<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201c<\/span>The Nazz Are Blue<\/span><\/i>,\u201d Lee said in reference to nothing in particular.\u00a0 \u201cWho are they and why are they blue?\u201d I asked.\u00a0 Lee was the bass player in my second band, Knockdown, and this discussion took place when I was dropping him by the IGA grocery store at the Marquette Mall.\u00a0 Lee\u2019s wife worked there and he needed to pick up their car after one of our rare rehearsals.\u00a0 We were so busy gigging, that the second year I was drumming in that band, we were lucky to find a night to learn some new tunes.\u00a0 Lee continued:\u00a0 \u201cGreatest song Todd Rundgren ever recorded before they broke up.\u201d\u00a0 I confessed that I was unfamiliar with his work.\u00a0 \u201cSurely you have heard <\/span>Hello, It\u2019s Me<\/span><\/i>?\u201d\u00a0 It hit me that I had indeed heard it many times, especially at the Alibi Rock Theater on Wright Street.\u00a0 \u201cYou know, he also produced Grand Funk\u2019s <\/span>We\u2019re An American Band,\u201d <\/span><\/i>(which we had recently learned) and no, I was not aware of this bit of music news.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I was reminded of this 1973 conversation when I stumbled upon an interview Rundgren did with <\/span>Classic Rock Magazine<\/span><\/i> back in 2009.\u00a0 It popped up when I was looking to see how long he had been touring with Ringo Starr\u2019s All-Starr Band.\u00a0 Rundgren was not with Ringo when the WOAS FM West Coast Bureau in Eugene, Oregon treated me to his show in June of 2023.\u00a0 Press accounts about that tour briefly mentioned Todd\u2019s absence but never really spelled out why he was MIA.\u00a0 I love mysteries, so I started snooping around and found the 2009 piece from <\/span>CRM.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>I had no idea how involved Todd Rundgren was in constructing the soundtrack of our lives beginning in the early 1970s.\u00a0 His influences on the music scene and work with other artists extends right up to the present.\u00a0 Perhaps we should go back and start at the beginning.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Todd Rundgren was born in Philadelphia, PA on June 22, 1948.\u00a0 He learned guitar on his own at an early age and was fascinated by his parent\u2019s record collection of show tunes, operettas, and symphonic music.\u00a0 He later became infatuated with the British Invasion bands (Beatles, Rolling Stones, etc) as well as The Ventures and the soul sounds coming out of Philadelphia.\u00a0 Todd’s first high school band, Money, was formed with his best friend, Randy Reed, and Reed\u2019s younger brother.\u00a0 After graduating, he joined a Paul Butterfield inspired band in Philadelphia called Woody\u2019s Truck Stop.\u00a0 After eight months, Rundgren grew tired of the blues and left with bassist Carson Van Osten to found the psychedelic band The Nazz with the aim of writing original music in the style of The Who and the newer Beatles songs.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In 1968, their demo disc got them a record deal with Atlantic Records.\u00a0 Rundgren\u2019s writing and arranging skills took shape as The Nazz entered ID Sound Studios in Los Angeles to record their first album.\u00a0 After producer Bill Traut only took two days to fly through the mixing process, the band decided they wanted to try to remix it on their own.\u00a0 With help from the session\u2019s recording engineer, Todd and the band experimented with techniques such as varispeed and flanging.\u00a0 With no formal experience, Rundgren also scored music for horns and strings. Engineer James Lowe later said that Todd had become the de facto leader of The Nazz and really should have been credited as the producer for the album.\u00a0 Their debut single <\/span>Open My Eyes <\/span><\/i>(backed by an early version of <\/span>Hello, It\u2019s Me<\/span><\/i>) was released in July of 1968.\u00a0 They would release three albums during their short lifetime;\u00a0 <\/span>Nazz <\/span><\/i>(October 1968), <\/span>Nazz Nazz <\/span><\/i>(April 1969), and <\/span>Nazz III <\/span><\/i>(1971).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When Todd heard Laura Nyro\u2019s <\/span>Eli and the Thirteenth Confession<\/span><\/i> album (March 1968), he was exposed to another level of songwriting.\u00a0 He told<\/span> CRM. <\/span><\/i>\u201cI heard all the major seventh chords and variations on augmented and suspended chords.