Posts Tagged ‘Todd Rundgren’

BADFINGER – ” Straight Up “

Posted: December 14, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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If any band appeared poised to carry on the mantle of the Beatles at the dawn of the ‘70s, it was Badfinger. Signed to the Beatles’ Apple Records label, the British quartet—Pete Ham, Tom Evans, Joey Molland and Mike Gibbins–had already scored two Top 10 hits by 1971. The first, an irresistible, bubble-gum-y tune titled “Come and Get It,” had been written and produced for the band by Paul McCartney. The second, a punchy burst of pop-rock titled “No Matter What,” was penned by Ham, whose extraordinary song writing skills were fast becoming evident.

Such was the backdrop for Straight Up, Badfinger’s third LP. Released in the U.S. on December 13, 1971, the album is rightly considered a landmark in power pop. “That’s what the kind of music we made came to be called,” said Molland, speaking about the “power pop” tag with this writer in 2012, “We viewed ourselves as continuing in the tradition of the music we grew up with, which was everything up to and including the Beatles. That meant Welsh traditional songs, folk songs, American rock and roll and American vocal bands. We gave the music a hard edge, because we liked rock and roll, but we also made the songs melodic.”

Sessions for Straight Up got underway in January 1971 at Abbey Road Studios, with Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick assisting Ham and Evans with production. Under pressure to work quickly—a two-month spring tour in America loomed—the group completed 12 tracks by March. Powers-that-be at Apple rejected the recordings as “too crude,” however, and George Harrison was brought in to oversee a new round of sessions beginning in late May.

Harrison, an avid Badfinger fan, had already worked extensively with the group, enlisting all four members a year earlier as part of his ensemble on the 1970 opus, All Things Must Pass. “[Of all the Beatles], he was definitely closest to the band,” Molland later told Vintage Rock. Harrison’s overarching plan for Straight Up was to come up with something “more sophisticated.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bflD9n0U7dY

“George wanted to smooth things out,” Molland recalled. “He wanted to make more of an Abbey Road-style album. He took our original version of Straight Up, went through the songs and lyrics, and arranged them very much as he did his own music. And then he had us play those arrangements. It turned out great, although to this day I think some of the original versions are closer to what the band was about.”

Molland went on to praise Harrison as an “extremely pleasant” collaborator. “He didn’t act like a ‘rock star’ or a Beatle,” he said. “It was all very comfortable. He had no qualms about strapping on his guitar and playing a bit with us. In fact, I think he enjoyed doing that, as much as he enjoyed everything else. He worked on lyrics with us, and he got excited about the songs as they went down. He started sensing that it could be a hit record.”

Indeed, the majestic bridge on Straight Up’s signature ballad, “Day After Day,” consists of a slide-guitar duet played by Harrison and Ham. “Pete and I were in the studio, working out the parts, and George came in and asked if we minded if he played on it,” Molland remembers. “Of course we said, ‘No, we don’t mind!’ I gave him my guitar, and he just went to work on it.” All told, Badfinger completed five songs with Harrison—“I’d Die Babe,” “Sweet Tuesday Morning,” “Suitcase,” “Name of the Game” and “Day After Day.” Other personnel involved in the Harrison sessions included Leon Russell, whose piano work figures prominently in “Day After Day,” and Klaus Voormann, who contributed electric piano to “Suitcase.” Russell added guitar parts to the latter song as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XonFZjuyc6E&feature=emb_logo

Unfortunately, the sessions with Harrison screeched to a halt in late June, when the former Beatle flew to Los Angeles to work with Ravi Shankar. While in L.A., Harrison agreed to stage the “Concert for Bangladesh“, which effectively ended any chance of his resuming production work on Straight Up. With Harrison’s blessing, Todd Rundgren was brought in to complete the sessions. Despite (or perhaps due to) ongoing tension between Rundgren and the band, the project was completed in just two weeks. High points from the Rundgren sessions included “Take It All,” a Ham-written meditation on Badfinger’s performance at the Harrison charity concert; and “Baby Blue,” a fuzz-riff-driven masterpiece that’s since become a classic-rock staple.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yqOaQqgJdI

Molland was pleased with the results, but he was also determined that Badfinger not lose its edge and become a pop lightweight. “We had pop hits, sure, and we were proud of them, but we wanted to be known as a rock band,” he later told Music Radar. “We didn’t want to be one of these twee groups like Marmalade. We placed a lot of value in having great songs, but when it came time to hit the stage, we played two-hour shows and got into jams, the whole thing. If you went to see Badfinger, you got a rock show; it wasn’t just about seeing this group that had some songs on the charts.”

