1974 - Sparks release Kimono My House

 

For many a teenage record buyer in 1974, turning on the radio to hear Ron Mael's electric piano ushering in the falsetto tones of brother Russell singing "Zoo time is she and you time, the lions are your favourite kind and you want her tonight....."  was a moment of pure delight.

With 'This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us', Sparks provided one of those wonderful eureka moments, when a record gets you off your feet and down to the record shop, because you have to own that record right now. It was exotic and dramatic and not only that, it rocked.

Although they were new on the UK scene, Sparks had already made two albums in the US for Bearsville Records, the first produced by Todd Rundgren. In the new documentary, called The Sparks Brothers, and also in the live Q&A that followed showings of the film across the UK this Thursday evening, the Mael brothers made it very clear that without Rundgren they may not have had a career at all. 

My 45rpm single

Not that they achieved any success with those first albums, but Rundgren was the only one who saw the raw potential in them at the time. Ultimately, it took a move to London for their third album 'Kimono My House' and a new band, for the whole thing to reach its full potential.

Moving from their native LA, they came to the UK and signed to Island Records. Their British invasion influences and quirkiness were probably better suited to the UK pop charts anyway. Several of the talking heads in the film say they thought Sparks were an English band at first. 

That first single from Kimono My House made an immediate impact and that first appearance on Top Of The Pops showed they had a visual quirkiness to match the oddball lyrics and quasi-operatic delivery. Ron Mael with his Hitler moustache and mild smirk; curly-haired flamboyant Russell taunting his brother for a reaction. This was their moment and they played it for all it was worth.

It was new and exciting in a pop world of second-rate groups jumping on the glam rock gravy train. "This Town...' harked back to the excitement we felt when we first saw and heard David Bowie and Roxy Music in 1972. It was exotic and dramatic and not only that, it rocked.

Kimono My House kickstarted a career that has seen them rediscovered every 10 years by a new generation of pop fans. They have enjoyed three or four distinct periods of success, right up to the present time, surprising everyone with the enduring quality of their music. The Mael's unique take on pop music has remained consistent over their entire career. Above all, there's a distinctively dark humour at the heart of their songs. 

As Sparks have proved over their entire career, they have a knack for unusual song themes, or at least songs it would be hard to imagine other bands coming up with. 

On Kimono My House, their dark humour was evident on tracks such as 'Here in Heaven', about a suicide pact where the girlfriend didn't honour the agreement. And 'Amateur Hour' which delves into the subject of how to please a woman sexually - "when you turn pro, you'll know, she'll tell you so". 

Another of the showpiece songs on the album is 'Thank God It's Not Christmas' - performed here by the original band on French TV in 1974.

The NME's Ian MacDonald was full of praise for this new pop phenomenon in his review (see below) of Kimono My House - "this exhilarating and unnerving record" - in May 1974.

"Ron Mael has set the whole lop-sided wobbly man of technique and 'tradition' spinning again. Melody lines spiral up and down through intervals and over chords that seem to echo from somewhere in the classics..."

The Sparks Brothers film has several key moments that convey why Sparks are so revered by fans and musicians alike. Mike Myers says his favourite line comes from the early song Girl From Germany, about a guy who takes his German girlfriend home to meet his parents, who "can't forget that war".

"My word, she's from Germany
Well, it's the same old country
But the people have changed."

The author Neil Gaiman and Portlandia's Fred Armisen were both inspired by Sparks' skewed view of life. Jonathan Ross is another who zoned in on their oddball humour. Even Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones got something out of their music. He is just one of the very funny contributors to the film.

Earl Mankey and other members of the original band Halfnelson show no bitterness at missing out on the big time. Bass player Ian Hampton (who was drafted in after Kimono bassist Martin Gordon was rather cruelly fired just as they were hitting the big time) is only slightly disgruntled at how his moment of stardom was cut short. Drummer Dinky Diamond and guitarist Adrian Fisher have both passed away, which just leaves Ron and Russell to relate how Kimono My House changed the band’s fortunes. It boils down to those essential ingredients - great compositions and that uniquely Sparks humour.

