Something/Anything

"...When I first heard this in 1972, I was swept away with his melodic genius. This is Todd on all 8 cylinders: creative, melodic, eccentric and eclectic...This was his shining hour. A pop masterpiece!..." Amazon reviewer Robert G. Martinez "Doctor of Rock"

Todd Rundgren / Something Anything

After Paul McCartney's modest first solo album, McCartney, was released in 1970, with the "all instruments by Paul McCartney" credit on the sleeve, the gauntlet was thrown down for other multi-instrumentalists to do the same. Todd Rundgren was one of them and after two solo albums of modest success, Todd was ready to lay it all on the line with his sprawling double album Something/Anything.

The album consisted of three sides of one-man-band Todd playing and singing everything with a disposable, seemingly LIVE fourth side, an "operetta". The inside sleeve of the original album had Todd in silhouette, arms outstretched making double "Victory" signs with his fingers (satirising then-US president Richard Nixon), the King of his er...domain. In Todd's case, his principality was a modest apartment turned 8-track recording studio, Runt Recorders, where he created the album's demos. So, Todd was laying it on the line, he was da man, and we were there to listen.

Well, what Something/Anything delivers is actually about one album of delicious, eternal pop (most of sides 1 & 2) and one album of quality filler (most of sides 3 & 4), simple as that. So, thanks to the wonders of digital programming, here's my selection of what that single album of material should have been. Both Side 1 & 2 remain pretty much as they are with the deletion of 1 track on each side and the addition of 1 track each from Side 3:

Something/Anything LITE

I Saw The Light...The eternal song that heralds summer, a pop perfection hit single all around the world and still a movie soundtrack stalwart, what more could you ask?

"...Absolutely great song. TIMELESS classic...it sure brings me back to some great times. Always make me think of my first girlfriend..." youtuber sebringdnf 

We've all heard it and the chances are that you've sung along to it, many times. I Saw The Light remains Todd's biggest hit and arguably, the best write-it-by-numbers song written by anyone, ever. Pure assembly-line magic that keeps shimmering through the years. The Brill Building would have been thrilled! 

It Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference...A sweet but fairly immature ballad that's admittedly, fairly representative of its time:

"...Do you remember the last time I said
If I ever thought of lying
I'd rather think of dying instead..."

It Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference

Wolfman Jack...nutty pop singalong ode to DJ Wolfman Jack. Predated all those I'm such a player homies by a good 25 years...

"...Look me in the eyes, baby
And you cut that jive
You know the Wolfman's just about
The Number 1 cat alive..."

       Wolfman Jack

N.B. I've dumped the rather wimpish Cold Morning Light and replaced it with Couldn't I Just Tell You from Side 3.

Couldn't I Just Tell You...perhaps the second most perfect example of write-it-by-numbers, pop-music craftmanship, ever. It's superb, absolutely pulsating with urgent, youthful testosterone, a magnificent  hook and simple, direct teenage lyrics:

"...Couldn't I just tell you the way I feel
I can't keep it bottled up inside
And couldn't we pretend that it's no big deal
And there's really nothing left to hide..."

        Couldn't I Just Tell You

It Takes Two To Tango...a delightful, playful look at the game of Romance:

"...It's true, yes it's true
I'm as guilty of the sin as y-o-u
I lived through it, too
And as you can see
It didn't hurt me
You must admit you helped a bit

It takes two to tango     You know I wasn't alone
It takes two to tango     I remember it still
It takes two to tango     Drink a toast if you will

This is for the girls
Who just couldn't see
That my only sin
Was being me..."

          It Takes Two To Tango

Sweeter Memories...Oh! If only Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye or even Luther Van Dross could have got hold of this little gospel beauty and lifted it into the stratosphere. Sweeter Memories isn't deep, isn't profound but remains a gorgeous slice of Hope and perhaps excellent advice from a simpler time:

"...There's a cloud in the sky
And it's raining on you
Still you try
To keep dry
But your troubles leak through

And you've lost all you could
Feeling bad, choose your reveries
Keep the good
Leave the bad
Take a few of these...
...The sweeter memories..."

     Sweeter Memories
    

Side 2 opens with Breathless, a kooky instrumental which sets the scene for the atmospheric...

