February 1974: Todd Rundgren Releases TODD
With 1974 double-LP, Todd, artist Todd Rundgren picked up where he left off with 1973 full-length, A Wizard, A True Star: by throwing out the rule book of record making.
The whole record (Todd) is about states of consciousness," Rundgren revealed to magazine Phonograph Record in March 1974. "The Wizard album marked a beginning of new forms of communication — basing my musical ideas on responses other than just purely physical or material. In the Wizard album I was just discovering a different language. In the new album, it is more of a discourse in this new language — telling what I’ve discovered with this new attitude — that is, out of directing my attention to things other than material – to other states on consciousness" (those "other states of consciousness" were in large part due to Rundgren's experimentation with psychedelic drugs).
After wrapping up the A Wizard, A True Star campaign, Rundgren spent time moonlighting as a record producer, overseeing both Grand Funk Railroad's We're an American Band and the New York Dolls' self-titled debut album.
Holing up in his Secret Sounds recording studio in New York City during July 1973, Rundgren began unraveling the myriad influences that would make up the Todd album. While delving deep into sonic experimentation with a growing arsenal of synthesizers, the artist still deigned to include the well-crafted pop gems he was known for.
“I recognized that people like those sorts of tunes, and I have a facility for writing them," Rundgren said at the time. "People relate to them, but, as with other songs on Todd, like ‘Useless Begging’ and ‘Izzat Love,’ I usually have to break it to them that, while the songs are sincere in that the emotion in them may be inspired by real events, they’re not about a specific thing or person.”
While Todd was originally slated to come out at the end of 1973, the oil crisis that year resulted in a vinyl shortage, pushing the release date to February of 1974. The mind-expanding album made a solid chart run, with the full-length reaching #54 on the Billboard 200, and the (albeit brilliant) single "A Dream Goes On Forever" somehow only peaking at #69 on the Hot 100.
Still, Todd went on become a beloved and influential LP for budding artists at the time and for countless others over the years. Songs from the album have been sampled by a wide range of artists including Charli XCX and Neon Indian, and significantly inspired guitarist Dave Gregory, who eventually became a member of the band XTC.
“I loved the maverick spirit of the guy,” Gregory said, having heard Todd tune "The Last Ride" back in 1974 on BBC DJ Bob Harris' Sounds Of The Seventies radio show. “He was talented enough to stick a finger up to the industry and say ‘This is my record – take it or leave it.’”