\u00a0 I know for a fact that her influences were the more sophisticated side of R&B, like Jerry Ragovoy and Mann & Weil and Carole King.\u00a0 Those chords she got from other people but I always thought it was the way she played her own material that really sold it.\u00a0 I met her right after <\/span>Eli <\/span><\/i>and I actually had arranged the meeting, just because I was so infatuated with her.\u201d\u00a0 The encounter with Nyro and her music had a profound impact on his songwriting as Todd began to compose more on piano.\u00a0 Rundgren\u2019s changing tastes created interband tension which accelerated the end of The Nazz and Todd\u2019s departure.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Once Rundgren struck out on his own, he was free to explore anything he wished to explore.\u00a0 He definitely marched to his own drummer.\u00a0 If one catches a YouTube video of him performing <\/span>Hello, It\u2019s Me<\/span><\/i> on the early 70s TV show <\/span>The Midnight Special, <\/span><\/i>one can\u2019t help but notice that he has feathers stuck on his forehead where his eyebrows should be.\u00a0 Odd, yes, but totally in keeping with Todd\u2019s world:\u00a0 Different is always better.\u00a0 He had the talent to pump out radio friendly songs but why be stuck in a rut when there was so much musical territory to explore?<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Rundgren\u2019s solo work and escalating work producing other musicians began to accelerate his influence on the music culture.\u00a0 Classic rock radio still spin his 1970 hits like the aforementioned <\/span>Hello, It\u2019s Me, I Saw the Light <\/span><\/i>(1972), <\/span>Can We Still Be Friends <\/span><\/i>(1978), and his 1983 single <\/span>Bang the Drum All Day <\/span><\/i>which has found a new life in sports arenas (like Lambeau Field), commercials, and movie trailers.\u00a0 Power pop artists gravitate toward <\/span>Couldn\u2019t I Just Tell You <\/span><\/i>(1973), and <\/span>CRM <\/span><\/i>points to the album <\/span>A Wizard <\/span><\/i>(1973) which they said, \u201dremains an influence on later generations of bedroom musicians.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0If holding sway over other genres wasn\u2019t enough, Rundgren is also considered a pioneer in the field of electronic music, progressive rock, music videos, computer software, and internet music delivery.\u00a0 His pioneering work extended to organizing the first interactive television concert in 1978, designing the first color graphics tablet in 1980, and creating the first interactive album (<\/span>No World Order<\/span><\/i>) in 1994.\u00a0 In a field where artists who hit the big time sometimes become complacent and stick to recreating the same albums over and over, Todd was truly a rolling stone who gathered no moss in his quest to expand the musical landscape as a songwriter and recording artist.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As a producer, Rundgren also branched out in many directions.\u00a0 Interestingly, he first toyed with the idea of working as a computer programmer when he left The Nazz.\u00a0 In the summer of 1969, the 21 year-old decided that he would pursue work as a producer, he moved to New York.\u00a0 Todd got involved with the NYC club scene in Greenwich Village where he met many musicians and fashion designers.\u00a0 Michael Friedman, The Nazz\u2019s former assistant manager, offered him a job as staff engineer and producer at Ampex Records, a label newly founded by Albert Grossman.\u00a0 Set up at Grossman\u2019s newly constructed Bearsville Studios near Woodstock, NY, his tenure began with him working with, \u201cvarious old folk artists that they had (on the label) who needed an upgrade:\u00a0 people like Ian & Sylvia, James Cotton and other artists already in Grossman\u2019s stable.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Rundgren was promoted to be the house engineer at Bearsville and was soon dispatched to Canada to record Jesse Winchester\u2019s eponymous 1970 debut album.\u00a0 Robbie Robertson and Levon Helm went with him to play on Winchester\u2019s record and they liked what they saw in the young engineer.\u00a0 The Band enlisted his services for their <\/span>Stage Fright<\/span><\/i> sessions which were released in August of 1970 and reached No. 5 on the <\/span>Billboard 200 <\/span><\/i>chart.\u00a0 More work with Winchester and Cotton would follow and it set Rundgren on a path to produce Janis Joplin\u2019s third and final LP, <\/span>Pearl <\/span><\/i>(1971).