Edsel records todd rundgren biography

In addition, Rundgren has established himself as a talented producer. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Todd Rundgren began his musical career in his hometown. He made his debut in the amateur band 'Woody's Truck Stop', influenced by the blues band of Paul Butterfield. The group achieved a certain level of popularity, largely due to Rundgren's songs such as 'Open My Eyes' and 'Hello It's Me', which later became his signature tunes.

Todd, however, did not limit himself to any specific genre, constantly seeking and absorbing the most interesting trends from various styles, including hard rock and experimental music. After parting ways with 'Nazz' inTodd Rundgren relocated to New York City, where he began producing other bands. He continued to push the boundaries of technology and music throughout his career.

The s saw Rundgren explore synth-pop and new wave elements in albums like "Hermit of Mink Hollow" and "A Cappella" While he may not have achieved the same commercial success as in the s, his artistic integrity and influence remained strong. In the following decades, Todd Rundgren maintained a consistent output of albums and continued to tour, attracting both loyal fans and new admirers.

His live performances were known for their energy, musical proficiency, and willingness to revisit his classic hits alongside new material.

Edsel records todd rundgren biography

Rundgren's influence extended beyond music. His innovative spirit and artistic vision made him a pioneer in various creative fields. He received recognition from the music industry and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame incementing his place as an essential figure in the history of rock music. If I needed cash, I would show up at the accountants and they would just give me hundreds or thousands of dollars.

Released in mid, Runt was not originally credited to Rundgren due to his anxieties about starting a full-fledged solo career, and instead bore the moniker "Runt". If you go back and listen to it, it's very sophisticated material, especially for a guy so young. Rundgren's industry reputation grew substantially as a result of his success with Runtand for the first time in his life, he began using recreational drugs.

Initially this was limited to marijuana. He said that the drug gave him "a whole different sensibility about time and space and order" that influenced the writing for his second album, Runt. The Ballad of Todd Rundgren. While initial reviews of Ballad were mixed, it came to be regarded as one of the greatest singer-songwriter albums of the era.

In lateRundgren was recruited to finish Badfinger 's third album Straight Upa project George Harrison had abandoned to organize the Concert for Bangladeshin London. As with Balladmuch of the newer material was written or conceived under the influence of marijuana. However, by this time, he had also begun experimenting with Ritalin. He recalled, "my songwriting process had become almost too second-nature.

I was writing songs formulaically, almost without thinking, knocking [them out], reflexively, in about 20 minutes. To keep up the pace, he installed an eight-track recorder, mixer, and synthesizers into his living room so that he could continue edsel record todd rundgren biography after leaving the studio. He then decided to stretch the project into a double LP and quickly recorded the last few tracks with musicians, live in the studio.

Included among straightforward pop songs are extended jams and studio banter, such as the spoken-word track "Intro", in which he teaches the listener about recording flaws for an egg hunt -type game he calls "Sounds of the Studio". Music journalist Paul Lester called the recording a "masterclass in compression " and said that Rundgren "staked his claim to powerpop immortality [and] set the whole ball rolling".

Subsequent albums, beginning with A Wizard, a True Star and the spin-off group Utopiasaw a dramatic shift away from straightforward three-minute pop. I threw out all the rules of record making and decided I would try to imprint the chaos in my head onto a record without trying to clean it up for everyone else's benefit. The edsel record todd rundgren biography was a complete loss of about half of my audience at that point This became the model for my life after that.

The sound and structure of Wizard was heavily informed by Rundgren's hallucinogenic experiences. A lot of people recognized it as the dynamics of a psychedelic trip—it was almost like painting with your head. The studio was designed to Rundgren's specifications and was created so that he could freely indulge in sound experimentation without having to worry about hourly studio costs, although he maintained that the album still felt "kind of rushed through because the studio wasn't finished".

A Wizard, a True Star was released in March The former album reached number two on the US charts, while the latter became a seminal forerunner of punk rockalthough Rundgren never became known as a "punk producer". The tour began in April and was cancelled after only a couple weeks on the road. Once Rundgren was finished with his production duties, he began formulating plans for an improved configuration of Utopia, but first returned to Secret Sound to record the more synthesizer-heavy double album Toddwhich was more material drawing on his hallucinogenic experiences.

During the making of ToddRundgren took note of the " fusion jazz sensibility" between session musicians Kevin Ellman drums and John Siegler bass. Rundgren chose them, along with Klingman and keyboardist Ralph Shuckett, to be the new configuration of Utopia. If I get that one minute of total illumination then I don't care if my whole career goes down the drain.

I'd know there was an answer to everything—to existence, to death. It marked Rundgren's first full-fledged venture into the progressive rock genre. Utopia released several more albums between and Although they gradually rebranded toward a rock-pop sound, Todd Rundgren's Utopia remained their highest album chart showing at number But I am allowed to sing about anything I want!