IF YOU LIKE MY BLOG, PLEASE HIT THE FOLLOW BUTTON ON THE SIDE PANEL THANKS

Also on this blog:

Alice Cooper - Back when he was genuinely scary

Slade - Glam rockers back at No.1 

T. Rex in 1971 - Electric Warrior

Alice Cooper - back when he was genuinely scary

Following on from my recent blog about the Frank Zappa movie, it's time to reminisce about one of the bands he took under his wing in the late 1960s - Alice Cooper. 

Zappa gave the Alice Cooper group a break when no one else would.

The group had moved From Phoenix, Arizona to Los Angeles in 1967 to make the big time, or so they thought. 

Zappa saw them live a few times at the Whisky A-Go-Go in 1968 and saw something within their shambolic stage act that he might be able to work with. He told them to come to his house to audition. They turned up at 7am one morning. Frank had meant for them to come at 7pm - he was still in bed. 

Not a nice way to wake up, because by all accounts the Alice Cooper group were pretty horrible to listen to, and fairly intimating too. They had a real knack for emptying a room in no time at all, said their singer.

Alice Cooper and Frank Zappa, 1968

Alice recalled that Zappa came to a show: "We scared the hell out of the audience - they were all on acid. We looked like we'd just come up out of the ground, and we didn't mind a little violence onstage. That audience couldn't get out of the room fast enough. It was like somebody yelled "FIRE!" 

There were three people left standing. Frank said, "Anybody that can clear a room that quick, I've got to sign."

The resulting records on Frank's Straight label, Pretties for You and Easy Action, bore little of the production values displayed on their later records. Sales were slim.

Zappa's patronage took them nowhere. The band felt they were out of step with the laid back music culture in LA. "They were all on acid and we were drinking beer," said Alice. So in 1970 they moved to Detroit, where Alice was from. 

"Told her that I came from Detroit city
- and I played guitar in a long-haired rock 'n' roll band."

Love It To Death, 1971

Alice Cooper the band were a close-knit gang and certainly looked the part, with their mix of glam and Rolling Stones early 70s-style chic. They just needed the right producer to deliver on their potential. 

That's when the group hooked up with producer Bob Ezrin and refined their 'theatre of the grotesque' stage act, complete with guillotines, electric chairs, fake blood, reptiles and mutilated dolls.

Ezrin's productions were all about drama and he worked at convincing the band to refine their stage act into more polished songs. He also drafted in some sessions musicians to bolster the sound.

And just like that, they had a US hit single, I'm Eighteen in late 1970 and early '71. It was enough to convince Warner Brothers to offer the group a budget for the first of their classic run of albums, Love It To Death. 

Touring America in the summer of 1971, the band really began to up the theatrics, with Alice appearing in a straitjacket during The Ballad of Dwight Fry and being sent to the electric chair in Black Juju. 

Killer, 1971

The band's popularity grew further with the release of the album Killer in late 1971. It contained a stronger more cohesive set of songs that have remained fan favorites. 

Side One is literally all Killer, no filler. Opening with the one-two punch of Under My Wheels and Be My Lover, followed by one of the bands most successful extended tracks, the eight minute Halo of Flies. 

Showing they could combine the Detroit rock styling with more complex arrangements, Ezrin topped it all off with typically grandiose production and string arrangements to enhance the drama. 

After the tension and release in Halo of Flies, side one closed with one of Alice and guitarist Michael Bruce's best co-compositions, Desperado. 

The Killer tour, 1972

I've always viewed these two songs as a one-two punch. The change of pace and mood of Desperado is the perfect complement to Halo of Flies and adds new depth to the album. Alice claimed he wrote it about The Doors' singer Jim Morrison, who died around the time the album was being made in 1971.

