Published on Sep 26, 1997
As vast as the Pierce Memorial Archives are, there often are
times that I develop an urge to start learning about an artist
whose work I either am not familiar with or don’t own much of.
Todd Rundgren falls into this category – the last time he graced
our pages was way back in January. For some time now, I’ve wanted
to find out a little more about Rundgren the musician. So, off to
the local used record emporium I went, in search of all things
Rundgren (or anything else I could wrap my greedy little fingers
around for 99 cents). Lo and behold, there was a battered copy of
his 1972 double-album
Something / Anything? staring me in the face… and for a
dollar, no less.
Jackpot!
Wanting to pay close attention to detail, I eschewed my modern
turntable and dusted off an old Dual I’ve had lying around – you
know, one of those with the spindle to play multiple records. I
slapped the vinyl onto the spindle, cranked up the headphones, and
let it rip.
What I learned is that
Something / Anything? is not only a pop album with more bite
than Marv Albert (no, no, wait… scratch that), it shows off the
genius that is Rundgren for almost the entire album.
Something / Anything? had two hit singles – “Hello It’s Me,”
which next to “Bang The Drum All Day” is the best-known Rundgren
number; and the album-opening “I Saw The Light” (which I always
thought was a Carole King song – boy, is my face red). But as good
as these tracks are, they are not the best cuts on the album.
The first part of the album has Rundgren in “hit single” mode,
firing off number after number that would sound great on the radio.
“It Wouldn’t Have Made Any Difference” is the tale of love lost and
the singer’s attempt to reconcile the past with the present. It is
a very moving song, and one I still don’t get tired of hearing.
“Cold Morning Light” falls into the same category, featuring some
powerful acoustic guitar work. (With the exception of the last
side, Rundgren plays all the instruments and provides all the
voices – no mean feat on songs like “Wolfman Jack.”)
In fact, if there were one record I wish I could superglue to
the turntable, it would be side one of
Something / Anything?. The highs and the lows are all
captured here, and are nailed down perfectly.
Rundgren then moves on to the “cerebral” side, which slips a
little in power, but not enough to ruin the listen. After a short
aside where Rundgren demonstrates things that can go wrong in the
studio, he kicks into the incredible instrumental “Breathless”
(though I think he could have left the “La Bamba” riffs out).
Rundgren shows he is capable of painting a picture in the
listener’s mind, as on “The Night The Carousel Burnt Down” and
“Marlene.” One song which surprised me was “Song Of The Viking,”
which I expected to be done in melodramatic Gilbert-and-Sullivan
style. Thank God it wasn’t. Only the closing song of the first
record, “I Went To The Mirror,” disappoints. Described by Rundgren
as an “experiment in mixed media,” I fail to see what he was trying
to accomplish with this track… and unless Todd himself is reading
this review, I guess we’ll never know.
The second disc starts off with Rundgren getting “heavy” – but
don’t let that scare you. In fact, Rundgren is one of the few
songwriters I know who can deliver a message in a song without
whacking you over the head with it. One song, “One More Day (No
Word),” seems to be a challenge for those who idly let life pass
them by to get off their asses and do something to shape their
lives. (Had I not read the lyric sheet, I would have guessed the
song was a controlled diatribe against the then-ongoing Vietnam
War.) Other cuts like “Torch Song” and “Little Red Lights” continue
to amaze me.
It is on side four that things go a little astray. Maybe it’s
because Rundgren tied the songs together with a mini-play. Maybe
it’s because the polish of the studio is thrown out for “live”
recording. Maybe it’s because Rundgren is no longer the only
musician on the tracks. Whatever it is, the quality dips a little
bit.
Besides “Hello It’s Me,” the track “Dust In The Wind” (no,
not the same one that Kansas recorded) stands out as a solid
effort that could have been a hit single. As for most of the
remaining songs, it just seems like Rundgren got a little silly.
“Piss Aaron,” “Some Folks Is Even Whiter Than Me” and “Slut” just
don’t seem like the kind of material that Rundgren would normally
record. Still, the side is listenable and isn’t terrible – just
disappointing.
In fact, one has to wonder how Rundgren was able to keep
churning out solid effort after solid effort for as long as he did
on
Something / Anything?. There are bands I know that couldn’t
fill one side of a record with well-written songs. Rundgren fills
up three-fourths of a two-record set with them. And one wonders why
Rundgren didn’t achieve greater success; he proved with this
release he was worthy of it.
Something / Anything turned out to be a real lesson for me
in Rundgren and his music, and has filled me with a desire to seek
out more of his albums. For the fan who only knows the hits, I
would dare to challenge them to pass up the “greatest hits”
packages or the anthologies and pick up this album. It’s as fine of
an introduction to Rundgren that I can think of.