]
- Rundgren also composed and recorded theme music for the American pilot for cult UK sci-fi comedy Red Dwarf, though it never aired.
- On the day Mark David Chapman shot and killed John Lennon, he left an eight-track tape of Rundgren's album Runt. The Ballad of Todd Rundgren, along with other artifacts, in his New York hotel room in an orderly semicircle on the hotel dresser. Some[who?] have speculated that the album Healing (Todd Rundgren album) was recorded partly as a therapeutic exercise in reaction to Mark David Chapman's obsession with Rundgren's music (see sleeve notes to the CD remaster, Castle Music, 1999), though Rundgren himself says he didn't learn of Chapman's obsession with him until years later, when books about Chapman were published.[citation needed] More information about Chapman's obsession with Rundgren is provided in the chapter "God and Todd" in Jack Jones' biography of Mark Chapman Let Me Take You Down (1999).
- The pilot episode of "That '70s Show" (That '70s Pilot)), featured a plot line involving the main characters sneaking away to go to a Todd Rundgren concert.
- ^ "Something/Anything? - Todd Rundgren". AllMusic. http://www.allmusic.com/album/r17091/charts-awards. Retrieved 2011-10-26.
- ^ Wood, Sam (June 14, 1991). "Todd Rundgren -- Rundgren Making Music For The Ears - And Eyes". Seattle Times. http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19910614&slug=1288949. Retrieved 30 January 2012. ""Change Myself" is four minutes of state-of-the-art computer animation. Rundgren wrote, directed and programmed it."
- ^ Vladimir Bogdanov; Chris Woodstra; Stephen Thomas Erlewine (2001). All music guide: the definitive guide to popular music. Hal Leonard Corporation. pp. 464. ISBN 978-0-87930-627-4.
- ^ Sanctuary Records, liner notes for reissues of Nazz and Nazz Nazz/Nazz 3: The Fungo Bat Sessions (2006)
- ^ "Bill De Main, "A Conversation with Todd Rundgren"". Puremusic.com. http://www.puremusic.com/todd3.html. Retrieved 2011-10-26.
- ^ Sanctuary Records, liner notes for Nazz Nazz/Nazz 3: The Fungo Bat Sessions (2006)
- ^ a b "Anthony Quinn, "Todd Rundgren: Nothing but the truth", ''The Independent'', 14 July 2004". Independent.co.uk. 2004-07-14. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/todd-rundgren-nothing-but-the-truth-553053.html. Retrieved 2011-10-26.
- ^ "Steven Rosen, "Legendary Guitar: The Saga of Eric Clapton’s Famous Fool SG"". Gibson.com. http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/Features/Legendary%20Guitar_%20The%20Saga%20of/. Retrieved 2011-10-26.
- ^ "Fool Guitar: Psychedelic Gibson SG". Archived from the original on 2008-05-02. http://web.archive.org/web/20080502160144/http://www.whereseric.com/ecfaq/guitars-amps/fool-guitar-psychedelic-gibson-sg.html. Retrieved 2008-09-02.
- ^ Tobler, John (1992). NME Rock 'N' Roll Years (1st ed.). London: Reed International Books Ltd. p. 268. CN 5585.
- ^ Guarisco, Donald A.. "Bang The Drum all Day". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/song/t4246117.
- ^ "Naked Wire—Jim Steinman news". Neverlandhotel.dk. 1951-06-08. http://www.neverlandhotel.dk/news/index.php?nr=17. Retrieved 2011-10-26.
- ^ Mackintosh, Hamish (18 March 2004). "Talk time: Todd Rundgren". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2004/mar/18/onlinesupplement/print. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
- ^ "Art Illuminates". Woodstock Film Festival. http://www.woodstockfilmfestival.com/press/releases/Sept_2002_9.11.htm. Retrieved Sept 11 2002.
- ^ "Rundgrenradio.com Presents A Wizard/A True Star Live". http://www.awatslive.com/. Retrieved 2010-01-14.
- ^ "JBloomrosen.com". JBloomrosen.com. http://www.JBloomrosen.com. Retrieved 2011-10-26.
- ^ "Journal at". Blurb.com. 2011-10-20. http://www.blurb.com/toddrundgren. Retrieved 2011-10-26.
- ^ "Hello, it's Todd: Rock legend Todd Rundgren named to prestigious Wells Scholars Professorship at IU: IU News Room: Indiana University". Newsinfo.iu.edu. http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/15520.html. Retrieved 2011-10-26.
- ^ "Patriots Sign Bynum, Rundgren, And Santangelo". Somerset Patriots. 21 March 2012. http://www.somersetpatriots.com/allnews/?article_id=2213. Retrieved 23 March 2012.
- ^ "Somerset Patriots, #6 Rex Rundgren IF". Somerset Patriots. http://www.somersetpatriots.com/team/players/index.html?player_id=233. Retrieved 9 May 2012.
- ^ "Liv Tyler Biography". People. http://www.people.com/people/liv_tyler/biography. Retrieved 2008-06-23.
- ^ "Hello Magazine Profile — Liv Tyler". Hello!. Hello! Ltd. http://www.hellomagazine.com/profiles/livtyler/?. Retrieved 2008-06-23.
- ^ Dominus, Susan (2008-06-20). "Liv Tyler: living for today". The Daily Telegraph (London). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3553957/Liv-Tyler-living-for-today.html. Retrieved 2009-01-07.
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Todd Rundgren
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| Studio albums |
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| EPs |
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| Live albums |
- Back to the Bars
- Live in N.Y.C. '78
- Live in Chicago '91
- A Cappella Tour
- Another Side of Roxy
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| Singles |
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| Compilations |
- Anthology (1968-1985)
- The Best of Todd Rundgren
- Singles
- The Very Best of Todd Rundgren
- Free Soul Runt
- Go Ahead Ignore Me
- The Essentials
- Bootleg Series
- Can't Stop Running
- The Definitive Rock Collection
- For Lack of Honest Work
- Flashback With Todd Rundgren
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| Studio albums |
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| Live albums |
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| Compilation albums |
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| Singles |
- "Communion with the Sun"
- "Love Is the Answer"
- "Set Me Free"
- "The Very Last Time"
- "Second Nature"
- "I Just Want to Touch You"
- "One World"
- "Lysistrata"
- "Hammer in My Heart"
- "Feet Don't Fail Me Now"
- "Crybaby"
- "Love With a Thinker"
- "Mated"
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| Videos/DVDs |
- An Evening with Utopia (1983)
- The Utopia Sampler (1983)
- A Retrospective 1977-1984 (1985)
- Live at the Royal Oak (1985)
- Redux '92: Live in Japan (1994)
- A Retrospective: 1977-1984 (2000)
- Live in Columbus, Ohio 1980 (2003)
- Live in Boston 1982 (2004)
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| Studio albums |
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| Compilations |
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| Singles |
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| Other songs |
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| Tours |
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| Related articles |
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| The New Cars |
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