Controversy was never far away from Alice Cooper in this era, and that was just the way they wanted it. On Killer the song Dead Babies stirred up a heap of trouble. Despite the band's claim that the song was railing against child abuse, the guardians of the public morals decided it was nothing short of satanic. 

1972 calendar from Killer

Alice's notoriety had reached British shores by this point and when School's Out became a number one hit in 1972, there were calls by Mary Whitehouse and members of the British Parliament to have the group banned from the UK. 

Leo Abse MP described Alice Cooper's act as "the culture of the concentration camp. His incitement to infanticide and his commercial exploitation of masochism is evidently an attempt to teach our children to find their destiny in hate, not in love."

The establishment was outraged. A report in The Guardian newspaper in 1973 said, "It is the Cooper stage show which arouses alarm. I saw him perform in his home town of Detroit last month. Although the thick clouds of marijuana probably preserved me from too sadistic a reaction, wax babies were smashed and impaled on guitars. 

Disco 45, 1972

"Alice was beheaded and his bleeding neck and the bodies of shop-window mannequins were nuzzled and gnawed to the accompaniment of a throbbing, relentless tide of menacing rock music."

Of course, this only made fans even more determined to buy the group's records and concert tickets. 

Alice and Warner Brothers made the most of all this publicity. The School's Out LP came with the record wrapped around a pair of disposable knickers.

This raw live performance of the School's Out album track Public Animal #9 shows how the Alice Cooper sound and attitude influenced future punk Johnny Rotten, who once claimed that Killer was his favourite record. 

In the late summer of 1972, in the run-up to the US presidential election, Alice Cooper released the single Elected. The promotional video, seen on Top Of The Pops, showed Alice on the campaign trail, stepping out of a limousine in New York City and greeting potential voters in a white suit and tails and a top hat. 

His campaign message was simple and direct. At the end of the song he can heard proclaiming:
"And if I am elected, I promise the formation of a new party - A third party, the Wild Party!

I know we have problems. We got problems right here in Central City,
We have problems on the North, South, East and West,
New York City, Saint Louis, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago,
Everybody has problems,
And personally, I don't care."

45s and the free flexi-disc from NME in 1973

 

Elected, the 45, was slightly edited and had a different mix from the subsequent album version, with a grungier guitar sound. I can still remember the thrill of hearing that guitar intro blasting out at a local church disco.

The group's biggest selling album, Billion Dollar Babies, was previewed for fans in Britain by a promotional flexi-disc given away with the weekly music paper NME in February 1973. The free flexi included 'Slick Black Limousine' a track unavailable elsewhere.

Pretty much every song on Billion Dollar Babies was a big production number. Probably the most over-the-top was Unfinished Sweet, with Alice in the dentist's chair about to have his gums removed. Ezrin's orchestral arrangement was aptly melodramatic.

The album's finale was the outrageous and anthemic I Love The Dead, another song that would have had Mary Whitehouse tearing her hair out.

No one cared. Billion Dollar Babies was a number one album on both sides of the Atlantic. The record was packaged elaborately, including a billion dollar note. The band were headlining tours around the world and they looked the part, dressed up in white silk suits on the inside sleeve of the record. 

But by 1974 things began falling apart. There were disagreements over how much money was being spent on the stage shows. Alice wanted to go more in the theatrical direction, but the others wanted to get back to being a rock band. 

Meanwhile Alice was probably being encouraged by the record company to ditch the band and carry on as a solo artist, formally adopting the Alice Cooper name as his own.

Drugs and alcohol played their part in the downfall. Alice, nowadays teetotal, was back then never pictured without a beer in his hand. Lead guitarist Glen Buxton contributed less and less in the studio and was excluded altogether from the recording of the next record, Muscle Of Love. 

