Ranking the Albums: Todd Rundgren
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- Опубликовано: 30 дек 2023
- Join Pete Pardo & Grant Arthur as they rank their favorite 10 solo albums by American pop/rock legend Todd Rundgren. #toddrundgren
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Listen to some of the music here: podcasts.progrock.com/2024/01/16/sea-of-tranquilitys-ranking-the-albums-todd-rundgren/?fbclid=IwAR2VDzOOtH7r6jjeUlWHVNzhYw7eiOyrPSvcWR2CprOWPdkhVb2ypsWP5fo
Seen it, Loved it!
That side of "Faithful" with original songs is just wonderful. In my opinion it showcases the best Todd singing ever (Clichés, Verb to love, etc.)
Great Episode! The only TODD I own is my original copy of Something/Anything LP, a Best Of and a King Biscuit live CD which I haven't listened to in ages.
I guess 2024 I will go down the Todd/Utopia rabbit hole!
1. Hermit of Mink Hollow
2. Something/Anything
3. Nearly Human
4. The Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect
5. Healing
6. 2nd Wind
7. The Ballad of Todd Rundgren
8. A Cappella
9. Todd
10. Initiation
I love that you guys did this. I’m not even 2 minutes in.
By reviewing all the comments I've come to a conclusion... there is no bad TR. Everyone hears things differently and I'm totally impressed by all the comments! These rankings are all over the map!!! Love it!
Even on One Long Year, my least favorite by him, there are songs I like ( Surf talks, Buffalo Grass ) or even love ( Where does the time go ? ).
Wow, I just recently reunited with Todd. I lucked in with a great girl who turned me onto great prog and more albums and Wizard was my entry point. After not hearing Wizard for thirty or more years I love it more, can't get enough, and finding out what a musical Swiss army knife genius Todd is! Flawed genius, like all true geniuses.
Man ! This episode was pretty inspiring. I've always respected Todd but now I feel like I need to dive all the way in.
My top
1. Todd
2. Something/Anything
3. Wizard/True Star
4. Runt: Ballad
5. Runt
Todd=Szulkin #STRIMBU
I remember being _psyched_ when Arena came out. Forgot he played all the instruments.
SoT needs to start a new monthly show with Grant.
Here goes, from best to worst (the ones that I own or at least have heard):
A Wizard, A True Star (1973)
Runt. The Ballad of Todd Rundgren (1971)
Something/Anything (1972)
Todd (1974)
Healing (1981, w/ "Time Heals" & "Tiny Demons" as bonus tracks)
Runt (1970)
Hermit of Mink Hollow (1978)
Nearly Human (1989)
Initiation (1975)
The Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect (1982)
Liars (2004)
Faithful (1976)
Arena (2008)
Happy New Year!
I like seeing Ballad at #2! Oh yeah!
@@GrantsRockWarehaus I guess it's one of his least adventurous albums, but I love just about every song on it. Somehow I've always likened it to Neil Young's After the Gold Rush, which is my favorite record of all-time; there are differences (Todd's stuff is obviously more complex), but it's similarly intimate, warm, beautiful, fragile etc.
check out some early Laura Nyro and Ballad will all make sense!! @@askoholli9306
10. Healing
9. The Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect
8. Initiation
7. Runt: the Ballad of Todd Rundgren
6. Todd
5. Hermit of Mink Hollow
4. Runt
3. Faithful
2. Something/Anything?
1. A Wizard, a True Star
It's always been a mystery to me that Todd isn't better known especially here in the UK. I got into him in the 70's and although I haven't kept up with his more recent releases he's always been a firm favourite. One of those small band of artists like Zappa or Prince who ploughed his own furrow seemingly oblivious to whether he was popular. A genuine original
Grant's in the house! Well welcome! Happy New Year. Great show and can't argue with any of this. Great show greater talent!!!
My Todd finest. 1. Something Anything
2. Utopia- Uoptia
3. Utopia-Adventure in
4. Wizard a True Star
5. Arena
6. todd
7. Faithfull
8. Runt Ballad
9. Hermit
10. Runt
11. Healing
12. Todd Rundgren's Utopia
13. Swing to the Right
14. Deface the Music
15. Torture
Oh yeah!!
