Content
Initiation was a concept album that could be broken into two parts corresponding to its two sides, each of which was over 30 minutes long. The first side was made up of Rundgren's songs from various rock genres, similar to previous Rundgren albums such as Todd; all of the members of Utopia appeared, as well as many of Rundgren's friends such as the members of the Edgar Winter Group on "Fair Warning". The second side, however, was entirely made up of the heavily synthesized instrumental work "A Treatise on Cosmic Fire", named after a 1930 book of the same name by theosophist Alice Bailey (whose works, influenced by the writings of H.P. Blavatsky, also included the concept of "initiation" and the "seven rays"). Rundgren performs all of the instrumental parts, with credited programming help for the synthesizers from Utopia synthesizer player Roger Powell.
Album opener "Real Man" (which featured all of the original members of Utopia except for M. Frog Labat) and the modulated a capella "Born to Synthesize" have Rundgren acknowledging that he should face himself and follow his dreams of experimenting more with music than creating conventional pop records. "The Death of Rock and Roll", ironically the hardest rocking song on the record, takes a stab at the critics that rejected his previous rock albums A Wizard, a True Star and Todd. At the same time, Rundgren was also experimenting with Eastern religious concepts, exploring these themes on "Eastern Intrigue", as well as forming the basis of "A Treatise on Cosmic Fire". The closing tracks of the first side, the "disco-prog" title track and the soul music-inspired "Fair Warning", cryptically state that Rundgren is ready to push forward and that it is up to the listener to follow along or tune out.
The second side, the side-long, multipart "A Treatise on Cosmic Fire," (evidently based on the occult treatise by Alice Bailey) is a springboard for synth experimentation. On vinyl and in the iTunes Store, "A Treatise on Cosmic Fire" was indexed into four tracks, each consisting of one of the four movements of the piece (with "Outro - Prana" appended to the fourth track); track times for the individual movements are given below. Both the CD and vinyl erroneously list the song as being 36 minutes exactly.
The album is one of the longest single LPs of all time, totaling almost 68 minutes of playing time. Due to the length of "A Treatise on Cosmic Fire", the master tape speed was raised slightly and the recording's dynamic range was compressed to fit the entire song onto one side of the vinyl during mastering. The album's original inner sleeve noted that the sound needed to be compressed in order to fit the songs on the album and, as a result, it could easily be damaged if played with a worn needle and the sound volume might be low. The sleeve notes recommended that a person record the album to tape to preserve the sound.
Read more about this topic: Initiation (Todd Rundgren Album)
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