Initiation showed more experimentation with synthesizers, and displayed the musical influence of the avant-garde jazz fusion of contemporary acts such as the Mahavishnu Orchestra and Frank Zappa. Once again the original LP issue saw Rundgren pushing the medium to its physical limits, with the side-long suite "A Treatise on Cosmic Fire" clocking in at over 35 minutes.

Released in MayFaithful saw Rundgren celebrating his tenth year as a professional musician. The album featured one side of original songs and one side of covers of significant songs fromincluding the Yardbirds' " Happenings Ten Years Time Ago ", the Beach Boys ' " Good Vibrations ", and two Lennon-penned Beatles songs. The arrangements of the covers were intended to sound as close to the originals as possible, and Rundgren's original songs were written as a reflection of his s influences.

He cited the song "The Verb 'To Love'" as the point in which he made the conscious decision to stop writing superficial love songs and "seek out all other kinds of subject matter to write about". The first, Disco Jetswas a tongue-in-cheek collection of instrumental disco tracks left unreleased until Ra February was a concept album based on Egyptian mythology, which prefaced a lavish tour involving an extravagant stage set with a giant pyramid and Sphynx head.

Wrong Planet Septemberrecorded immediately after the tour, [ 91 ] signaled the start of a more pop-oriented direction for the group. By lateRundgren was in the midst of separating from then-girlfriend Bebe Buell and their infant daughter Liv Tyler. A fortunate by-product of being so out of everything all the time and always being the odd man out In that sense, he stated that the songwriting process appeared to be "fairly conventional".

Hermit of Mink Hollow was released in May These shows resulted in the double live album Back to the Barswhich featured a mixture of material from his solo work and Utopia, performed with backing musicians including Utopia, [ 96 ] Spencer DavisDaryl Hall and John Oates and Stevie Nicks. InUtopia recorded a Beatles parody album in the form of Deface the Music.

When he was apprehended, Chapman was wearing a promotional T-shirt for Hermit of Mink Hollow and had left a copy of Runt. The Ballad of Todd Rundgren in his hotel room. Rundgren was not aware of the connections until "way after the fact". The year saw the album-long concept work Healing. Rundgren's experience with computer graphics dates back towhen he developed one of the first computer paint programs, dubbed the Utopia Graphics System; it ran on an Apple II with Apple's digitizer tablet.

During this period, Rundgren's Mink Hollow home was robbed. He and his girlfriend were tied up in the home by the robbers as part of the crime. It later became more prominent and was adopted as an unofficial theme by several professional sports franchises, notably the Green Bay Packers. It is now considered one of Rundgren's most popular songs.

Rundgren signed with Warner Bros. Recordswho issued his next album, A Cappellawhich was recorded using Rundgren's multi-tracked voice, accompanied by arrangements constructed entirely from programmed vocal samples. Nearly Human and 2nd Wind were both recorded live—the former in the studio, the latter in a theater before a live audience, who were instructed to remain silent.

Both albums marked, in part, a return to his Philly soul roots. Rundgren was an early adopter of the NewTek Video Toaster and made several videos with it. The first, for "Change Myself" from 2nd Windwas widely distributed as a demo reel for the Toaster. Later, he set up a company to produce 3D animation using the Toaster; this company's first demo, "Theology" a look at religious architecture through the ages featuring music by former Utopia bandmate Roger Powell also became a widely circulated item among Toaster users.

InRundgren hit the road with Nearly Human—2nd Wind band, which included brass and a trio of backup singers one of whom, Michele Gray, Rundgren married. As the 90s began, Rundgren was already moving away from conventional notions of what a rock producer or recording artist should be The mids saw Rundgren recording under the pseudonym TR-i "Todd Rundgren interactive" for two albums.

The first of these, 's No World Orderconsisted of hundreds of seconds-long snippets of music, that could be combined in various ways to suit the listener. The follow-up, The Individualistfeatured interactive video content, that could be viewed or in one case, played; it was a simple video game along with the music, which was more rock-oriented than No World Order.

Rundgren returned to recording under his own name for With a Twist This exploration reached its fruition inwhen Rundgren released No World Order, the first interactive musical recording. Requiring special playback hardware called a CD-I player, this three-hour compilation of musical "puzzle pieces" could be played in different combinations and sequences to create a virtually unlimited number of song variations.

Listeners could input their preferences as to musical style or mood--and let the CD-I player do the rest. Many in the record industry viewed Rundgren's move as a herald of things to come. In fact, No World Order was just the next step in a continuum; Rundgren has never stopped looking for ways to combine or transform musical styles and production techniques in order to create something new.

As he said in Request, "I have to come up with something that is completely unconnected to all the standard operating procedures. Otherwise, I'm not doing anything unique. Adventures in Utopia Bearsville, Deface the Music Bearsville, Swing to the Right Bearsville, Utopia Bearsville, Initiation Bearsville, Faithful Bearsville, Healing Bearsville,