A Wizard, A True Star

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Artists: Todd Rundgren.

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55 customer reviews.  5.0 out of 5 stars.

Digitally remastered reissue of his 1973 album for Bearsville. Contains the original cover art & all 19 of the cuts that first graced it, including the hit 'Sometimes I Don't KnowWhat To Feel'. 1999 release.

It will probably surprise most of my Amazon friends to know that I owned three Todd Rundgren albums (Something/Anything?, A Wizard, A True Star, and Todd) while I was still in my teenage years. It's true, and I listened to A Wizard, A True Star more than the others. Without going into comparisions, Wizard represented Todd Rundgren's jump from recording albums that primarily featured pop masterpieces (Hello, It's Me, I Saw The Light) into the world of progressive rock experimentalism and musically diverse albums that still featured a fair sampling of his irresistible pop/rock/soul style. Don't misread "pop" to mean conventional. Todd is anything but conventional.

Todd Rundgren is a Philadelphia area born singer/songwriter, musician, and record producer. Many of his albums are self-produced efforts where Todd plays all of the instruments and provides all of the vocal tracks. He has produced albums by other artists such as Grand Funk Railroad, The New York Dolls, Hall & Oates, Meat Loaf, Patti Smith, The Band, XTC, The Psychedelic Furs, Cheap Trick, and Bad Religon. He's a widely respected and multi-talented musician's musician and producer.

A Wizard, A True Star (1973) is a colorful and complex masterpiece, but it might be impossible for some folks to actually understand why. In fact, it's sometimes hard to tell when Todd is putting you on, and when he is serious. Spiritual themes of world harmony, human compassion, and universal understanding run through many of the songs on Todd's albums and are prevalent here as well. Sound effects are all over the place and multi-track layers of psychedelic instrumental pieces play throughout.

A Wizard, A True Star is divided into two sections. A Wizard includes more experimental electronica and silliness, while A True Star has more traditional pop, rock, and soul music. A sweet version of Never Never Land from Peter Pan and a sentimental Motown medley (I'm So Proud/Ooh Baby Baby/La La Means I Love You/Cool Jerk) sound surprisingly good, and Sometimes I Don't Know What To Feel is an undeniable, if somewhat paranoid, pop masterpiece.

Sometimes I don't know what to feel
Everything I thought I knew starts to look so unreal
There's a ringing in my head that keeps me awake at night
Sometimes I don't know what is right

There are some brilliant moments on A Wizard, A True Star, mostly when Todd goes into his pop mode, but with Rick Derringer helping Rundgren provide the lead electric guitar work on the album, there are some fantastic rocking and jazz-fusion moments as well. Todd has an ear for pleasant bittersweet melodies, a penchant for idealistic themes, and a hopelessly fragile voice. This guy could evoke sympathy from a rabid honey badger! The theme oriented International Feel and Just One Victory are great songs that feature Todd's talents in a most effective way, mixing rock, magically sweet pop, and Todd's longing, yet optimistic, vocals. Does Anybody Love You? and I Don't Want To Tie You Down are pleasant and satisfying pop gems. You Need Your Head, Rock And Roll Pussy, and Is It My Name? are wild and heavy rocking electric guitar exercises in controlled Todd madness.

A Wizard, A True Star may seem like a cluttered and confusing psychedelic electronic pop/rock mess the first time you hear it, and to be honest, that's all this ever will be to a lot of listeners (that's why I knocked off 1/2 star), but there is much more to this work than that. Todd Rundgren's talent, artistry and genius are everywhere on this album, and Todd's intermittent silliness aside, if you "get it" this affecting masterpiece can be an infinite musical journey into a magical and thought provoking world of color, texture, humor, longing, love and hope for the future.

In the grand tradition of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band, Todd Rundgren weaves a trippy, wavy musical moo moo dress.
I like the album for it's originality. I enjoy the way Todd (we're on a first name basis... NOT!) reinvents many different musical styles.
As a fan of novelty songs and broadway musicals, I found this album entertaining for it's silliness and wit.
Expect an aural fruit salad, and you won't be disappointed.

Todd Rundgren is a great musician and this album is a perfect display of his art. Just about the first half of the album is crossfaded so the songs blend into each other in a great movement of beautifull noise, there are many short tracks that are golden nuggets of music like the track "You don't have to Camp around" which is an all to fast minute and five seconds long. The album is laced with lots of nice synths that make it sound spacy and at some points like a videogame. This is the first Todd Rundgren album I heard (Todd's third lp) and its what got me into him I suggest this to anyone intrested in progressive music. Todd Rundgren is a true artist that is too overlooked.

This album was a big part of my life when it was released in 1973. I'd never heard anything else like it. The album marked a transition for Todd from his 1972 classic pop album Something/Anything? to his detour into progressive rock. Having produced and engineered Janis Joplin's Farewell Song, Badfinger's Straight Up, Grand Funk's We're an American Band and Shinin' On, Meat Loaf's Bat out of Hell, Patti Smith's Wave, and XTC's Skylarking, Todd established himself as a wizard in the studio, while his own projects were establishing him as a true star. The first side of this album is an extended, mind-blowing medley of songs flowing into a single song cycle, which not only includes Todd's version of "Never Never Land" from Peter Pan, but a familiar medley of covers of doo-wop and bubblegum soul hits (Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, The Delfonics, and The Capitals) that segue into each other. With this album, Todd also pushed the limits of how much music he could fit onto a piece of vinyl (55:56 minutes, to be exact). The music sounds better on CD than it did on vinyl. Musically, this album reveals Todd's psychedelic, avant-garde fusion, and Zappa influences. He is backed by a stellar group of musicians on this album, including Michael Brecker, Randy Brecker, Rick Derringer, Mark "Moogy" Klingman, Jean-Yves "Frog" Labat, David Sanborn, Ralph Schuckett, and John Siegler. At toured this album with the psychedelic Gibson SG guitar that Eric Clapton played in Cream.

Individual tracks include:

1. International Feel
2. Never Never Land
3. Tic Tic Tic It Wears Off
4. You Need Your Head
5. Rock And Roll Pussy
6. Dogfight Giggle
7. You Don't Have To Camp Around
8. Flamingo
9. Zen Archer
10. Just Another Onionhead/Dada Dali
11. When The Shit Hits The Fan/Sunset Blvd.
12. Le Feel Internacionale
13. Sometimes I Don't Know What To Feel
14. Does Anybody Love You?
15. Medley: I'm So Proud, Ooh Baby Baby, La La, Cool Jerk
16. Hungry For Love
17. I Don't Want To Tie You Down
18. Is It My Name?
19. Just One Victory

This is the album that made me a Todd fan for life.

G. Merritt

This is a far out and trippy album and features what would be the first touring Utopia lineup. This album reminds me sort of prog rock crossed with glam rock in a sort of T-Rex kind of way with a Las Vegas stage show thrown in. Far out and totally Todd, No one has ever recorded an album like this and no one ever will again. Opening with International Feel to the closing Just One Victory, this album is a feast for the senses. I would recommend going out and getting yourself a pair of good headphones for this one. The JVC Japan import comes with all the original inserts that the old lp copies originally came with which is nice to have again although mini ones.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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