Straight Up, of course, went on to achieve considerable commercial success—including a 32-week run on Billboard’s Top 200 Album chart. The single “Day After Day” peaked at #4 on the Hot 100 chart, and its followup, “Baby Blue,” fared nearly as well. Reviews of the album were generally favourable, and more importantly, the LP’s legacy and far-reaching influence has endured. All of which makes the overarching Badfinger story all the more sorrowful.

See the source image

Sadly, what should have been a glorious and lengthy future for Badfinger ultimately became a tragedy of Shakespearean dimension. Victimized by unscrupulous management, the group split up just three years after Straight Up was released. Two of the band’s founding members—Pete Ham and Tom Evans—eventually took their own lives. For their many fans, the sorrow lingers, but nothing can diminish the brilliance of what Badfinger accomplished.

“We were forever striving to do something great,” said Molland. “We paid close attention to what our peers were doing, to what the bands of our era were doing, and we wanted to be as good as any of them. All these years later, the music of a lot of those bands hasn’t stood the test of time, but the Badfinger stuff carries on. I think Pete and Tom would be surprised. I know they would be very happy.”

  • Pete Ham – vocals, guitar, keyboards
  • Joey Molland – vocals, guitar, keyboards
  • Tom Evans – vocals, bass, guitar
  • Mike Gibbins – vocals, drums, percussion, keyboards

The album, ultimately titled Straight Up, was released in December 1971

XTC – ” Skylarking 30th anniversary ” Definitive CD+blu-ray Edition

Posted: April 26, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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skylarking_cdblu

Following the identity detour of the Dukes of Stratosphear, XTC hunkered down to make their next “proper” album with producer Todd Rundgren. On paper the match made in heaven became the stuff of legendary head-butting between artist and producer Rundgren’s appointment secured the savvy pairing of two brilliant and doomed minds. Between the anglophile producer and songsmith Andy Partridge were a thousand common interests and one great chasm that would subsume egos and tear up the studio floorboards. The rift did not concern taste or etiquette so much as In one corner, the shaggy-haired, acid-frazzled Philadelphian whose passive-aggression belies a loose, honky-tonk approach to life; in the other, a three-piece reputed for 1) turning down their record label’s cocaine and 2) crafting technically brilliant pop. It was a match made in some 5-star hotel-lobby hell, and the calamity of it all enriches every second of Skylarking.. The masterful chamber-pop of XTC’s 1986 album Skylarking was one of the band’s finest hours. ‘Skylarking’ is loaded with classic songs like “The Meeting Place,” “Earn Enough For Us,” “Big Day” and “Dear God,” a song left off the original LP but issued as a b-side. It was later added to the lineup when it became a surprise rock radio hit.

Rundgren was optimistic about working with XTC. A few years earlier, he had caught the Swindon group in their element, twisting from off-brand punk toward whip-smart new wave. Soon after, in 1982, Partridge suddenly quit touring, suffering from valium withdrawal and on-stage panic attacks. He announced XTC would join the ranks as a studio outfit, a commercial disaster, to nobody’s surprise. Singles flopped, fans lost faith, and before the year was up, the group shrank to a trio when drummer Terry Chambers stormed out for good during a rehearsal.

Virgin Records had hoped an American producer would collar the firebrand and hammer the new album into the transatlantic mold of U2 and Simple Minds—a notion that, like almost everything involving the label, Partridge found this laughable. Consider the demos: Back-garden symphonies like “Summer’s Cauldron” and “Season Cycle,” among his ripest compositions to date. Fellow songwriter Colin Moulding, inspired by his move to the ancient Celtic settlement of Marlborough Downs, was clomping down the same path, composing pastorals like “Grass” and “The Meeting Place” from sampled lathes and thrums of pagan folk. Hatching a plan, he accepted Virgin’s $150,000 fee and quickly discarded dozens of the band’s demos, assembling a tracklist around a concept of his own. The song cycle would plot a lifetime over the course of a day: daybreak in “Summer’s Cauldron,” then a suite of infatuation, heartbreak, marriage, temptation, and existential reckoning that concludes—on “Dying” and “Sacrificial Bonfire”—in the dead of night. Guitarist Dave Gregory, a Rundgren superfan, was thrilled, and the docile Moulding—by now immune to Partridge’s arm-twisting—sided with Virgin, reasoning they all had mouths to feed.