1- Initiation (and i ABSOLUTELY ADORE "A Treatise On Cosmic Fire")
2- A Wizard A True Star
3- Todd
4- Healing
5- Something/Anything
5- Runt
6- The Ballad of Todd Rundgren
7- 2nd Wind
8- The Hermit of Mink Hollow
9- Liars
10- Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect
Who doesn't love ''Treatise'' ? but I would have to have ''Faithful'' in there just for ''Verb to love'' and '' Love of the common mam'' Best period for me was day one to ''Healing''.
The Acapella tour was amazing!
I got Todd's autograph after the show! A great moment!
heart swore by the ovation.in the late 70,s 80,s.
Todd Rundgren is my favourite rock star ever. Initiation is my favourite album of all time. 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰
That is one killer of an album. Interaction is unbelievable
Great record.
That's because you're a Real Man! 😂
Grant and Peter - you’ve give me the widest smile. My jaw is aching. This a just wonderful. I love Todd.
Excellent! Glad to hear it!
todd rundgren is awesome.
Great show! He has an interesting catalog for sure!
The Rhino Anthology in 1989 was a revelation to me. Love the songs. 1. Something Anything; 2. Nearly Human; 3. The Hermit of Mink Hollow; 4. Healing; 5. A Wizard A True Star. 6. Initiation; 7. Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect; 8. Runt, The Ballad of TR; 9. Todd; 10. Runt.
That's a good set to start with, but once you get the Todd experience, you'll need the whole catalog!!
Sorry Pete, not New Years day, but New Years eve. Love the show, for decades been a Todd Rundgren fan.
🌠Good one Guys ...Happy New Year Early...
I won’t bother with my Top 10, because that would be impossible. That said, Todd Rundgren put together the greatest 5-album run in recorded history with Runt, The Ballad…, S/A?, AWATS, and Todd. And yes, that DOES include the Beatles (whom I absolutely adore)… and considering that he did most of it as a true solo artist, and with a relative modicum of collaboration, well, it becomes mind boggling. And Grant, as a Rush fan, you may be interested in knowing that Neal Peart was a huge Todd fan, and his favorite Rundgren album was The Ballad of T.R. Who’d a thunk it? Great show guys!
For me, the greatest 5-album run would include Initiation, not Runt. He's up there with only Steely Dan in the 70s.
@@h.m.7218 No argument there: Initiation and Donald are both brilliant.
A Soupy Sales reference on SOT? Yes!
hahaha... yep
been waiting for this ranking show for awhile….I just can’t stop listening to A Wizard, a True Star over the last year
Love it!
Looking forward to this episode but will have to return due to some holiday family time. Had to offer up a personal ranking of Todd Top Ten. List is as of today though the top two spots have held for over 50 years.
1. A Wizard, A True Star - personal favorite album of all time
2. Something/Anything
3. Hermit Of Mink Hollow
4. Todd
5. The Ballad of Todd Rundgren
6. Runt
7. Nearly Human
8. Liars
9. The Ever-Popular Tortured Artist Effect
10 Arena [a bit derivate but just a fun listen]
Thanks for putting this album on the Album Ranking list, Pete. Really looking forward to watching you and Grant on this episode later today. Happy New Year to you both and all the SoT co-captains and commentators.
Agree with your inclusion of Nearly Human and Liars. I would argue that these two are both top 5 albums in terms of the total package. These guys appeared to have stopped at 1985.
@@markmasercola3958Thanks for your comment. Nearly Human has a certain feel for me in overall album that I enjoy and Liars, though not a particular favorite when it first came out, has really come up the list with repeated listenings.
The best catalog of music on the planet. Followed with relentless touring. Gift after gift , the man is MUSIC.. If nominated I will not run, if elected I' will not serve.
My favorite Todd Rundgren song is "The Verb 'To Love'" from "Faithful"
That one is amazing. I love everything about it, but particularly the lounge-y instrumental section. Blue-eyed soul perfection.
rundgren, a kind of a true artist for a certain reason
Great show guys..I'm going back to my Todd catalog its been a while...always been a fan of his album LIAR from 2004
Yeah, "Liars" is soooo underrated.
Nearly Human is where I started. Good place to start.
How did you come about starting there? Love it!!!
