Houston Chronicle has a nice piece on Todd talking about the new album, making music (""Now I can lead a sort of normal life, get up in the morning and have breakfast and then go off to a room somewhere and work without me having to become the hermit of Mink Hollow, as it were."), 30 Rock and other things. He also gives some views on his productions:
Bat Out of Hell , Meat Loaf (1977): "I thought it was a parody of Bruce Springsteen...I was just chuckling the whole time, and I'm still chuckling. I can't believe the world took it seriously"
Skylarking , XTC (1986): "That's one that more people got to hear some than some of the others. Even though it was like pulling teeth, Skylarking is one of my favorite records"
Love Junk , Pursuit of Happiness (1988): "There are a lot of bands I thought should be huge, and everybody who's heard them thinks the same thing. Pursuit of Happiness put on a great show and wrote the greatest pop songs. They just didn't have the label that was able to break them or the management to come up with a strategy to get them the attention they deserved"
Skylarking and Love Junk remain big favourites of mine. As is now well known, whilst Todd and Moe Berg got on like a house on fire, Todd and Andy Partridge - er ... were a house on fire and did not hit it off at all, but even Partridge came to admit it was a fine record. “Musician and producer Todd Rundgren squeezed the XTC clay into its most complete/connected/cyclical record ever. Not an easy album to make for various ego reasons but time has humbled me into admitting that Todd conjured up some of the most magical production and arranging conceivable. A summer's day cooked into one cake.”
Meanwhile the Denver Post's reviewer give the Boulder Theatre gig a thumbs up
Bat Out of Hell , Meat Loaf (1977): "I thought it was a parody of Bruce Springsteen...I was just chuckling the whole time, and I'm still chuckling. I can't believe the world took it seriously"
Skylarking , XTC (1986): "That's one that more people got to hear some than some of the others. Even though it was like pulling teeth, Skylarking is one of my favorite records"
Love Junk , Pursuit of Happiness (1988): "There are a lot of bands I thought should be huge, and everybody who's heard them thinks the same thing. Pursuit of Happiness put on a great show and wrote the greatest pop songs. They just didn't have the label that was able to break them or the management to come up with a strategy to get them the attention they deserved"
Skylarking and Love Junk remain big favourites of mine. As is now well known, whilst Todd and Moe Berg got on like a house on fire, Todd and Andy Partridge - er ... were a house on fire and did not hit it off at all, but even Partridge came to admit it was a fine record. “Musician and producer Todd Rundgren squeezed the XTC clay into its most complete/connected/cyclical record ever. Not an easy album to make for various ego reasons but time has humbled me into admitting that Todd conjured up some of the most magical production and arranging conceivable. A summer's day cooked into one cake.”
Meanwhile the Denver Post's reviewer give the Boulder Theatre gig a thumbs up
Comments
Nice to hear Partridge talk that way about Skylarking.