Utopia band wiki9/11/2023 ![]() ![]() My research here draws primarily from Paul Myers’ book, A Wizard A True Star: Todd Rundgren in the Studio (Jawbone, 2010), which focuses specifically on Rundgren’s work as a record producer on other people’s albums as well as his own. Not that it’s necessarily ‘more real’ Rundgren generated his own local mythology during his Woodstock years, much of which still affects the way Woodstock musicians and boosters think of the place. So examining the house that Rundgren built (not just a metaphor, as we’ll see) offers a glance at a Woodstock that’s less iconic in rock culture, and maybe a little more local. They also appear after the three events-Bob Dylan’s 1966 motorcycle accident, the 1968 release of the Band’s debut album Music from Big Pink, and the 1969 Woodstock Music Festival-for which Woodstock remains most associated in pop culture. Significantly, Rundgren’s greatest artistic and commercial achievements as a recording artist and record producer (through the 1970s and 80s) coincides with his ubiquity all over the Woodstock map. ![]() Among other things he blazed the trail for your Princes, your Becks, and all the other iconoclastic solo artists who insisted on playing all their own instruments and recording eccentric, often mindblowing yet emotionally deep albums… and double albums, live albums, video albums, albums that listeners could remix themselves, subscription-based albums… Perhaps just as important is his work as a record producer for artists such as the New York Dolls, Meat Loaf, Patti Smith, Grand Funk Railroad, XTC, the Psychedelic Furs, Sparks, the Tubes, and Cheap Trick. It’s conceivable that some readers today are unfamiliar with Todd Rundgren, who doesn’t seem to generate much interest these days beyond music gearheads, 70s diehards, and his rabid devotees. In this post, I’ll start with the milieu of recording studios and music industry associated with Todd Rundgren, who worked and lived part-time to full-time in Woodstock from 1969 to the late 1980s. ![]() To pry back the myth of Woodstock a bit, I’ll occasionally share some historical research on Woodstock’s musical geography. Awhile back, I argued that Woodstock-at once a place, a culture/nostalgia industry, and a sensibility-exerts a tremendous hold on geographical self-imaginary of the surrounding Hudson River Valley in which it’s located (and where I live). ![]()
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