A Capella

Todd Rundgren: A Capella

1985 saw the release of Todd Rundgren's A Capella, an album of strong songs with all music being created using an Emulator, a vocal processing device which enabled Todd to manipulate his voice them so that it replicated the sounds of normal instrumentation...with the exception of the drums, which were created using Emulator-treated handclaps.

Todd on Entertainment Tonight

Now, I can see why Todd might want to do that...it's certainly a unique achievement...and the learning process would have been immense...but the recording industry further dismissed him as a drugged-out eccentric geek and the general public just wondered why their occasional hit-maker's band sounded a bit odd.

Damn! What an opportunity lost, because A Capella has got it all and to a fan like me, I just hear solid and sometimes moving songwriting often struggling through layers upon layers of lush Todd voices:

A Capella starts with a stunning opening track, Blue Orpheus, a song of love and thanks for an unacknowledged singer (Marvin Gaye?) who reminds Todd of the important things in Life:

"...We've all had something and lost it
 And it's burning my heart
I can't open my mouth and just let it out
But when I hear my Blue Orpheus sing
I know that Life is a wonderful thing..."

                     Blue Orpheus

There was also the potential monster hit single, Something To Fall Back On, surely Rundgren's catchiest, sunniest number since I Saw The Light on Something/Anything...but with a dark story of the Toddster's diminished self-esteem:

"...And to wake up lonely is your deepest dread
So you stay connected by a tiny thread
Though you'd rather try for something else instead
When you need to find me I'm right behind you

I know I'm only...
 ...Something to fall back on..."

          Something To Fall Back On

"...Out of all the just-missed hits of (Todd's) career, and there are many, Something To Fall Back On might be the most tragically gypped. It should have ripped up the charts in 1985. The technology was hip then, the hook was insanely great and it came out in the summer when everybody should have been required to adopt it over their car stereos. It didn't work. We as a nation should feel very, very ashamed..." Amazon reviewer Paul Pearson

Then a couple more exquisite, moody "You done me wrong" love songs, Pretending To Care:

"...Today I am your chariot horse
Tomorrow I'm your albatross
Suspended by the finest thread
No-one could ever see...

...If I was blind
Would you still be my eyes
Or hide everything you see
Pretending to care about me..."

             Pretending To Care

& Lost Horizon:

"...Now I guess it's too late
To speculate
On things as they might...
...Have been

That given the time
You'd read my mind
And know there was Love...
...Within

I could loudly exclaim
We felt the same
But not in all...
...Honesty

Now you'll never know
How could you know?
The friend that you had...
...In me..."

        Lost Horizon

Both songs linger long in the memory, with Rundgren seeming to pull more out of "the music" than ever before, as if he's channeling every ounce of feeling he can from his bruised feelings into these sad songs.

Again, swimming against the tide, Todd irritates America, which, at the time, was still very in love with the ex-movie star, hawkish President Reagan. Todd delivers a couple of surprising, really out-of-the-blue political songs.

Firstly, the Irish yokel-folk of Johnee Jingo, admonishing the callous manipulation of the gullible working classes by those that they look up to:

"...To the man who owns the land...
...We're all the same
But when his grip begins to slip
They'll be calling out your name

Johnee Jingo

And the throne, the pulpit and the politician
Create a thirst for power in the common man
It's a taste for blood passed off as bravery
Or just patriotism hiding bigotry...

Johnee Jingo
Johnee Jingo
Jingo don't you fight for me
Jingo don't you speak for me..."

                  Johnee Jingo

...and then there's the superb personalized, blue-collar, down-sized, middle-aged, working man in Honest Work:

"...I'm not afraid to bend my back
I'm not afraid of dirt
But how I fear the things I do
For lack of honest work...

...The prophets of a brave new world
Captains of Industry
Have visions grand and great design
But none have room for me

They see a world where everyone
Is rich and smart and young
But if I live to see such things
Too late for me they come..."

              Honest Work

I guess that the three problematic songs on the album are the religious songs, two directly influenced by Todd's interest in Sufism, the esoteric, now mostly repressed heart of Islam, of which, one wing is the whirling dervishes of Turkey.