As war raged, the sessions remained a spring of wonder. Moulding, a psych-pop reformist, came into his own with songs like “The Meeting Place,” reflecting Swindon’s rituals and industry in gorgeous stained glass. Partridge specialized in the melodic trapdoor, establishing awkward patterns and flooding your serotonin receptors at unexpected moments. The lyrics are just chewy enough to distract from each incoming sugar rush, creating endless replay value. (“Who’s pushing the pedals on the season cycle?” he quips wonderfully in “Season Cycle.”) Themes and images trespass between songs, from the vaudevillian pomp of “Ballet for a Rainy Day” into the melodramatic “1000 Umbrellas,” whose Dave Gregory string arrangement makes heartbreak seem an ancient, noble fate.

It’s been a busy few years for XTC‘s 1986 album “Skylarking” wth the vinyl reissue back in 2010, the ‘corrected polarity’ CD of 2014, this year’s boxed deluxe vinyl version and now – thanks to the discovery of the multi-tracks – a double-disc 30th anniversary definitive edition which delivers a Steven Wilson 5.1 surround mix on blu-ray audio, along with a wealth of other bonus material.

This new edition eschews the pubes (not a phrase I’ll write too often) and restores the original sleeve (“it was agreed that more people recognised this as the sleeve now” Andy Partridge replied on twitter, when quizzed about it) and offers a new stereo mix of the album on CD

XTC studio recording ‘ Little Lighthouse’ from the Todd Rundgren produced “Skylarking” sessions, newly mixed by Steven Wilson. Track taken from “Skylarking 30th Anniversary Definitive Edition CD + Blu ray” .
“This was destined for the ‘Dukes’ from the outset really. It was sent to Todd along with all the other “Skylarking” demos and even though we tried recording it in San Francisco (its spiritual home!), it was never going to fit with all of its pastoral playmates.”

Lead single “Grass” bombed in the UK, and the album sales stalled. A death sentence even by their commercial standards, albeit grim vindication for Partridge. But in America, a one-time single contender demoted to a B-side was making itself known especially on college radio, “Dear God” had sparked a moral panic: its narrator, griping with an absent god, appalled Bible Belt Christians and prompted a bomb threat to a Florida radio station. Everyone else seemed to love it. In a sheepish U-turn, the band’s American label, Geffen, smuggled the track onto the U.S. release of Skylarking. Over six months, the album outsold XTC’s entire prior catalogue three times over.

Moulding, who stepped back from XTC in 2006, effectively ending the group.) Among his arsenal of guitars, Partridge now keeps company with a legion of toy soldiers,

If you’ve bought any of the previous XTC CD+blu-ray reissues, you’ll know how good they are and what to expect… The blu-ray here offers the 5.1 mix, the new stereo mix in 24bit/96kHz, four additional songs from the album sessions in stereo and 5.1, the very original (uncorrected polarity) album mix in hi-res stereo, along with the same for the corrected polarity version, instrumental mixes, a complete alternate album in demo form (following producer Todd Rundgren’s original suggested running order), numerous demo and work tape sessions showing the evolution of the album and the promo films for Dear God and Grass! All that for less than £20 – amazing, as usual.

This definitive edition (for once the title lives up to the content) comes with an expanded booklet featuring sleeve-notes by Andy Partridge, Colin Moulding & Dave Gregory and will be released on 14th October 2016. the original was Released 27th October 1986.

October 17th, 2016: It’s here, the one you’ve been hankering for. Steven Wilson produced these mixes with the input of founder band member Andy Partridge and the full approval of the band. This CD/Blu-ray edition is presented in special packaging with an expanded booklet and sleeve-notes by Andy Partridge, Colin Moulding and Dave Gregory.

  • CD features the 2016 Steven Wilson stereo album mix plus four bonus tracks mixed by Steven Wilson.

