Zappa.com

I always thought that Andy was Warhol:

Andy de vine (de vine) - (I heard it as Divine)
Had a thong rind (rind)
It was sublime (sublime)
But the wrong kind

Have I aligned
With a blown mind
Wasted my time
On a drawn blind

That FZ might have had an admiration for Andy Warhol's media personae, but now found out he was just crazy.

/V

_________________
Add water, makes its own sauce

Vince Welnick killed himself.

_________________

Sorry, but I don't get the connection?

/V

_________________
Add water, makes its own sauce

Which connection?

So it's not a song about Nigey Lennon after all?!

Oh, why not? I wouldn't be eager to mention it if FZ had a lyric questioning whether there was anything good inside of me.

I've been working in Ohio lately and on September 5, I'll be here to see Todd as he performs the albums Todd and Healing live in concert for the very first time! (19th Row) To my knowledge, the band lineup is still unannounced.

_________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Don't Be Stupid Unless You Want To

The lineup for the 6-Performances of the Albums Todd and Healing Tour is:

•Todd Rundgren
•Jesse Gress - Guitar
•Kasim Sulton - Bass, Vox
•Prairie Prince - Drumz
•Greg Hawkes - Keyboardist from The Cars
•Bobby Strickland - Sax, Flute, Oboe etc...
•Choirmaster to be named later

_________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Don't Be Stupid Unless You Want To

OK, it took a while to write about that show cuz it was a weird weekend. I got food poisoning 2 nights before, and left my credit card in a ATM after the show...
Anyway, it was the debut of the 6 show tour and it showed. I'm gonna have to look online for one of the other shows to find a recording. Todd flubbed on tunes that he had to sing while playing piano on, like Drunken Blue Rooster. The band was awesome, so were the outfits, lights etc...
The sound was not so hot. The Chorus for the Healing tunes suffered especially. The sound guy was listening and would zone in on a good sound eventually, but with a project like this having lots of different sounds changing often, he should have been more on his game.
Miss Kitty and I still had a blast.
A TR fan club distributed lyric sheets for Sons of 1984 by taping them to the back of the seats. Todd didn't know and was into it when everyone held up their sheets. For those who know the album Todd, you know that the vocals on the album were done live in 2 locations, San Francisco and Boston... I was on the Boston side according to TR. Sing alongs are fun when the audience is really into it... maybe thats a good topic "Bands that are fun to sing along with - Live"
On a siller note, ya know how there are Dead cover bands who play actual GD live shows note-for-note? They pick a show date and recreate it. Well, if some band did that for one of the shows on this tour, it would be a performance of a recording of a performance of a recording of a ...

_________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Don't Be Stupid Unless You Want To

Another Zappa / Rundgren connection: They both produced albums by Grand Funk Railroad in the 1970's. Todd produced "We're An American Band" and "Shinin' On", and Frank produced their final album "Good Singin', Good Playin'". They had planned to split up but came back to do one last album when they found out that FZ was interested in working with them. But then...who wouldn't?

Yep. There was also an interview with Todd a few years ago on amazon.com (it's probably still there somewhere) where Todd talks about his admiration for WOIIFTM and also that he saw Frank's band perform and rehearse many times and comments on how Frank used his band like an instrument, how he conducted them, etc. So obviously they knew each other, too.

I've seen that poster w/ FZ, Utopia and Captain Beefheart but it's for New Year's Eve 1975 in Inglewood (Los Angeles). According to Greg Russo's book, Utopia cancelled but Dr. John performed.

Hello deanagain. This is you from the future. You will become me and also Killugly's Paradise in a few years. Yes, the future is scary but also exciting. Boy, that New Cars show was pretty good, huh?

Found a site with some good TR shows, some better than the official!

http://toddrundgrensutopia.blogspot.com ... chive.html

_________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Don't Be Stupid Unless You Want To

Ok, here's another link that I see:

On "Todd" (1974), the track "Everybody's Going to Heaven / King Kong Reggae" has backing vocals that are awfully similar to the end of the backing vocals in "Flakes" (1979) (recorded throughout '77 and '78). Not to mention that it has the word "King Kong" in the title but that's a stretch. I doubt FZ listened to "Todd" and was inspired to come up with the backing vox for Flakes using this similar passage as a result - but I still think of "Flakes" every time I hear the backing vox part in "King Kong Reggae".

_________________
Current favorite new spin: Damian Marley's Welcome to Jamrock

Latest Fischer's Flicker press release
I Am Entertainment Magazine - 3.5/4 stars - REVIEW

I often end up singing "Flakes Flakes" too.

I thought I'd mentioned it somewhere, but I have a live version of America Drinks done by Todd on the 1997 With a Twist tour. Pretty cool, just him at the piano.

_________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Don't Be Stupid Unless You Want To

Nice - that would fit well on a compilation disc with Sting's solo piano version of Idiot Bastard Son!

_________________
Current favorite new spin: Damian Marley's Welcome to Jamrock

Latest Fischer's Flicker press release
I Am Entertainment Magazine - 3.5/4 stars - REVIEW

I and my friends were all huge TR & Utopia fans, my first date with my wife was a TR and is on the Back to the Bars album which has some of the best live performances of Todd with the BTTB band (including singing mimes) and some Utopia tracks from Ohio. We always made a connection between TR and FZ, but maybe that was just us. I have seen Todd twice and Utopia 4x. The second time I saw Todd it was supposed to be with Utopia and the band for some reason did not show up so he came out with his Electric Guitar and said he would still do the show since he had a machine that could play all the other musical parts and backing vocals, plugged in and away he went. This we had never seen or heard of before, but TR has always been a tech guy and ahead of his time, at the Back to the Bars concert he had large TV's stacked al around the stage perimeter and told us about video and how it would take over the music industry and showed a video of "All the Children Sing", no one new of this in '78. That song is from "Hermit of Mink Hollow" which he wrote, produced, sang all parts, and played all instruments, the song “Love is the Answer” is from that album and was a number one hit for another group. TR is also famous for the bands he has produced which a list of would probably surprise you and he when he produced a band, they had a hit. The album “Liars” is an amazing release and while I am not on board with every song, I have found that a good portion of them are excellent. Some of his truly great albums are:

