Great Albums: Todd Rundgren's Something/Anything

When I was a teenager, my father used to regale his family with fascinating stories about his co-workers. I guess he thought that they were fascinating. My brother and I used to laugh at the the stories behind his back. I don't remember most of the guys' names, but there was one named "Carmichael". Carmichael was a black dude who worked alongside my dad. One day Dad brought home a record and said that Carmichael had bought his for his own teenage sons, and they didn't like it. So he passed it along and it wound up in our hands. The record was Todd Rundgren's Something/Anything.

You gotta understand: We were listening to things like Zappa, Return to Forever, Crimson, sure, The Beatles, but mostly more obscure stuff. Musically dense, ruthlessly intelligent artists. So when we got this double record of unabashed pop songs, we were not exactly enamoured of it. At first.

At the time Something/Anything was released, Todd was well on the way to becoming one of the most important and in-demand record producers in the industry. He had previously been in the 60's psych group, Nazz, and he had two solo records under his belt. The solo records earned some nice reviews, and a minor hit with We Got to Get You a Woman. No one was prepared for Something/Anything though. I am loath to call any record perfect, but if there are any I've listened to, Something/Anything is on the list.

My brother and I gradually warmed to the album. Only the hardest heart would not be moved by the sweet melodies and catchy songs on Something/Anything. The first song to really blow me away was The Night the Carousel Burned Down. Ostensibly a song about a fire at a merry-go-round, it always felt like it was about something more. About lost youth, and innocence gone, never to be regained.

The two-record set opens with the popular I Saw the Light, which sounds uncannily like Carol King. On his next record, A Wizard, A True Star, Todd screams out "My voice gets so high you would think I was gay/But I play my guitar in such a man-cock way".

Something/Anything, however, is a young man's album, and many of its songs are about wistful crushes. The first side is all ballads, with the exception of the funk-soul number, Wolfman Jack. One tune, Cold Morning Light, is almost unbearably sad. Not the song to listen to when you are aching after a romantic breakup.

Thing start to get weirder on Side 2. It opens with a tongue in cheek monologue about identifying the sounds of the studio. That is, recognizing poor production, mixing, and engineering. It immediately segues into an electronic ditty called Breathless. It sounds hopelessly outdated now, but at the time it was groundbreaking.

Side Two ends on a particularly strange note. The trippy, I Went to the Mirror, is a slow, reflective bluesy psychedelic dirge.

The tempo picks up considerably on the third side. Todd cranks right into Black Maria, a hard rocker that he still uses in concert today when he wants to shred on his guitar. A couple more ballads follow, and the side ends with another arena-worthy, almost metal song called Little Red Lights, which extols the virtues of high speed motoring and the ever-present danger of cops on your heels.

The amazing thing about Sides 1-3 of Something/Anything is not so much that Todd performed all the instruments himself. He wasn't the first to accomplish that. But it was how fast he was doing the songs. It wasn't intended to be a double record, but he was writing and recording songs at a remarkable rate. It's like he could not get them out fast enough, and he was even writing and getting songs completely recorded in one day.

Side 4 was something altogether different. It was recorded at the Power Plant studios, and Todd spontaneously recruited musicians for the songs. Rick Derringer, Moogy Klingman, The Brecker Brothers, Billy Mundi (a former Mother of Invention) were among the players, and amid the various background singers was one Edward Olmos, who later became famous as Edward James Olmos.

The songs on Side 4 took a downright bizarre turn. One, Piss Aaron, is about colorful delinquents at school, You Left Me Sore is a bitter yet compassionate ballad about sexually transmitted disease, and Some Folks is Even Whiter Than Me preaches about the evils of taking the role of leadership. Before Todd collapses in exhaustion, a tarted up, Glam-tinged number called Slut concludes the songs on Something/Anything.

Oh yeah, Todd exhumed an old Nazz song on Side 4, and inadvertently created a pop-rock standard with Hello It's Me.

It's a heady bouquet of songs that run the gamut from pop to operetta to freakish, but Todd makes it all work. With sincerity, great hooks, spot-on performances, and delicate mixing, Todd Rundgren gave the world a beautiful gift with Something/Anything. Forty years later it still feels fresh and relevant.

But no one expected what Todd came up with next. Adventurous listeners embraced A Wizard, A True Star, but pop fans were confounded by its complexity and almost schizophrenic blend of musical styles. That was merely the beginning of the musical journeys that Todd has taken his fans on, and he is still confounding them with 2103's State.

I Love Rock and Roll

I'm not normally one to insist on neat generic classifications of musical styles. Or the type who has to have a book or movie fall solidly into one specific genre. It's like those birdbrain critics who say dumb crap like, "The director doesn't know whether he is making a comedy or a serious picture". Not everything is easily pigeonholed. Thank God.

However, I do think that the term, Rock and Roll, signifies an approach to music. To me, rock and roll is raw. Primitive. Lusty. Dangerous.

Over the years just about anything was considered rock and roll. Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, and yes, Joan Jett. They rock, sure, but where's the roll? It's like getting a meal of meat and potatoes, and it's all well and good, but where are the rolls?

