Todd Rundgren has never stood still for long. Across a career that is positively littered with abrupt changes of direction, unexpected shifts in outlook and startling flashes of off-kilter brilliance, it is difficult (if not impossible) to truly pin down who he is, what he does, and why he does it.
It was inevitable, then, that one day he would gather up all those different identities and attitudes, and take them all on the road on his own.
Nobody knew what to expect when Todd Rundgren announced his next tour would be strictly solo, some three dozen shows sprawling across the first four months of the year, and launching at the New Orleans House of Blues on January 20, 2003. There would be no band, no backing musicians, nothing beyond Todd and his songs – and they were certainly destined to be shuffled in and out of the set as the mood took him.
Guitars, samplers, piano, backing tapes – “Some people feel I’m playing with pre-recorded music… or some nonsense,” he quipped. But no. “I have the whole band standing by and ready to broadcast through this tiny little device.” Of course he was joking, but it’s fun to imagine the alternative.
So it is, as anyone versed in Cockney rhyming slang will already have punned, Todd on his tod… (ah, but did you know the expression actually refers to an American jockey, Todd Sloan?), and Solo In Clearwater – making its physical (double colored vinyl and 2 CD) debut today – is as representative as any recording from this magical, mercurial, outing.
He’s having fun, reaching back through his catalog and just doing whatever he wants. “Hello It’s Me” is almost chaotic, but like he tells the audience, “the piano has all the keys on it, all equally easy to hit as you just heard…that’s why I like the guitar better, there only six chances to screw up on it!”
“Song of the Viking” comes off like a Peter Piper-style vaudeville tongue twister; a ukulele-powered “Bang The Drum All Day” is so convincingly restyled as an “ancient Hawaiian war chant” that a voice from the audience demands to know “where’s your lai?” There’s a glorious bossa nova interlude, and a Marvin Gaye cover that will make your head spin. And, contrarily, a take on “Hawking” that’s been described as one of the most affecting he has ever performed.
So yes. Across a career littered with electrifying eccentricity and blinding flashes of eclectic stubborn-ness, Todd’s fans long ago became accustomed to expecting the unexpected. In fact, they all but demand it.
And still Solo In Clearwater is guaranteed to shock, startle and stun.
