Todd Rundgren
photo: eva rinaldi · cc by-sa 2.0 ↗Todd Rundgren built a reputation as popular music's mad-scientist multi-instrumentalist, writing, playing, singing, and producing entire albums by himself while still churning out radio-ready hits like 'Hello It's Me' and 'I Saw the Light.' After apprenticing in the British Invasion-besotted Philadelphia band Nazz, he turned inward on 1973's A Wizard, a True Star, a dense, genre-hopping solo suite that became a cult blueprint for bedroom-auteur pop. He went on to pioneer early music video and interactive media production, but it's his one-man-band studio records that keep getting rediscovered by new generations of producers.
In his teenage psych-pop band Nazz, Rundgren was, by his own account, determined to equal the artistry of the Beatles, modeling the group's songwriting ambition and vocal-arrangement craft on the Fab Four's example.
listen forHear the crunchy, hook-driven pop momentum of 'A Hard Day's Night,' then Rundgren's own 'I Saw the Light' — the same economical verse-into-soaring-chorus songcraft, filtered through Rundgren's more nasal, McCartney-esque tenor.
Along with the Beatles, Rundgren has cited the Rolling Stones among the British Invasion records that shaped his ear as a teenage guitarist before he ever picked up a microphone of his own.
listen forPlay the Stones' raw, riff-driven '(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction,' then Rundgren's rowdier early single 'We Gotta Get You a Woman' — both lean on a simple, fuzzed-out guitar hook to carry a winking lyric.
Rundgren has named the Yardbirds among the British Invasion guitar bands that shaped his teenage playing, absorbing their fuzz-toned, rave-up energy years before he became a studio-bound multi-instrumentalist himself.
listen forListen to the fuzzed, sped-up rave-up of the Yardbirds' 'For Your Love,' then Rundgren's harder-edged 'Black Maria' — the same raw, overdriven guitar urgency, rerouted into Rundgren's own arena-rock voice.