How did I get hear? #10 - Reverend Christopher Orczy on Todd Rundgren's "A Wizard, A True Star"
In the August school holidays of 1989 I was 17 and working in the upstairs 2nd hand department at Echo Records in Christchurch. My music tastes were very Anglo goth with a bit of 1970’s prog rock in the mix. I was checking newly bought LPs against what was out in the shop; going through the ‘R’ section I was stopped by the cover: colourful, geometrical shapes, cartoony, an eye over an ear. It was so appealing. I had heard of Todd, but never heard him. I asked Al Park (boss) what it was like. “It’s good! Put it on!”
I will never forget the opening spiral take off noise that leads to the first song, 'International Feel'. The wall of sound production, the catchy craziness of it all. The segue to a Disney song ('Never Never Land') was joyous and logical, followed by a tension building instrumental which then exploded into 2 songs of heavily distorted power angry rock, then to the oddball effects as music. All of this in 6 or so minutes.
I had never heard anything like it.
What was it? Prog? Pop? Soul? Hard Rock? Experimental? AOR? None of these and all of these at once. “70’s psychedelia” Al suggested. He was not wrong.
From that moment, Todd became my guy. I got ‘A Wizard; A True Star’ engraved on my Zippo. I bought everything I could find and loved it all. I became a Todd evangelist and would make tapes for everyone, choosing the songs and styles that I knew would help them see Todd as the most amazing artist of all time (with little success - NB - I have one of these Todd mix tapes; it is entitled, with typical understatement 'Todd, as in God' - Ed).
Todd is still one of my favourite artists, but nothing like that August morning. He changed what I expected and wanted from an artist. Everything didn’t have to be serious and deep. It was ok to be goofy, funny, sentimental, and sad. ‘A Wizard; A True Star’ showed me that music was capable of everything all at once.
You can view Father Chris' YouTube channel here