Todd Rundgren
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Todd Rundgren: A Wizard, A True Star (Bearsville)
Review by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, 14 April 1973
A MAZE. A truly amazing album. That might well have been the subtitle of this latest excursion into the land of magic from henna-haired hero ...
Something/Anything?: 30 Years On
Interview by Rob Steen, unpublished, December 2001
I RANG TODD in his Maui studio in December 2001, while he was remixing Something/Anything? for 5.1 Surroundsound. ...
Audio interviews
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages audio, 9 August 1997
On Todd's childhood and early musical adventures, culminating in the formation of The Nazz and a sudden immersion in the teen pop world; getting involved with Albert Grossman and the Woodstock scene, recording The Band and dressing up and taking acid: meeting the Sayles Brothers; working on Ritalin; the Concept for A Wizard, A True Star; building Secret Sound Studio in NYC and developing his recording techniques.
File format: mp3 File size: 116.6mb, interview length: 2h 01' 29", sound quality: ****
Interview by Bill DeMain, Rock's Backpages audio, 11 December 1997
America's foremost Utopian on the songwriter's job: on originality and plagiarism; the process of writing and realisation; on revisiting his old songs on With a Twist; on the emerging Internet and how it will change the way artists and songwriters work... and the tyranny of the long-form CD.
File format: mp3; file size: 34.2mb, interview length: 35' 39" sound quality: ** (phoner)
List of articles in the library
Runt the Magic Rabbit: Todd Rundgren's Search for the Ultimate Riff
Special Feature by Ed McCormack, Rolling Stone, 13 April 1972
WORD HAS filtered down to Allen Klein's New York office that George Harrison wants to get in touch with Todd Rundgren, the all-around rock and ...
Todd Rundgren: Something/Anything? (Bearsville Records)
Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 15 April 1972
ENTER, ONE lanky fair-haired youth called Todd Rundgren weighed down with an armful of instruments, a clear head filled with sun-blessed songs 'n' sounds, a ...
Raving Over The Runt, Alias Todd Rundgren: Rock Whiz-Kid
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 29 April 1972
THE NAME Todd Rundgren may sound more like a catarrhal growl than the monicker of an aspiring 23-year-old young musical whiz-kid. ...
Todd Rundgren: Something/Anything? (Bearsville)
Review by Ben Edmonds, Creem, July 1972
THE NAME TODD Rundgren has passed across so many lips in the past few months that you can almost detect traces of chapstick around its ...
Todd Rundgren: Todd the Whizz Kid
Interview by James Johnson, New Musical Express, 29 July 1972
EVEN THOUGH his name may not mean much to the general public, Todd Rundgren is undoubtedly a success. ...
Interview by Ben Edmonds, Creem, August 1972
THE FIRST SIGNAL of his approach is the abrupt appearance of a small black dog, hauling its thoroughly pregnant belly behind a couch just quickly ...
Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, November 1972
There are some parts of New York City that nice people just don't walk around. The East Village, for instance, is one of them. It's ...
The Inauguration of Todd Rundgren
Profile and Interview by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, March 1973
NOO YAWK, NU YORK — Beneath the red fluorescence of Max's Kansas City, where the boys wear lipstick and the girls have nails, Alice Cooper, ...
Todd Rundgren: A Wizard, A True Star
Review by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 23 June 1973
BOY, IS THIS a great record. I love it and that's saying a lot seeing as I don't seem to like that much of anything ...
New York Confidential: the New York Dolls
Report by Ed McCormack, Rolling Stone, 5 July 1973
TIMES SQUARE, teeming with amazed tourists by day, becomes the city's funky armpit after midnight. So we step fast under the flaming marquees peddling fake ...
Marc Bolan: The Man, The Myth and the Music
Report and Interview by Lillian Roxon, New York Sunday News, 12 August 1973
HE SITS there with his head covered in corkscrew curls, his temples and eyelids gently rouged, his lower lashline ever so slightly outlined in pencil, ...
Singles: 'Hello, It's Me' — Todd Rundgren
Interview by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 3 January 1974
"IT'S NOT that I didn't want it out," Todd Rundgren explained, "It's just that it's like a two-year, six-year time warp," ...
The Thinking Man's Todd Rundgren
Interview by Jon Tiven, Zoo World, 3 January 1974
TODD RUNDGREN, whose name conjures visions of teenager-grown-up, multicolored hair, GeeGee awards from 16 magazine, production for younameit/you'vegotit, and self-made man extraordinaire, is a realistic ...
Todd: Rundgren Reviews Himself
Interview by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, March 1974
TODD WAS RECORDED mostly during July; actually July and August, 1973, and it was my usual hodgepodge approach to performance in the album. ...