The crucial split came with Bob Ezrin. Mike Bruce and Ezrin clashed over the arrangement of one of the new songs and Ezrin quit. The band has lost their production wizard. The resultant album had fewer quality songs and less of the sparkle of the previous records. Bass player Dennis Dunaway said later: "We could tell that everything was being pulled out from underneath us. As hard as we tried to get it back to where it once was, we had that sinking feeling."

And that, sadly for the rest of the band, is where the story ended. A group that had worked for 10 years to make it was fairly suddenly cast adrift. Alice took the name and struck out on his own with Bob Ezrin back in the producer's chair. 

The first Alice Cooper solo album, Welcome To My Nightmare, gave him a platform to develop the Alice character and sustain his career to this day. 

But by leaving the band behind, he lost a degree of credibility. No longer scary, just cartoonish. Rolling Stone's review said that "without the wildness and drive the Cooper band had, the gimmicks on which Alice the performer must rely are flat and obvious."

Overall, the reviewers were generous about Welcome To My Nightmare. But a later review of Alice's solo career concluded that despite this promising start, "the majority of his subsequent releases were often not as focused and were of varying quality."

Alice Cooper interviewed  by Russell Harty, 1975

Dennis Dunaway on life in the Alice Cooper group

Eighteen and Black Juju, live 1971

Alice Cooper and Vincent Price perform The Black Widow, 1975

IF YOU LIKE MY BLOG, PLEASE HIT THE FOLLOW BUTTON ON THE SIDE PANEL THANKS

See also on this blog:

Slade, the 1970s Glam Rockers back at Number One

At Home With The Bolans, 1971

There's a lot to like in the ZAPPA movie

Slade - 1970s glam rockers back at No. 1

Kipper tie? Yes, two sugars plays

So, here it is - for a brief time at least, it looks like we are back in the era of kipper ties and platform boots. Slade are back at the top of the album sales charts with a 'Best Of' - Cum On Feel The Hitz.

A couple of months ago I listened to a podcast from the 'Strange Brew' website, featuring Jim Lea, Slade's bass player and songwriter. It reminded me how much I used to love Slade back in the early '70s.

They had a great run of hits from '71 to probably '74 and must have been one of the top selling artists of the decade.

I picked up on them when they had their first big hit in 1971, Coz I Luv You. They had two or three more number ones in 1972, when their main rivals in the pop glam stakes were T. Rex.

T. Rex had the best of it in 1972, but 1973 was definitely Slade's year and when they went straight to number 1 in the singles charts with Cum On Feel The Noize and the follow up Skweeze Me Pleeze Me, it was the first time that had happened since The Beatles in the mid-1960s.

Lea was a multi-instrumentalist, playing piano and violin as well as bass. Along with singer Noddy Holder he was the principle songwriter, providing a lot of the hooks to their songs. Think of the violin on Coz I Luv You, their first number one, or the bass riff at the beginning of Gudbuy T' Jane.

According to Lea, he was the chief songwriter, with Holder often adding the lyrics. But his profile in the band was always overshadowed by Noddy and the weirdly-fringed guitarist Dave Hill. They were an odd-looking bunch and their stage outfits became more and more cartoonish as their fame increased.

Dave Hill living the high life in LA, mid-1970s

Although they were seasoned musicians and probably had their fair share of rock and roll shenanigans, they were down to earth Black Country boys at heart. Lea said they never felt like megastars, they kept their feet on the ground and remained close to their roots.

In a recent interview with the Shropshire Star's Andy Richardson, frontman Noddy Holder, who left the band in 1992, said "We started having success but we'd grafted five years for it, sleeping in the van when there was snow, fog and ice, huddled together for warmth, fucking starving."

I saw Slade at Earl's Court in July 1973, at the peak of their Glam Rock fame, with a bunch of school mates. I remember the buzz in the crowd, with lots of people glammed up in Slade-inspired outfits. Silver foil sales rocketed around that time. Holder remembered, "People were travelling on the trains dressed in top hats and mirrors. It was like aliens had landed in London."

