218-569: New York Dolls were an American rock band formed in New York City in 1971. Along with the Velvet Underground and the Stooges , they were one of the first bands of the early punk rock scenes. Although the band never achieved much commercial success and their original line-up fell apart quickly, the band's first two albums— New York Dolls (1973) and Too Much Too Soon (1974)—became among
436-518: A Beatles parody album in the form of Deface the Music . It included "Everybody Else Is Wrong", another song perceived to have been aimed at Lennon. Later that year, Lennon was killed by Mark David Chapman , an obsessive Rundgren fan who was incensed by Lennon's remarks on religion. When he was apprehended, Chapman was wearing a promotional T-shirt for Hermit of Mink Hollow and had left a copy of Runt. The Ballad of Todd Rundgren in his hotel room. Rundgren
654-639: A Twist... (1997), an album of bossa-nova covers of his older material. His PatroNet work, which trickled out to subscribers over more than a year, was released in 2000 as One Long Year . In 2004, Rundgren released Liars , a concept album about "paucity of truth", that features a mixture of his older and newer sounds. As the Internet gained mass acceptance, Rundgren, along with longtime manager Eric Gardner and Apple digital music exec Kelli Richards, started PatroNet, which offered fans (patrons) access to his works-in-progress and new unreleased tracks in exchange for
872-508: A Woman " (1970). His best-known songs include " Hello It's Me " and " I Saw the Light " from Something/Anything? (1972), which get frequent air time on classic rock radio stations, the 1978 " Can We Still Be Friends ", and the 1983 single " Bang the Drum All Day ", which is featured in many sports arenas, commercials, and movie trailers. Although lesser known, " Couldn't I Just Tell You " (1972)
1090-608: A band called "the Pox" in 1967. After the frontman quit, Murcia and Sylvain started a clothing business called Truth and Soul and Sylvain took a job at A Different Drummer, a men's boutique that was across the street from the New York Doll Hospital , a doll repair shop. Sylvain said that the shop inspired the name for their future band. In 1970 they formed a band again and recruited Johnny Thunders to join on bass, though Sylvain ended up teaching him to play guitar. They called themselves
1308-509: A certain degree doesn't care if it's popular. — Bill Wyman in Vulture (2016) The sound of rock is traditionally centered on the amplified electric guitar, which emerged in its modern form in the 1950s with the popularity of rock and roll. It was also greatly influenced by the sounds of electric blues guitarists. The sound of an electric guitar in rock music is typically supported by an electric bass guitar, which pioneered jazz music in
1526-451: A certain number of albums over a certain number of years, so he decided that every other album would be a solo album and the next one a Utopia album." A Wizard, a True Star included "Rock N Roll Pussy", a song aimed at former Beatle John Lennon . In 1974, Rundgren and Lennon were embroiled in a minor feud over comments Rundgren made in the February edition of Melody Maker magazine. In
1744-559: A certain way, and I wanted to see if I could put them on a record. A lot of people recognized it as the dynamics of a psychedelic trip—it was almost like painting with your head." Rundgren and Moogy Klingman established a professional recording studio, Secret Sound, to accommodate the Wizard sessions. The studio was designed to Rundgren's specifications and was created so that he could freely indulge in sound experimentation without having to worry about hourly studio costs, although he maintained that
1962-721: A child, Rundgren was fascinated by his parents' small record collection, which consisted of show tunes and symphonic pieces, and especially by the operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan . Later, he grew infatuated with the music of the Beatles , the Rolling Stones , the Ventures , and the Yardbirds , as well as the Philadelphia soul of Gamble & Huff , the Delfonics , and the O'Jays . At
2180-610: A company to produce 3D animation using the Toaster; this company's first demo, "Theology" (a look at religious architecture through the ages featuring music by former Utopia bandmate Roger Powell) also became a widely circulated item among Toaster users. After a long absence from touring, Rundgren hit the road with Nearly Human—2nd Wind band, which included brass and a trio of backup singers (one of whom, Michele Gray, Rundgren married). He also toured during 1992 with Ringo Starr 's second All-Starr band . A brief 1992 tour of Japan reunited
2398-598: A couple weeks on the road. Once Rundgren was finished with his production duties, he began formulating plans for an improved configuration of Utopia, but first returned to Secret Sound to record the more synthesizer-heavy double album Todd , which was more material drawing on his hallucinogenic experiences. This time, he had also formed a fascination with religion and spirituality, reading books by authors such as Madame Blavatsky , Rudolf Steiner , and Jiddu Krishnamurti . Originally scheduled for release in December 1973, Todd
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#17328517581292616-412: A day to beat the three-week deadline. To keep up the pace, he installed an eight-track recorder, mixer, and synthesizers into his living room so that he could continue recording after leaving the studio. For the first time in his career, Rundgren recorded every part by himself, including bass, drums, and vocals. About "an album and a half" was completed this way. He then decided to stretch the project into
2834-461: A double LP and quickly recorded the last few tracks with musicians, live in the studio. Something/Anything? , the first album officially issued under the name "Todd Rundgren", was released in February 1972, shortly after Bearsville had signed a long-term distribution deal with Warner Bros. Records . The album included many songs that would become his best-known. Included among straightforward pop songs are extended jams and studio banter, such as
3052-514: A fondness for a good beat, a meaningful lyric with some wit, and the theme of youth, which holds an "eternal attraction" so objective "that all youth music partakes of sociology and the field report ." Writing in Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s (1990), he said this sensibility is evident in the music of folk singer-songwriter Michelle Shocked , rapper LL Cool J , and synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys —"all kids working out their identities"—as much as it
3270-477: A foundation of simple syncopated rhythms in a 4 meter , with a repetitive snare drum back beat on beats two and four. Melodies often originate from older musical modes such as the Dorian and Mixolydian , as well as major and minor modes. Harmonies range from the common triad to parallel perfect fourths and fifths and dissonant harmonic progressions. Since the late 1950s, and particularly from
3488-609: A frequent addition to the established rock format of guitars, bass, and drums in subsequent progressive rock. Instrumentals were common, while songs with lyrics were sometimes conceptual, abstract, or based in fantasy and science fiction. The Pretty Things ' SF Sorrow (1968), the Kinks' Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) (1969), and the Who 's Tommy (1969) introduced
3706-512: A group. If you go back and listen to it, it's very sophisticated material, especially for a guy so young." Lead single " We Gotta Get You a Woman " reached number 20 on the Billboard charts. As he prepared a follow-up LP, he produced Halfnelson , the debut album by the band that would later become Sparks . Members Ron and Russell Mael later credited Rundgren with launching Sparks' career. Rundgren's industry reputation grew substantially as