Rolling Stone gave it a great review and I took a chance.Fell in love with it, especially "Hawking". Went out and got the cover handprint tattoo soon after. Did you know that Eric Martin and Paul Gilbert sang backup on that album?@@GrantsRockWarehaus
I saw this blurry cover in a dream ( without knowing what it was... If you look at it, it's even hard to read Todd Rundgren ) the very night before discovering the album at my retailer. Only premonitory dream I've ever experienced.
Great start to the new year but I'll have Todd in my head for days now ! He's up there somewhere next to the Beatles and Stevie Wonder for me. His best songs are simply breathtaking. I love the early piano ballads that feel like poems for the lonely, trapped in empty emotional space; and on these albums Todd is the only artist that ever matched the soaring beauty and the depths of soul of Laura Nyro. Then he was writing layered pop masterpieces that never feel over-written or over-produced. Most artists tend to add too much, so that the thing falls over or they lose what they had; but that's never the case with Todd. Every layer is beautifully crafted to shape the whole and enhance the message and emotion of the lyric. A song like Just One Victory is a great example; as inspiring and thrilling as anything ever written and performed. Thanks Pete and Grant for reminding us all.
A Wizard/A True Star is an absolute masterpiece. Way ahead of its time it sounds fresher today than ever.
I was lucky enough to have a friend who had this LP at home in high school and we would listen almost every weekend under the influence of whatever we could get our hands on at the time
Awesome episode! Todd is in my top five favorite artists of all time. Saw him in 2023 at the Wellmont Theater in NJ (opening for Daryl Hall). He still sings great and he wailed on the electric guitar on "Black Maria." Hall let him play over an hour. Great stuff! I love Something/Anything. Grew up with that album when it first came out. Love Healing, also. Happy New Year!
Great job guys.
You did miss 3 masterpieces.
Nearly Human, Second Wind,
and With a Twist.
Listen to all with no preconceived notions and lights off.
I think he advanced in his instrumental and vocal arrangements and with his vocals. His increase of vocal range on Second Wind is stunning.And yes, With a Twist sounds like MOR mood music , but it's done masterfully and what lush vocal arrangements!
Nearly Human has the ultimate breakup song due to incompatibility , Parallel Lines.
Nearly Human is a great album. No one talks about it , so criminally overlooked.
With a Twist is in my top 10👍🏻
I started with Something/Anything? in 1972 when I was stationed @ Ramey AFB in Puerto Rico. I also remember hearing We Gotta Get You A Woman in Eureka California but had no clue it was Todd because the dj said it was by a band called Runt. So I didn’t know that was Todd for at least 2 decades. I also love side 2 of Initiation which I think inspired my improvisational videos on RUclips. It never seems like 36 minutes to me. In fact I always say Is it over already? 😂
The only time I've been lucky enough to see Todd was on the Arena tour. The set consisted of the album in full and I Saw The Light (if I remember rightly). That might have disappointed some people but I loved it. Todd was rockin'!
Happy New Year gang! 🎊 🥂Looking forward to seeing what you do in 2024 Pete, you smashed it last year! Love your videos w/Martin Popoff.🙏🏻🎧
This was a good one. Thanks for the effort.
1) AWATS 2) Todd, Initiation, TR's Utopia, Healing 3) Ballad, Something, Hermit, Liars, Nearly Human, TEPTAE 4) Runt, Faithful, A Cappella, NWO, Individualist, Space Force, White Knight, State, Arena, Second Wind, Repro, Up Against It 5) Twist, OLY,
BTW, Healing did appear in the top 50 upon its release. 48 or something.
Sorry to see "Nearly Human" & "Second Wind" get ignored or forgotten by yet another ranking show. IMO, two of Todd's greatest works that came back to back, along with two of his best tours.
Nearly Human is a fav of mine (#5), but Second Wind has never hit me as hard.
Not ignored, but these releases have to rank somewhere. Nothing wrong with NH and SW, but I prefer Todd doing everything in the studio. That Bearsville period (including A cappella is magic). I dig it that you love those albums! Like I said in the show... there's no bad TR
@@noheamike5036 Second Wind is brilliant
Nearly Human is my favorite Todd Rundgren Album
"Treatise on Cosmic Fire" was sped up to make it fit on a side of vinyl. The single "Prana" however was released at the original speed.
I took my DAW and restored "Treatise" to its original recorded speed.
I'm surprised Todd has not released 5.1 mixes of these albums or remastered them for digital release.