Blu-ray features:

  • A 5.1 Surround mix in 24bit/96khz mixed from the original multi-track tapes available in LPCM and DTS HD MA.
  • The 2016 stereo album mix in 24bit/96khz LPCM audio.
  • Four additional songs from the album sessions in stereo and 5.1 mixed by Steven Wilson.
  • The original (uncorrected polarity) stereo album mix in hi-res stereo, plus 1 non-album track.
  • The original (corrected polarity) stereo album mix in hi-res stereo.
  • Instrumental versions (mixed by Steven Wilson) of all 2016 mixes in 24bit/96khz LPCM audio.
  • A complete alternate album in demo form (as per Todd Rundgren’s original suggested running order based on the demo recordings).
  • Numerous additional demo and work tape sessions showing the evolution of the album and associated recordings.
  • Promo films for Dear God and Grass.

Thanks to http://www.superdeluxeedition.com/

TODD RUDGREN’S UTOPIA – ” Benefit for Moogy Klingman” in 4-CD/2-DVD Box Set

Posted: April 14, 2020 in MUSIC
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Todd Rundgren's Utopia - Benefit For Moogy Klingman (2DVD + 4CD)

Mark “Moogy” Klingman might have been best known as an early member of Todd Rundgren’s Utopia, or as the co-writer of Bette Midler’s joyful hit “Friends” which took on new poignancy in the era of AIDS. But Moogy also recorded as a solo artist and as part of the band Glitterhouse, played onstage with such luminaries as Lou Reed, and served as Midler’s producer and musical director. In January 2011, the Utopia line-up of Todd Rundgren, Kevin Ellman, John Siegler, Ralph Schuckett, and Klingman reunited onstage at New York’s Highline Ballroom for benefit shows to help defer expenses of Klingman’s cancer treatment. (Guitarist Jesse Gress and later Utopia bassist Kasim Sulton rounded out the band that night.) Sadly, Moogy died later that year on November 15th at the age of 61.

On May 15th, Cleopatra Records’ Purple Pyramid imprint will remember the late keyboardist with Utopia’s release of Benefit for Moogy Klingman. This 4-CD/2-DVD set includes the Highline Ballroom set of January 29th, 2011, a Utopia performance from November 18th (three days after Moogy’s passing) in Peekskill, New York in his honor, and DVDs of both evenings.

The Highland Ballroom reunion show with Moogy showcased early, progressive Utopia favorites (“Freak Parade,” “The Ikon,” “Utopia Theme,” “Another Life,” “The Wheel”), covers from Utopia and Rundgren’s repertoire (The Move/Electric Light Orchestra’s “Do Ya,” Peter Pan‘s “Never Never Land”) and Rundgren classics like “Just One Victory,” “Heavy Metal Kids,” “The Last Ride,” and “Sons of 1984.” There were surprises like “Crying in the Sunshine” from Klingman’s 1972 solo debut “Moogy”, and even an encore, appropriately enough, of “(You Got to Have) Friends.”

The shorter setlist from Utopia’s performance shortly after Moogy’s death at Peekskill, New York’s Performing Arts Center likewise concentrated on the band’s earliest years. Its unique tracks include renditions of “The Seven Rays,” “Freedom Fighters,” and the Bernstein/Sondheim West Side Story classic “Something’s Coming.”

This expansive set also includes a 12-page booklet with photos and liner notes. Digital download/streaming services will have the audio content available, as well.  Look for Todd Rundgren’s Utopia’s Benefit for Moogy Klingman on May 15th from Cleopatra/Purple Pyramid at the links below!

Todd Rundgren’s Utopia, “Benefit for Moogy Klingman”.  (Cleopatra/Purple Pyramid, 2020) .

NEW YORK DOLLS – ” Cause I Sez So “

Posted: January 15, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Cause I Sez So

American standard-bearers for glam rock and important precursors to punk rock, The New York Dolls reunited (at the personal request of longtime fan Morrissey) nearly three decades after their early-1970s heyday. Original Dolls David Johansen and Syl Sylvain still have all the sass and swagger of their prime on “Cause I Sez So”. Todd Rundgren had helmed the band’s debut and returns in the same capacity for this 2009 Atco album, helping the quintet push its sonic envelope a bit beyond the Stonesy racket of yore.

The reconstituted New York Dolls stack up awfully well against the original Seventies band, whose glam rock inspired thousands of acts. This Todd Rundgren-produced follow-up to the Dolls‘ fine 2006 comeback features new moves like reggae and Latin-tinged balladry. But the selling points are its Stones-y propulsion and the nuanced vigor of David Johansen. The singer delivers singalong choruses in his New Yawk bark, sweetly praises a lover who “treats [him] like a maharajah” and, on the funked-out “Let’s Get Radiant,” delivers the perfect middle-aged-rocker line: “If we don’t come back, call us on the Ouija board.”