...The Night The Carousel Burnt Down, which Todd suggests could be the theme song for a movie...if anybody's interested. It's a good title for a movie, as well. 

Saving Grace deserves to retain its place simply because it's so simple, yet idiosyncratic. Stacatto-like, I'm sure it could have been marketed profitably to youth groups around the world.

"...I know the time is gonna come
When I will mean something to someone
Until that day I'm hangin' on...

...I think I'm gonna love it
I know I'm gonna love it
When they f-i-n-a-l-l-y see
The saving grace in me..."

       Saving Grace

N.B.: I've dumped the saccharine Marlene and dragged Little Red Lights from side 3.

Little Red Lights: Sometimes Rock music just has to make a horrible noise to be fun and Little Red Lights, about the joys of driving, is one of those songs.

Song Of The Viking: While McCartney would trot out:

• When I'm 64
• Your Mother Should Know &
• Honey Pie

for The Beatles and be judged by some to be sounding twee, Rundgren plays a much wittier fiddle and therby gets away with it. Song Of The Viking, a  Gilbert & Sullivan pastiche, rocks!

Incidentally, the song is dedicated to Patti Smith, a one-time paramour, who lived and breathed the romance of Rock'n'Roll and would soon cause a big splash a few years later with the release of her Horses album.

"...I am a viking of some note
Knut's my name and here I float
Out in the sea in a great big boat
And I'm the one who beats the drum in time
To stroke our oars that drive our galleons on
And while we rowed we had our song
And we had our god
And it may seem odd
But at least we...
...Had our...
...Cause..."

                  Song Of The Viking

I Went To The Mirror: Remember, Something/Anything was released just a few years after Lennon's excesses of Revolution 9 on The Beatles' The White Album, so this self-indulgent piece of fluff actually has some historical antecedents and I've retained it rather than replace it with some of the remaining cuts from Side 3:

• Black Maria (actually a favorite of Todd's which he still occasionally plays in concert)
• One More Word (a favorite of mine but no-one else seems to rate it) &
• Torch Song (earnest and pleasant but essentially, a filler)

I Went To The Mirror is more of a paranoid monologue than a song...and a fitting way to end this album of varied, experimental pop. I won't try to describe it, you've just got to "experience" it.

So, there you have it. Todd Rundgren's Something/Anything (Lite), the album that announced Todd Rundgren to the world and my Lite version is a really good snapshot of the artist as a young man, brimming with verve and confidence.

Todd Rundgren: Something/Anything

"...Rundgren: One-man Beatles..." Amazon reviewer John A Canaris "TC"

"...If you've not yet discovered this truly WONDEROUS album, then try and find the time to do so. It will change your life..." Amazon.co.uk reviewer Mr. P. B. Koeb

"...I've been a Todd fan for....37 years now and though I've been away from his light for a few years, I am in the process of re-discovering his music. All his music makes you feel good!..." Amazon reviewer Peter D. Page

"...When I first heard this in 1972, I was swept away with his melodic genius. This is Todd on all 8 cylinders: creative, melodic, eccentric and eclectic...This was his shining hour. A pop masterpiece!..." Amazon reviewer Robert G. Martinez "Doctor of Rock"

N.B.: There are three songs on the ignored-by-me Side 4 that deserve mention:

• the ridiculous but amusing S.L.U.T "...S.L.U.T. she may be a slut but she looks good to me..."
• the well-loved Dust In The Wind  
• and Hello It's Me, which was soon to become one of Todd's best loved songs and biggest hits

However, I don't rate any of them but I guess that just shows how little I know!

Todd Rundgren LIVE 1972: Hello It's Me 

Todd Rundgren's Greatest Hits

For more info, see:

• wikipedia Something/Anything
• the very first and little known incarnation of Utopia, which Todd formed to promote Something / Anything 
• Creem interview, 1972 
• Utopia LIVE Black Maria, 1973
• Todd LIVE + backing track Hello It's Me, 1973 
• Utopia LIVE Couldn't I Just Tell You 1977  
• Todd Rundgren & Utopia LIVE It Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference, 1978
• Todd solo LIVE Song Of The Viking, 2005
• cover version of Hello It's Me by The Isley Brothers, 1974