Makes you wonder if he owns the multitracks?
Fantastic show Grant and Pete! Great to see Pete rank Arena (2008) so high. I have loved this one from the get go. So many great records from a true artist who never rests. Yes, Something/Anything? is my favorite, a desert island record for me. But like Grant, Runt. The Ballad of Todd Rundgren is a close #2 for me and A Wizard, a True Star is a crazy tour de force that is my easy #3. I have to pick up A Capella one day. And what a great episode to end 2023. Happy New Year!
Thank you my brother! Do yourself a favor and pick up A Capella! It's brilliant!
@@GrantsRockWarehaus You're welcome my brother! It shall be done!
Great review guys! My big brother bought the first Nazz album and once I heard it, I kept it and refused to give it back. Being a beginning drummer, I thought Thom Mooney was as good as any one famous. Long story short, Todd was/is a huge inspiration to my playing and recording. I play all the instruments and vocals on our music although do have a songwriting partner. I really enjoyed your video and agree with your selections. Looking forward to more👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Massive Todd Rundgren fan and so hard to categorize or rank such a stellar catalog of music so for today the top 5 is Todd, a wizard a true star, something, anything, healing and nearly human.this can definitely change at anytime
Me as well! My ranking could very well be different today!
This was allot of fun! In the late 70's my first Todd album was Hermit of Mink Hollow that I first heard my sister listening to, then I found a Runt reissue, then Adventures in Utopia. I then went back to the rest of the Todd discography and then later to the rest of the Utopia catalog. I spent allot of money buying all this stuff on LP then spent even more money buying them all on cd.
It would have been nice to just include all of his albums for the heck of it. I would rank Liars above Arena, personally. Yes, that would make for a longer show and more confusion, but true Todd fans (and many who sort of know him) know how important S/A and Hermit are. We want to see the merit in the later, more obscure releases. I have been loving Space Force since it came out, which is all collaborations but still has his name on it. Ok, 26 albums (Wikipedia) may be too many. Too much Todd? That does not compute! Great show nonetheless!
Thanks for the comment!
Initiation was my introduction to Todd Rundgren, and I totally agree with Pete’s synopsis of that album. That said, here is my list:
#1 No World Order
#2 Nearly Human
#3 A Cappella
#4 2nd Wind
#5 Something/Anything
#6 Liars
#7 Arena
#8 Initiation
#9 Space Force
#10 One Long Year
#10a The Individualist
My favorites:
1. Hermit of Mink Hollow
2. A Wizard, a True Star
3. Initiation
4. Something/Anything?
5. Healing
6. Faithful
7. Todd
8. Liars
9. Arena
10. 2nd Wind
todd is godd! thx guys.
You guys! This is a great discussion! Todd is one of the most important musical artists, ever, in my book. Period. It’s the diversity that makes his catalogue so wonderful, at least for me. Sorry, Pete, I’m not much a fan of Arena, but the last time I tried to listen to it, it was a few months after it was released … I need to spin it again. 😳 Favorites of mine are Liars, Second Wind, The Individualist, and I LOVE With A Twist, with a tip of the hat to No World Order. Oh geez, and Nearly Human! One of his best!
PS: Side 2 of S/A is magical!
Are they in the top 10? I don’t know! I find it impossible to rate his catalogue down to 10 … I love his stuff so much. Both you guys made a lotta sense - even when you didn’t agree. Great video, both of you! ✌🏼
Great choices all around, guys. Only one minor quibble...I would replace "A Capella" with 2004's "Liars," which is soooo good. Tracks like "Sweet", " Future", "Past", "Afterlife" and "God Said", just chock full of really great songs. This was a true return to form for Todd.
Liars is a great album!
Ditto!
Loved this episode! Todd is God
"Nearly Human" from 1989 is my runner up at # 11. "The Want Of A Nail" (with the late R&B singer Bobby Womack) got rock airplay!! (the what, what, what)
Saw that tour 3 times, it was awesome!
Hey guys thanks so much for doing this! Todd is one of my three major music heroes and influences. I have to say I was shocked the only more current recording you highlighted was Arena! So much more amazing stuff in the 90’s to the present. Individualist, No world order, Liars,White Night, and the current colab recording Space Force. Same quality, same experiments with current tech, and his break from doing everything on the recording and working with others! Todd has frequently mentioned his disappointment that such top ten list don’t include the more current recordings during which he was inducted in the R&R Hall of Fame and received the Les Paul award!