The concert itself was typical of Slade shows - everyone screaming, clapping and stomping along to their hits. You didn't come to a Slade show to sit on your hands.

The support at Earl's Court was The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, who had recently released their first album 'Framed'. Alex left a big an impression on me that day, especially his theatrical performance of the song Framed. I became a big fan of SAHB and bought their second album 'Next' when it came out in 1974.

Slade's world came crashing down, literally, just four days after the Earl's Court triumph, when drummer Don Powell was involved in a terrible accident driving his Bentley. His girlfriend Angela was killed instantly and Powell was on life support.

"His car was like a tank, a huge Bentley," said Holder. "But it was concertina'd; his memory was totally shot." Powell survived and eventually returned to playing with the band. For Slade though, this was the beginning of the slide down from their peak.

Pop stars of the time would regularly branch out into films as a way of getting more songs out there and hopefully making more money at the box office. As it turns out, Slade in 'Flame' is one of the better, more authentic films about the ups and downs of a rock band. And it yielded one of the band's very best songs, How Does It Feel?

Slade's most enduring song, of course, is Merry Christmas Everybody, which must provide Lea and Holder with a decent pension. But Lea said that the rest of the band hated it initially and refused to record it. They must be glad he convinced them it was worth doing.

It's funny listening to Slade now, especially since I was such a big fan back in the day. The first album of theirs that I owned, Slade Alive! is a rocking album, but I feel oddly detached from it, because unlike a lot of the old records from my youth, I really haven't listened to it since the early '70s.

Slade made their reputation as a live band, playing things like Get Down and Get With It, where they whip the crowd into a frenzy of clapping and stomping. Slade Alive! hasn't aged well though and it's not that representative of their other records. The follow-up album, Slayed? has material that I think is more representative of their abilities, especially as songwriters.

Here's a documentary on Slade's breakthrough, put together by someone called Crusher https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JZqycd8gJc

Slade - Mama Weer All Crazee Now

Slade were brilliantly lampooned by Reeves and Mortimer years later, complete with those unmistakeable black country accents https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWksvwqM3Ok

IF YOU LIKE MY BLOG, PLEASE HIT THE FOLLOW BUTTON ON THE SIDE PANEL THANKS

Also on this blog:

Alice Cooper - Back when he was genuinely scary

Sparks release 'Kimono My House', 1974

T. Rex in 1971 - Electric Warrior

Roxy Music - Ferry and Eno still vying for our attention

Ferry and Eno, the glamour twins

As I head back to my second home, Hong Kong, for another of my quarterly visits, I recall that a few years ago I spotted a strange coincidence along one of the main roads in the central city.

Far removed from the leopardskin and bacofoil beginnings of Roxy Music in 1972, Bryan Ferry and Brian Eno were now advertising luxury brands. It seems their rivalry stretches down the years in mysterious ways.

Viewed from a passing taxi in the Central district of Hong Kong, there, on giant billboards were the two Roxy rivals vying for our attention as they have done ever since Roxy's breakthrough.

Bryan Ferry is a fan of the Mandarin Oriental

Across the road from the hotel itself, Ferry is shown as a 'fan' of the Mandarin Oriental.

A matter of yards further along, Eno is seen beseeching us to consume Dunhill's wares.

In 1972, Roxy were a publicist's dream, with their exotic costumes, slicked-back hair and distinctive musical hybrid.

They played up to that other-worldliness to the extent I can vividly recall a Radio 1 'Newsbeat' report that the band's synth wizard Eno was actually from Mars. 

A few yards along, Brian Eno endorses Dunhill

Although by his own admission he was only semi-literate musically, Eno's flamboyant costumes were the focal point for the band.

Look at any photo of them in their early days and Eno is at the forefront. The picture here of them on stage in 1972 shows how the audience's attention was drawn towards Eno.