3924-430: A home nearby, as well as an adjoining property to be taken over as accommodation for artists who used the studio. The Lake Hill complex on Mink Hollow Road remained Rundgren's base for the next six years. In the interim until his next solo effort, he recorded three albums with Utopia. The first, Disco Jets , was a tongue-in-cheek collection of instrumental disco tracks left unreleased until 2001. Ra (February 1977)
4142-418: A job as staff engineer and producer under Albert Grossman , which Rundgren accepted. Grossman, known for his management of folk rock acts, had just founded Ampex Records , a joint business venture with the tape company of the same name, and built Bearsville Studios , near Woodstock. Bearsville soon became its own record imprint. Grossman promised to Rundgren that he would become the "highest-paid producer in
4360-505: A key feature of psychedelia. Psychedelic rock reached its apogee in the last years of the decade. 1967 saw the Beatles release their definitive psychedelic statement in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band , including the controversial track " Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds ", the Rolling Stones responded later that year with Their Satanic Majesties Request , and Pink Floyd debuted with The Piper at
4578-568: A loud amplified sound, often centered on the electric guitar, based on the Chicago blues , particularly after the tour of Britain by Muddy Waters in 1958, which prompted Cyril Davies and guitarist Alexis Korner to form the band Blues Incorporated . The band involved and inspired many of the figures of the subsequent British blues boom, including members of the Rolling Stones and Cream , combining blues standards and forms with rock instrumentation and emphasis. The other key focus for British blues
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#17328517581294796-572: A mainstream audience with hits including " Blowin' in the Wind " (1963) and " Masters of War " (1963), which brought " protest songs " to a wider public, but, although beginning to influence each other, rock and folk music had remained largely separate genres, often with mutually exclusive audiences. Early attempts to combine elements of folk and rock included the Animals' " House of the Rising Sun " (1964), which
5014-485: A major element of progressive rock. From about 1967 bands like Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience had moved away from purely blues-based music into psychedelia . By the 1970s, blues rock had become heavier and more riff-based, exemplified by the work of Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple , and the lines between blues rock and hard rock "were barely visible", as bands began recording rock-style albums. The genre
5232-429: A major influence on subsequent electronic rock . With the advent of punk rock and technological changes in the late 1970s, progressive rock was increasingly dismissed as pretentious and overblown. Many bands broke up, but some, including Genesis, ELP, Yes, and Pink Floyd, regularly scored top ten albums with successful accompanying worldwide tours. Some bands which emerged in the aftermath of punk, such as Siouxsie and
5450-410: A more basic form of rock and roll that incorporated its original influences, particularly blues, country and folk music, leading to the creation of country rock and Southern rock. In 1966 Bob Dylan went to Nashville to record the album Blonde on Blonde . This, and subsequent more clearly country-influenced albums, such as Nashville Skyline , have been seen as creating the genre of country folk ,
5668-412: A more conscious effort by Rundgren was made to refine his music and choice of subject matter, and to distinguish himself from his influences. Released June 1971, The Ballad of Todd Rundgren bore two singles, "Be Nice to Me" and "A Long Time, a Long Way To Go", neither of which repeated the success of "We Gotta Get You a Woman". While initial reviews of Ballad were mixed, it came to be regarded as one of
5886-481: A multibillion-dollar industry and doubling its market while, as Christgau noted, suffering a significant "loss of cultural prestige". "Maybe the Bee Gees became more popular than the Beatles, but they were never more popular than Jesus ", he said. "Insofar as the music retained any mythic power, the myth was self-referential – there were lots of songs about the rock and roll life but very few about how rock could change
6104-570: A national phenomenon. It is often argued that the surf music craze and the careers of almost all surf acts was effectively ended by the arrival of the British Invasion from 1964, because most surf music hits were recorded and released between 1960 and 1965. By the end of 1962, what would become the British rock scene had started with beat groups like the Beatles , Gerry & the Pacemakers and
6322-656: A phone call from him one day and we just said: 'Let's drop this now.'" Initiation (1975) showed more experimentation with synthesizers, and displayed the musical influence of the avant-garde jazz fusion of contemporary acts such as the Mahavishnu Orchestra and Frank Zappa . Once again the original LP issue saw Rundgren pushing the medium to its physical limits, with the side-long suite "A Treatise on Cosmic Fire" clocking in at over 35 minutes. Released in May 1976, Faithful saw Rundgren celebrating his tenth year as
6540-456: A preacher, prosecutions of Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry and the breaking of the payola scandal (which implicated major figures, including Alan Freed, in bribery and corruption in promoting individual acts or songs), gave a sense that the rock and roll era established at that point had come to an end. Rock quickly spread out from its origins in the US, associated with the rapid Americanization that
6758-453: A professional musician. The album featured one side of original songs and one side of covers of significant songs from 1966, including the Yardbirds' " Happenings Ten Years Time Ago ", the Beach Boys ' " Good Vibrations ", and two Lennon-penned Beatles songs. The arrangements of the covers were intended to sound as close to the originals as possible, and Rundgren's original songs were written as
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6976-444: A prog rock influence and while ranking among the most commercially successful acts of the 1970s, heralding the era of pomp or arena rock , which would last until the costs of complex shows (often with theatrical staging and special effects), would be replaced by more economical rock festivals as major live venues in the 1990s. The instrumental strand of the genre resulted in albums like Mike Oldfield 's Tubular Bells (1973),
7194-706: A reflection of his 1960s influences. He cited the song "The Verb 'To Love'" as the point in which he made the conscious decision to stop writing superficial love songs and "seek out all other kinds of subject matter to write about". Despite the lack of sales and promotion for Faithful , lead single "Good Vibrations" received regular airplay on American radio. Following the completion of Faithful , Rundgren spent two months on an eastern spiritual retreat, visiting Iran, Afghanistan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bali, Thailand, Japan, and Hawaii. He also opened Utopia Sound Studios in Lake Hill, New York , just outside of Woodstock, and bought
7412-483: A reputation as a ballad singer, in marked contrast to the content on Wizard . Although critical reception to the album was mixed, Wizard became highly influential to musicians in the ensuing decades. In 2003, music journalist Barney Hoskyns called the record "the greatest album of all time ... a dizzying, intoxicating rollercoaster ride of emotions and genre mutations [that] still sounds more bravely futuristic than any ostensibly cutting-edge electro-pop being made in
