Todd Rundgren – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Grand Funk – The Loco-Motion

This is one band the critics roasted during the seventies but they were extremely popular. Led Zeppelin was also the critic’s target but their music has aged very well. Grand Funk did come out with some catchy hits …and this remake is one of them.

I remember this song as a kid and I was captivated by it…I’ve always liked the overall sound of this recording that Todd Rundgren captured. He produced this album named Shinin’ On in 1974 and We’re an American Band the year before. He made a big difference with their sound. He started to work with them to shorten songs. When I was around 7 or 8…I heard this solo and it grabbed my attention.

Little Eva first took this song to #1 in 1962. The Grand Funk version peaked at #1 on the Billboard 100 and #1 in Canada in 1974. The Locomotion was written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin. Another cover that Grand Funk did well with was Some Kind Of Wonderful.

The album Shinin’ On peaked at #5 on the Billboard Album Charts and #4 in Canada in 1974.

Don Brewer: “The idea of Locomotion came when we were working on the Shinin’ On album in the studio with Todd (Rundgren). We had basically finished the album – ‘Shinin’ On’ was going to be the first single, and we were thinking about what we were going to do for another song. Mark (Farner) came in one day and off the top of his head was singing, ‘Everybody’s doing a brand new dance now,’ just for fun, and we all went, ‘Yeah, Grand Funk doing the Locomotion.’ It was a tongue-in-cheek kind of thing, and we said, ‘Let’s try it, let’s do it,’ so we sent off to New York, got the lyrics, and Todd had the idea of doing the song kind of like The Beach Boys’ ‘Barbara Ann’ where it sounded like a big party was going on, except Todd could really crank up everything with the hand claps and all of that stuff. It just had this huge sound to it – it sounded like a big party.”

Gerry Goffin: “It’s like a nice gift. It is kind of weird hearing it done in a different way, but you can still hear how it appeals to the kids.”

The Locomotion

Everybody’s doing a brand-new dance, now
(Come on baby, do the loco-motion)
I know you’ll get to like it if you give it a chance now
(Come on baby, do the loco-motion)
My little baby sister can do it with me
It’s easier than learning your A-B-C
So come on, come on, do the Loco-motion with me
You gotta swing your hips, now

Come on
Jump up
Jump back
Well, now, I think you’ve got the knack
Wow, wow

Now that you can do it, let’s make a chain, now
(Come on baby, do the loco-motion)
A chug-a chug-a motion like a railroad train, now
(Come on baby, do the loco-motion)
Do it nice and easy, now, don’t lose control
A little bit of rhythm and a lot of soul

Come on, come on
And do the Loco-motion with me

Move around the floor in a Loco-motion
(Come on baby, do the loco-motion)
Do it holding hands if you get the notion
(Come on baby, do the loco-motion)

There’s never been a dance that’s so easy to do
It even makes you happy when you’re feeling blue
So come on, come on, do the Loco-motion with me

(Come on baby, do the loco-motion)
So come on, come on and do the Loco-motion with me
(Come on baby, do the loco-motion)
So come on, come on and do the Loco-motion with me
(Come on baby, do the loco-motion)
(Come on baby, do the loco-motion)
(Come on baby, do the loco-motion)
(Come on baby, do the loco-motion)
(Come on baby, do the loco-motion)

Todd Rundgren – Good Vibrations

Some songs you don’t expect to hear a cover of…this is one of them.

I bought this single in 1976 in a local record store we had in our small town called Sounds and Scenes (long gone but I love the name). I liked the song Good Vibrations and didn’t know at the time who did the original version. I was only 9 years old and thought I had the real thing.

He made an album called Faithful, full of covers and he performed them to the letter. I’ve listened to the album and they are close but this one is really on it. He did Rain, Strawberry Fields, If Six Was Nine, and Bob Dylan’s Most Likely You Go Your Way And I’ll Go Mine.

Todd’s version of the song peaked at #34 in the Billboard 100 and #28 in Canada in 1976. The album Faithful peaked at #54 in the Billboard Album Charts.

Todd Rundgren is very talented and I’m a fan of him. He did a fantastic duplicate version of this song. My question now is why? He got so close…you have to wonder why he did it in the first place. But…who am I to question Todd Rundgren?

I usually don’t like when an artist covers a song and changes it so much you cannot tell what the song is… not a problem with this one. Todd does exactly what he says in the album name… he was very faithful to these songs.