I agree : Liars is great and both White Knight and Space Force are good.
My favourite is The Ballad Of Todd Rundgren. Tight catchy beautiful pop tunes. I'm a sucker for piano.
Great one, when you two team up it always feels like an issue of the West Coast Avengers
The late Robert Palmer did "Can We Still Be Friends?" (from his 1979 "Secrets"). British singer Kim Wilde (of 1982 "Kids In America") did "Lucky Guy" (from 1988 "Close"). Palmer: ruclips.net/video/Ux0qCE8qOnk/видео.html & Wilde: ruclips.net/video/ESYbRCDEG_s/видео.html
England Dan and John Ford coley did love is the answer
One album of Todd's that I may be the only fan of is "TR-I".
I absolutely love this album. So different, so catchy, so much going on.
Not my favorite Todd album by any means, but damn is it a fun ride.
Got it day of release and still listen to it semi-regularly to this day.
He did 2 albums as TR-i, No World Order first, and then The Individualist. Like both, but The Individualist landed at #6 in my top ten!
@@noheamike5036 I never did get The Individualist. I'll have to check it out.
Actually TR-I is my favorite Todd album, but then the CD-i version (so I could play with it while listening). It's on shared nr.1 with Hermit, although I also like many other works from the man.
Fantastic show, Grant and Pete. I've got Something/Anything and Wizard, and wanted to know what to get next, so thank you.
Awesome show! I love Todd so much, and Wizard was my first album I ever heard, right when it came out, so wow! Also, I’m curious as to no comments to the one producer who really has a the most unique Snare sound ever. Some people love it, some people don’t, either way it’s an interesting choice! TIG
Great show 🎉🎈🥳🥂🍾
Happy New Year
Grant makes great point
You can tell Todd by the period of the new cutting edge equipment he used at the time..
I pretty much agree with most of all your choices as far as the top 10 very good show I always entertaining when Grant comes on he brings a lot of knowledge.
It was neat to see Pete bring out a cappella into his list that was very cool too.
I'm definitely in the arena camp with Pete too that is one kick ass album when Todd went back to rockin
Thanks for the kind words! A cappella was so innovative when it was released. Hard to believe it was shelved for a year before it was released.
Great analysis.
As a 68 year old long time Todd fan, I found this very interesting & enjoyed it very much... The one thing you guy's are missing though is having grown up during the era all these albums were first released. I was 14 when I bought my first NAZZ album in 1969 & also first discovered pot. During the early to mid 70's there was a lot of good psychedelics around that many of my generation were using, so Todd's- Wiz/Todd/Initiation albums were many times enjoyed under the influence, so we saw them in a totally different light. lol. Glad to see they made your top 10 though. Peace.
When I was 14 I heard the Todd lp from my older sister who thought she was getting the poppy Something /Anything Todd and just didn’t get It .That record changed my life and is still my favorite.
You get every aspect of his personality on this record and that’s what is special about him.
It can also get in his way as can bad luck with labels and promotion. He and Utopia deserved more
Hits.Nice to see him getting some props later in his life.Long overdue.
I love Utopia and they certainly deserve more!
"A Wizard, A True Star" is my favorite. Followed by the debut "Runt" and "Something/Anything?". The "Todd" album has a lot of great stuff on it too, but it gets a bit too much chaotic, in some places.
Todd, the renaissance man 🙌 yeah 10 is difficult, Nearly Human would have hit my top 10
Todd's guitar soloing skills were stunning on 'Nazz Nazz', with 'Kiddie Boy' and particulary 'A Beautiful Song', which is both ripping and stunning, a tune that is all guitar soloing aside from a middle vocal interlude. It is also worth checking him out guesting with John Mayall on RUclips. He plays 'All Your Lovin'', the opening track from the Mayall & Clapton 'Blues Breakers' (aka Beano) album. He plays and sounds great. And the expressions on the faces of Mayall and the bassist are confirmation of the Wow! they were feeling. I mean, this is the 'Hello, It's Me Guy' riffing like early Clapton on a cruise ship...with a Strat sounding like a Les Paul.