7630-420: A result of his success with Runt , and for the first time in his life, he began using recreational drugs. Initially this was limited to marijuana . He said that the drug gave him "a whole different sensibility about time and space and order" that influenced the writing for his second album, Runt. The Ballad of Todd Rundgren . The material was mostly piano ballads and still largely based on Nyro's template, but
7848-446: A rigidly delineated musical definition." In the opinion of music journalist Robert Christgau , "the best rock jolts folk-art virtues—directness, utility, natural audience—into the present with shots of modern technology and modernist dissociation ". Rock and roll was conceived as an outlet for adolescent yearnings ... To make rock and roll is also an ideal way to explore intersections of sex, love, violence, and fun, to broadcast
8066-625: A rock-informed album era in the music industry for the next several decades. By the late 1960s " classic rock " period, a few distinct rock music subgenres had emerged, including hybrids like blues rock , folk rock , country rock , Southern rock , raga rock , and jazz rock , which contributed to the development of psychedelic rock , influenced by the countercultural psychedelic and hippie scene . New genres that emerged included progressive rock , which extended artistic elements, heavy metal , which emphasized an aggressive thick sound, and glam rock , which highlighted showmanship and visual style. In
8284-695: A route pursued by a number of largely acoustic folk musicians. Other acts that followed the back-to-basics trend were the Canadian group the Band and the California-based Creedence Clearwater Revival , both of which mixed basic rock and roll with folk, country and blues, to be among the most successful and influential bands of the late 1960s. The same movement saw the beginning of the recording careers of Californian solo artists like Ry Cooder , Bonnie Raitt and Lowell George , and influenced
8502-654: A self-titled LP in 1978, recorded at the Bottom Line in NYC's Greenwich Village,featuring Sylvain Mizrahi and Johnny Thunders as guest musicians. In May, 1978, he also released "David Johansen", on Blue Sky Records, a label created by Steve Paul, formerly of The Scene. Johansen continued to tour with his solo project and released four more albums, In Style, 1979; Here Comes the Night , 1981; Live it Up, 1982; and Sweet Revenge , 1984. During
8720-417: A set including some songs with lyrics by David Johansen that would later appear on David Johansen's solo albums including "Funky But Chic", "Frenchette" and "Wreckless Crazy". The group played its last show December 30, 1976 at Max's Kansas City; on the same bill as Blondie . Shortly after returning from Florida, Thunders and Nolan formed The Heartbreakers with bassist Richard Hell , who had left Television
8938-686: A show at London's 100 Club on May 14, 2009 supported by Spizzenergi . On March 18, 2010, the band announced another two concert dates at KOKO in Camden, London and the Academy in Dublin on April 20. In December 2010, it was announced the band would release their fifth album which had been recorded in Newcastle upon Tyne. The album, Dancing Backward in High Heels , featuring new guitarist Frank Infante (formerly of Blondie)
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9156-478: A slogan one only began to hear in 1972 or so, mobilized all those eager to believe that idealism had become passe, and once they were mobilized, it had. In popular music, embracing the '70s meant both an elitist withdrawal from the messy concert and counterculture scene and a profiteering pursuit of the lowest common denominator in FM radio and album rock . Rock saw greater commodification during this decade, turning into
9374-458: A subscription fee, cutting out record labels. The songs from Rundgren's first PatroNet run were later released as the album One Long Year . Since then, Rundgren has severed his connections with major record labels and continues to offer new music direct to subscribers via his website, although he also continues to record and release CDs through independent labels. As of 2022, the PatroNet.com website
9592-460: A variety of directions, including Dylan and the Byrds, who began to develop country rock . However, the hybridization of folk and rock has been seen as having a major influence on the development of rock music, bringing in elements of psychedelia, and helping to develop the ideas of the singer-songwriter, the protest song, and concepts of "authenticity". Psychedelic music's LSD -inspired vibe began in
9810-522: A variety of sources such as the Tin Pan Alley pop tradition, folk music , and rhythm and blues . Christgau characterizes rock lyrics as a "cool medium" with simple diction and repeated refrains, and asserts that rock's primary "function" "pertains to music, or, more generally, noise ." The predominance of white, male, and often middle class musicians in rock music has often been noted, and rock has been seen as an appropriation of Black musical forms for
10028-501: A young, white and largely male audience. As a result, it has also been seen to articulate the concerns of this group in both style and lyrics. Christgau, writing in 1972, said in spite of some exceptions, "rock and roll usually implies an identification of male sexuality and aggression". Since the term "rock" started being used in preference to "rock and roll" from the late-1960s, it has usually been contrasted with pop music, with which it has shared many characteristics, but from which it
10246-661: Is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll " in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles from the mid-1960s, particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom. It has its roots in rock and roll, a style that drew directly from the genres of blues , rhythm and blues , and country music . Rock also drew strongly from genres such as electric blues and folk , and incorporated influences from jazz and other musical styles. For instrumentation, rock
10464-423: Is centered on the electric guitar , usually as part of a rock group with electric bass guitar , drums , and one or more singers. Usually, rock is song-based music with a 4 time signature using a verse–chorus form , but the genre has become extremely diverse. Like pop music , lyrics often stress romantic love but also address a wide variety of other themes that are frequently social or political. Rock
10682-536: Is credited with first using the phrase "rock and roll" to describe the music. Four years later, Bill Haley 's " Rock Around the Clock " (1954) became the first rock and roll song to top Billboard magazine's main sales and airplay charts, and opened the door worldwide for this new wave of popular culture. Other artists with early rock and roll hits included Chuck Berry , Bo Diddley , Fats Domino , Little Richard , Jerry Lee Lewis , and Gene Vincent . Soon rock and roll
10900-464: Is generally agreed that garage rock peaked both commercially and artistically around 1966. By 1968 the style largely disappeared from the national charts and at the local level as amateur musicians faced college, work or the draft . New styles had evolved to replace garage rock. Although the first impact of the British Invasion on American popular music was through beat and R&B based acts,
11118-544: Is in the music of Chuck Berry , the Ramones , and the Replacements . The foundations of rock music are in rock and roll, which originated in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, and quickly spread to much of the rest of the world. Its immediate origins lay in a melding of various black musical genres of the time, including rhythm and blues and gospel music , with country and western . Debate surrounds