Later on, Todd was asked what he gained after doing this album of covers.

Todd Rundgren: Well, you gain an education. I haven’t done so many of those lately. In fact, I can’t recall anything since, for instance, The Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect or a Small Faces song. Everything since then has been originals. In that particular instance, on Faithful, that was like 10 years after I had gotten into the music business and I was trying to give people who either had never experienced it or had forgotten it, a taste of what it was like to move through the culture at that time. What was on the radio, what they were playing in the boutiques or in the record stores, the kind of songs you would hear. So I took a cross-section of mostly songs that were popular in 1966 and did them as dead-on as I could. People were supposed to pretend that they were listening to ’66 radio or going from store to store in a hip neighborhood in 1966 and hearing what people were listening to then.

Good Vibrations

I love the colorful clothes she wears
And the way the sunlight plays upon her hair
I hear the sound of a gentle word
On the wind that lifts her perfume through the air

I’m picking up good vibrations
She’s giving me excitations
Good bop bop, good vibrations
Bop bop, excitations
Good, good, good, good vibrations

Close my eyes, she is somehow closer now
Softly smile, I know she must be kind
When I look in her eyes
She comes with me to a blossom world
I don’t know where but she sends me there

Oh my my my, what a sensation

Oh my my, what elation

Got to keep those loving good vibrations
Happening with her

Badfinger – Love Is Gonna Come At Last

This wasn’t released in the prime years of Badfinger. Pete Ham was gone by this point but this is one new Badfinger song that I heard on radio at the time. I liked it so much that I bought the album Airwaves.

I posted another Airwaves song not long with a song called Lost Inside Your Love that came off of the Airwaves album. This song was a minor hit and peaked at #69 in 1979. It’s a nice power pop song that Joey Molland wrote.

Following the “hold placed (by the record company) on the last Badfinger album, Head First, and the suicide of group co-founder Pete Ham in 1975, Badfinger disbanded, and the remaining members joined various other groups or dropped out of music for the next two years.

This was a comeback album for the band trying to make it back without their main songwriter Pete Ham.

Rick Springfield just covered the song with Joey Molland that was released on an album which Joey worked with different artists such as Todd Rundgren, Springfield, Rick Wakeman, Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull), Sonny Landreth, Vanilla Fudge and more for a Badfinger cover album called Badfinger No Matter What: Recovering the Hits.

Love Is Gonna Come At Last

There are times when it feels so hard just to carry on
There are times when the days all seem to be so long
Then this feeling inside of me sets me free from the past

And I know that when I’m ready, love is gonna come at last
Yes, I know that when I’m ready, love is gonna come at last

Been alone in a crowded room, watched it all go on
I’ve had so many sleepless nights when I dreamed alone
Then a break in the clouds above feels like love shining down

And I know that when I’m ready, love is gonna come around
Yes, I know that when I’m ready, love is gonna come around

I live for tomorrow, what it may bring
I live through the sorrow
Live in my dreams, in my dreams

This feeling inside of me sets me free from the past
And someday I’ll find a way to make my dreams come true

‘Cause I know that when I’m ready, love is gonna come at last
Yes, I know that when I’m ready, love is gonna come at last
Yes, I know that when I’m ready, love is gonna come at last
Yes, I know that when I’m ready, love is gonna come at last
Yes, I know that when I’m ready, love is gonna come at last

Badfinger -Suitcase

This song was on their Straight Up album but it’s when they were live it came alive. They have a terrific groove going on and Pete wails on the solo. This was Badfinger live as they ventured out of power pop into a jam band. The live version of the band is much different than the studio version.

This song was going to be the B side to Name of the Game issued as a single but Apple never released it. The song has a power pop base but with hard electric on top and it changes the dynmaic of it.

Making the Straight Up album was no easy task. They started off with Geoff Emerick (he produced their last album and engineered several Beatle albums) producing them. The songs were rejected by the Apple’s head of US operations Allan Steckler. George Harrison thought a lot of Badfinger, especially Pete Ham and wanted Name of the Game to be released as a single before the album. George then started to produce the band himself. He worked with them and they started to make progress. He played slide with Pete on the hit Day After Day and Leon Russell played piano.

They were making great progress but then the Bangladesh concert came up and George was distracted. He handed off the producing to Todd Rundgren. The band and Rundgren didn’t mix well but he finished producing it in two weeks. The members were much happier with George who actually listened to their ideas.

