Todd is God

A Limited edition 12" single of Todd Rundgren / Lindstrom / Emil Nikolaisen - Put Your Arms Around Me will be released for this year's RSD.

Rolling Stone (Australia) has an interview with Tobias Jesso Jr. , a Canadian singer songwriter (who he counts Taylor Swift and Adele as fans) whose debut album, Goon , they claim is one of the most anticipated of the year. Clearly if I am mentioning this at all you know that he must mention Todd, and he does. With its sunny melodies and heartsick subject matter, Goon earned comparisons to Harry Nilsson, Nick Drake, Randy Newman and Todd Rundgren – artists Jesso wasn't even familiar with. "I wasn't a big music-digger," he admits. "When it came to oldies stuff, I didn't know Todd Rundgren and Harry Nilsson and stuff like that, but when I was writing, J.R. [White] would say, 'I get this Todd Rundgren vibe.' He would send me those songs, and then I'd learn the chords." Still, Jesso says, he wants a contemporary record and plans to move away from the throwback.

The Yahoo Music blog has one of the best discussions on the terrible 'Blurred Lines' court decision yesterday (now being appealed), and mentioned Todd in doing so: "Was Christina Aguilera paying tribute to or stealing from the Andrews Sisters with “Candyman”? Should the Beatles have sued the Knickerbockers for “Lies”? Or the Rutles, the Dukes of Stratosphere, and Todd Rundgren’s Utopia, all of whom recorded delectable Beatles soundalike albums, with varying degrees of straight faces? " In case you missed it, Blurred Lines songwriters – Pharrell Wiliams, TI and Thicke – have already been ordered to pay Marvin Gaye’s family $7.3m in damages for the infringement. Now lawyers say they want to stop sales of the song altogether. Now it seems the lawyers representing Gaye’s family, want to prevent further sales of the song until songwriting/future royalties sorted out. They told Rolling Stone: “We’ll be asking the court to enter an injunction prohibiting the fur...

Tuesday's The Albany Herald (Georgia) had a nice interview with Ernie Isley of the Isley Brothers, where he mentioned Todd. Does it bother you that some of your songs may be better known by other artists’ versions? "It’s a feather in our cap. It’s just like us doing Seals and Crofts’ “Summer Breeze” or Todd Rundgren’s “Hello It’s Me.” We all like that. I ran into Todd in California when he was doing an interview and stuck my head in the door. I said, “Hello, it’s me.” We both had a big laugh at that."