Wow, only $42 from Burning Shed - this set is a bargain! I don't think I own any of these on CD anymore - I sold off the CDs and vinyl I used to have.
The Complete Bearsville Albums Collection contains 10 Todd Rundgren studio albums and the live double Back To The Bars inside a stylish 13cd clamshell box.
The set showcases Rundgren's finest work including the ambitious Todd, the borderline insane Initiation, and the all-time classic, A Wizard, A True Star.
Pre-order for 26th February release.
Have these been remastered?
No they are dumping these before Todd remixes and remasters these with a whole lot less compression. Sorry just kidding✌️
Not that it would matter. His albums had huge amounts of compression. While I liked a lot of his material and arrangements, over the years I have realized that his production abilities were not among the best I have heard. I'm sure I'll have some flames spewed at me for that.Originally Posted by Firth
They sounded great on FM though, and FM loved compression, they would compress it just to get more power out. I long for the early days of FM which were basically alternative, using a more recent term. No noise between stations and wide dispersion meant for much better sound.
No flames from me. I love Todd's music, dislike the vast majority of his productions.
Good price but was able to shave, between price without VAT and shipping, another 4.5 GBPs off the price at Amazon UK, making it 32.24 or roughly $64.35 (CDN) - which is $15 less than I'd have paid at amazon.ca. They must have dropped the price at UK as I did my usual rounds (not realizing BS had it) and Canada was the cheapest price....but now, UK beats out BS, as well as Amazon UK and IT (where I've been getting a lot of significantly lower prices, especially on box sets; the shipping is higher, but the costs for the boxes has almost always beat all other sources).
Anyway, looking forward to this as I've very little Rundgren, had a good friend in high school (haven't seen in decades) who absolutely loved him, and figured, with all the (re)discoveries of artists I'd largely passed over in the day, it's time I gave Todd a good chance.
I do have the first Utopia and Another Live albums - had Utopia as a single disc but recently replaced with a remastered reissue that doubles with Another Live. I saw the first incarnation of Utopia and, while I really loved what they were doing, the venue - what is now know as Southam Hall at our National Arts Centre (a room designed largely for symphony orchestras) - was awful. It was such a mush that I had to leave my really good seat and stand at the back by the sound board to actually make out a lot of what was going on.
Question: since this box focuses on Rundgren solo and not Utopia, and I've largely ignored other Utopia albums (and Esoteric has been reissuing them), can anyone comment on them and, perhaps, suggest what other titles would be worth hearing? I know they ultimately went more pop and that's no problem for me as long as it's good pop; but I definitely like the proggy/fusion vibe of the first album in a big way.
Anyway, looking forward to this box!
Wow! Not sure how I missed this... John, in the off-chance that you see this reply, I would suggest Ra, Oops! Wrong Planet, and the 1982 eponymous Utopia (a killer pop album, IMO). But really, all the Utopia albums have worthwhile stuff on them -- it's just some are overall stronger than others. The Esoteric reissues are great, and collect some of the non-album tracks (such as "Man Of Action" and "Monument" on P.O.V., which are some of my favorite Todd/Utopia songs).
Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed the Rundgren box set. Please feel free to post your thoughts on it.
I need to get the Utopia records too. I have the first one, and I used to have Oblivion, but everything in between I never got around to getting. Utopia had some cool songs (Todd had cool songs on his solo records, too).
RA is the only other real “prog” album, and it’s already turning towards pop. And their prog-epic is one of the most self-effacing and jokey ones out there, sort of like the American version of Grobschnitt. Well, there’s also “The Road to Utopia” and “Caravan” off of Adventures in Utopia, but that’s pretty much it for prog from them.
