It's not every day you get to wrap your arm around one of your life's true inspirations. Well, this is a lousy cel phone photo of a pretty great moment for me. It's me and Todd Rundgren, taken last Wednesday at DePauw University, at his Ubben Lecture Series appearance, which was wonderfully moderated by true Todd-o-phile (and DePauw Director of Media Relations) Ken Owen. (If you are not familiar with the work and career of Rundgren, one of the greatest singer/songwriter/producers in rock history, see Ken's fabulous wrap-up of their talk, which you can find here: http://www.depauw.edu/news/index.asp?id=23334 .)
Anyway, briefly, I got Todd's landmark Something/Anything? album when I was 14 or 15, and it truly altered my life's course. By then, I was in love with the Beatles and Elton John, but this, my god, Todd produced the album, wrote all the songs, played all the instruments and sang all the multi-layered vocal parts (on three of the album's four sides), did all the arrangements, and even coordinated the artwork. One person can do all that?, I thought.
I had been playing around with various instruments at the time (guitar, the piano my mom and dad so graciously/amazingly bought for me and put in their bedroom because that was the only place it would fit, my brother Pat's drums) but this sealed the deal. I wanted to do this - especially after getting a look at the iconic photo that took up the inside of the gatefold sleeve: Todd, standing on a chair, his back to the camera in what I always thought was a Hollywood motel room. His arms are raised in a twin "V for Victory" sign, and what looks like golden dawn daylight is breaking in thru the shut blinds and under the door. The room is filled with the music /recording stuff - a baby grand, a then-exotic synthesiser, an 8-track reel to reel tape recorder, guitars, empty takeout containers, scraps of lyrics and sheet music everywhere. (Check out the photo at Todd's site: http://www.tr-i.com/)
Hey, that's what I want to do!, I thought. And, improbably, in my own way, I did. And I got to tell Todd that, which was pretty cool. Meet the Todd Rundgren of his zipcode, dude. (I also did get to ask him - during the talk - about his early manager, the infamous folk/rock godfather Albert Grossman, and whether he's consider letting me produce his next album - which got a laugh from the crowd becauses he's never, in 30 years, let anyone else produce him. I drift off to sleep now telling myself "Well, he didn't exactly say 'no'....")
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