It worked to their advantage when they were trying to establish themselves, but ultimately, it threatened to steal the spotlight away from Ferry, the band's undeniable leader since he wrote and sang all the songs.

In retrospect, given their phenomenal output, Eno's departure from Roxy was inevitable.

It is arguable which of them has had the more lasting influence, and frankly it doesn't matter, they have both produced great work over a long and, certainly in Eno's case, varied career. Roxy Music couldn't hope to contain two such big musical egos, and over the years we have been fortunate to hear what each of them, unfettered by the other, has been able to produce.

Bryan Ferry and Eno in 1972

In spite of his musical limitations, Eno must have added something to the Roxy sound, because those first two albums on which he appears have a distinctive vibe. And he proved his worth in his subsequent solo career, right from the off with his first album Here Come The Warm Jets and the hit single Seven Deadly Fins.

His early ambient records, the Berlin albums with David Bowie, the collaborations with Robert Fripp, David Byrne, Daniel Lanois and others are all major landmarks in recorded music.

Ferry has the edge in terms of being a traditional songwriter and live performer, as well as being the pioneer of a distinctive style with Roxy that was quite unique.

He still tours and although I haven't seen him live since 2005, at that time he delivered a surprisingly rocking show, driven on by the ever-dependable Paul Thompson on drums (announced by Ferry in time-honoured fashion as 'the Great Paul Thompson') with a twin guitar line-up of Chris Spedding and Mick Green.

Lucy Wilkins on violin playing the Eddie Jobson solo from Out Of The Blue note for note. It was a fantastic gig, but the most remarkable thing about it was that Mick Green, the veteran guitarist from The Pirates, having just played a blistering solo, collapsed, just fell over, like a tall tree, guitar still strapped to him.

Everyone’s looking at Eno

 At first we thought it must be a joke, but after a few moments, road crew appeared and a couple of doctors from the audience ran down to the front. Green had suffered a heart attack, from which he recovered (he died a couple of years later).

Green was dragged off-stage and Ferry gave the scene a quick glance, but the show carried on without missing a beat. No mention was made of it. On with the show, eh?

So cast your mind back to that wonderful period in 1972 when Glam was the new sensation and Roxy appeared on Top Of The Pops. One of the most exciting TV music moments ever.

IF YOU LIKE MY BLOG, PLEASE HIT THE FOLLOW BUTTON ON THE SIDE PANEL THANKS

Virginia Plain - Top Of The Pops, 1972
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gJIH6cOMPs

Re-Make Re-Model - Royal College of Art, 1972
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWhzG9cQGgc

Ladytron - Old Grey Whistle Test, 1972
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44VEfWgbLSE&list=PL6C0142F66F552D65

Do The Strand - OGWT, 1972
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YzB70L5g-4

Editions of You - Montreux, 1973
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgHv9NCgyy0&list=PL6C0142F66F552D65

'A Wizard, A True Star' - my all-time favourite record

I love this record. For me, it's the greatest album ever made.

I bought Todd Rundgren's 'A Wizard, A True Star' in 1974 - it was the record that awakened my sense of musical wonder. Although it is now 50 years old, it still sounds, as the author Barney Hoskyns put it: "more bravely futuristic than any ostensibly cutting-edge electro-pop being made in the 21st Century." 

A Wizard, A True Star was a single album that had more musical ideas on it than many artists could muster in a whole career. It ranges across a variety of styles, reflecting a precocious talent channelling everything from The Beatles and Laura Nyro to glam rock, classic soul and Jimi Hendrix.

I came to know Todd Rundgren via the single I Saw The Light, which was a radio play hit in the UK, with its catchy piano melody and George Harrison-like guitar solo.

I decided I wanted to investigate further. I remember being in a record shop in the West End of London, looking up at the albums on display. I don't remember what the price difference was (probably only about 50p) but I couldn’t afford Something / Anything, the album that contained I Saw The Light,  because it was a double. Todd's follow-up album was also on sale and I was attracted to its kaleidoscopic cover.