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#173285175812911336-411: Is often distanced by an emphasis on musicianship, live performance, and a focus on serious and progressive themes as part of an ideology of authenticity that is frequently combined with an awareness of the genre's history and development. According to Simon Frith , rock was "something more than pop, something more than rock and roll" and "[r]ock musicians combined an emphasis on skill and technique with
11554-399: Is termed as a rock band or a rock group. Furthermore, it typically consists of between three (the power trio ) and five members. Classically, a rock band takes the form of a quartet whose members cover one or more roles, including vocalist, lead guitarist, rhythm guitarist, bass guitarist, drummer, and often keyboard player or another instrumentalist. Rock music is traditionally built on
11772-441: Is the Band." Todd Rundgren Todd Harry Rundgren (born June 22, 1948) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer who has performed a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of the bands Nazz and Utopia . He is known for his sophisticated and often unorthodox music, his occasionally lavish stage shows, and his later experiments with interactive art . He also produced music videos and
11990-528: The Billboard Hot 100 . The British Invasion greatly influenced garage bands, providing them with a national audience, leading many (often surf or hot rod groups) to adopt a British influence, and encouraging many more groups to form. Thousands of garage bands were extant in the United States and Canada during the era and hundreds produced regional hits. Despite scores of bands being signed to major or large regional labels, most were commercial failures. It
12208-467: The Los Angeles Times , said that the band exhibited a strong influence from the Rolling Stones, but had distinguished themselves by Too Much Too Soon (1974) as "a much more independent, original force" because of their "definite touch of the humor and carefreeness of early (ie. mid-1950s) rock". Simon Reynolds felt that, by their 2009 album Cause I Sez So , the band exhibited the sound "not of
12426-519: The American folk music revival had grown to a major movement, using traditional music and new compositions in a traditional style, usually on acoustic instruments. In America the genre was pioneered by figures such as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger and often identified with progressive or labor politics . In the early sixties figures such as Joan Baez and Bob Dylan had come to the fore in this movement as singer-songwriters. Dylan had begun to reach
12644-480: The Fuzztones ), and Olivier Le Baron on lead guitar. Guest appearances by Frank Infante of Blondie and Derwood Andrews of Generation X were also included on the record. It has been re-released as New York A Go Go, . Morrissey , having been a longtime fan of the band and head of their 1970s UK fan club, organized a reunion of the three surviving members of the band's classic line-up (Johansen, Sylvain and Kane) for
12862-635: The Lounge On The Farm Festival on July 12, 2008. On November 14, 2008, it was announced that the producer of their first album, Todd Rundgren, would be producing a new album, which would be followed by a world tour. The finishing touches on the album were made in Rundgren's studio on the island of Kauai. The album, Cause I Sez So , was released on May 5, 2009 on Atco Records . The band played at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas on March 21, 2009, and
13080-614: The Meltdown Festival in London on June 16, 2004. The reunion led to a live LP and DVD on Morrissey's Attack label, as well as a documentary film, New York Doll , on the life of Arthur Kane. However, future plans for the Dolls were affected by Kane's sudden death from leukemia just weeks later on July 13, 2004. Yet the following month the band appeared at Little Steven 's Underground Garage Festival on August 14 in New York City before returning to
13298-595: The Rock 'n' Roll album. The other two are covers: the " Courageous Cat " theme, from the original Courageous Cat cartoon series; and a second attempt at "Don't Mess With Cupid", a song written by Steve Cropper and Eddie Floyd for Otis Redding , and first recorded independently for what was later to become the Mercer Street/Blue Rock Sessions. Johansen formed the David Johansen Group, and released
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#173285175812913516-422: The garage rock / post-punk revival in the 2000s. Since the 2010s, rock has lost its position as the pre-eminent popular music genre in world culture, but remains commercially successful. The increased influence of hip-hop and electronic dance music can be seen in rock music, notably in the techno-pop scene of the early 2010s and the pop-punk-hip-hop revival of the 2020s. Rock has also embodied and served as
13734-500: The progressive rock of Frank Zappa , Yes , and the Mahavishnu Orchestra . In 2017, while giving a commencement speech at the Berklee College of Music , he described the record as: ... my act of tyranny after having achieved commercial success. ... 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
13952-417: The protest song , rock music has been associated with political activism , as well as changes in social attitudes to race, sex, and drug use, and is often seen as an expression of youth revolt against adult consumerism and conformity . At the same time, it has been commercially highly successful, leading to accusations of selling out . A good definition of rock, in fact, is that it's popular music that to
14170-457: The "dirty rock & roll " of the Rolling Stones , the "anarchic noise" of the Stooges , the glam rock of David Bowie and T. Rex , and girl group pop music. Erlewine credited the band for creating punk rock "before there was a term for it". Ken Tucker , who referred to them as a proto-punk band, wrote that they were strongly influenced by the "New York sensibility" of Lou Reed : "The mean wisecracks and impassioned cynicism that informed
14388-454: The 1950s saw the growth in popularity of the electric guitar, and the development of a specifically rock and roll style of playing through such exponents as Chuck Berry, Link Wray , and Scotty Moore . The use of distortion , pioneered by Western swing guitarists such as Junior Barnard and Eldon Shamblin was popularized by Chuck Berry in the mid-1950s. The use of power chords , pioneered by Francisco Tárrega and Heitor Villa-Lobos in
14606-687: The 1980s progressed, a number of bands from within its scene formed a new sound with a greater emphasis on the influence of the New York Dolls, namely Guns N' Roses, L.A. Guns and Faster Pussycat . Other musicians to cite the New York Dolls as an influence include the Smiths and their vocalist Morrissey , the Undertones , Joan Jett & the Blackhearts , David Bowie , Japan , D Generation , Billy Idol , Terry Chambers of XTC , Def Leppard , R.E.M. ,
14824-461: The 19th century and later on by Willie Johnson and Pat Hare in the early 1950s, was popularized by Link Wray in the late 1950s. Commentators have traditionally perceived a decline of rock and roll in the late 1950s and early 1960s. By 1959, the death of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens in a plane crash, the departure of Elvis for the army, the retirement of Little Richard to become
15042-420: The 21-year-old Rundgren briefly considered working as a computer programmer, and then decided that his calling was as a producer. He moved to New York in the summer of 1969 and involved himself with the clubs of Greenwich Village , particularly Steve Paul's Scene , and met a number of Manhattan musicians and fashion designers. Michael Friedman, formerly the assistant of Nazz manager John Kurland, offered Rundgren
15260-475: The 21st Century." In 2018, Pitchfork ' s Sam Sodomsky wrote that the "fingerprints" of Wizard remained "evident on bedroom auteurs to this day". In the weeks following the album's release, Rundgren produced Grand Funk Railroad 's We're an American Band and the New York Dolls ' self-titled debut album , which were among the most significant LPs of the year. The former album reached number two on