Todd Rundgrens Utopia (most FZ like)
Faithful (One side is remakes of famous songs, does Good Vibrations sounds identical to Beach Boys)
RA (Work of art)
Hermit of Mink Hallow (1 man band)
Oops Wrong Planet (4 or 5 phenomenal songs)
Back to the Bars (The stuff recorded in LA is wow)
Deface the Music (Ode to the Fab 4 all original songs that could have been written by the Beatles)
Redux (Utopia live in Japan in the ‘90s at their tightest)
Liars (Some good stuff here)

One more bit of trivia he raised Liv Tyler as his daughter until she found out Steven was her dad, Todd was with her mother for some time and she had previously been with Steven before her and Todd hooked up.

Love is the Answer isn't on Hermit, it was first released on Oops! Wrong Planet.

_________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Don't Be Stupid Unless You Want To

Thanks again Plook - as you are the one responsible for me diving into Todd's career and digesting the material!

I'd definitely say: "A Wizard, A True Star" needs to be added to that list. It's a great album that almost "has" to be played from start to finish as a whole. I'd also add "Todd" because there are an awful lot of good ones on there too.

I tried a 1st listen to "Hermit of Mink Hollow" yesterday and none of the material really pulled me in like the others. But then again, some albums certainly take more than one listen!

_________________
Current favorite new spin: Damian Marley's Welcome to Jamrock

Latest Fischer's Flicker press release
I Am Entertainment Magazine - 3.5/4 stars - REVIEW

Well Plook, you've convinced me that I'm gonna start going over the career of TR on this thread. TR is my favorite artist right behind FZ. I've seen him live easily 40+ times from the mid 80s through last year. I think I'll go album-by-album somewhat in order from The Nazz's first album.



Yes, it looks like so many other albums of the 60s. Like the later Utopia's Deface the Music as well. TR has said in interviews that Nazz and his influences weren't the Blues or even American music, but British Invasion and it shows.
Anyone who's heard The Nazz, knows Open My Eyes. Its kinda psychadelic, but not super trippy. The whole album has a strong fuzz-rock feel. Open My Eyes has come back at various times for live TR shows and even when TR played in Ringo's All-Starr Band. I wish more Nazz would show up during TR shows, but they don't.
Many people get excited when they see Hello Its Me on this album only to then be disappointed at how slow and disaffected it sounds. Its not a fav for me, but is ok in a proto way. Some other songs on this album seem too slow like If Thats the Way You Feel, but most of the album is medium-up tempo.
I love Back of Your Mind, Wildwood Blues and When I Get My Plane, those are my favs from this album. See What You Can Be, Crowded and She's Going Down are good, but not 1st tier.
Todd is young at this time, around 19-20 when this is being made and while he does most of the songwriting, he's not the lead singer, thats a guy named Stewkey. He's pretty good for the rockin tunes, but much of what I dislike about the slower ones.

_________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Don't Be Stupid Unless You Want To

I'll do these 2 together cuz even together there are not as many great or even good tunes as the 1st album. There was originally supposed to be a double album called Fungo Bat but that never happened and after Nazz Nazz was released TR left the band so Nazz III was started but not completed with him. The songs that I do like are the ones that show TR's quirky side, like Meridian Leeward a song about a pig, sorta.

_________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Don't Be Stupid Unless You Want To

A magical pig?
I listened to the first Nazz album this morning - fun stuff. I'll have to review these last 2 though.
Thanks for all of the info/insight though, Arkay. Even if no one else gets anything from it, at least know that I'm soaking it up as I'm exploring his discography for the first time.

I wish there was a DVD or something from that tour he did recently where he played Wizard in its entirety. Or better yet, some footage of Utopia playing in their heyday (first album or Ra)...

_________________
Current favorite new spin: Damian Marley's Welcome to Jamrock

Latest Fischer's Flicker press release
I Am Entertainment Magazine - 3.5/4 stars - REVIEW

Yeah, sorta a magical pig, hahahaha....
Well, AWATS was recorded for a DVD, but it hasn't been released and there's no word yet as to when/if it will come out. I have the audio from one of the shows and its pretty ok, but I hafta believe there's a better one around the corner somewheres.
I saw the tour where he did Todd/Healing in their entirety and there is supposed to be a dvd of that coming out in February:

http://www.jambase.com/Articles/53090/T ... Live-Album

_________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Don't Be Stupid Unless You Want To

The Forum Killed Arkay wrote:

Yeah, sorta a magical pig, hahahaha....
Well, AWATS was recorded for a DVD, but it hasn't been released and there's no word yet as to when/if it will come out. I have the audio from one of the shows and its pretty ok, but I hafta believe there's a better one around the corner somewheres.
I saw the tour where he did Todd/Healing in their entirety and there is supposed to be a dvd of that coming out in February:

http://www.jambase.com/Articles/53090/T ... Live-Album

Yeah, read that a DVD was supposed to happen for that. We'll see.... I found an AWATS DVD that someone "upped" out there - wonder if it's worth watching...
I was also able to find a 5:1 upmix that someone made of it and it sounds great! Was cranking it last weekend as I was taking care of house stuff and the separation was impressive!

_________________
Current favorite new spin: Damian Marley's Welcome to Jamrock

Latest Fischer's Flicker press release
I Am Entertainment Magazine - 3.5/4 stars - REVIEW