It was a great album but one of the complaints from the band was it lost a lot of rawness and energy after Rundgren mixed it.

Going through three producers…it’s a wonder it’s as good as it is.

The Studio version is the second video but I would reccomend the live version…and I don’t do that a lot.

Suitcase

Suitcase, suitcase, follow me ’round
Bootlace, bootlace, tie me down
Money for fun, yeah, golden crown
It’s all inside a game we’ve been playing for so long

Driver, driver, go too fast
Miser, miser, make it last
Pusher, pusher, on the run
It’s all inside a game we’ve been playing for so long

And I’m sorry to be leavin’
Yeah, that’s all I get to say
‘Cause I’m sorry to be leavin’ today

[guitar solo (Pete Ham)]

Well I’m sorry to be leavin’
But that’s all I get to say
‘Cause I’m sorry to be leaving today

(Driver drive)

Driver, driver, go too fast
Miser, miser, make it last
Pusher, pusher, on the run
It’s all inside a game we’ve been playing so long

So long

Nazz – Open My Eyes ….Power Pop Friday

They were founded by singer, guitarist, and songwriter Todd Rundgren and bassist Carson Van Osten. Drummer Thom Mooney and vocalist/keyboardist Robert “Stewkey” Antoni would join last.

In celebration of Todd Rundgren getting in the ~~Jann Wenner~~ Rock and Roll Hall of Fame FINALLY…It makes no sense why the guy wasn’t in there 20 years ago. Not just as a performer but as a producer as well. Rundgren not getting in until now is one of the reasons it’s hard for me to take the Hall seriously…but I’m happy he is finally in.

In 2016, Rundgren told an interviewer: “It doesn’t have the same cachet as a Nobel Peace Prize or some historical foundation. If I told you about how they actually determine who gets into the Hall of Fame, you’d think that I was bullshitting you, because I’ve been told what’s involved. … It’s just as corrupt as anything else, and that’s why I don’t care.”

He was asked how he felt about finally being inducted and he said: “I’m happy for the fans. They’ve waited a long time for this.” He was probably more happy about the 2016 Honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music, where he delivered the commencement address, and an honorary doctorate from DePauw University.

The Nazz self titled album was released in 1968. This was the A side of the single released…the B side was “Hello It’s Me”…yes the same song we know but an early version of it.

They formed in 1967 and their first concert was something to remember…opening for the Doors. Some say the band took its name from the Yardbirds’ 1966 song “The Nazz Are Blue”, other sources say the name came from a 1952 monologue, “The Nazz”, by the American Beatnik comedian Lord Buckley.

The band would release 3 albums after which Rundgren started a solo career.

Open My Eyes peaked at #112 in the Billboard Album Charts and Hello It’s Me peaked at #66 in 1968…

Todd would go on and released Hello It’s Me solo and it was a massive hit. It peaked at # 2 in the Billboard 100 and #17 in Canada in 1973.

He would also form the band Utopia in 1973.

Open My Eyes

Underneath your gaze I was found in
The haze I’m wandering around in
I am lost in the dark of my own room
And I can’t see a thing but the fire in your eyes

Clear my eyes, make me wise
Or is all I believe in lies
I don’t know when or where to go
And I can’t see a thing ’til you open my eyes

I’ve been told by some you’ll forget me
The thought doesn’t upset me
I am blind to whatever they’re saying
And all I can see is the fire in your eyes

Clear my eyes, make me wise
Or is all I believe in lies
I really don’t know when or where to go
And I can’t see a thing ’til you open my eyes
Can’t see a thing ’til you open my eyes
Can’t see a thing ’til you open my eyes
Can’t see a thing ’til you open my eyes

Can’t believe that it’s on your mind
To leave me behind

Oh my eyes
Oh my eyes
Oh my eyes

Todd Rundgren – Bang The Drum All Day

It’s hard to be down and listen to this song. According to Rundgren, most of this song came to him in a dream, including the entire chorus. Fortunately, he was at home near his studio, so he was able to quickly roll out of bed, record what he could remember, and fill in the rest later.

He said that he never took the song seriously and was surprised when it was released as a sing.

The song peaked at #63 in the Billboard 100 in 1983.

Rundgren added that he believes the song became popular “solely because of the line about banging on the boss’s head,” and said, “It’s a party anthem, and at least once a year I get a request to use it in a commercial or a movie. I hate playing it live, though. I feel ape-like. My hands get tired, my ears get tired. But the audience loves it.”