Rock and Roll began at a time when wild hillbillies discovered the rhythm of black ethnic music. Put these elements together and it turned into a distinctly American phenomenon called Rock and Roll.

Like later phenomena like Punk or Grunge, the real, true life of rock and roll was only a few years old before it became diluted and toned down for sensitive dispositions. That Neil Sedaka crap came along and took the life out of rock and roll. Where it was once rebellious and infused with the exploding libido and anger of discontented youth, it became clean and wholesome.

The Beatles were a rock and roll band before they expanded their musical horizons, but that was later, and their sound had the heavy influence of the Skiffle movement in England.

Few groups really embraced the true essence of rock and roll. Certainly not things like The Stray Cats. Their sound was always too clean, too polished. Sure, Brian Seltzer is an excellent guitarist, but gifted guitar players are a dime a thousand in the music biz. And with rock and roll, it's not always about musical proficiency, but the raw approach of unbridled passion and insanity.

For me, the greatest rock and roll band of all time is The Cramps. They came into prominence in the burgeoning days of Punk in NYC, but their roots were pure rock and roll. And unlike just about very other long-running group, The Cramps never betrayed their deranged roots. Their music did tighten up as the years went on, but they maintained the essence of what rock and roll stood for when it was born. Which many feel is a song called Rocket 88, by Ike Turner's Rhythm Kings.

In short, what many call Rockabilly is what I consider to be genuine rock and roll.

Record Buying Road Trip

I have a friend who does a lot of artifact hunting. He hunts bottles, arrowheads, uses a metal detector. I took some pics of him out on a beach and was going to put a couple up on Disgracebook, AKA The Place Where Everyone is a Reality Star. He didn't mind the pics going up, but cautioned me not to disclose where they were taken. He didn't want his secret spots made public.

I doubted that anyone in Social Medialand would have given a squat, but I honored his request.

I doubt even more that anyone will even read these words, but I think I will keep my spots secret, too. I know some nice honeyhole junk shops and flea market vendors who always seem to have choice records for sale at unbeatable prices.

I made a 200 mile drive to check out the records at a town I have spent a lot of time in. I did some other stuff while I was there, but I'm a Record Hound, and that was my primary purpose.

Here are the fruits of my efforts.

I collect novelty/comedy records, and I've always wanted this one. I've seen it around numerous times, but never in collectible condition. This copy also has the booklet intact. And not for a couple of dollars. I always liked this show, and how it turned social mores upside down. Created by a liberal Jewish man, All in the Family portrayed a bigot who was not an evil person, just a product of his time. Archie Bunker worked hard, and his leftist son-in-law was the freeloader. A funny show that gave us something to think about.

Aw, you know I am a surf music aficionado. I love The Ventures and this was numero uno on my list of their records to find. Again, Ventures records are fairly common in the thrift shops, but finding them in good shape can be tough.

You did now ask, but had you done so I would tell you that Messrs Partridge and Moulding, of XTC, came into their own with the album that followed Drums and Wires: English Settlement. I like the early stuff, though, and Drums and Wires has eluded me for years. Note that I can obtain nearly anything I wish to own via the internet, but the fun is in the chase. I also like paying less for a record than I would for shipping alone when I shop online.

Root Boy Slim was an east coast party institution from the late 70's through the 80's. Like John Belushi's Bluto, from Animal House with a kickass blues-rock band, Root Boy was a drunken maniac who growled out hilarious songs and had a wicked stage presence. He was the very first real band I ever saw, opening for Crack the Sky! What a mismatched pairing. Root Boy was the real thing. Sort of like a funnier, more musically inclined, GG Allin. He was actually a frat brother of George W. Bush! I owned this one already, but I was not about to pass it up. I found it a good home with another lunatic who idolizes Root Boy.

I can't call myself a Belew fan across the board, but I like a lot of his stuff, and he is obviously one of the most unique and talented guitarists of all time. The list of bands and artists he has toured and recorded with is legendary. "Discovered by Frank Zappa...", and so on. Young Lions is one of my favorites, and I was shocked to see it in vinyl. It came out in a time when very little was coming out in the format. David Bowie, who Adrian toured with on more than one occasion, sings on two songs on Young Lions.

Say what, boy? Legendary funnyman and children's show host, Soupy Sales, did a record on...MOTOWN? Yes, that's right. It's not as good as it sounds, but A Bag of Soup is sort of fun. Soupy muggers and hams it up like a wiseguy singer, and does a parody number or two in between standards like This Guy's in Love With You. A nice addition to my collection of oddities.


I like the Dead about as much as I like cancer, but it is nearly impossible to find their records at giveaway prices. The jacket was kind of beat, and I almost didn't bother checking the actual vinyl. I was surprised to see that both records are in excellent condition. I wouldn't have it in my collection, but I know a Phishhead who was thrilled to obtain it.











That's about it. Not a giant haul, but it's all about quality, not quantity.

Black Friday is Record Store Day

While the multitudes will be risking life, limb, and sanity moshing at various retail stores everywhere on the day after Thanksgiving, I intend to be at my local record store. There may well be a crowd there, and I do hope that there is. But these people will be among the finer consumers in our society. Not like the mooks that storm the doors at Best Buy, Walmart, and other modern day nightmare establishments. No, these will be the people who really love music.