15478-448: The Band , he traveled to Canada to record Jesse Winchester 's eponymous 1970 debut album. Immediately afterward, he said, "the Band asked me to engineer their Stage Fright sessions. I think Jesse Winchester was a kind of run-through for that, because I was pretty quick to get the sounds and they liked that." Released in August 1970, Stage Fright reached number 5 on the Billboard 200,
15696-472: The Banshees , Ultravox , and Simple Minds , showed the influence of progressive rock, as well as their more usually recognized punk influences. In the late 1960s, jazz-rock emerged as a distinct subgenre out of the blues-rock, psychedelic, and progressive rock scenes, mixing the power of rock with the musical complexity and improvisational elements of jazz. AllMusic states that the term jazz-rock "may refer to
15914-609: The Beatles, demonstrating "to the rock generation in general that an album could be a major standalone statement without hit singles", such as on The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963). Folk rock particularly took off in California, where it led acts like the Mamas & the Papas and Crosby, Stills, and Nash to move to electric instrumentation, and in New York, where it spawned performers including
16132-596: The Byrds ' shift from folk to folk rock from 1965. The psychedelic lifestyle, which revolved around hallucinogenic drugs, had already developed in San Francisco and particularly prominent products of the scene were Big Brother and the Holding Company , the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane . The Jimi Hendrix Experience 's lead guitarist, Jimi Hendrix did extended distorted, feedback-filled jams which became
16350-431: The Byrds adopted rock instrumentation, including drums and 12-string Rickenbacker guitars, which became a major element in the sound of the genre. Later that year Dylan adopted electric instruments, much to the outrage of many folk purists, with his " Like a Rolling Stone " becoming a US hit single. According to Ritchie Unterberger , Dylan (even before his adoption of electric instruments) influenced rock musicians like
16568-674: The Clash and the Damned . In Lonely Boy: Tales from a Sex Pistol , guitarist Steve Jones cited the New York Dolls as one of the most influential bands on the Sex Pistols style, and in a 2023 interview with Spin , Dave Vanian of the Damned listed the New York Dolls' self-titled album as one of his five albums "I Can't Live Without". The Guardian writer Ian Gittins called the album "the Year Zero of punk rock". The band continued to inspire punk bands as
16786-491: The Dolls on 7 October 1975, their contract with Mercury having expired on 8 August 1975 - five months after Thunders' and Nolan's departures from the band. Their show at the Beacon Theatre , on New Year's Eve, 1975 met with great critical acclaim. After a drunken argument with Sylvain, Robison was fired and replaced by pianist/keyboardist Bobbie Blaine formerly a member of Street Punk. The group toured throughout 1976, performing
17004-481: The Dolls when they began performing late in 1971 – awful and ugly were more like it. Moreover, at the time, the Dolls were associated with glam-rock and David Bowie in his most flamboyantly gay period, an understandable mistake. — Ken Tucker According to AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine , the New York Dolls developed an original style of hard rock that presaged both punk rock and heavy metal music , and drew on elements such as
17222-407: The Dolls' songs represented an attitude that Reed's work with the Velvet Underground embodied, as did the Dolls' distinct lack of musicianship." When they began performing, four of the band's five members wore Spandex and platform boots , while Johansen—the band's lyricist and "conceptmaster"— often preferred high heels and a dress occasionally. Fashion historian Valerie Steele said that, while
17440-495: The Dolls. When Sylvain left the band to spend a few months in London , Thunders and Murcia went their separate ways. Thunders was eventually recruited by Kane and Rick Rivets , who had been playing together in the Bronx . At Thunders' suggestion, Murcia replaced the original drummer. Thunders played lead guitar and sang for the band Actress. An October 1971 rehearsal tape recorded by Rivets
17658-526: The Dominos , followed by an extensive solo career that helped bring blues rock into the mainstream. Green, along with the Bluesbreaker's rhythm section Mick Fleetwood and John McVie , formed Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac , who enjoyed some of the greatest commercial success in the genre. In the late 1960s Jeff Beck , also an alumnus of the Yardbirds, moved blues rock in the direction of heavy rock with his band,
17876-499: The Gates of Dawn . Key recordings included Jefferson Airplane's Surrealistic Pillow and the Doors ' self-titled debut album . These trends peaked in the 1969 Woodstock festival , which saw performances by most of the major psychedelic acts. Sgt. Pepper was later regarded as the greatest album of all time and a starting point for the album era , during which rock music transitioned from
18094-735: The Harry Smiths. On July 20, 2006, the New York Dolls appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien , followed by a live performance in Philadelphia at the WXPN All About The Music Festival, and on July 22, 2006, a taped appearance on The Henry Rollins Show . On August 18, 2006, the band performed in a free concert at New York's Seaport Music. In October 2006, the band embarked on a UK tour, with Sylvain taking time while in Glasgow to speak to John Kilbride of STV. The discussion covered
18312-464: The Jeff Beck Group . The last Yardbirds guitarist was Jimmy Page , who went on to form The New Yardbirds which rapidly became Led Zeppelin . Many of the songs on their first three albums, and occasionally later in their careers, were expansions on traditional blues songs. In America, blues rock had been pioneered in the early 1960s by guitarist Lonnie Mack , but the genre began to take off in
18530-498: The Joint " (1949), also covered by Bill Haley & His Comets in 1952; and " Rocket 88 " by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats (in fact, Ike Turner and his band the Kings of Rhythm ), recorded by Sam Phillips for Chess Records in 1951. In 1951, Cleveland, Ohio disc jockey Alan Freed began playing rhythm and blues music (then termed " race music ") for a multi-racial audience, and
18748-499: The Lovin' Spoonful and Simon and Garfunkel , with the latter's acoustic " The Sounds of Silence " (1965) being remixed with rock instruments to be the first of many hits. These acts directly influenced British performers like Donovan and Fairport Convention . In 1969 Fairport Convention abandoned their mixture of American covers and Dylan-influenced songs to play traditional English folk music on electric instruments. This British folk-rock
18966-507: The New York Dolls and would go on to have a significant influence themselves. The New York Dolls were the catalyst for New York's early punk rock scene, which included Television , Talking Heads , Patti Smith , the Ramones , Blondie and Richard Hell and the Voidoids , in addition to being one of the most influential bands to the development of British punk rock, particularly the Sex Pistols ,
19184-411: The New York Dolls were "quintessential glam rockers" because of their flamboyant fashion, while their technical shortcomings as musicians and Johnny Thunders' "trouble-prone presence" gave them a punk-rock reputation. By contrast, Robert Christgau preferred for them to not be categorized as a glam rock band, but instead as "the best hard-rock band since the Rolling Stones". Robert Hilburn , writing for