The Mevlevi Lodge Of Whirling Dervishes, Istanbul

Hodja, done in the style of a joyous doo-wop spiritual about a young boy (perhaps Todd, in metaphor...or in another life) begging a whirling dervish to become his master and introduce him to the internal meditation behind the external act.

Then there's Miracle In The Bazaar a fascinating soundscape with lyrics about a miracle taking place in an Arabic marketplace in which a madman has been cured.

...and most bizarre of all, Lockjaw a frightening Grimms Fairy Tale designed to scare children into not lying, narrated in a creepy old troll voice:

"...In the Black Forest lives an ogre named Lockjaw
Lockjaw doesn't like children who tell lies
Late at night he stalks the houses of the fibbers and the falsifiers
And before they can cry out from their beds
He nails their jaws open with a rusty nail
Using his head for a hammer
You may escape him for a while and think you fooled him
But he'll get you in the end
He'll get ya, he'll get ya!"

                               Lockjaw

If that's meant to contrast with the implicit joy of Hodja or the wonder of Miracle In The Bazaar, it does. Lockjaw is ugly and scarey, a dreadful way to bring up children!

Topping off the set is a cover version of The Spinners' Mighty Love, which obviously meant a lot to Todd or perhaps the woman who dumped him but, unfortunately, it falls flat. Still, the last thing you could ever expect from Todd is predictability. He experiments and sometimes his experiments fail, that's just par for the course.

Approaching 40, A Capella was Todd's last great pop album. I thoroughly recommend you try it out because despite the idiosyncrasies of the recording process, there is lots of great music here...and only the Good Lord knows why Something To Fall Back On wasn't a Top 10 global smash...for somebody!

Todd Rundgren: A Capella

"...Like the title suggests, Todd Rundgren created A Cappella entirely with his voice. It sounds gimmicky, and it is..but it really works. Due to computerized manipulation, he's even able to add percussion like sounds via his voice. So it doesn't sound as bare as you might think. It's ambitious, fascinating, strange, catchy and many other adjectives. Don't be scared off by the gimmick, because it's really one of Todd's more accessible releases..." Amazon reviewer B

"...Once you get past the concept - the human voice creating all of the sounds heard on this you - you're left with a wonderful collection of songs made by one of the true musical genius' of our lifetimes. Pretending to Care and Blue Orpheus are wonderful..." Amazon reviewer It's Gold I Tell ya

"...This is one of Todd's most intriguing albums. I actually first heard it when a fellow in a local record store got me a bootleg of the master from Todd's mom a couple months before it was released. I wish I had that tape cause some of the tracks had radically different mixes.

Oh, the title is a bit of a Triple Entendre:

• we all know A'Capella means without accompaniment (no instruments)...
• ...it is also without accompaniment in the sense that no other performers appear on this album
• finally, it is A'Capella in the spiritual sense as well. Literally, A'Capella means 'for the chapel' or 'for the church (and) while this is by no means a Christian Music album, it is infinitely spiritual..." Amazon reviewer A customer 

There's also a double CD now available of Todd's tour to promote A Capella with an 11-member choir.

Todd LIVE: The A Capella tour

"...This LIVE 2-CD set is a mixture of half Todd on his own, with either a piano or guitar (not too disimilar to the 1982 tour) and reworkings of old songs using an 11-voice choir....The real standout tracks for me are, It Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference and Love Is The Answer...There's plenty of Todd just talking to the audience and even an audience participation number! I'm not a collector, I just want to hear the stuff he's done, but this is a real must have..." Amazon reviewer V.E. matthews

For more info, see:

• wikipedia A Capella
• Todd + Ensemble LIVE Honest Work 1986 "...That was freakin' fabulous..." youtuber manumoka  "...Probably the most underrated songwriter in commercial music's history. This lyric has always slain me..." youtuber esroberto  "...Unfreakin' believable..." youtuber flatearththeory  
• Todd LIVE Solo Pretending To Care, 2005 "... overwhelmed. Just blown away..."  youtuber kahaki   "...Just the most beautiful song I have ever heard!..." youtuber okkifunkistoki   "...I love this song too - it's kind of hard to see Todd as an older guy, a little heavier like the rest of us. To me he will always been the skinny guy in a skirt on stage..."  youtuber NavyMike'sMom
• cover of Pretending To Care by Jennifer Warnes
• cover of Hodja from the TV series Full House, with John Stamos