Although we’ve featured numerous reviews of Todd Rundgren here
\non “The Daily Vault,” I’m still embarrassed to admit that I don’t
\nknow as much about the man’s music as I’d like to. It’s one thing
\nto take an album and judge it on its own values, as I’ve been doing
\nhere with Rundgren’s work almost from day one of the site. But it’s
\nanother thing to go back to the beginning and follow the natural
\nprogression of the music and the musician.<\/p>\n
With that in mind, into the Pierce Memorial Archives (rooms by
\nthe hour) I went, and out I came with my battered copy of 1970’s
\nRunt<\/i>, Rundgren’s first solo effort. (It may surprise some of
\nthe Todd-heads out there that I didn’t review this one on CD,
\nmeaning some of my criticisms of the sound might, in fact, be a bit
\nharsh. Judge this one on your own experiences.) While this album
\nshows a lot of the self-deprecating and biting humor Rundgren had,
\nas well as some of the musical genius he possessed, this is still a
\npicture of the artist in development – not bad, but occasionally
\nrough on the edges.<\/p>\n
Often utilizing the rhythm section of brothers Tony (bass) and
\nHunt (drums) Sales – who would later become half of David Bowie’s
\nside project Tin Machine, Rundgren takes a little time to really
\nget to the magical stuff. “Broke Down And Busted” isn’t a bad
\neffort, but I thought he buried his guitar work too far in the mix,
\nespecially at the end, with all the layered guitars kind of butting
\nheads. “Believe In Me” is the first inkling that a special artist
\nwas in the works, showing off a more tender side of the rocker.<\/p>\n
Then, you get to the first bonafide Rundgren classic (and one of
\nthe first Rundgren songs I was ever seriously exposed to), “We Got
\nTo Get You A Woman”. (At last, the story of my high school
\nexperience – oops, I’ve said too much.) Going from a funky shuffle
\nin the verses to a pop chorus is an interesting twist, and is one
\nthat works very well. The Todd-heads in the audience will also
\ngladly point out the way that Rundgren throws in the surprise
\nending, with the revelation our hero makes when searching for a
\nwoman for his buddy: “And when we’re through with you, \/ We’ll get
\nme one too.” Ka-pow.<\/p>\n
The humor Rundgren possesses can also be a sarcastic, but
\ntruthful, slap, as heard on “I’m In The Clique,” a tale about
\ntrying to make it in the music business. True, this might be seen
\nas some harsh words from someone so young, but having cut his teeth
\nwith The Nazz, Rundgren undoubtedly knew what he was talking about.
\nBe this as it may, you can’t help but laugh at lyrics like: “Get
\nyour greasy hands off the guitar, \/ Get your slimey [sic] seat off
\nthe drums.”<\/p>\n
\nRunt<\/i> contains a few more moments of brilliance, such as the
\nall-out rocker “Who’s That Man?” and “Birthday Carol,” whose
\nopening sounds like it could have been lifted from David
\nLetterman’s band. (The only negative about “Birthday Carol” is that
\nI thought the song was stretched out a little too long – nothing
\nmajor, though.)<\/p>\n
It’s not to say that other songs like “Once Burned” (featuring
\nRick Danko and Levon Helm from The Band) and the trio of “Baby,
\nLet’s Swing \/ The Last Thing You Said \/ Don’t Tie My Hands” is bad,
\nit’s just that the magic that you hear on other tracks isn’t as
\nstrong on these. Still, the tunes are enjoyable.<\/p>\n
One thing you have to realize going into
\nRunt<\/i> is that Rundgren, while still a very competent
\nsongwriter and musician, was developing as a solo artist. While the
\nbulk of the material on this album is very enjoyable, it doesn’t
\ncome close to representing his best work – though it’s not terribly
\nfar off the mark. Frankly, there’s no way I can say that without
\noffending
\nsomeone<\/i> – though I will be quick to say that the Rundgren
\nfans, while adamant about their hero’s music, are also very polite
\nwhen correcting the reviewer.<\/p>\n
\nRunt<\/i> is an interesting portrait of the artist as a young
\nman, and is still very much worth picking up, though I’d argue
\nagainst making this your first selection to pick up. If you do,
\njust don’t expect the serious fireworks; instead, consider this to
\nbe the opening blasts of the show.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5630],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-39231","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-todd-rundgren","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39231"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}