Having gained an audience for his singer/songwriter-style songs
like 'Hello It's Me', Todd got weird on their asses

So I bought that instead. It’s fair to say the record blew my mind.

From the opening fuzz tones of ‘International Feel’, it was clear that 'A Wizard, A True Star' wasn't going to sound anything like 'I Saw The Light'.  This was exciting though; I had something none of my friends had. My musical universe was about to expand.

I was 15 at the time, a suburban kid eager for just this kind of adventure. If a record can be life changing, this was it.

That first side has 12 tracks on it; it's like watching a fast action cartoon. Todd's influences are all over the shop but if you can keep up with the stylistic shifts and the slightly crazed delivery, it's a wild ride.

The mood and style of side two is in marked contrast; Todd takes a more measured approach, with the middle of the side devoted to his soul medley.

Rolling Stone magazine's review considered the soul medley to be "the highlight of the record, in which Todd plays tribute to the Impressions, the Miracles, the Delphonics and the Capitols. 

"The first three selections, 'I'm So Proud', 'Ooh Baby Baby' and 'La La Means I Love You', feature Rundgren's plaintive singing that conveys a feeling of a kid vocalizing along with the originals late at night, fantasising about crooning to his dream girl," said the review. "The lovely synthesizer and harpsichord arrangements reveal Todd's respect for Stevie Wonder's recent recordings."

Unlike side one, where the tracks come thick and fast, on side two each track is a given the chance to soar. The songs still seque into each other, but do so beautifully, particularly towards the end, as the fuzz guitar of ‘Hungry for Love’ tails off to the solo piano of ‘I Don’t Want To Tie You Down’ which in turn echoes away into the guitar frenzy of ‘Is It My Name’.

The album ends with the majestic ‘Just One Victory’, the national anthem of Utopia as Todd called it.

It's a trip - in less than an hour you've heard a whole world of music. 

John Siomos, Ralph Shuckett, John Siegler & Moogy Klingman
the core band members, at Secret Sound recording AWATS

Rundgren has always made it clear this album was not a solo performance, like much of Something/Anything, where he played all the instruments on three sides of that album.

'Wizard' was recorded at Secret Sound, a small  studio created in a loft apartment in New York that was rented by Todd's keyboard playing friend Mark 'Moogy' Klingman.

Secret Sound was really Todd's creation, said Moogy. He did all the wiring and the equipment installation himself. "That studio was really put together with band aids and bubble gum. It just barely held together.”

A Wizard, A True Star was one of the very first things they recorded at Secret Sound. In Paul Myers' book about Todd's recording sessions in the 1970s, Moogy recalls, "One day Todd said ‘Okay I’m gonna start recording'. He was in the room by himself and he laid down the bass part to “International Feel” and then he started adding on to it. I said wow he’s making some really weird noisy sounds. 

Todd at Sunset Sound

"Then he was overdubbing and it started to sound like something and he said 'OK Moogy, I want you to bring your band in and we're gonna do the track. One of the first tracks we did was 'Toot Toot Tootsie Goodbye' but he’d changed it to 'Da Da Dali'.

"We spent the next month or so recording A Wizard, A True Star with Todd as the sole engineer. We didn’t even have an assistant to just watch the levels and bring things down a bit. But that’s how he liked to work. He was a solo guy, he was a hermit nerd.”

Todd's new girlfriend Bebe Buell is sitting on the sofa at the back

The list of session musicians on AWATS includes the Brecker Brothers, Rick Derringer and David Sanborn. Moogy was responsible for bringing in all the musicians, using second keyboard player Ralph Shuckett, bassist John Siegler and drummer John Siomos as the core band. The contribution of Siomos (who later played on Frampton Comes Alive) is notable as he provides the solid groove and highly distinctive snare and tom-tom fills for much of the album’s more soulful and rocked-out moments.