Todd Rundgren: A Wizard, A True Star and Todd
Essay by Andrew Tyler, New Musical Express, 2 March 1974
SHOO AWAY, Todd, and stop filling my head with this blue vinyl trash because it turns my head to glass and I'll never see light ...
Todd Rundgren: Todd (Bearsville Import)
Review by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 9 March 1974
Rundgren's musical jungle ...
Todd Rundgren: Todd (Bearsville)
Review by Jon Tiven, Zoo World, 14 March 1974
WHEN TODD Rundgren stopped being in rock bands (circa his second solo-ish album, The Ballad of Todd Rundgren) his musical leanings toward that which was ...
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 27 April 1974
TODD RUNDGREN loped into Bearsville's offices on East 55th Street the other day with a South American raccoon on one arm and a lady dressed ...
Review by Wayne Robins, Creem, May 1974
‘Raking Turquoise Ruts Across the Velveeta Sky’ ...
Todd Rundgren: Civic Auditorium, Santa Monica CA
Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 6 May 1974
Rundgren Pop Machine at Santa Monica Civic ...
Todd Rundgren: Thank God for Todd
Live Review by Michael Gross, New Musical Express, 6 July 1974
Todd Rundgren: Central Park, NYC ...
Interview by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 14 September 1974
Genius is paid — and none more highly than T. Rundgren, ace gelding of the New York Production Stud. Count his teeth! Hear him neigh! ...
Todd Rundgren Tells the Truth (or The Things His Hairdresser Doesn't Know)
Report and Interview by Ben Edmonds, Creem, November 1974
1972: THE FIRST – and to be disastrously short-lived – tour of Todd Rundgren's Utopia has stopped for a breather in Chicago. The band is ...
Review by Jon Tiven, Zoo World, 19 December 1974
A LOT OF Todd Rundgren fans may not like this album, sad to say, for the Todd of Something/Anything is as visible as dust in ...
Daryl Hall & John Oates: War Babies (Atlantic)
Review by Robert Duncan, Creem, February 1975
IMAGINE THAT! They write songs like Todd Rundgren. They play songs like Todd Rundgren. They even sing like him. And all he did on the ...
Todd Rundgren: Initiation (Bearsville Import) Time: 68.00
Review by Pete Makowski, Sounds, 7 June 1975
TODD: ONLY FOR THE INITIATED ...
Review by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 21 June 1975
"I WAS BORN to fly higher, born to stand where I'm standing now/Basking in the light of the neon fire/As it burns my useless body ...
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, July 1975
INITIATION IS A RECORD in two senses of the word. That is to say, it's a world record, as Todd Rundgren has been at pains ...
Todd Rundgren: Man, Myth Or Rabbit?
Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 19 July 1975
THE BOY FROM Upper Darby is pressed into the corner of a Blake's Hotel settee. He looks so much like a very glum rabbit that ...
Todd Rundgren: The Man Born To Synthesize, or was that a Wizard? a True Star?
Interview by Andy Childs, ZigZag, August 1975
A ZIGZAG interview with Todd Rundgren could get well out of hand if we weren't too careful. Not only has he been around long enough ...
Todd Rundgren: Veg-o-Matic Into the Void
Profile and Interview by Robert Duncan, Creem, October 1975
I WOULD MUCH prefer Todd Rundgren had a squirrelly girlfriend – you know, one of those emaciated things that is always curled up cross-legged with ...
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 10 January 1976
POOR OLD TODD'S taken a lot of stick of late, not least in this paper, for adhering to his mystical mind games in the face ...
Faithful: The Todd Rundgren You've Been Waiting For
Review by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, April 1976
THIS IS THE Todd Rundgren album that a lot of people have been waiting for. The part of his audience that considered Something/Anything pop heaven ...
Todd Rundgren: Faithful (Bearsville)
Review by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 29 May 1976
I NEVER REALLY gave up hope on Todd Rundgren. Even when the maestro was seemingly irreconcilably immersed in expounding his slant on poe-faced spiritualist dogma, ...
Todd Rundgren: Faithful (Bearsville)
Review by Jeffrey Morgan, Cheap Thrills, June 1976
EVERYBODY KNOWS that there are but two classic answers to that eternal question of the ages, "Why?" They are, of course "Why not?" and "Because." ...
Todd Rundgren: Faithful (Bearsville)
Review by Robert Duncan, Creem, August 1976
DID YOU know that Keith Relf died? I didn't until last night. But I don't care. First of all, I didn't know the guy personally, ...
Dear Reader, Todd Rundgren (Genius) Thinks You're Thick
Interview by David Hancock, National RockStar, 8 January 1977
....or at least reading this won't educate you. Now if you saw hint on telly or, even better, in concert.... well, you'd be all the ...