19402-491: The New York Dolls' second breakup, Johansen began a solo career. By the late 1980s, he achieved moderate success under the pseudonym, Buster Poindexter . Sylvain formed The Criminals, a popular band at CBGB . A posthumous New York Dolls album, Lipstick Killers , made up of early demo tapes of the original Dolls (with Billy Murcia on drums), was released in a cassette-only edition on ROIR Records in 1981, and subsequently re-released on CD, and then on vinyl in early 2006. All
19620-745: The Replacements , Soul Asylum , Alice in Chains , Soundgarden , Bruce Fairweather and Stone Gossard of Green River and Mother Love Bone (the latter also of Pearl Jam ), Ruby and the Rednecks , Hollywood Brats , Hoodoo Gurus , the Scientists , Palaye Royale , Marilyn Manson , Jetboy , Rock City Angels , the Cramps , the Libertines and the Manic Street Preachers . Rock music Rock
19838-476: The Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds , were much more directly influenced by rhythm and blues and later blues music. Soon these groups were composing their own material, combining US forms of music and infusing it with a high energy beat. Beat bands tended towards "bouncy, irresistible melodies", while early British blues acts tended towards less sexually innocent, more aggressive songs, often adopting an anti-establishment stance. There was, however, particularly in
20056-542: The Rundgren/Powell/Sulton/Wilcox lineup, and Redux '92: Live in Japan was released on Rhino Records. As the 90s began, Rundgren was already moving away from conventional notions of what a rock producer or recording artist should be ... While Rundgren would continue to produce records for himself, and others, many of the innovative and individual technologies and business models he embraced and/or pioneered over
20274-573: The Searchers from Liverpool and Freddie and the Dreamers , Herman's Hermits and the Hollies from Manchester. They drew on a wide range of American influences including 1950s rock and roll, soul, rhythm and blues, and surf music, initially reinterpreting standard American tunes and playing for dancers. Bands like the Animals from Newcastle and Them from Belfast , and particularly those from London like
20492-650: The Seeds ) to near-studio musician quality (including the Knickerbockers , the Remains , and the Fifth Estate ). There were also regional variations in many parts of the country with flourishing scenes particularly in California and Texas. The Pacific Northwest states of Washington and Oregon had perhaps the most defined regional sound. The style had been evolving from regional scenes as early as 1958. "Tall Cool One" (1959) by
20710-591: The Thirteenth Confession . When Rundgren heard the record, he was struck by "all the major seventh chords and variations on augmented and suspended chords ", and it had an immediate impact on his songwriting, especially as he began to compose more on piano. He elaborated: I know for a fact that her influences were the more sophisticated side of R&B , like Jerry Ragovoy and Mann & Weil and Carole King . ... and she also had her own very original and very jazz -influenced way of seeing things. It
20928-456: The UK to play several more festivals through the remainder of 2004. In July 2005, the two surviving members announced a tour and a new album entitled One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This . Released on July 25, 2006, the album featured guitarist Steve Conte , bassist Sami Yaffa (ex- Hanoi Rocks ), drummer Brian Delaney and keyboardist Brian Koonin , formerly a member of David Johansen and
21146-461: The US charts, while the latter became a seminal forerunner of punk rock , although Rundgren never became known as a "punk producer". Rundgren also prepared a technologically ambitious stage show with a band later to be known as Utopia Mark I, consisting of Tony Sales, Hunt Sales, keyboardist Dave Mason, and synthesizer specialist Jean-Yves "M Frog" Labat. The tour began in April and was cancelled after only
21364-676: The US was becoming dominated by lightweight pop and ballads, British rock groups at clubs and local dances were developing a style more strongly influenced by blues-rock pioneers, and were starting to play with an intensity and drive seldom found in white American acts; this influence would go on to shape the future of rock music through the British Invasion . The first four years of the 1960s has traditionally been seen as an era of hiatus for rock and roll. More recently some authors have emphasised important innovations and trends in this period without which future developments would not have been possible. While early rock and roll, particularly through
21582-604: The USSR and South Africa from 1955 to 1957, influencing the globalisation of rock. Johnny O'Keefe 's 1958 record " Wild One " was one of the earliest Australian rock and roll hits. By the late 1950s, as well as in the American-influenced Western world, rock was popular in communist states such as Yugoslavia, and the USSR, as well as in regions such as South America. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, American blues music and blues rock artists, who had been surpassed by
21800-722: The Wailers and " Louie Louie " by the Kingsmen (1963) are mainstream examples of the genre in its formative stages. By 1963, garage band singles were creeping into the national charts in greater numbers, including Paul Revere and the Raiders (Boise), the Trashmen (Minneapolis) and the Rivieras (South Bend, Indiana). Other influential garage bands, such as the Sonics (Tacoma, Washington), never reached
22018-527: The advent of rockabilly, saw the greatest commercial success for male and white performers, in this era, the genre was dominated by black and female artists. Rock and roll had not disappeared entirely from music at the end of the 1950s and some of its energy can be seen in the various dance crazes of the early 1960s, started by Chubby Checker 's record " The Twist " (1960). Some music historians have also pointed to important and innovative technical developments that built on rock and roll in this period, including
22236-451: The age of 17, he formed his first band, Money, with then-best friend and roommate Randy Reed and Reed's younger brother. After graduating from Upper Darby High School in 1966, Rundgren moved to Philadelphia and began his career in Woody's Truck Stop, a blues rock group in the style of Paul Butterfield Blues Band . Rundgren stayed with the band for eight months, and in the process, they became
22454-533: The album still felt "kind of rushed through because the studio wasn't finished". Some of the other influences on the album included musical theater, jazz , and funk . A Wizard, a True Star was released in March 1973. At Rundgren's behest, no singles were issued from the album, as he wanted the tracks to be heard in the context of the LP. Its release coincided with the success of the "Hello It's Me" single, which gave Rundgren
22672-587: The article, he accused Lennon of striking a waitress at the Troubadour in Hollywood and called him a "fucking idiot" proselytizing revolution and "acting like an ass". In September, the magazine published Lennon's response, in which he denied the charges and referred to the musician as "Turd Runtgreen": "I have never claimed to be a revolutionary. But I am allowed to sing about anything I want! Right?" Later, Rundgren said, "John and I realized we were being used and I got
22890-621: The band undertook the "Dancing Backward in High Heels World Tour". This included dates in England, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France, Spain and Australia. In the last week of October four additional gigs – billed as "Halloween Night Of Fear – were played in the UK, concluding at the Clyde Auditorium , Glasgow on October 31. In a 2016 interview, Earl Slick confirmed that the New York Dolls had again split. "Oh, yeah, it's long gone. There