The best Todd record? 'Something/Anything'. The ultimate desert island disc. Mind, a two-disc version of 'A Wizard, A True Star' would be a potential contender. Or a 10-disc 'best of'.
Cheers from chilly Canada.
I would certainly include Healing high up on my list, probably 3 or 4, I saw Todd perform Todd and Healing in their entirety 10ish years ago and it was excellent, they had a choir for the Healing part. I also would have Liars and No World Order in my top 10. I am also happy to see the love for A Capella, really brilliant.
I’ve been saying that, for years, "Real Man", side, one and "Faithful" side two if it was on one album would be the equivalent to Sergeant Pepper. Or Or something of that ilk.
I’ve heard ‘Hideaway’ on the radio before, and yes it’s one of his best tunes of the past 40 plus years
For me it's A Wizard, A True Star...by far! It's just got everything of Todd's best attributes and aspects, all in one album. Some of the great songwriting and power-pop ballads of Something/Anything continued, but then the psychedelic wierdness and avante-guard experimentation and serious bold risk taking, some hard-rocking tunes too, soul Motown covers, you name it! So well produced and engineered, has to be one of the most influential albums of all time in a production and engineering sense. For me A Wizard is on par with the first Utopia album (Todd Rundgren's Utopia) as the best record Todd ever did....but that is officially a Utopia album, so in terms of his solo records, it's A Wizard at number 1 for sure.
2. Something/Anything
3. Todd
4. Initiation
5. Hermit of Mink Hollow
I'm finishing weeding out all of my Rundgren. Off to the Goodwill. No Slap Happy Here.
I'm happy to see Runt: The Ballad of.. getting a bit of love. Check out A Long Time and A Long Way To Go and then listen to one of the biggest tunes on YT: See You Again by Charlie Puth and Wiz Khalifa.
Great episode! I guess it's a tribute to Todd that you guys didn't even mention four of my favs. Nearly Human, Liars, 2nd wind and the Individualist. His catalogue is so vast!!
We all have our favs! There is no bad TR!
Todd Rundgren is such a genius and I dare say under appreciated. I don't even think you could really explore him enough.
Ovation wasn't new in the 80s, they were around in the late 60s. Glen Campbell used one.
From my neck of the woods in CT - started in the mid 60's. The founder Charles Kaman is known for Kaman Aircraft (helicopters), he sold KMC to Fender at one point. Stopped making US guitars in the mid teens, the older US models are pretty cool. Used to have an Ovation acoustic 12 string, their trademark is the synthetic rounded back. I recall Al DiMeola playing them
@@wolf1977 I still have one from the early 2000s made in Korea, but great to play live.
but a lot of bands/artists played them in the late 70's and 80's. You never see them anymore though...
I couldn't properly do a top 10 for Todd because I admittedly am a bit fair-weather with him in that I haven't gone beyond Healing, but my top 3 definitely contains Something/Anything?, A Wizard, A True Star and Todd and I honestly don't know how to rank them. My current state presently wants to put Todd at #1 because of the unfettered invention that's going on and I really enjoy how he eases on the content compression that he had on Wizard eg he lets things breathe more on it. Then again, the fever dream of Wizard's A-side is absolutely amazing and touches the manic alchemy that Frank Zappa was able to utilize so effortlessly. In fact, I really look at Todd and Frank as sort of yin and yang, Shem and Sean or Adam and Cain to each other in that they exemplify the same approach to artistry, but while Zappa does it in his razor-sharp turning-the-mirror-on-society way, Todd does it in his soul-searching transcendentalist way and I find both approaches to be incredibly useful to the human condition. And the cherry on top is that they both have a sense of humor about it! Anyway, great lists and thank you because I'm now getting the itch to go over some Todd material.
And to further expound on my statement of Todd and Frank's approaches, there were the little dots in their halves of the yin-yang where they did a little of the opposite approaches themselves.
Over the years, as a music lover, I dug into the Zappa catalogue, but I have to admit that, although I do like some tunes ( Doreen, Inca Road, Dancin' fool or the album with Captain Beefheart, the grave one ) and also Zappa, the character, I've never been impressed by Zappa's music. For me it lacks the pop genius sensibility of TR.
