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This is a great album, it has the hard rock of Hendrix,the pop rock of the Beachboys and a great variety of remakes that everyone has enjoyed.
Even in the always surprising musical world of 70's pop Todd Rundgren always seemed to be turning heads. Of his originals "Black And White" and the oddball rock n soul groove of "Boogies (Hamburger Hell)" are the most rock guitar oriented the the harder edged of the tunes here,even though both have a certain abstract touch that Rundgren was able ready and able to blend into even his poppiest music. The most impressive song here is the nearly eight minute "The Verb "To Love"" which definately extends Rundgren's writing style and ability at creating expressive chord changes to the next level. The song comes first and because Todd loved to bring in elements of the more densely chorded 70's style soul into his pop music as opposed to just working with one variation of the 12 bar blues after the other. Even though I am sure most Rundgren fans think of his music more in a pop/rock context than a soul inflected one. The interesting thing about this album is that it includes one half of covers,apparently music that inspired his own. Looking back it probably has little to do with his genre bending style as it does with the creative way in which he handles all the melodies,harmonic variations and chord changes he uses so well within all his musical concepts. And for that "Love Of The Common Man" and "Clishe" are excellent examples of Todd's soul/pop singer-songwritet style.
They're all 60's rock hits and all are interestingly presented very very close to the originals but done extremely well. "Good Vibrations" and "Rain" are in fact carbon copies but showcase Rundgren as an excellent mimmic as well as someone with very good taste in pop music. It's no secret that Songs in the Key of Life came out this same year because that style of songwriting was having a very strong effect on Rundgren here. He sure had a strong streak of albums though with wonderful artistic results and this ranks as definately one of them.
Todd Rundgren is amazing and misunderstood. He needs to be in theRock and Roll Hall of Fame. He is a genius. Like the other reviewersays, "just enjoy him, you don't need to understand"
For some artists, it became the kiss of death. Still.TODD RUNDGREN, being the Pop Genius that he'd become by the time his SOMETHING/ANYTHING tour-de-force Lp in the early 70's, appeared to be wasting vinyl here.
Believe me - Todd Rundgren got huge amounts of airplay for his faithfull note-for-note remake, but still - what was his point other than being a fan. While I never understood - at the time, and much lesser scale through the ages till now - why anybody would dare attempt to recut or sttempt to top the Beach Boys' slice of acclaimed ultimate pop perfection, GOOD VIBRATIONS.
[I do recall that mid-70's "All This And WWIII" Compilation tribute by then current highly popular Top 40 and "up & coming" artists]. We're all fans.
In the 70's, it was considered "cool" on both sides of the stage to 'remake' an oldie, and yes, a significant amount of the 'remakes' recharted higher than the originals and in turn created huge album sales for the respective artists involved. Half this album appears to be the predecessor to all the "remake tribute albums" many popular artists[Pop/R&B/Country] would attempt to pull off in the late 80's and throughout the 90's decade, to varying degrees of success.
All these years[decades] later, it seems Todd Rundgren had already charted the half-baked waters in the sun, because he rarily, if at all, conquered the Top 40 Radio Charts again after his much celebrated and played at the time, 'Good Vibrations' remake.
The songs from begining to end are top notch. What makes it unique is the selection as well as their recording technique. But the songs selected all have some unusual record engineering approaches and are no small feat to repoduce "faithfully". All of these are giants in Rock and Roll. This album was between those two incarnations and has three of the four members from the 2nd incarnation performing on it. There are two ripping rockers in this collection, "Black and White" & "Boogies (Hamburger Hell)".
Todd Rundgren was so talented, in so many areas, that he never really gets the credit as truely one of the great rock and roll guitar players. These two songs are great examples of his ability to flat out shred on the guitar.One thing to realize, is that there were two verions of his group Utopia. Back in the days of vinyl, the second side of this album, which is the original material, rates as one of great album sides. A testament to his abilities. As for the first side of the album, these are a collection of cover tunes. The songs are from the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Vintage Beach Boys (Good Vibrations) and the Yardbirds (ala Jeff Beck & Jimmy Page.). As a recording engineer, I can tell you this is very impressive.
So this shapes up as a precursor for the 2nd incarnation of Uptopia.The four songs that make up the rest this side of the album are all solidly written songs. As usual for Todd Rundgren, the songs move through a wide range of emotions and styles. This is what Rundgren set out to do with these songs. It is only missing Kazim Sultun (what a great addition it would be). "Love of the Common Man" & "The Verb To Love" are as good as any of Rundgren's vast array of material and hommages to love. And he did. And they are great selection of tunes, all time rock classics, covered by a great artist.
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