23108-474: The band as having invented the look of glam metal, and in Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians , Hank Bordowitz called the band the progenitors of hair metal and "the most important band that most people never heard". Prominent glam metal bands to take influence from the New York Dolls included Mötley Crüe , Poison , Ratt , Skid Row and Twisted Sister . With the increasing commercialisation of glam metal as
23326-607: The band played in Australia and New Zealand, appearing at the V Festival with Pixies , Pet Shop Boys , Gnarls Barkley , Beck , Jarvis Cocker and Phoenix . On September 22, 2007, the New York Dolls were removed from the current artists section of Roadrunner Records' website, signifying the group's split with the label. The band played the O2 Wireless Festival in Hyde Park, London on July 4, 2008, with Morrissey and Beck and
23544-586: The band red leather outfits to wear on stage and a communist flag as backdrop ( communist chic ). The Dolls did a five-concert tour of New York's five boroughs, supported by Television and Pure Hell . The Little Hippodrome ( Manhattan ) show was recorded and released by New Rose Records subsidiary Fan Club in 1984 as Red Patent Leather , which was previously a bootleg album later remixed by Sylvain for official release, with former manager Marty Thau credited as executive producer. Due to Kane being unable to play that night, roadie Peter Jordan played bass, though he
23762-451: The band took on Marty Thau as manager. New York Dolls was produced by singer-songwriter, musician and solo artist Todd Rundgren . In an interview in Creem magazine, Rundgren says he barely touched the recording; everybody was debating how to do the mix. Sales were sluggish, especially in the middle US, and a Stereo Review magazine reviewer in 1973 compared the Dolls' guitar playing to
23980-494: The band's history and the current state of their live show and songwriting, with Sylvain commenting that "even if you come to our show thinking 'how can it be like it was before,' we turn that around 'cos we've got such a great live rock 'n roll show". In November 2006, the Dolls began headlining " Little Steven's Underground Garage Presents the Rolling Rock and Roll Show," about 20 live gigs with numerous other bands. In April 2007,
24198-575: The biggest selling rock band of all time and they were followed into the US charts by numerous British bands. During the next two years British acts dominated their own and the US charts with Peter and Gordon , the Animals, Manfred Mann , Petula Clark , Freddie and the Dreamers, Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders , Herman's Hermits, the Rolling Stones, the Troggs , and Donovan all having one or more number one singles. Other major acts that were part of
24416-478: The bill with the Brecker Brothers and Hall & Oates . Utopia played more shows throughout November and December, performing material from Something/Anything? and Wizard after a solo opening set by Rundgren on piano playing along to a pre-recorded track. On December 7, Rundgren appeared by himself on The Midnight Special performing "Hello It's Me" while dressed in jarringly flamboyant glam attire to
24634-572: The chagrin of some of his bandmates and Bearsville executive Paul Fishkin, who recalled that Rundgren looked "like a fucking drag queen". If I get that one minute of total illumination then I don't care if my whole career goes down the drain. I'd know there was an answer to everything—to existence, to death. —Todd Rundgren, September 1974 Utopia embarked on their first successful tour between March and April 1974, after which Rundgren produced Hello People 's The Handsome Devils and Hall & Oates' War Babies . The band's debut record came in
24852-456: The chart. Their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on 9 February 1964, drawing an estimated 73 million viewers (at the time a record for an American television program) is considered a milestone in American pop culture. During the week of 4 April 1964, the Beatles held 12 positions on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, including the entire top five. The Beatles went on to become
25070-450: The de facto leader of Nazz, and that a producer's credit was wrongfully withheld from him. Nazz gained minor recognition with their debut single, July 1968's "Open My Eyes" backed with " Hello It's Me ", both songs penned by Rundgren. They subsequently released three albums: Nazz (October 1968), Nazz Nazz (April 1969), and Nazz III (1971). In March 1968, New York singer-songwriter Laura Nyro released her second album, Eli and
25288-424: The delights and limitations of the regional , and to deal with the depredations and benefits of mass culture itself. — Robert Christgau in Christgau's Record Guide (1981) Unlike many earlier styles of popular music, rock lyrics have dealt with a wide range of themes, including romantic love, sex, rebellion against " The Establishment ", social concerns, and life styles. These themes were inherited from
25506-451: The early 1970s among existing blues-rock and psychedelic bands, as well as newly formed acts. The vibrant Canterbury scene saw acts following Soft Machine from psychedelia, through jazz influences, toward more expansive hard rock, including Caravan , Hatfield and the North , Gong , and National Health . The French group Magma around drummer Christian Vander almost single-handedly created
25724-455: The early 1970s, Robert Christgau wrote in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981): The decade is, of course, an arbitrary schema itself—time doesn't just execute a neat turn toward the future every ten years. But like a lot of artificial concepts—money, say—the category does take on a reality of its own once people figure out how to put it to work. "The '60s are over,"
25942-457: The early stages, considerable musical crossover between the two tendencies. By 1963, led by the Beatles, beat groups had begun to achieve national success in Britain, soon to be followed into the charts by the more rhythm and blues focused acts. " I Want to Hold Your Hand " was the Beatles' first number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 , spending seven weeks at the top and a total of 15 weeks on
26160-572: The eccentric ethnomusicologist, performing jump blues, Delta blues, and some original songs. Sylvain formed his own band, the Criminals, then cut a solo album for RCA , while also working with Johansen. He later became a taxicab driver in New York. During this period, in the early 1990s, Sylvain moved to Los Angeles and recorded one album Sleep Baby Doll, on Fishhead Records. His band, for that record, consisted of Brian Keats on drums, Dave Vanian 's Phantom Chords, Speediejohn Carlucci (who had played with
26378-459: The electronic treatment of sound by such innovators as Joe Meek , and the elaborate production methods of the Wall of Sound pursued by Phil Spector . The instrumental rock and roll of performers such as Duane Eddy , Link Wray and the Ventures was further developed by Dick Dale , who added distinctive "wet" reverb , rapid alternate picking, and Middle Eastern and Mexican influences. He produced
26596-515: The example set by the Beatles ' 1965 LP Rubber Soul in particular, other British rock acts released rock albums intended as artistic statements in 1966, including the Rolling Stones ' Aftermath , the Beatles' own Revolver , and the Who 's A Quick One , as well as American acts in the Beach Boys ( Pet Sounds ) and Bob Dylan ( Blonde on Blonde ). Garage rock was a raw form of rock music, particularly prevalent in North America in
26814-417: The first interactive album, No World Order , in 1994. Additionally, he was one of the first acts to be prominent as both an artist and producer. His notable production credits include Badfinger 's Straight Up (1971), Grand Funk Railroad 's We're an American Band (1973), the New York Dolls ' New York Dolls (1973), Meat Loaf 's Bat Out of Hell (1977), and XTC 's Skylarking (1986). He
