A Wizard, A True Star

O.K. So Todd's put out Something/Anything, proving to the world that he can do it all, write, sing, play, arrange, produce and he's ready to rock. Critics love him, the public are certainly interested in seeing what he comes up with next.

Todd Rundgren: A Wizard, A True Star

Whoops! The kid discovers LSD, scrambles his brain and transforms himself on the painted album sleeve to a man whose eyes hear and smell, surrounded by magic hexagrams, spheres & colored orbs. The inside sleeve sees Todd shaving amidst the clutter of a claustrophobic, mirrored room with:

a rather attractive pair of fake rubber breasts in a bird cage
play dentures
a beer-bottle
The New York Times (with MEN WALK ON MOON headline*)
1 bare-breasted pin-up
1 bare-breasted Marilyn Monroe pin-up
1 piece of cleverly folded porn, etc.

Oh boy, and is the music different or what? Say goodbye to the too-clever popster of Something /Anything who wrote and recorded songs because he could. Todd's now creating music because he has to, dragging in session men when needed. It's experimental, it's fragmented, it's nutty...Oh my God, it's like being on acid! Aaaaaaaah!

With the anthemic and rather strange mini-anthem of International Feel opening proceedings, we suddenly get dragged into his drug-ravaged but still just understandable mind, proceeding at a pace that makes McCartney's Abbey Road side 2 montage seem positively geriatric:

Never, Never Land 1.25 a cover version of a song from the Peter Pan Broadway show by Styne, Greene & Conden

Tic Tic Tic 1.15 A nursery-rhyme type of instrumental

You Need Your Head 1.07 Thrash rock

Rock'n'Roll Pussy 1.10 A scathing dismissal of John Lennon's radical politics of 1972 and his album, Sometime In New York City

Dogfight Giggle 1.07 A synthesizer instrumental (with punchline)

You Don't Have To Camp Around 1.05 A scathing but-sweet-sounding dismissal of gay mincing

Flamingo 2.35 An instrumental

...and we only get some sense of normality with the haunting Zen Archer (the lyrics are kinda comic-book mysticism)

"...To the whole united nations
To your greatest expectations
To the moment that you realize
As a dark figure slips from out of the shadow

Pretty bird closes its eyes
Pretty bird d-i-e-s
Another pretty thing
Dead on the end of the shaft
Of the Zen Archer..."

Zen Archer

which ends with a captivating and pleasantly meandering sax solo from the then little-known David Sanborn over the fade-out, as sound F/X arrows from the hidden Zen Archer presumably hit their unsuspecting targets.

Of course, you don't have a moment to rest and you're immediately jolted back, thrown onto the express train to Mayhem Town via the 2.23 minute medley:

Just Another Onionhead Silly, fun, verbal surrealism

Da-da-dali Dali-esque word games &

Just Another Onionhead 2

Followed by the ominous When The Shit Hits the Fan 4.00 with existential meanderings once more but this time, real-world based, sung over a rock tune (of sorts)

"....The IRA had just hit London
They blew up half of Scotland Yard
But when the shit hits the fan
I know I've got to make my way back to...
...Sunset Boulevarde..."

When The Shit Hits The Fan

...then it's back to a reprise of International Feel and Side 1 closes. Whew! If you've stayed on for the crazy trip, you could be:

thrilled (some of the critics & me)
confused (some of the critics) or
angry (most of the public)

Side 2 was considerably less frenetic and included 2 excellent ballads...

Sometimes I Don't Know What To Feel

"...Sometimes I don't know what to feel
Everything I thought that I knew starts to look so unreal
There's a ringing in my head that keeps me awake at night

Sometimes I don't know what is right
Today I saw a car crush my little dog under its wheel
It did not even stop, it just sped off and out of sight..."

Sometimes I Don't Know What To Feel

I Don't Want To Tie You Down

"...I don't want a thing to mar this ever
The picture that we make
The balance of our minds together
The perfect give and take
For me to let my love possess you
Would be the worst mistake, I'm sorry
I don't want to bring you down, oh baby
I don't want to tie you down..."

I Don't Want To Tie You Down

and a black tribute medley which kept the pace moving and funky:

I'm So Proud
La La La Means I Love You
Ooh Baby Baby
Cool Jerk

and A Wizard, A True Star finally closes with the anthemic and well-loved Just One Victory, Todd's counter-culture war cry, which, at the time, was considerably more powerful and genuinely hopeful than it might appear now.

"...Somehow, someday
We need just one victory and were on our way
Prayin' for it all day and fightin' for it all night
Give us just one victory, it will be all right..."

Just One Victory

With A Wizard, A True Star, Todd's audience shrivelled...and then got even smaller once he unveiled Utopia, his prog-rock side project, who he toured extensively with.

However, there were a core group of fans who, felt and still feel that Todd almost single-handedly dragged the legacy of The Beatles into the 70s and much of the 80s, combining melody with intelligent lyrics humor and a restless, truly experimental spirit.

To the true believers, A Wizard, A True Star is an important part of that story.

Todd Rundgren: A Wizard, A True Star

"...In the grand tradition of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band...I like the album for it's originality. As a fan of novelty songs and Broadway musicals, I found (it) entertaining for it's silliness and wit. Expect an aural fruit salad and you won't be disappointed..." Amazon reviewer James M. Froehlich "The Fabulous Speck"

"...This is the album that could have killed music because after listening to it everyone else should have just given up..." Amazon.co.uk reviewer N. Macdonald "welovecats"

"...Is there any other artist who can make an album as good as this? No..." Amazon.co.uk reviewer Mr. John L. Dyble

"...Dazzling, multi-colored, and multi-layered are perfect ways to describe this *vivid* album (the brilliant cover truly does summarize this album in a nut shell) but, unless you're a bit of a quirky idealist yourself, it may not make a whole lot of sense to you at first...Todd shows incredible musical and artistic range throughout this entire album...(but) his quirky sense of humor and general big-heartedness just make the ride that much more rewarding. This is one of the greatest albums that I've ever heard and, I encourage everyone who is curious to pick it up..." Amazon reviewer D. Lee

"...'What the F***?' You'll be saying that repeatedly as you listen to this album. It leaps effortlessly from genre to genre soul to rock to funk to ballads to weird electronic instrumentals to Disney and seemingly self-parodying itself on the way, all in a cloud of multi-layered seventies keyboards, Moogs and Farsifas...An absolute classic..." Amazon.co.uk reviewer A customer

Todd Rundgren's Greatest Hits

For more info, see:

wikipedia A Wizard/A True Star
Utopia LIVE Just One Victory 1978
Todd LIVE as a one-man-band playing International Feel London, 1994
pleasant cover of I Don't Want To Tie You Down by youtuber Gary McGill with some lovely acoustic guitar. BTW, Gary's available for hire!