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Todd Rundgren

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by WillGilbert on 05/01/2006

Todd Rundgren's first solo album after leaving The Nazz just plain rules. In the course of it's 10 or so songs he touches on soulful rock, soft piano ballads, and outright pop. For my money, it's his finest work. Recorded at Bearsville outside Woodstock, it features Rick Danko and Levon Helm of The Band on the ballad Once Burned, and even has a song, presumably, about Laura Nyro. Simple but sophisticated arrangements and elaborate experiments, like the all vocal experience of There Are No Words, which veers into Smile-style territory (literally), the Can- or Neu-like jam I'm In the Clique (which shows Rundgren's famously-cocky attitude with it's lyrics "Get your greasy hands off the guitar / get your slimy set off the drums / go take a seat in the corner / and wait until your time comes / you might be the best in your hometown / you might be the best on your block / but by the time you make it to New York / your axe will be in hock"), and the irrestible pop-ditty medley of Baby Let's Swing/The Last Thing You Said/Don't Tie My Hands all make for a fun and varied listen. The album's opener, Broke Down and Busted, rocks hard, with it's phased guitar and funky beat, as does Who's That Man?, with it's sassy lyric, "Who's that man? / Who's that man? / Who told him that he could hold your hand? / When I looked him in the eye he ran." One of the undeniable masterpieces of early 70s rock and roll is the song Devil's Bite. It features a bunch of different styles packed in to one tight little 4-minute song. At times it sounds like The Who, then Stevie Wonder, then Boston (long before Boston existed). The album's hit We Gotta Get You A Woman is a Rundgren classic, and a pop song par excellence. The closer is the 9-minute Birthday Carol, which begins as a foray into blues jamming, then segues into a piano and acoustic ballad about his brother and loneliness and his own existential quest. Or something. (It's great, anyway.) It continues, veering back into the pop/blues groove from the beginning, but now with a new section added. Just when you think it's finally ended, as some blues-y rock jamming seems to close it out--it comes back with 20 seconds of a string section to put the icing on the cake. It's amazing. The fact is, this record is proof that Todd Rundgren was light years ahead of everybody else, and, like The Beatles in their mid to late 60s heyday, Rundgren in essence invented and quickly discarded a bunch of styles that countless bands would come along and use for the blueprint for their whole careers--blueprints each created in what were probably just a few hours of free-flowing creativity from the brain of one of the few true Wizards of rock and roll.

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Year: 1970
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Tracklist

1	Broke Down and Busted
2	Believe In Me
3	We Gotta Get You A Woman
4	Who's That Man?
5	Once Burned
6	Devil's Bite
7	I'm In The Clique
8	There Are No Words
9	Baby Let's Swing/The Last Thing You Said/Don't Tie My Hands
10	Birthday Carol

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