Because he had crammed so much on the record, Todd urged the listener to crank up their stereo to get the full effect. In fact he suggested people tape the record and then crank it up, to avoid having the stylus jump off the vinyl.

The inside gatefold

First issues of the vinyl LP in the US were die-cut, giving the record sleeve an odd shape, and psychedelic images on both sides of the gatefold cover. I have an early US pressing and I have to say the sound is superior to my UK copy. There's more detail audible and you really get a sense of how amazing the mix is, considering the amount of instrumentation and studio effects.

The original album package also included a ‘band aid’ poem written by Todd’s friend Patti Smith, as well as a postcard encouraging purchasers to send their name to be included on a poster, which was given away with Todd's next album.

Patti Smith's beat prose inspired review of 'A Wizard, A True Star' for Creem Magazine in April 1973, described the album as "Rock and roll for the skull. A very noble concept. Past present and tomorrow in one glance. Understanding through musical sensation. Todd Rundgren is preparing us for a generation of frenzied children who will dream in animation."

inner sleeve side one

inner sleeve side two

By the time he came to record 'A Wizard, A True Star', Todd had tasted success with the hit singles Hello It's Me and I Saw The Light. But he set the template for the rest of his career, by not giving the fans or the record company more of the same.  

A Wizard, A True Star was his take on psychedelia, with a dash of rock and soul. And despite all the indulgence, it worked.

That wasn't always the case with Todd; he went on to make some other really good records, but he confounded expectations at every turn, which his fans learned to tolerate, or not.

Glam'd up in '73, playing Clapton's SG

Even in those early days, just before he made AWATS, an appearance on the US music show Midnight Special playing Hello It's Me had his PR advisers tearing their hair out. Todd appeared in full Glam Rock style, with elaborate face make-up and multi-coloured hair. You don't have to camp around, indeed. Commercial suicide, it was the first indication that Todd wouldn't be playing the game the way they wanted. 

On this swing to the left, Todd said: "I threw out all the rules of record making and decided I would try to imprint the chaos in my head onto a record without trying to clean it up for everyone else's benefit. The result was a complete loss of about half of my audience. This became the model for my life after that."

If he'd stuck to releasing just the pretty love songs, he would have been a superstar, no doubt about it. But after AWATS, for every A Dream Goes On Forever, there was a piece of self-indulgent primitive synth bollocks. I still enjoy listening to his 70s albums, skipping the odd track that, even then, was annoyingly indulgent on his part. There have been times when he has unfuriated me in a live situation - ignoring his considerable body of work to play an extended version of Peter Gunn on the 'Liars' tour, for example. It's never been easy being a TR fan, and he is unapologetic about that.  

A Wizard, A True Star, though, is the high point of a prolific musical journey.

The following links include some rare footage from the 1970s and some more recent clips, including some good quality film of the performance of AWATS 10 years ago.

1974 low-fi film of Todd and the AWATS band, playing material from the album including Just One Victory.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8gpABtL7sk&fbclid=IwAR26QUOjPxSzryBZTl8vp2-UWuWySGey7aOIljBDUmSSSRVyCNZpCs2-DbY

Here's video of Todd appearing on the Daryl's House show, singing Sometimes I Don't Know What To Feel

And here, as part of the 2009 AWATS shows, he performs I Don't Want To Tie You Down

IF YOU LIKE MY BLOG, PLEASE HIT THE FOLLOW BUTTON ON THE SIDE PANEL THANKS

Also on this blog:

2-Tone and possibly my best gig ever

Queen's 1976 Free Concert in Hyde Park

Memories of the Reading Festival, 1975

Five Days of High Drama at the Isle of Wight, 1970

From Pinner to LA - Elton's Big Breakthrough, 1970

My Woodstock 50th Anniversary Diary

Blonde On Blonde - Bob Dylan's Artistic Peak in the 1960s

 Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns