Monday evening session with Chris and Forrest. We’re fans of Todd! Now here’s the story of the album from Wiki:
Todd is the fifth studio album (and second double album) by American musician Todd Rundgren, released in February 1974 on Bearsville Records. It is the follow-up to the previous year's A Wizard, a True Star and features a comparatively heavier reliance on guitar playing and synthesizers. About half of the tracks were performed by Rundgren alone, with the other half recorded with varying configurations of musicians. In the US, the album peaked at number 54, while lead single "A Dream Goes On Forever" reached number 69.
Background
In March 1973, Rundgren's fourth album A Wizard, a True Star was released.[1] Recorded at his newly built Secret Sound Studios in Manhattan, Wizard's sound and structure was heavily informed by his recent experiments in psychedelic drugs.[2] Critical reception to Wizard was mixed,[1] and according to Rundgren, the album was generally regarded as "professional suicide".[3] In the weeks following the album's release, he produced the New York Dolls' self-titled debut album and Grand Funk Railroad's We're an American Band.[4] Rundgren also prepared a technologically ambitious stage show with a new band, Utopia,[5] his first official group since the Nazz.[6] The tour began in April and was cancelled after only a couple weeks on the road due to its extensive technical demands.[5]
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 songs that became Todd, which was more material drawing on his hallucinogenic experiences.[7] This time, he had also formed a fascination with religion and spirituality, reading works by authors such as Helena Blavatsky, Rudolf Steiner, and Jiddu Krishnamurti that he had found at an occult book store in Lower Manhattan.[8] He said he "started to have a great curiosity about where that psychedelic experience fits into not just my own personal history but the larger history of people's quest for meaning."[8]
Style and production
Compared to Wizard, Todd features synthesizers more heavily, although it still employs Rundgren's usual selection of guitar, piano, and found sounds.[8] Its musical contents range from Gilbert and Sullivan-style show tunes to fusions of Philadelphia soul and progressive rock.[9] Due to the success of "Hello It's Me", Rundgren was primarily known for singer-songwriter ballads. In March 1974, he penned an article for Phonograph Record in which he compared Todd to his previous work: "Todd has the least number of ballads, I think, of all the albums I’ve done. It also has more guitar playing. It varies… I do what I feel inspired to do. If I don’t feel like playing that much rock ‘n roll, I don’t need another outlet - another band to play rock and roll."[10] Further, he explained the concept of the record:
The whole record (Todd) is about states of consciousness. The Wizard album marked a beginning of new forms of communication - basing my musical ideas on responses other than just purely physical or material. In the Wizard album I was just discovering a different language. In the new album, it is more of a discourse in this new language - telling what I’ve discovered with this new attitude - that is, out of directing my attention to things other than material - to other states on consciousness. ... I did the Wizard album where the song ideas ranged from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. A further refinement of that idea is represented in Todd, and the refinement is that I’m breaking down all these barriers - removing the six spirals - just saying there are no limitations as to what is sung about or what the music sounds like, or how long it is… or whether it is even music at all.[10] ...
Later, he commented of the album, "my psychedelic adventures were more a part of a spiritual quest to have a greater understanding about the nature of things. As a result, Todd is naturally more orderly, but it also dealt with alternative concepts such as empathy to the point of telepathy. So, on 'I Think You Know,' it's also saying, 'I think at the same moment that you know,' which is the formula for telepathy."[8]
Release
Originally scheduled for release in December 1973, Todd was delayed to the next February due to a vinyl shortage caused by the 1973 oil crisis.[13] The sleeve included a list of names of fans that had sent back the postcard included within the sleeve of A Wizard, a True Star.[14] Utopia played more shows throughout November and December, performing material from Something/Anything? and Wizard after a solo opening set by Rundgren on piano playing along to a pre-recorded track.[15] These shows resumed in March 1974, in support of Todd's release, and lasted until May.[16] "A Dream Goes on Forever", a song originally written for Wizard but recorded for Todd, was issued as lead single.[17]