Todd Rundgren - Solo Albums and Production Work, 1970-75

Solo Albums and Production Work, 1970-75

Rundgren's unhappiness with the production on the Nazz recordings prompted him educate himself in audio engineering and production, and after leaving the Nazz in 1969, he relocated to New York, signed with Albert Grossman and began working as a producer for other groups, as well as recording his own material, which was initially released through the Ampex Records label (a shortlived joint venture between Grossman and the Ampex company. He also apparently considered working as a computer programmer. Subsequently, he became one of the first artists signed to Grossman's Bearsville Records label (distributed through Warner Bros. Records).

After signing with Bearsville, Rundgren worked almost constantly on production projects through the early 1970s and he rapidly became one of the most sought-after and acclaimed producer-engineers of the period. He quickly gained a high reputation for his creative approach, his no-nonsense, "can-do" approach, and for his ability to solve problems, work very rapidly and bring projects to completion on time and on budget - although he did occasionally come into conflict with some of the performers with whom he worked, due to his intense work ethic and his rather sarcastic, aloof manner in the studio. Rundgren's first project for Bearsville was a Philadelphia band called The American Dream, followed by a trip to Nashville to produce Ian and Sylvia Tyson's group Great Speckled Bird, with a backing band featuring guitarist Amos Garrett, pedal steel player Buddy Cage, pianist David Briggs and bassist Norbert Puttnam and drummer N.D. Smart, with whom Rundgren worked on several later projects. During this period Rundgren also made an abortive attempt to record with Janis Joplin and her band for Joplin's next studio album, but the sessions came to nothing and the project was eventually taken over by Paul A. Rothchild; the result was Joplin's swansong LP Pearl, which Rothchild pieced together from the incomplete session tapes, following the singer's untimely death from a heroin overdose.

Albert Grossman recommended Rundgren to Robbie Robertson of The Band as the engineer for an album Robertson was producing, by singer-songwriter Jesse Winchester, who was at the time living in exile in Canada to avoid the draft. This was followed by a live album for the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Having impressed Robertson with his work on the Winchester LP, Rundgren was then asked to engineer The Band's third album, Stage Fright, which was recorded in an often fraught series of sessions at the Woodstock Playhouse. One of these was attended by a budding New York writer called Patti Smith, and their chance meeting led to an enduring friendship. Smith became an ardent champion of Rudngren's early solo work through her reviews in the rock press, and the friendship came full-circle in 1979 when Rundgren produced the final Patti Smith Group album, Wave.

His work for The Band was followed by a second album for Winchester (which was then shelved for two years) and the album Taking Care of Business by the James Cotton Blues Band. This project resulted in another fortuitous meeting for Rundgren, introducing him to Cotton's keyboard player Mark "Moogy" Klingman, who in turn introduced Rundgren to keyboard player Ralph Shuckett, and both would work extensively with Todd over the next few years.

Although he had originally intended to concentrate on production rather than his own music, in 1970 Todd formed the 'band' Runt, consisting of himself, teenagers Hunt Sales on drums, and his brother Tony Sales on bass (the Sales brothers are the sons of US comedian Soupy Sales and went on to play with Iggy Pop, David Bowie, and Tin Machine). Rundgren himself wrote, produced, sang and played guitars, keyboards and other instruments. Whether Runt is best described as a band or simply as a pseudonym for Rundgren as a solo artist is unclear—for the album Runt (1970) the group appeared to be a bona fide trio, but on their second album Runt: The Ballad of Todd Rundgren (1971), Hunt Sales plays only on two tracks and is replaced by N.D. Smart on the rest of the album. Furthermore, only Rundgren is pictured on the covers of both albums, and both albums have been subsequently reissued with the same titles and cover art, but bearing the artist credit "Todd Rundgren". Whether a solo project or a band, Runt had a No. 20 hit in the U.S. with "We Gotta Get You a Woman" in 1970, and two other Runt songs placed in the lower reaches of the Hot 100.

By this time Rundgren had effectively moved his base to Los Angeles. As he prepared for his second solo album, he was introduced to aspiring L.A. band Halfnelson, led by brothers Ron Mael and Russell Mael and guitarist Earle Mankey. After attending an elaborate, self-staged 'showcase' performance by the group at their L.A. rehearsal space, Rundgren became intrigued by their music and agreed to produce their debut album, originally released as Halfnelson and later retitled Sparks. The brothers later credited Rundgren as being instrumental in launching their career and in 2010 Russell Mael commented that when reviewing the album in 2008 they were still "... really happy with the way it sounded. There's nothing there that really sounds 'of an era' because it didn't exactly sound 'of an era' at the time.".

By 1972, the Runt persona/band identity had been abandoned, and Rundgren's next project, the ambitious double LP Something/Anything? (1972) was credited simply to Rundgren, who wrote, played, sang, engineered, and produced everything on three of the four sides of the album. Something/Anything? featured the Top 20 U.S. hits "I Saw the Light" (#16; not to be confused with the Hank Williams song of the same name), and a remake of the Nazz near-hit "Hello It's Me", which reached #5 in the U.S. and is Rundgren's biggest hit. The former song featured Rundgren on all vocals and instruments. On his ensuing concert tour, his backing band was the Hello People, whose own album he later produced.