A reggae-tinged reworking of their ’70s classic “Trash” may be the most striking example of this, but the beautiful pop melody of “Lonely So Long” and the propulsive R&B of “Nobody Got No Bizness” show the Dolls can wear any style and make it look great.

So give “Cause I Sez So” another spin in memory of the band’s drummer Jerry Nolan, who passed away on this day in 1992.

The LEMON TWIGS – ” Go To School “

Posted: July 15, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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'GO TO SCHOOL'

The Lemon Twigs‘ most ambitious project yet, Go To School is a concept album about a chimpanzee named Shane who is adopted by childless aspiring musicians and raised as a human. Written, Recorded, Produced and Mixed By Brian and Michael D’Addario in their Long Island home studio, the album features Todd Rundgren and their mother Susan Hall’s vocals as Shane’s adopted parents, as well as Jody Stephens of Big Star on drums, Natalie Mering of Weyes Blood providing backing vocals and a host of string and horn players, some of which taught the Brian and Michael in school.

The Lemon Twigs new album is their most ambitious project to date: their second album, Go To School , released on 24th August 2018 .  A musical conceived by brothers Brian and Michael D’Addario, the 15-track opus was written, recorded, produced and mixed by the pair at their home in Long Island.

Go To School tells the heartbreaking coming-of-age story of Shane, a pure of heart chimpanzee raised as a human boy as he comes to terms with the obstacles of life.  Todd Rundgren and the D’Addario’s mother Susan Hall play Shane’s parents.  The album features contributions from Jody Stephens (Big Star) and their father Ronnie D’Addario.  The album drops on August 24th, and follows the breakout success of their technicolour debut full length ‘Do Hollywood’.

The album is dazzling in its ambition, not least because the Lemon Twigs are in earnest. Go to School seems at first to have a lot in common with the music of Sparks, which features another pair of brothers. Ron and Russell Mael also have a theatrical streak and an impressive command of musical sounds and styles, along with a propensity for sardonic lyrics and a deadpan delivery. The D’Addarios, by contrast, seem genuinely interested in sussing out the motives of their characters, and they work to make them more than caricatures. That is, for an operetta where no one questions why the protagonist is a chimpanzee passing for human and attending high school. Anyway, the bully, Shane, his parents: they’re complicated people, and the D’Addarios are sympathetic storytellers. True, it’s a batshit crazy story, but the Lemon Twigs make it compelling, highly tuneful and undoubtedly more memorable than an album of indie-pop songs would have been

The material will be previewed at a select batch of fan only shows, Referring to the contents of the record Brian and Michael D’Addario hint: “Something now, then, big, small, bleak, and hopeful. All in under an hour.”

‘If You Give Enough’ from The Lemon Twigs‘ new album, ‘Go To School’, out on 24th August.

TODD RUNDGREN – ” A Wizard, A True Star ” Classic Albums

Posted: June 17, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Todd Rundgren was among one of the first artists I discovered through my best friend who adored the Nazz. Todd was weird, smart and very talented, In his press he came off like a wunderkind he wrote the songs and played all of the instruments himself and he was always pictured with hot models. Todd Rundgren’s albums were among the first records I bought. Both Something/Anything and Todd were long double albums that sold for the same price as a single LP, Something/Anything the fourth album by the American musician was released on March 2nd, 1973. Its music was a significant departure from his previous album Something/Anything? (1972), which consisted largely of straightforward ballads. He attributed the idiosyncratic sound of A Wizard, a True Star to his experimentation with psychedelic drugs, and said that he “became more aware … [o]f what music and sound were like in my internal environment, and how different that was from the music I had been making up to that point in time.

The album that I bought on the day of release was A Wizard, A True Star. I can remember reading a scathingly negative review of that album when it came out. Recently I noticed that Analog Spark had released audiophile SACDs of Wizard and the earlier Something/Anything.