\u00a0 It never happened as the two artists could not get along with each other.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0During this period, Todd had thought he would not return to working as a performing musician.\u00a0 Something led him to approach Grossman about recording a solo record on the Bearsville imprint.\u00a0 The subsequent album, <\/span>Runt<\/span><\/i> (1970) was done without him asking for any advance money:\u00a0 \u201cI just asked for a recording budget to pay the studio costs\u2026I had no idea how much money I even had in the bank.\u00a0 If I needed cash, I would show up at the accountants and they would just give me hundreds or thousands of dollars.\u201d\u00a0 Rundgren\u2019s anxiety about starting a solo career led to the curious decision to originally release the album as <\/span>Runt <\/span><\/i>without specifically giving himself credit.\u00a0 Tony and Hunt Sales (bassist and drummer brothers who were 17 and 14 years-old at the time) were brought into the project.\u00a0 They handled Todd\u2019s sophisticated material with ease, abilities which would later get them work backing David Bowie during his Tin Machine days.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A second <\/span>Runt<\/span><\/i> album was in the works when Todd hooked up with another set of brothers, Ron and Russell Mael.\u00a0 Originally known as Halfnelson (also the eponymous title of their debut album), the brothers are better known by their second band name, Sparks.\u00a0 By June of 1971, the second Runt album was released (titled <\/span>Runt – The Ballad of Todd Rundgren<\/span><\/i>) to mixed reviews. It has since become regarded as one of the greatest singer-songwriter albums from that time.\u00a0 When George Harrison dropped out of working with Badfinger on their third LP (he was too busy organizing the <\/span>Concert for Bangladesh<\/span><\/i>), Rundgren took the reins.\u00a0 <\/span>Straight Up<\/span><\/i> produced the hit <\/span>Day After Day<\/span><\/i> mostly due to Todd\u2019s input:\u00a0 \u201cIt didn\u2019t sound much like what George had done,\u201d yet Harrison got the credit and the production royalties for the track.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When he returned to Los Angeles after the Badfinger sessions, \u00a0 Rundgren began working on his third solo record.\u00a0 A few things had changed since he returned to his own solo career.\u00a0 He had been dabbling in recreational drugs (starting with marijuana) and now turned to Ritalin to help him focus.\u00a0 He said, \u201cMy songwriting process had become almost too second-nature.\u00a0 I was writing songs formulaically, almost without thinking, knocking [them out] relatively fast, in about 20 minutes.\u201d\u00a0 He installed an eight-track recorder, mixer, and synthesizers in his living room and for the first time, experimented with recording all of the parts (including bass, drums, and vocals) himself.\u00a0 When the album stretched to become a double LP, he then brought in other musicians to track songs live in the studio.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The album <\/span>Something\/Anything <\/span><\/i>(February 1972), is now regarded as a landmark release of the decade and produced two hit singles.\u00a0 The lead single, <\/span>I Saw the Light, <\/span><\/i>made it to No. 16 on the <\/span>Billboard Hot 100<\/span><\/i> while his reworking of <\/span>Hello, It\u2019s Me<\/span><\/i> climbed to No. 5.\u00a0 This was the version I was familiar with when Lee first educated me about all things Todd Rundgren.\u00a0 In 2003, <\/span>Rolling Stone Magazine<\/span><\/i> rated <\/span>Something\/Anything<\/span><\/i> at 173 on its list of <\/span>500 Greatest Albums of All Time<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n The success of the album would haunt Rundgren in a different way:\u00a0 people began referring to him as the \u2018male Carole King\u2019 which made him uncomfortable.\u00a0 When Todd became uncomfortable, change would soon follow.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Back in New York and experimenting further with psychedelic drugs, his solo work became, in his words,\u201d even more eclectic and experimental,\u201d leaning more toward the progressive rock being produced by Frank Zappa, Yes, and the Mahavishnu Orchestra.\u00a0 During a commencement speech given at the Berklee College of Music graduation in 2017, he explained this period:\u00a0 \u201cMy act of tyranny after having achieved commercial success\u2026I threw out all the rules of record making and decided I would try to imprint the chaos in my head onto a record without trying to clean it up for everyone else\u2019s benefit.