One interesting thing about Zappa and TR is that TR fans generally know Zappa's music whereas, over the years, I've known quite a few Zappa's music fans who didn't even know who TR was.
better scratch that itch 😉
AWATS is the ultimate stream of consciousness album
Two albums in my top 5 would be Second Wind and Nearly Human. I loved that full ensemble with all the layered vocals. I saw him on both those tours at The Ritz in New York.
The Nearly Human tour had a great band. I saw it at the St. Louis Fox Theater.
@@michaelbenz8092 It sure was a great band. I also bought that DVD Live In Japan, which was a treat.
Yep. It's sad that those two albums got no acknowledgment whatsoever in this video. I think both are superb and in my 3 Todd albums. On this channel I notice more and more a heavy bias towards classic artists' older material and the flippant dismissal of later works, or no mention of them at all. Their Barclay James Harvest album ranking would lead one to believe that that band's musical output ended in the early 80s, when it actually lasted into the 2000s with some top tier albums. In Todd's case the two albums were talking about here would be mid-period at this point. Of albums after the 80s, only "Arena" makes either of the hosts rankings. Absolutely nothing from the 90s in acknowledged.
Thank you Pete and Grant. I am looking forward to this ranking.
My top 10 Todd Rundgren solo albums are:
1. A Wizard A True Star
2. Something/Anything
3. A Capella
4. Initiation
5. Liars
6. Healing
7. Hermit of Mink Hollow
8. State
9. Nearly Human
10. Space Force
Ranking is very subjective imho ... can be ranked by sales popularity or by aesthetics. After his popular sales pop oriented work of the early 70s he focused on making his artistic/aesthetic growth as or more important than sales in his work imho. Todd is probably the most unique and progressive North American artist who is even more respected in Europe than North America.
Personally I base my album rankings strictly on what I like the most, not sales/influence on others/critics' opinions/airplay/image/popularity/etc. One could use any or all of those factors I guess - music itself is subjective (like art) so ranking it will be as well. Those who apply too much science/objective measures (like sales #'s) I think are somewhat missing the point...
Really looking forward to this. After The Beatles, Todd is my favorite artist of all time. Curious to see how Pete and Grant rank ‘em!
My Top 10, no Utopia selections allowed!
10) Second Wind
9) Nearly Human
8) Ballad Of Todd Rundgren
7) Hermit Of Mink Hollow
6) Todd
5) Liars
4) Initiation
3) Faithful
2) A Wizard, A True Star
1) Something/Anything
If I could combine the originals side of Faithful backed with Side 1 of Initiation, that imaginary album would be nipping at #2 A Wizard’s heels! I am impressed with the covers side of Faithful, but they are covers. And I never listen to Side 2 of Initiation.
Little disappointed in Todd’s solo work of the last two decades. I believe 2004’s Liars is his last truly great album.
Sal/ definitely a litmus test on this artist. I’ve heard you for years on him : very vast knowledge. See you in am. Great 👍 ranking 💯
No Healing or Runt?@@DCToonTime
@@GrantsRockWarehaus Runt would probably fall @ #11. I think Ballad does everything Runt does only a little better. Not as Rockin, in places though. We Gotta Get You A Woman is a stone cold classic tune!
Healing has always been an odd listen for me. The approach of that album and material makes me feel eerie and uncomfortable. It’s very odd how that album strikes me. It has spiritual undertones that instead of inspire me, make me feel empty. And I am a spiritual person.
I think you guys said it best, if you love Todd, and we all do, almost everything works. I’m a bit older and was in my sophomore year at UAlbany when i bought S/A…Todd had me at Hello…it’s me!
Not so much for me. I love the melodic stuff (mostly 70's) a lot but his more experimental stuff doesn't resonate that much with me. I see Rundgren as somewhat 'divisive' in that even back in the late 70's during my college days many loved him & just about as many didn't get it (or totally didn't know who he was)
but you have to appreciate Todd for being true to himself and creating the music he wanted to. He is truly a tortured artist@@wolf1977
@@GrantsRockWarehaus Absolutely, I always give extra 'points' to artists/bands who are true to themselves no matter what. However that doesn't really make me like music any more that I just don't care for. It's the difference between appreciating vs liking - I can appreciate most of Rundgren's output while I like/love a smaller subset of that
I started listening to popular music in 1966 with Georgy Girl. When I discovered Laura Nyro in 2015, my lifelong favourite artists fell like flies. Todd chose brilliantly, as did David Geffen as Nyro was his first artist under management. How I missed Nyro for decades is still a mystery to me, given that I discovered Deep Purple etc in 1971, and Joni Mitchell in 1975.
