First album “Runt” (1970), features the hit pop single “We Gotta Get You A Woman” as well as the nine-minute rock epic “Birthday Carol”. The Band’s Levon Helm and Rick Danko play on “Once Burned”, while “There Are No Words” hints at future experimentation. Disc Two of this special Edsel re-issue features the entirety of the November 1970 miss-pressing of the album, including the otherwise unavailable songs “Say No More” and an uncut "Baby Let's Swing", an early version of “Hope I’m Around”, and several alternate mixes. The bonus track is a live performance.
Todd Rundgren considered 1966 the beginning of his professional musical career, largely because the Nazz formed around that time. As a celebration, he recorded Faithful. Presumably, Faithful celebrates the past and the future by juxtaposing a side of original pop material with a side of covers. Actually, "covers" isn't accurate – the six oldies that comprise the entirety of side one are re-creations, with Rundgren "faithfully" replicating the sound and feel of the Yardbirds ("Happenings Ten Years Time Ago"), Bob Dylan ("Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine"), Jimi Hendrix ("If Six Was Nine"), the Beach Boys ("Good Vibrations") and the Beatles "("Rain," "Strawberry Fields Forever"). All of this is entertaining, to a certain extent, especially since it's remarkable how close Rundgren comes to duplicating the very feel of the originals.
After two albums, Todd Rundgren had one hit and a burgeoning cult following, plus growing respect as a hitmaking record producer. There's no question he was busy, but as it turns out, all this work only scratched the surface of his ambition….
Rock Hall Of Fame nominee and revered musician/producer/songwriter performs a very special live concert featuring the entirety of his classic 1973 album A Wizard A True Star!…
For much of the double-album Todd, Todd Rundgren was exploring weird instrumental avenues, creating a warped, synth-fueled variation of prog rock. This wasn't the culmination of the weirdness A Wizard, A True Star initiated – it was merely the beginning. Not long after completing Todd, Rundgren assembled Utopia, a prog rock group with no less than three synth players, plus guitar, bass and drums…