Todd Rundgren – Something/Anything? (1972), A Wizard/A True Star (1973)

Perhaps the true acid test for a great pop hook is how long it remains lurking in your subconscious, its ability to come out of the depths of your psyche and haunt you apropos of nothing, the way it can make you feel as wide-eyed and excited as when you first heard it. But then again, part of why pop music affects us the way it does is its powerful emotional link to some of our crucial formative memories. Pop music soundtracks our early teenage life, and whilst many people wind up ashamed of the dodgy music that they listened to when they were 11 – 13 (there are some secrets you will never get out of me!), a lot of the stuff I listened to at this time I still have a really strong affection for. In many ways I guess I’m kind of lucky that much of what I was listening to then turned out to be pretty cool – The Beatles, Talking Heads, David Bowie… these, luckily enough, were the people who shaped what my idea of pop music was, and what it could be.
Until recently, I had not listened to Todd Rundgren for ages. But Something/Anything and A Wizard/A True Star were, along with Sgt. Pepper’s, Ziggy Stardust, Lamb and For Your Pleasure, among the first albums I listened to. In many ways, Todd Rundgren, like Bowie, Brian Ferry and Peter Gabriel, epitomized what I thought rock stars were all about: art-damaged yet poppy, master craftsmen yet daringly innovative, weird twisted beings bringing their profoundly alien yet insidiously catchy visions to corrupt the youth of planet Earth. Well, at least that’s how it felt at the time. Todd Rundgren, between his spaceman costumes, the portrait of him as damaged sorcerer on the cover of AW/ATS and the sheer alien-ness of the music contained within, was a warped space-rock hero like Bowie’s Ziggy. However, the thing that hit you as soon as you put the records on was Todd’s absolute KILLER way with a pop hook. Something/Anything opens with ‘I Saw The Light’, just under three minutes of gorgeous pop harmonies and stunning melodic hooks. It is the kind of song that you can hear once and have in your head for the rest of the week, yet it still manages to sound amazingly fresh the next time you hear it. And from then on, the album never lets up. Racing through the full gamut of pop styles, from soulful ballads to heavy rock to experimental oddness, and with almost every instrument played by Todd himself, the consistency holding the record together is the guy’s sheer knack for writing unbelievably good pop songs. The album is a double LP stretching across 86 minutes, but it never drags, the pace never slackens, you never feel bored. Ultimately, it’s a collection of amazing songs by a skilled writer at his peak.
‘I Saw The Light’, ‘Couldn’t I Just Tell You’ and ‘Hello, It’s Me’ were all deservedly hits of some note, and S/A could have been the springboard for a mainstream career. However, displaying a healthy dose of bloody-minded obscurity which would both enliven and dog his career, Our Hero holed himself up in the studio, took a shedload of psychedelics and recorded the wonderfully warped A Wizard/A True Star. In parts an attempt to recreate a psychedelic trip on record; in some ways AW/ATS could be seen as sides 5 and 6 of S/A: charting the psychedelic and proggy depths that the previous record had only hinted at, whilst still containing a healthy dose of soul and rock. In other ways, it’s much more obscure and self-indulgent then its predecessor. Experiments with synthesizers, mellotrons and found sound abound, especially on the first side, and Abbey Road-style medley bursting with surreal lyrics and bizarre sound effects. The shimmering, camp and outrageously sinister ‘Zen Archer’ is the highlight of side 1, but it is almost matched by the anthemic meta-pop opener ‘International Feel’, which, with it’s cheeky ‘I only want to see / If you’ll give up on me / But there’s always more’ opening lets you know you’re not in for an easy ride. However, beneath all the bizarre experimentation, Rundgren’s pop sensibilities still shine through in the sheer melodic grace of many of these songs. Side 2 brings us back to slightly more normal ground, opening with the awesome Philly soul of ‘Sometimes I Don’t Know What To Feel’ – astoundingly never released as a single. It also includes an excellent medley of soul covers, before closing with the psychedelic space-age utopian anthem ‘Just One Victory’. At 55 minutes, the record is long enough to qualify as another double (it was originally released as a single LP, the length resulting in poor sound quality on the original record), but its drugged-out sprawl, though in places impenetrable, is never less then compelling.
Listened to today, Something/Anything and A Wizard/A True Star sound excellent, their gorgeous melodies shining through and their sense of adventure all the more laudable in these retrogressive times. For some reason, Todd Rundgren seems to have been forgotten, and he is often overlooked in favour of his contempories. Perhaps this is because of his association with prog rock. After AW/ATS, Our Hero released the even more wayward and spralling Todd, before going on to form the prog rock band Utopia. His commercial career never quite regained the momentum of the Something/Anything years, and his prog stuff is often slagged off as an indulgent embarrassment, despite containing more then its fair share of excellent moments. However, The Artist Formerly Known As Prince, for one, has acknowledged the influence of this pioneer who, in recent years had been cruelly forgotten. Which is a shame, as Todd Rundgren was a truly talented songwriter and gifted innovator. A wizard and a true star, in fact.