From Songfacts

Rundgren is a distinguished songwriter, musician and composer, but this novelty romp is one of his most-played songs. How does he feel about the broad swath of the population that know him only for this song? In an interview with Bullz-Eye, he explained: “I like the idea that I’ve written a song that is well known to a broad segment of the population…and they have no idea why they know it! In the same sense that everybody knows ‘Happy Birthday,’ but they can’t remember the first time they heard it, and they have no idea who wrote it. But you’ve penetrated the cultural consciousness in a way that transcends the typical pop song, and what it means is that if I never have another hit record on the radio again, that song is still going to be around likely twenty-five years from now. People probably don’t remember Gary Glitter, but they know “Rock And Roll Part 2″! And in that sense, it has somewhat of a more protractile life span, I guess.”

In a Songfacts interview with Todd Rundgren, he cited this as one of the most important songs of his career, because “I made so much money off of it.” He added: “Everybody likes to hear that ‘Bang The Drum’ song, but everyone’s connection to that is that one line in the song where it talks about abusing your boss (‘I pound on that drum like it was the boss’s head’). I can identify with that, but I don’t really enjoy playing the song that much because it’s just a lot of screaming and flailing around.”

Some of the commercial uses of this song include a TV commercial for Carnival Cruise Lines and a scene in the TV show The Office. It is played at a variety of sporting events and frequently used in movie trailers. Radio stations often play it at quitting time (5 p.m.), as an anthem for working stiffs ready to escape the clutches of their employer. In 2012, Rundgren said that the song makes him “six figures every couple of months,” thanks mostly to Carnival.

After moving to Hawaii, Rundgren had some fun with this song, performing a ukulele version called “Bang On The Ukulele Daily” that he introduced as “an old Hawaiian war chant.” You can hear it on his 2000 album One Long Year.

To mark his 60th, 65th and 70th birthdays, Rundgren organized “Toddstock” celebrations for his core fans, which were intimate gatherings in the outdoors. At these events, drum circles often formed to play “Band The Drum All Day.”

Bang The Drum All Day

I don’t want to work
I want to bang on the drum all day
I don’t want to play
I just want to bang on the drum all day

Ever since I was a tiny boy
I don’t want no candy
I don’t need no toy
I took a stick and an old coffee can
I bang on that thing till I got
Blisters on my hand because

When I get older they think I’m a fool
The teacher told me I should stay after school
She caught me pounding on the desk with my hands
But my licks was so hot
I made the teacher want to dance
And that’s why

Listen to this
Every day when I get home from work
I feel so frustrated
The boss is a jerk
And I get my sticks and go out to the shed
And I pound on that drum like it was the boss’s head
Because

I can bang that drum
Hey, you want to take a bang at it?
I can do this all day

Todd Rundgren – Couldn’t I Just Tell You —Powerpop Friday

Couldn’t I Just Tell You was the follow-up song to I Saw The Light. The record company decided this should be the next single. It wasn’t the hit they were looking for so they decided to edit the album version of Hello It’s Me down and release it. That song was a hit. Although Couldn’t I Just Tell You was not a big hit it did get airplay and still does to this day.

Todd didn’t like what the record company did so in his liner notes to the album he wrote of this song…The hits just keep on coming.

The song peaked at #93 on the Billboard 100 in 1972. The album Something/Anything? was released in 1972 and peaked at #29 on the Billboard Album Chart.

Couldn’t I Just Tell You

Keep your head and everything will be cool
You didn’t have to make me feel like a fool
When I try to say I feel the way that I do
I want to talk to you
And make it load and clear
Though you don’t care to hear

Couldn’t I just tell you the way I feel
I can’t keep it bottled up inside
And could we pretend that it’s no big deal
And there’s really nothing left to hide

Something sure doesn’t seem right to me
When you can turn your back whenever you please
And you stroll away and calmly bid me adieu
Why can’t I talk with you
And put it in your ear though you don’t care to hear

Hear me out
Why don’t you lend me an ear
You’ve got no reason to fear
I’ll make it perfectly clear
I love you

I don’t come whining with my heart on my sleeve
I’m not a coward if that’s what you believe
And I’m not afraid but not ashamed if it’s true
I got to talk with you
And then I’ll make it clear

Todd Rundgren – I Saw The Light

I always thought of this as a perfect pop song. The lyrics won’t challenge Dylan but they fit the melody perfectly. Todd only had 8 songs in the top 100 and one top ten hit which surprises me because I thought it would have been more. He was an excellent producer. He produced Badfinger, The New York Dolls, Grand Funk, and many more. This song peaked at #16 in the Billboard 100 in 1972.