Several of Todd Rundgren’s classic 70s albums were known to sound a bit tinny due to the narrower vinyl grooves resulting from trying to cram so much music on each side. It was something you were even warned about via a “Technical Note” included on the inner sleeve of 1975’s Initiation:

“Due to the amount of music on this disc (over one hour), two points must be emphasized. Firstly, if your needle is worn or damaged, it will ruin the disc immediately. Secondly, if the sound does seem not loud enough on your system, try re-recording the music onto tape. By the way, thanks for buying the album.”

The new Analog Spark SACD of Something/Anything (mastered like Wizard by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes) It does in fact sound much better than I recall the original LP sounding A Wizard, A True Star?  floated effortlessly into my list of favorite albums as I listened to it again.  I blasted at an ear-splitting volume on my stereo. Seriously, it’s one of the best things I’ve ever heard not just recently, but ever—and started me off on a whole new experience of Todd Rundgren listening. If you are “looking for something new to listen to,” like I was, look no further.

But just don’t take my word for it, here’s what none other than the great Patti Smith wrote of A Wizard, A True Star :

“Side one is double dose. It takes the bull by the brain. Another point to be examined. He’s always been eclectic. Why didn’t he care? The evidence is here. Something very magical is happening. The man is magi chef. His influences are homogenizing. Like a coat of many colors. May be someone else’s paintbox but the coat is all his.”

“Each album he vomits like a diary. Each page closer to the stars. Process is the point. A kaleidoscoping view. Blasphemy even the gods smile on. Rock and roll for the skull. A very noble concept. Past present and tomorrow in one glance. Understanding through musical sensation. Todd Rundgren is preparing us for a generation of frenzied children who will dream in animation. “

I read that despite having absolutely no idea of what she intended to convey with all of those words, even if I do wholeheartedly agree with her. Had I read Patti’s review back then, I’d have no doubt rushed out and grabbed this album.

Just listen to A Wizard, A True Star for yourself and turn it up LOUD please:

thanks to dangerousminds

UTOPIA – ” The Road To Utopia ” The Complete Recordings 1974-82 Original Recording Masters

Posted: February 22, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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The band Utopia are releasing a 7-CD box set from Todd Rundgren’s progressive band.  The April 20th release of The Road to Utopia: The Complete Recordings 1974-1982 will coincide with the long-awaited reunion tour of Rundgren, Kasim Sulton (who toured with his own iteration of Utopia earlier this year), Willie Wilcox, and Ralph Schuckett which kicks off this April and runs through June.

The new box set will trace Utopia’s evolution from its 1974 debut album – featuring the Mark II line-up (Mk. I was a short-lived touring unit) of Kevin Ellman (drums), Moogy Klingman (keyboards), Jean-Yves “M. Frog” Labat (synthesizers), Ralph Schuckett (keyboards) and John Siegler (bass/cello) – through 1982’s Swing to the Right, the fifth and final album from the “classic” line-up of Rundgren, Roger Powell, Wilcox, and Sulton.  Across seven albums, all of which have been expanded with bonus tracks, the band synthesized influences as disparate as prog rock, jazz fusion, pop, new wave, and even The British Invasion.  From the 30-minute opus “The Ikon” to the pop classic “Love is the Answer” and the spot-on, slightly naughty Beatles pastiche “I Just Want to Touch You,” Rundgren’s Utopia refused to be musically pigeonholed.

The box set has all six of the band’s studio and sole live albums as originally released between 1974 and 1982 newly remastered by the label’s Joe Reagoso from the Warner/Bearsville tapes.  Each album will be housed in an individual gatefold digipak with original art elements from each LP including inner sleeves and inserts.  Rundgren, Sulton, Wilcox, and Powell have all made written contributions to this set, as well.  Fifteen bonus tracks are spread across the seven albums, including live performances, promotional single versions, and more.

Following the period chronicled in the new box, the band recorded three more albums for the Network and Passport labels between 1982 and 1985.  Numerous compilations and archival releases have celebrated Utopia in recent years (including a “lost” album, 1976’s Disco Jets) but The Road to Utopia has all of the band’s music as originally released during the period covered.

The 2018 reunion tour will likely touch on various eras of the group’s long history; Schuckett was part of the first 1974-1975 line-up, while Sulton has recurred in the band over the years: 1974-1982, 1982-1986, and 1992.  Wilcox was a member between 1975 and 1986, and joined again for the 1992 reunion.  The tour will kick off in Pennsylvania on April 18th and will wrap up on June 5th in California.

The Road to Utopia: The Complete Recordings 1974-1982 is due on April 20th.