Yes, Tiny Demons was definitely featured in Miami Vice. The episode was called, "Little Prince".
I did go back and revisit A Capella after watching this. It’s better than I remember. Would still take Nearly Human over it to make the bottom of my Top 10. Agreed with both of you for the most part other than Faithful is still in my top 5 despite the covers which are great
Love Todd
Tiny Demons was on a Miami Vice episode. Great memory!
TBH I don't like a lot of Rundgren's more recent output but overall (including his production work plus Nazz/Utopia & stuff like Astral Drive/The New Cars) he's a pretty important figure in rock. Something like 40 total albums (including live) under his name alone starting with 1970's Runt. Some 230 tracks in my custom 'Runt' playlist. Here's what I come up with:
1. Something/Anything
2. Runt - The Ballad of Todd Rundgren, Hermit Of Mink Hollow
3. Runt, A Wizard A True Star, The Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect
3. Initiation, Faithful, Healing, Nearly Human
4. Todd
5. 2nd Wind, Liars, White Knight
6. Space Force
7. Everything else...
Others: Back To The Bars (great live compilation), For Lack Of Honest Work (some live stuff), The Individualist - A True Star Live (very good), State Theater New Jersey 2005. Somewhere Anywhere: The Unreleased Tracks and Anthology (1968-1985). The Japanese compilation Free Soul Runt
That's the way I rank TR albums too. I mean, several albums tied. No other way to do it...
Wow, Pablo Cruise ranking is gonna be fun!
The great underrated David Jenkins
@@truckerkevthepaidtourist Absolutely. And some of the best drum sounds can be found on Pablo Cruise records. Bill Schnee got Steve Price's drums to sound so perfect on the World's Apart and Part Of The Game albums.
Should be great!
No one mentions the TR-i years
The Individualist landed at #6 for me.
One of my besties even though he's so far left." .Faithful" is probably my favorite but "Todd" isnt very far behind.".Something/ Anything" is right up there too!
That Utopia stuff wasnt shabby either. A whole album of fake Beatles songs. No problem!
Wizard is pure ear candy.
Fun Todd Fact…In 1981, he performed “Healer” on Saturday Night Live. SNL must have decided Todd wasn’t enough, as a very-pre “Purple Rain” Prince also performed on the same show.
Fun fact, Pat Travers was in the band with Todd on that SNL appearance.....
@@DonMacGillivray What the hell? That’s nuts.
Also the infamous Charles Rocket f bomb episode that Lorne has forever banned
@@karljanice9367 That’s right!
And they co-headlined a Rundgren Radio party in Orlando exactly 10 years ago tonight, NYE 2013@@rexpresto
10) A Capella, 9) Todd, 8) Faithful, 7) Wizard, 6) The Individualist, 5) Nearly Human, 4) Liars, 3) Hermit, 2) Healing, 1) Something/Anything
Liars at #4! Nice!
@@GrantsRockWarehaus expected my Individualist ranking to raise more eyebrows...
As a major Todd-Head, here's my probably unique list:
1. A Capella -- It's the one I reach for more often than not. Every song is different but great.
2. Nearly Human -- I love the strength of his voice and some of his best melodies.
3. Hermit of Mink Hollow -- Very catchy pop
4. A Wizard a True Star -- Love the trippy ride
5. Something/Anything -- Classic songwriting but voice not as strong as it would become
6. 2nd Wind -- Baroque pop, love the 3 broadway tunes
7 The Ever Popular Tortured Artis Effect -- Fun poppy tunes that run on too long but still fun
8. Runt -- Great eclectic debut with some of his best guitar playing
9. Healing -- Synth-laden, dreamy pop -- the 2nd side suite is transcendent
10. Liars -- Nice late return to form, several killer tunes
I have to agree about the Up Against It tunes. They're fantastic and the live Metropole orchestra versions are a dream come true...
As to you my friend!
Tony and Hunt Sales also worked with Iggy Pop. The song Lust For Life? That's Tony and Hunt on the rhythm section.
Never heard a whole album from him. Just a few songs over the years.
He's one of those artists whose deep tracks easily match or better the few hits...