If the idea of synth-sweetened power pop sounds appealing to you, then Utopia is for you. Think the Cars, After the Fire, or Cheap Trick with more synths. The only Utopia albums I don’t care for are Oops! Wrong Planet and Swing to the Right, mainly as I don’t enjoy the preachy, didactic songs on those (whenever they go in that direction lyrically, the songwriting suffers; there’s a few good tunes on each, but they’re drowned out by the mediocrity). The one exception to the above description is Deface the Music, which is their Beatles pastiche album. It’s kind of fun, but I don’t get the same mileage out of it as I do Oblivion or Adventures in Utopia.
Confirmed Bachelors: the dramedy hit of 1883...
I think the proggiest one is the first. Freak Parade, The Ikon and the Utopia Theme are prog/fusion with a nice power pop sorbet of "Freedom Fighters".
I remember hanging out in a used record store once, and they had a copy of Todd Rundgren's Utopia, so I asked my friend who was the lone employee on duty at the time, to put side two on the stereo, as I'd neve heard it. We were digging the first like two or three minutes, whatever it was, which was like this big elaborate fanfare/preamble comparable to what one might hear on a Yes or a Gentle Giant record. Then suddenly, the vocals come in, and it suddenly morphed into sounding more like what you'd normally expect from Todd Rundgren, ie that sort of slightly mainstream sounding vocal oriented rock music. Nothing wrong with that, but it is a bit jarring. Oh, there's cool "prog" bits in The Ikon after that, but it's just weird how it keeps morphing back and forth between these different things, like some sort of battle between Todd and his Mirror Universe counterpart (hmm...I wonder if the Mirror Universe Todd sports facial hair).
Wasn't there supposed to be some big "prog epic" on one of his solo albums? I I think it was Initiation that I've always heard was supposed to have something akin to The Ikon, but even longer.
I remember MTV used to play the Time Heals and Hideaway videos back in the early days. I think the Time Heals video was the first place I ever saw any of Salvador Dali's artwork. THey used to also play a live version of Bang On The Drum All Day, but I've always found that one less impressive in comparison to the other two (as well as the Utopia stuff, which I always dug...Feet Don't Fail Me Now, Cry Baby, Hammer In My Heart, and Love In Action are cool songs).
Take this suggestion from someone who has seen Rundgren perform about 100X since the 1970's but doesn't really belong to the "cult" of Todd.
Bubblegum hero Shaun Cassidy wanted to walk away from his uber pop image in 1980 and asked Rundgren to produce a more grown-up/artistic album for him. It's called Wasp and Utopia is the band. The songlist includes Bowie, Talking Heads, The Animals, Ian Hunter, The Who, and a few songs Rundgren wrote specifically for Cassidy (the title track is especially fun). I think this album is a real gem and well worth a listen.
Also, if you like the more outside aspects of Rundgren (like A Treatise On Cosmic Fire) you might like a very recent album he did with Emil Nikolaisen, Hans-Peter Lindstrøm called Runddans. It's got some trippy vocal stuff mixed with some creative guitar and a lot of synth.
Interesting! Somehow I'd never heard of this before, but I'm looking it up now to give it a listen.
Thanks!
Yep, the instrumental "A Treatise on Cosmic Fire," on which Todd managed to squeeze over 35 minutes of music onto one LP side.
Hurtleturtled Out of Heaven - an electronic music composition, on CD and vinyl
https://michaelpdawson.bandcamp.com
http://www.waysidemusic.com/Music-Pr...MCD-spc-7.aspx
Although arguably it is a bit different from "The Ikon," being all instrumental and more new age and less fusion.
Kinda sounds like what Leif Garrett was doing around the same time. He too put out a solo album circa 80-81 where he covered an early Who song (I Can't Explain, in this case), which I think he intended to re-position himself as a "serious rock n roller". Or something like that. At any rate, the record stiffed, and Leif never escaped that teenybopper thing.
As for the Shaun Cassidy record, I know I've heard his version of So Sad About Us, which is one of my favorite early Who songs, and I thought he did a pretty good job of it. Haven't heard the rest of the album, but if Todd was involved, I'm sure it's just as good.
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