TODD RUNDGREN – ” All Sides Of The Roxy ” Recorded May 1978, 3CD Box Set

Posted: January 8, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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A 3CD clamshell box set of TODD RUNDGREN’S LEGENDARY PERFORMANCES at the ROXY THEATER IN WEST HOLLYWOOD IN MAY 1978 Includes the entire concert from 23rd MAY 1978 with guests STEVIE NICKS, DARYL HALL & JOHN OATES, RICK DERRINGER, SPENCER DAVIS & KASIM SULTON

Esoteric Recordings is pleased to announce the latest release in the Todd Rundgren Archive series, “ALL SIDES OF THE ROXY 1978”. In May 1978 Todd Rundgren performed a series of concerts at The Roxy Theater in West Hollywood, California with a band comprising members of The Hello People (Bobby Sedita, Larry Tasse, Greg Geddes & Norman Smart) along with keyboard player Moogy Klingman, bassist John Seigler and drummer John “Willie” Wilcox.

The highlight of this residency was a concert on the 23rd May 1978 which was the largest concert simulcast on American FM radio at that time with an estimated audience of over ten million listeners. Hosted by the legendary DJ Wolfman Jack (himself the inspiration for a song on Rundgren’s “Something Anything” album), Todd tore through a wonderful set that included material from both his solo albums (including the recently released “Hermit of Mink Hollow”) and his work with Utopia. He was joined on stage by such illustrious company as Daryl Hall & John Oates, Stevie Nicks, Spencer Davis, Rick Derringer and Kasim Sulton (of Utopia).

This three disc clamshell boxed set includes the entire set from the 23rd May concert over two discs, along with a third disc comprising other soundboard recordings made by Todd during his residence of shows at The Roxy. This release also features an illustrated booklet and is a welcome addition to Esoteric Recordings’ Todd Rundgren Archive series.

PATTI SMITH – ” Wave ” Released 17th May 1979

Posted: May 16, 2017 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Wave is an album by the Patti Smith Group, released May 17th, 1979 The title track was a tribute to Pope John Paul I, whose brief papacy coincided with the recording sessions. The first single off the album was “Frederick”, a love song for her husband-to-be Fred “Sonic” Smith with a melody and structure bearing resemblance to “Because the Night”, the group’s biggest hit. The second single, “Dancing Barefoot”, has been covered by many artists.

“Wave” is an album by the Patti Smith Group, released May 17th, 1979 on Arista Records. This album was less commercially successful than its predecessor, “Easter“, although it continued the band’s move towards more radio-friendly mainstream music. It was produced by famed artist/producer Todd Rundgren.

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Artists Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe met in New York City in 1967 and were in a love affair until 1974, when Mapplethorpe realised he was homosexual. Their early years together are documented in Mapplethorpe’s intimate black-and-white portraits of Smith, two of which featured on the covers of Horses (1975) an Wave (1979). In 2011, Smith interviewed for Time, “I was his first model, a fact that fills me with pride. The photographs he took of me contain a depth of mutual love and trust inseparable from the image. His work magnifies his love for his subject and his obsession with light.” The pair remained friends, artistic collaborators and soul mates until Mapplethorpe died of Aids in 1989. The photographer also shot album covers for artists including Paul Simon and is famed for his portraits and controversial images of the underground BDSM scene in the late 1960s and 70s.

The title track was a tribute to Pope John Paul I, whose brief papacy coincided with the recording sessions. The first single off the album was “Frederick“, a love song for her husband-to-be Fred Sonic Smith with a melody and structure bearing resemblance to “Because The Night” , the group’s biggest hit. The second single, “Dancing Barefoot”, has been covered by many artists.

The band broke up after this album was released, and Smith went on to marry Fred Smith. She spent many years in semi-retirement following the birth of their children, Jesse and Jackson, until her 1988 solo comeback album, “Dream Of Life” . The 1996 remaster of Wave includes Smith’s original version of “Fire of Unknown Origin.” Blue Öyster Cult‘s version was released on their album of the same name in 1981. The back cover of the original LP bore a quote from the Jean Genet poem, “Le Condamné à mort:”

Oh go through the walls; if you must, walk on the ledges
Of roofs, of oceans; cover yourself with light;
Use menace, use prayer…
My sleepers will flee toward another America

Upon its release in 1979, the album garnered mixed reviews, attracting either positive or negative commentary on its polished production and conventionality. Reviewers  were not favourable in their reviews of the album, with the former negatively likening it to Radio Ethiopia, Smith’s last album to be critically maligned and the latter concluding her review with “is this the blandest record in the world?”.Melody Maker were more appreciative of the album, praising Rundgren’s hand in the production and considered the songs to represent a newfound focus for Smith and the band.

