# Todd Rundgren - completely forgotten?



## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

I've been active on this forum for nearly two years and I almost never see Todd Rundgren's name coming by. Should he be more in the spotlights? Why are we forgetting his music?


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## Dr Johnson (Jun 26, 2015)




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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Never been a big fan, although I have a few albums. I spin Something Anything once a year. And I have that live Utopia album from '74. I'm more of a Laura Nyro fan, which is where Todd lifted his white soul style from.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

PS Strange Magic started a Rundgren thread a while back.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Here's this new Todd Rundgren thread, and it made me See the Light!


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## amfortas (Jun 15, 2011)

"Hello, it's me."

"Me who?"


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## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

I agree with Starthrower, Rundgren is much less interesting than Laura Nyro.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

I didn't realize this thread had become a Nyro versus Rundgren thang. Must the perfect (or near-perfect) always be the enemy of the good?


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## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

Well, I'm not his biggest fan but he has a certain charm and mellowness that I'm fond of. His music is also connected to a few years when I was an adult. I have heard of Laura Nyro (on this forum probably) but don't think I know any of her music. Probably I should.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

https://www.rockhall.com/10-essential-laura-nyro-songs

This will be a fine place to begin experiencing Laura Nyro and her unique soul sound .


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## regenmusic (Oct 23, 2014)

He wrote three songs with AMAZING melodies: Can We Still Be Friends, Hello It's Me, and I Saw the Light, although I much prefer the studio version of the latter.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Casebearer said:


> Well, I'm not his biggest fan but he has a certain charm and mellowness that I'm fond of. His music is also connected to *a few years when I was an adult.*I have heard of Laura Nyro (on this forum probably) but don't think I know any of her music. Probably I should.


I tried being an adult for a few years but it didn't take. So I gave it up as a bad idea :lol:.


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## amfortas (Jun 15, 2011)

Strange Magic said:


> I tried being an adult for a few years but it didn't take. So I gave it up as a bad idea :lol:.


Now it all makes sense!


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## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

Strange Magic said:


> I tried being an adult for a few years but it didn't take. So I gave it up as a bad idea :lol:.


You're making fun of my command of your native language. But I'll let you :lol:


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## jim prideaux (May 30, 2013)

as far as I am concerned personally I will never forget Rundgren....his album 'A Wizard a true star' is inextricably linked so closely to one aspect of my life the sound of it (in particular 'Sometimes I don't know what to feel) takes me there immediately...

Just one victory (from 'another live') is so positive and uplifting in its optimism....'the wheel' off the same album is wonderful, and I have not even begun to consider other great songs from other albums...seen him twice, so no, not forgotten!

as to the LN vs TR debate, why bother?


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## Oreb (Aug 8, 2013)

In the words of Peter Gabriel (another pop visionary) 'Though you may disappear, you're not forgotten here.'

Todd gets regular rotation at my place.


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## Guest (Dec 29, 2017)

According to no less an authority than my Uncle Angus who was 21 in 1977 this is one of the greatest tunes ever written -






Utopia/Todd Rundgren - Love Is The Answer (1977)

His 2500 plus lp collection starts in 1964 and ends in 1979... For him, nothing else exists and nothing worth hearing has been recorded since then...He would drive me to tournaments in Calgary and Edmonton from Vancouver and would spend the entire trip playing tunes by groups that meant the world to him... He would argue like CRAZY (there were times when I was convinced that he was going to open the passenger side door while driving and push me out without stopping because my preferences just seemed to enrage him) like when I professed a preference for The Kinks over The Rolling Stones...or Yes over King Crimson...or The Jam over The Clash...And get this... I was like 9 or 10 years old at the time! Great guy, great uncle...completely unhinged if not actually demented...And under no circumstances should anyone even mention the name "Van der Graaf Generator"...He would play a tune by them and them SCREAM IN ANGUISH about what he was hearing...and would ask me "Have you ever and I do mean ever heard such dreadful rubbish in your life?"...Truth be told, I thought that just about everything he ever played was pretty dreadful...There were times when he would play this band called "Hawkwind" so often that I was tempted to open the car door without stopping and throw myself out of the car...

On a completely unrelated note... This video absolutely drives him INSANE WITH RAGE even though it's composed by a fellow Canadian... (Note: I was 14 years old in 2009 and had a huge crush on Leslie Feist... and I still think that this is the single finest music video ever shot - one take with no edits - amazing...






On a second completely unrelated note... Leslie Feist refuses to sing this song in concert even though it was her one and only hit and the one and only reason anyone would ever attend one of her concerts... She's kind of cranky for a Canadian... even worse than Joni Mitchell (known less-than-affectionately in the Great White North as "Canada's Sourpuss"...)
A Canadian who doesn't care much for Americans isn't all that rare up here (unfortunately - to our shame) but a Canadian who doesn't care much for _Canadians_ is just a bit much, eh?


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