Celebrating
its 50th anniversary this month is Todd Rundgren’s third solo album,
Something / Anything, which was released in February of 1972. It marked
the peak of his success on the pop charts and also the end of his
indulgence in that particular music form, at least for his own works.
By
the time this album came about, knocking out catchy 3 minute pop songs
was becoming too easy for Rundgren and he didn’t want to be just another
“singer/songwriter”. He was also somewhat frustrated with the studio
musicians he’d been working with, so he set about recording the entire
album, from the ground up, on his own. He wanted to play every
instrument and utilize multi-tracking to allow him to build them up, one
by one. Three quarters of this double LP was done like this with
Rundgren starting on the drums and humming the song in his head in order
to figure out where to put in changes and fills. From there, he’d add
in bass, guitars, keyboards and whatever else until he’d built out the
song enough to add vocals. If he made a mistake and put something in the
wrong place, he merely changed the arrangement to incorporate the
mistake rather than keep rerecording to conform to the original
arrangement. It was a process of essentially working in the dark and
trying to anticipate where a song would go, leaving spaces for
subsequent overdubs to fill in. He also didn’t use a click track, so
the end result was actually very “live” and natural sounding, though he
admits if he had used one, his performances might have been a bit
tighter. Even though he wasn’t particularly adept at some of the
instruments he was approaching for the first time, he was confident
enough in the cumulative results to feel like he’d managed to
communicate his idea sufficiently so that any deficiencies in his
performances simply weren’t noticeable or relevant.
Most of the
work was done at I.D. Sound Studios in LA, though he also set up an 8
track system in his his rented home on Astral Drive in Nichols Canyon.
Working there allowed him to take his time with some things, like
programming his VCS3 synthesizer, without worrying about wasting
anyone’s studio time. It also allowed him to be a workhorse, taking
minimal time for breaks or eating. Though he was constantly in high
gear, it wasn’t a stress for him and he attributed his productivity to a
combination of Ritalin and cannabis, stating that the drugs "caused me
to crank out songs at an incredible pace." Work continued in LA until
an earthquake hit and Todd decided to relocate to the Record Plant in
NYC for the next set of sessions to complete the album. Once there,
rather than continue on in the one-man-band mode, he went and flipped
the script and hired a gaggle of local session musicians to work on the
final suite of tracks, recording each live in the studio after only
minimal rehearsals. The results constitute a “Pop Operetta” which
became known as “Baby Needs A New Pair Of Snakeskin Boots”. Final
recording, mixing and overdubs were done at Bearsville Studios in
Woodstock.
Reception for the album after it’s release was
exceptionally positive and the album spawned hit singles including I Saw
the Light, It Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference and Hello It’s Me.
However, as previously mentioned, this album was the endpoint for Todd
insofar as delivering radio friendly pop music. From here, he’d take a
hard left into progressive rock territory, particularly when he founded
his band, Utopia, and on his next solo album, A Wizard, A True Star.
Todd has been a mercurial creative powerhouse throughout his career and
he made making hit records seem like child’s play before he sped off
into other directions, though his production stamp graced many popular
records throughout his career.
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