All songs were written by Patti Smith, except where noted.

Side one
  1. “Frederick” (Patti Smith) – 3:01
  2. “Dancing Barefoot” (Smith, Ivan Kral) – 4:18
  3. “So you want to Be (a Rock ‘n’ Roll Star)” (Jim McGuinn, Chris Hillman) – 4:18
  4. “Hymn” (Smith, Lenny Kaye) – 1:10
  5. “Revenge” (Smith, Kral) – 5:06
Side two
  1. “Citizen Ship” (Smith, Kral) – 5:09
  2. “Seven Ways of Going” (Smith) – 5:12
  3. “Broken Flag” (Smith, Kaye) – 4:55
  4. “Wave” (Smith) – 4:55
Compact Disc bonus tracks
  1. “Fire of Unknown Origin” (Smith, Kaye) – 2:09
  2. “5-4-3-2-1 / Wave” (1979-05-23rd Live; New York) (Paul Jones, Mike Hugg, Manfred Mann) – 2:43

Patti Smith Group

Additional musicians

Todd Rundgren – ” Something / Anything? ” Released February 1972, 45 Years Ago

Posted: February 21, 2017 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Todd Rundgren, 'Something/Anything?'

Todd Rundgren had seemed to be on the verge of something big since the late ’60s. But something always got in the way of that next step. His band Nazz released three albums that never climbed beyond cult status. And his production work — starting a long career that’s included albums for Badfinger, Grand Funk, Meat Loaf, Patti Smith and XTC, among others — was just now getting started after being sprinkled with behind-the-scenes engineering gigs on records by the Band, plus an aborted attempt to make a Janis Joplin LP.
Then in late 1971 he began work on his third album, and the one that would make him a star: Something / Anything? a double album. Three quarters of the album was recorded in the studio with Rundgren playing all instruments and singing all vocals, as well as being the producer.
He did it by pretty much rearranging his past. He went solo — almost entirely solo — writing, recording and playing most of the double album by himself. And with all those tricks he picked up with all that studio time, he was able to effortlessly craft a masterpiece of technical wizardry, blue-eyed soul and some hints of the experimental path his career would take over the next few years.
Todd Rundgren began recording “Something / Anything?” in Los Angeles, working in a studio by himself, layering instruments — starting with drums — one by one until the songs were finished. The whirlwind sessions yielded some of his best songs, including album opener “I Saw the Light,” “It Wouldn’t Have Made Any Difference” and “Couldn’t I Just Tell You.”

An earthquake hit L.A. after Rundgren had enough material recorded for a double album, but he returned to his home in New York and wanted to lay down more songs, these in the form of live jam sessions with musicians he didn’t know. The task of assembling the players — including guitarist Rick Derringer, Blood, Sweat and Tears co-founder Randy Brecker and some members of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band — went to keyboardist Moogy Kingman, who would later form the more prog-minded Utopia with Rundgren.


The results were pared down to Something / Anything?‘s fourth side, 25 minutes of songs like “Slut” a track that included ’60s-era snippets of Rundgren’s early bands covering “Money (That’s What I Want)” and “Messin’ With the Kid” and, best of all, a power-pop update of “Hello It’s Me,” a song from Rundgren’s Nazz days that was originally recorded as a mournful dirge. The reworked song was released as a single and hit No. 5, his only Top 10.
It’s the centerpiece of Something / Anything?, along with the LP’s fourth side. The album was shaped by Rundgren’s unhappiness working with other people, but was partly defined by the full-band workouts that end the record. Either way, it served its purpose. Rundgren, the producer who had in a hand in crafting other artists’ hit records, was now a hit-making solo artist himself.

The album made it to the middle of the charts after its release in February 1972. It was Rundgren’s highest charting LP and his biggest seller. More important, though, it opened up a creative period that produced two more great albums over the next couple of years: 1973’s A Wizard, a True Star and the following year’s Todd, both way more experimental than the pop-leaning Something / Anything?, his undeniable piece of classic music.

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