Rundgren talked about this song: “I wrote this song in 15 minutes from start to finish. It was one of the reasons that caused me to change my style of writing. It doesn’t matter how clever a song is – if it’s written in 15 minutes, it is such a string of clichés that it just doesn’t have a lasting impact for me. And for me, the greatest disappointment in the world is not being able to listen to my own music and enjoy it.”

From Songfacts

This song is about a mixed-up young man, perhaps a teenage boy, who stumbles into his first affair and doesn’t know if he loves the girl. It was a solid hit for Todd Rundgren, but far from his favorite. He explained: “‘I Saw The Light’ is just a string of clichés. It’s absolutely nothing that I ever thought, or thought about before I sat down to write the song.”

This was the first song on the album. According to the liner notes of Something/Anything?, Rundgren thought it would be a hit, so he placed it first just like Motown used to do with their records.

The 45 RPM single was pressed on blue vinyl.

Rundgren learned piano on his own, which gave him a nontraditional approach to the instrument. When he wrote this song, he was doing what came naturally, moving his hands up and down the keyboard. As he did it, he came up with very simple lyrics, letting one line flow into another without thinking about it at all:

It was late last night
I was feeling something wasn’t right

Rundgren knew the song had hit potential, which he later learned can often come by keeping things simple. “Sometimes when these things just come spilling out, I’ve found, sometimes they have a more broad appeal to the average listener than if you’re trying to do something impressive,” he told Red Bull Music Academy during a 2013 talk. “I thought, ‘This is a real simple, straight-ahead, easy-to-understand song. I’ll pretend it’s a single and I’ll put it first on the record.”

This was used in the TV shows Six Feet Under, Beavis and Butthead and That ’70s Show. The song was also used in the movies Kingpin and My Girl.

Rundgren wrote this song, produced it, sang it and played all the instruments on it.

Todd states that after the release of Something/Anything he evolved as an artist and reached beyond writing about love and relationships. He states that he’d been using a brief relationship from high school as song fodder, throwing around the word “love” cheaply, and he began to feel strange about it. It inspired him to dig deeper for new material.

Rundgren re-recorded this with The New Cars after joining the band. It appears on their 2006 album It’s Alive!

There is barely any chorus on this song – it’s almost entirely verses and bridge. The chorus is just either “In your eyes” or “In my head” repeated twice.

The following year, another song using lots of “ite” rhymes hit the charts: “Dancing In The Moonlight” by King Harvest. In that one, the end of ever line ends in a rhyme for “light.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxB4weCzqGE&ab_channel=YCSMusic2

I Saw The Light

It was late last night
I was feeling something wasn’t right
There was not another soul in sight
Only you, only you
So we walked along,
though I knew there was something wrong
And the feeling hot me oh so strong about you
Then you gazed up at me and the answer was plain to see
‘Cause I saw the light in your eyes

Though we had our fling
I just never would suspect a thing
‘Til that little bell began to ring in my head
In my head
But I tried to run,
though I knew it wouldn’t help me none
‘Cause I couldn’t ever love no one, or so I said
But my feelings for you
were just something I never knew
‘Til I saw the light in your eyes

But I love you best
It’s not something that I say in jest
‘Cause you’re different, girl, from all the rest
In my eyes
And I ran out before but I won’t do it anymore
Can’t you see the light in my eyes

Good Vibrations by Todd Rundgren

Some songs you don’t expect to hear a cover of…this is one of them.

He did an album called Faithful, full of covers and he performed them to the letter. I’ve listened to them and they are close but this one is really on it. He did Rain, Strawberry Fields, If Six Was Nine, and Bob Dylan’s Most Likely You Go Your Way And I’ll Go Mine.

Todd Rundgren is very talented and I’m a fan of him and he did a great duplicate version of this song. My question now is why? He got so close…you have to wonder why he did it in the first place. But…who am I to question Todd Rundgren?

I usually don’t like when an artist covers a song and they change it so much you cannot tell what the song is… not a problem with this one…but I do like for an artist to put something of him or herself in it…Todd does exactly what he says in the album name… he was very faithful to these songs.