\u00a0 The result was a complete loss of about half my audience at that point\u2026This became the model for my life after that.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A side band project called Utopia (a reunion with the Sales brothers) and his subsequent solo albums were either loved or hated by Todd\u2019s remaining fan base.\u00a0 None of this seemed to hinder his producing cred as he continued to churn out hit records with Grand Funk (<\/span>We\u2019re an American Band<\/span><\/i> and The New York Dolls debut<\/span> album.\u00a0 While <\/span>American Band<\/span><\/i> reached No. 2 on the charts, the Dolls album opened the door for the genre soon to to be known as \u2018punk rock\u2019.\u00a0 Keyboardist Roger Powell recalled that the Bearsville label, \u201cwished Utopia would have \u2018just gone away\u2019, however, Todd\u2019s contract called for a certain number of albums over a certain number of years.\u00a0 He decided that every other album would be a solo album and the next one a Utopia album.\u201d\u00a0 The highest charting Utopia LP (<\/span>Todd Rundgren\u2019s Utopia<\/span><\/i>) reached No. 34 on the charts.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Rundgren and John Lennon had a minor dust up in print in 1974 when Todd made comments to <\/span>Rolling Stone<\/span><\/i> about The ex-Beatle\u2019s encounter with a waitress at The Troubadour in Hollywood.\u00a0 This would have been the often repeated story of Lennon\u2019s \u2018lost weekend\u2019 period when the highly inebriated John had stuck a feminine hygiene product on his forehead while sitting at a table in the club.\u00a0 When he asked the waitress if she knew who he was, she replied, \u201cYeah, some (expletive deleted) with a Kotex stuck on your head.\u201d\u00a0 Lennon\u2019s printed response in <\/span>RS <\/span><\/i>referred to him as \u2018Turd Runtgreen\u2019 followed by, \u201cI have never claimed to be a revolutionary.\u00a0 But I am allowed to sing about anything I want!\u00a0 Right?\u201d Kind of cryptic but typical Lennon.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Todd told <\/span>CRM, \u201c<\/span><\/i>John and I realized we were both being used [to sell magazines] and I got a phone call from him one day and we just said, \u2018Let\u2019s drop this right now\u2019.\u201d\u00a0 Rundgren said the only time they had met face to face was at the Rainbow Club in L.A. sometime before the war of words began.\u00a0 At that time, he said Lennon was, \u201cDrunk and inanimate,\u201d to the point where they did not engage in conversation.\u00a0 He further described Paul McCartney as having an \u2018unusually dour personality\u2019 when compared to the \u2018happy-go-lucky\u2019 Paul the public usually sees.\u00a0 Ringo and Todd met while working on a Jerry Lewis telethon.\u00a0 Even though the Ringed One was still drinking, Ringo was always the \u2018most approachable\u2019 of the Fab Four.\u00a0 Once he sobered up and started the All-Starr Band thing, he invited Todd to join (which he did for many years).<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I have yet to find any published reason why Rundgren has not toured with Ringo the last couple of years.\u00a0 The fact that Todd is doing his own tour in Australia and Japan beginning in March of 2025 explains it all.<\/span><\/p>\n Top Piece Video:\u00a0 Todd may not have been touring with Ringo in 2023 but he was out on his own in 2024.\u00a0 This is\u00a0I Saw the Light\u00a0<\/em>live.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cThe Nazz Are Blue,\u201d Lee said in reference to nothing in particular.\u00a0 \u201cWho are they and why are they blue?\u201d I asked.\u00a0 Lee was the bass player in my second band, Knockdown, and this discussion took place when I was dropping him by the IGA grocery store at the Marquette Mall.\u00a0 Lee\u2019s wife worked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,6,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bands-musicians","category-from-the-vaults","category-new-music","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3448"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3448\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3451,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3448\/revisions\/3451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}