Black Friday is Record Store Day. A day to forget Amazon, itunes, and all the other corporate organizations who do not give one single damn about music or musicians. Record Store Day is for the independent record stores that are still left. If you love music, and there is a local shop within reasonable driving distance, you should be going there on a regular basis.

There is plenty of bad news out there, but the good news is that vinyl is hot again. Of course this isn't news to anyone with a clue about what is going on in the world of music. Nearly everything is coming out in the vinyl format, and your old worthless records might be worth something again.

Almost everyone forewent the love of vinyl records in the 1980's. We bought the garbage that the industry sold us. We were told that CDs sounded better. They don't.

Music is compressed when it is digitized, and the sound quality suffers. They compensate for that loss by recording it louder. Analog sourced music sounds much more organic than digital. It sounds clearer and more precise.

When I finally got a new turntable system a couple of years ago, I was shocked at how good the records sounded. After hearing dulled recordings on compact discs and MP3 files for years, hearing music on vinyl was a revelation.

Compact discs were cheaper to manufacture than records, so what did the music distributors do? They more-or-less doubled the price of each unit when the switch to CD happened.

The punks knew it. Punk rock aficionados maintained their love of vinyl. Most of the rest of us were duped.

We retaliated against the industry when the whole Napster thing happened, and I loved it for a while. That began to sit badly with me fairly quickly, though. It didn't feel right to steal music from the artists I loved. I always proudly supported my favorite bands.

Amazon got bigger and bigger, but that never felt like a good way to buy. At least not to me. It was not like the old days when me and my friends used to truck down to the record store and spend all afternoon thumbing through rows and rows of old records. The whole fun process was whitewashed by online ordering and especially from downloading music files. And don't even mention streaming it at You Tube and Spotify.

I started seriously collecting records back in 2009. Quite a while before I actually got my first turntable in years. I was in a thrift store and I happened across two beloved records from my youth: The Tubes, Outside Inside; and Todd Rundgren, Back to the Bars. I bought them, almost as a lark, but I began looking for records at thrift shops and flea markets after that. And I began to make some spectacular finds.

I won't go into all I've found, but it made me wistfully wish that I had started searching for vinyl back in the early 90's. Imagine the stuff that got dumped off at the thrift stores in those days when people were convinced that vinyl was dead.

Happily, many others were discovering, or rediscovering, the joys of vinyl records around the same time. More artists were releasing their works in the format. Near dead record stores saw new life. Music lovers were enjoying the cover and interior art, the liner notes (that you can actually read), the pleasure of hearing the needle drop onto the record and having the music come to life. And, of course, the vastly superior sound of a vinyl record.

So what do the terminally short-sighted music industry jerks do? They jack the price of vinyl records almost to the point of ridiculousness. A record typically costs anywhere from $20.00 to $30.00. Sometimes even more. It is obscene and downright stupid.

I know that I would be buying double, or even triple, the records I currently do if they prices were more reasonable. Vinyl is hot, and they are gouging the music lovers. Again.

I bought a double record from Stan Ridgway a while back. Clear/marbled vinyl, beautiful packaging, and the price was $11.99. It can be done.

I have no love of WalMart, but why can't others follow their business model? Sell items as cheaply as possible and you will move more units.

But, anyway, that's where we are. As always we should support the independents. Great acts are released by the major labels too, sure, and we buy what we can.

Which brings me back to record stores...

I began hanging out at a store near where I live a year or two ago. It is run by good people, who genuinely care about music. The people who come to the store care about music in their bones. They care enough to spend a few more dollars for their purchases than they would at Amazon.

We do it because the record store is more than just a place to buy music. It is a place for the misfits and mutants to congregate. To discuss music and everything else under the sun. I've made some of the best friends of my life in that store. We often get dinner after close-up, and we have even had parties in there after the doors are locked. We've been to shows. Helped each other out. Talked to each other. Really talked to each other. That is becoming rare.

And then there is the meat of the matter: Records. Rows and rows of used records. The economy being the way it is, people are selling their collections to the store on a daily basis, so there is always new stuff there to find.

If you are in with the crew like I am, they might save you stuff that you want. If a children's horror party records comes in the door, or maybe a vintage surf record, they hold it for me. In return, in my near-constant prowls through junk shops for records, if I see something I know has worth, but it isn't my thing, I take it to the store. I don't want much, or anything, for them. We help each other.

Friday, November 29th, 2013, Black Friday, is Record Store Day. A day when exclusive releases will be available only at indie stores. A day when people who really love music will be out. A good day to meet like-minded individuals.

But don't think you have to have a turntable, or want vinyl records, to enjoy Record Store Day. They have plenty of compact discs for sale. And, despite my comments about them above, I still own a lot of them, and I will continue to buy CDs. When I find a used one for a good price, or when no other option is available.

So, please, try to get out to your local shop on Record Store Day. And try to make the store near you (always supposing there is one, of course) a regular stop in your life. They need you, and if your life is anything like mine has been these past few years, you need them.