Music
Why I Love Todd Rundgren
And You Should Too!

I didn’t even know who Todd Rundgren was before I dared myself to listen to 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die by Robert Dimery in one year.
Then I heard A Wizard, A True Star.
Love At First Listen
Rundgren certainly surprised his fans in 1973 when he released this album. He had hit a crossroads. His fans liked Something/Anything? (best described as an off-kilter pop-rock cabinet of curiosities), but he kept turning another idea over in his mind.
One where he should write an album that captured his internal environment, rather than create pop songs he thought his audience might like.
So, he did just that, alienating most of his fanbase.
Why was it so polarizing? Well, A Wizard, A True Star doesn’t even have a genre. In fact, I would argue that it tries not to be categorized.
How so?
Well, name me another record that travels from Broadway show tunes, to blues, to funk, to prog, to carnival music, to hard rock, to anthemic masterpieces all with seamless transitions between tracks.
Yeah, I can’t either.
It may not come as a surprise when looking at the cover or listening to the album that Todd Rundgren experimented with psychedelics when writing this. Because of his process, the album feels like an acid trip, swinging from mood to mood like a caffeinated metronome.
But there’s more to it than that.
Rundgren later said that when he created this album, he decided to throw “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.”
And you can definitely hear that. Songs range in length, from one minute to ten minutes long. Each track has its own feel, ranging sonically from weird sound effects to spacelike walls of sound.
And although Todd alienated his old base of fans, he found a new one. Several musicians, including Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, explain that this was a formative album for them influentially.
Pushing the Limits of Production
If it isn’t already apparent, Todd was not a man to compromise with the sound he wanted.
The man was a producer at heart. If you look at a lot of the great albums of the mid-70s to early 80s, Rundgren was often involved. (I’m looking at you Meat Loaf’s “Bat Out of Hell” and New York Dolls s/t!)
However, this came to a head when he wanted to put out an almost double album’s worth of material, but the cost for the studio was too extravagant because of an oil shortage at the time.
As a result and compromise, Rundgren pushed what was doable. The single LP clocks in at over 55 minutes in length! For comparison, most LPs are around 30–40 minutes.
This album still is one of the longest LPs of all time. Fun fact: He even pushes the limit with later albums in the same way, including “Initiation” and “Utopia.”
As a result, the grooves on this record are all squashed to heck! Many complain that the sound suffers, but I argue if you crank it loud enough and boost the bass a bit, you’ll be all right.
Could he have cut songs?
Of course.
But then he wouldn’t remove what was in his head on the vinyl disc. He would have compromised his vision for studio penny-pinching.
What We Can Learn From Todd

When it comes to your art, you have to make it for yourself first.
Now, obviously, if you lean too far in this way to a point where it becomes self-aggrandizing. Look no further than The Who’s unfinished album “Lifehouse” for an example of what can happen when you create something without keeping your ego in check.
But trying something different and pushing yourself, even when you know your fans might not accept it?
Now that’s what rock and roll is all about.
Is A Wizard/A True Star one of the best albums I’ve ever listened to?
Not by a long shot.
But it’s unique. And most importantly, it’s cool. The album is an experience — it’s meant to be played from end to end.
It’s great music out of an era when listening to the entire LP mattered, and Todd took great care to give us a special type of experience on this album.
Sure, it didn’t follow the rules of what we expected, but it ended up being sonically interesting and intriguing all the same.
If you’re ok with tripping out, give this one a shot. And most importantly, play it loud!