Todd Rundgren: Hermit of Mink Hollow (Bearsville)
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 22 April 1978
AND JUST when we all thought that Todd Rundgren had finally disappeared into the darkest recesses of his cosmological inner sanctum he comes back at ...
Report and Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 14 May 1978
TODD RUNDGREN, who usually alights in medium-size halls with his band Utopia, opens a week-long solo stand Wednesday at the 500-seat Roxy. The show will ...
Todd Rundgren: The Roxy, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 10 June 1978
WHATEVER THE reasons might be, Todd Rundgren is back. That is, Todd Rundgren the pop singer/guitar singer as opposed to the Utopian pyramid-freak. ...
Todd Rundgren: Hermit Of Mink Hollow (Bearsville)
Review by Wesley Strick, Creem, August 1978
TODD RUNDGREN OPENS HIS EYES ...
Todd Rundgren: Back To The Bars
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 9 December 1978
THE ONE obstacle between Todd Rundgren and a successful live album comes at the stage when he has to rely on other musicians. ...
Todd Rundgren: Back to the Bars
Review by Jon Young, Trouser Press, February 1979
PROOF OF THE evils of peer-group pressure is found in the phenomenon of the double live album. A more useless trend would be hard to ...
Ghosts Of Progressive Rock Past: Led Zeppelin et al at Knebworth
Report by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 11 August 1979
EVENTS LIKE KNEBWORTH, the promoter Freddy Bannister had wanly predicted in Saturday's Guardian, cannot continue for much longer. The reasons for the inevitable decline and ...
Led Zeppelin/New Barbarians/Todd Rundgren: Knebworth, Hertfordshire
Live Review by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 18 August 1979
WELL, THAT'S OVER. No more Led Zeppelin front covers for a good while; no more wondering whether Mick would appear with the New Barbarians; no ...
Todd Rundgren: Video-Tripping With The Perfect Master
Interview by Toby Goldstein, Creem, October 1979
THE TRAILWAYS bus to Woodstock takes about 2½ hours from New York City, gradually trading the clatter of urban motorways for the static peace of ...
The Concise NME Guide To Electronic Music & Synthesised Sound PART TWO — Synthesisers
Overview by Andy Gill, New Musical Express, 12 January 1980
POMP THE trouble with synthesisers is actually playing them, accepting their status as sound-generators and starting from scratch. Mechanical keyboards were included in early synth ...
Shaun Cassidy: Shaun, Todd Break Mold
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 31 August 1980
IT'S TOUGH being a teen idol, we're told. But it's even harder to break out of the teen-idol image. ...
Todd Rundgren: Swinging To The Right And Being Left
Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, July 1981
THERE'S A STANDARD story about Todd Rundgren that you've probably already heard. It goes like this: He's great. An enormous talent. Can write songs blindfolded. ...
Interview by Stuart Grundy, John Tobler, 'The Record Producers' (BBC Books) , 1982
WHEN SIFTING through the potential candidates for a book such as this, it is obviously essential to reflect the present and future, as well as ...
Utopia in Woodstock: Todd Rundgren
Interview by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 24 April 1982
IF I AM THE LAST writer about pop music of any standing, Alfred G. Aronowitz was the first. He was matchmaking, twitching and joking from ...
Todd Rundgren: The Venue, London
Live Review by Richard Cook, New Musical Express, 5 June 1982
EVERYTHING YOU remember about rock music is secreted somewhere on some Todd Rundgren record. The synthetic flash, the bullet-browed machismo, the candywisp sentimentality, the filibuster's ...
Profile by John Tobler, The History of Rock, 1983
THERE ARE FEW FIGURES IN ROCK AS versatile as Todd Rundgren. A skilled producer and engineer, a gifted songwriter and a talented multi-instrumentalist, proficient on ...
Todd Rundgren: In Todd We Trust
Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 15 June 1990
FOLLOWERS OF Todd Rundgren may not get as much publicity as Deadheads, but the loyal legions that flock to Rundgren's concerts – particularly in the ...
Are We Making Art Yet? Music in the age of interactive entertainment
Report by Alan di Perna, Musician, June 1994
MUSIC, OF course, has always been interactive. People dance to it, make love to it, sing along with the lyrics and figure out the chord ...
Todd Rundgren: The Forum, Kentish Town
Live Review by Rob Steen, MOJO, December 1994
THE ANKLE-LENGTH SKIRT AND black-and-white mane threw us at first, but not for long. The Runt always was a dead ringer for Charlie George. Besides, ...
Todd Rundgren: With A Twist (Emi/Guardian)
Review and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, November 1997
Challenged to re-record a number of his 'greatest hits' – by a label which has tried the same experiment with Jimmy Webb and Alice Cooper ...
Profile and Interview by Paul Lester, Uncut, November 1997
Todd Rundgren, interactive pioneer and, For 25 years, the mad uncle of electronic pop, talks to Paul Lester ...
Todd Rundgren: "Go Ahead, Ignore Me!"
Profile and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, February 1998
HELLO, it’s him. ...
Guide by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 29 January 1999
1 Nick Drake Bryter Layter (Island, 1970) ...
Todd Rundgren: Out on his Todd again
Retrospective and Interview by Robert Webb, The Independent, 19 February 1999
Todd Rundgren is a pioneer. His eclectic albums were the benchmark for a decade, his innovative studio techniques one step ahead of the music industry. ...
Review and Interview by Rob Chapman, MOJO, March 1999
Remastered reissues of the original one-man band's first five Bearsville albums – Runt; The Ballad Of Todd Rundgren; Something/Anything?; A Wizard, A True Star; Todd; ...
He Put A Spell On Me: The True Stardom of Todd Rundgren
Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, March 2003
It is 30 years since TODD RUNDGREN released the spellbinding A Wizard, A True Star. BARNEY HOSKYNS makes a case for it as The Best ...
Review by Ian MacDonald, Uncut, July 2003
THE SINCERE generational belief in the socially transformative powers of love and peace which marked the peak of the high '60s had, by 1974, dissipated ...
Interview by Mike Barnes, MOJO, May 2004
Where's Todd Rundgren been? Just going to raves, hating the government and making one of his strangest albums yet. ...
Review and Interview by Paul Lester, Uncut, May 2004
Twentieth solo album and full-scale return to form from the artist formerly known as TR-1. ...
Todd Rundgren, Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Andy Gill, The Independent, 22 July 2004
SINCE his mid-Seventies heyday, Todd Rundgren has always been preaching to the converted, so his religious-themed show is at least appropriate, though unlikely to extend ...
Comment by Marc Weingarten, Slate, 14 September 2004
BJÖRK HAS A KNACK for making records that don't sound like anyone else's. With each new offering—from 1993's Debut, an album that roamed freely through ...
Legendary Guitar: The Saga of Eric Clapton's Famous Fool SG
Report and Interview by Steven Rosen, Gibson.com, 16 April 2008
THE STORAGE CLOSET in Todd Rundgren's Mink Hollow Road studio was closed. But it wasn't locked. Big difference. If there were anything of value in ...
Hot Chip/Todd Rundgren: That's one potent hot toddy
Interview by Paul Lester, The Guardian, 25 July 2008
Hot Chip gave Todd Rundgren his first hit in 35 years. Rundgren talks to the band's Alexis Taylor - and almost causes an international incident. ...
Interview by Paul Lester, Record Collector, September 2008
As he turns 60 and prepares a new album and UK tour, Todd Rundgren surveys his brilliant 40-year career as a producer, solo artist and ...
Interview by Bill Holdship, Detroit Metro Times, 1 July 2009
WE CAME UP with our own theme for Cityfest this year — namely, second acts or second chances. F. Scott Fitzgerald once said there are ...
The Dream Goes on Forever: Todd Rundgren Plays A Wizard, A True Star Live
Live Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, February 2010
OUT INTO THE damp chill of a February night we came, the scattered legions of Toddheads – crossing fingers for transcendence, willing to settle for ...
Guide by Barney Hoskyns, Uncut, February 2010
TODD RUNDGREN IS the Philadelphia-born whizzkid who could and should have been the biggest star of the '70s. Next month, the man John Lennon referred ...
The MOJO Interview: Todd Rundgren
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, January 2012
TWO DAYS AFTER a throat-shredding three-night stand at London's Jazz Café, Todd Harry Rundgren seems relieved merely to be talking. Still sporting multi-coloured – black ...
The Dame and The Runt: A Tale of Two Chameleons
Comment by Rob Steen, Rock's Backpages, 24 April 2013
A COUPLE OF pensioners have been popping in for sleepovers lately, fitter than fiddles and bouncing with frankly disgraceful enthusiasm. Judging by their latest recorded ...
Songwriter Interviews: Todd Rundgren
Interview by Carl Wiser, Songfacts, 2 April 2015
'I SAW THE LIGHT' came a little too easy for Todd Rundgren. The song took him maybe 20 minutes to write, just going up and ...
Killer Riffs: A Guide to Parody in Popular Music
Essay by Simon Reynolds, Pitchfork, 19 October 2016
From the Residents' freakish Beatles sendups, to Spinal Tap's meta-metal escapades, to the gastronomic goofs of "Weird Al", a chronicle of those who have turned ...
see also Hello People, The
see also Nazz, The
see also Utopia
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