27032-491: The first record, and worldwide hit, for the Virgin Records label, which became a mainstay of the genre. Instrumental rock was particularly significant in continental Europe, allowing bands like Kraftwerk , Tangerine Dream , Can , Focus (band) and Faust to circumvent the language barrier. Their synthesiser-heavy " krautrock ", along with the work of Brian Eno (for a time the keyboard player with Roxy Music ), would be
27250-511: The first time, she asked me if I wanted to be her band leader. But the Nazz had just signed a record contract and I couldn't skip out on the band, even though it was incredibly tempting. The rest of the band struggled to accommodate his changing tastes, and tensions between all the band members had begun to build up in the interval between recording their first and second albums as a result of their shared living quarters. Tensions further increased during
27468-451: The folk scene. The first group to advertise themselves as psychedelic rock were the 13th Floor Elevators from Texas. The Beatles introduced many of the major elements of the psychedelic sound to audiences in this period, such as guitar feedback , the Indian sitar and backmasking sound effects . Psychedelic rock particularly took off in California's emerging music scene as groups followed
27686-485: The form of the LP titled Todd Rundgren's Utopia (November 1974). It marked Rundgren's first full-fledged venture into the progressive rock genre. Utopia released several more albums between 1975 and 1985. Although they gradually rebranded toward a rock-pop sound, Todd Rundgren's Utopia remained their highest album chart showing at number 34. Keyboardist Roger Powell recalled that Bearsville wished Utopia would have "just gone away", however, "Todd's contract called for
27904-503: The format of rock operas and opened the door to concept albums , often telling an epic story or tackling a grand overarching theme. King Crimson 's 1969 début album, In the Court of the Crimson King , which mixed powerful guitar riffs and mellotron , with jazz and symphonic music , is often taken as the key recording in progressive rock, helping the widespread adoption of the genre in
28122-460: The genre progressed, with the Misfits , Social Distortion and Green Day all recalling their influence. In the 1980s, the influence of the New York Dolls helped to form the glam metal genre. In particular, the band's androgynous aesthetic and wearing of spandex, dresses, high heels and teased hair were widely imitated amongst bands in the genre. Alternative Press writer Tim Stegall even credited
28340-506: The greatest singer-songwriter albums of the era. In late 1971, Rundgren was recruited to finish Badfinger 's third album Straight Up , a project George Harrison had abandoned to organize the Concert for Bangladesh , in London. The album was a hit and its two singles were similarly successful, although Rundgren was not credited for the first (" Day After Day ") and thus did not receive production royalties for that single. Rundgren said that
28558-587: The group in 1974 as "the Dead End Kids of today". After reuniting, they recruited new musicians to tour and record. They released three more albums— One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This (2006), Cause I Sez So (2009) and Dancing Backward in High Heels (2011). Following a 2011 British tour with Alice Cooper , the band once again disbanded. Sylvain Sylvain and Billy Murcia , who went to junior high school and high school together, started playing in
28776-570: The highest chart showing the Band had to that point. Rundgren was dubbed Bearsville's "boy wonder". His work for the Band was followed by a second album for Winchester (which was then shelved for two years) and the album Taking Care of Business by the James Cotton Blues Band (1970). This project resulted in Rundgren meeting Cotton's keyboard player Mark "Moogy" Klingman , who in turn introduced Rundgren to keyboard player Ralph Schuckett , both of whom worked extensively with Rundgren over
28994-720: The home by the robbers as part of the crime. The new wave -tinged The Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect (1982) included a cover of the Small Faces ' hit " Tin Soldier ". " Bang The Drum All Day ", an album single, was a minor chart hit. It later became more prominent and was adopted as an unofficial theme by several professional sports franchises, notably the Green Bay Packers . Disc Jockey Geno Michellini of KLOS in Los Angeles used "Bang The Drum All Day" as an unofficial kick-off to
29212-453: The impetus was soon taken up by a second wave of bands that drew their inspiration more directly from American blues , including the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds . British blues musicians of the late 1950s and early 1960s had been inspired by the acoustic playing of figures such as Lead Belly , who was a major influence on the Skiffle craze, and Robert Johnson . Increasingly they adopted
29430-460: The invasion included the Kinks and the Dave Clark Five . The British Invasion helped internationalize the production of rock and roll, opening the door for subsequent British (and Irish) performers to achieve international success. In America it arguably spelled the end of instrumental surf music, vocal girl groups and (for a time) the teen idols , that had dominated the American charts in
29648-511: The label were R&B oriented white rock bands that made use of jazzy horn sections, like Electric Flag , Blood, Sweat & Tears and Chicago , to become some of the most commercially successful acts of the later 1960s and the early 1970s. British acts to emerge in the same period from the blues scene, to make use of the tonal and improvisational aspects of jazz, included Nucleus and the Graham Bond and John Mayall spin-off Colosseum . From
29866-493: The landmark releases of the early 70s". "Couldn't I Just Tell You" was influential to artists in the power pop genre. Music journalist Paul Lester called the recording a "masterclass in compression " and said that Rundgren "staked his claim to powerpop immortality [and] set the whole ball rolling". Musician Scott Miller 's 2010 book Music: What Happened? calls the song "likely the greatest power pop recording ever made," with lyrics "somehow both desperate and lighthearted at
30084-446: The late 1950s and 1960s. It dented the careers of established R&B acts like Fats Domino and Chubby Checker and even temporarily derailed the chart success of surviving rock and roll acts, including Elvis. The British Invasion also played a major part in the rise of a distinct genre of rock music, and cemented the primacy of the rock group, based on guitars and drums and producing their own material as singer-songwriters. Following
30302-408: The later 1980s, Johansen, ever-evolving, decided to try to liberate himself from the expectations of his New York Dolls perceived persona, and, on a whim, created the persona Buster Poindexter. The success of this act led him to be invited to appear in multiple films: Scrooged , Freejack , and Let it Ride , among others. He also formed a band called David Johansen and the Harry Smiths , named after
30520-460: The listener. Initially targeted for the Philips CD-i platform, No World Order featured interactive controls for tempo, mood, and other parameters, along with pre-programmed mixes by Rundgren himself, Bob Clearmountain , Don Was and Jerry Harrison . The disc was also released for PC and Macintosh and in two versions on standard audio CD , the continuous mix disc No World Order and, later,
30738-410: The loudest, wildest, most electrified fusion bands from the jazz camp, but most often it describes performers coming from the rock side of the equation." Jazz-rock "...generally grew out of the most artistically ambitious rock subgenres of the late '60s and early '70s", including the singer-songwriter movement. Many early US rock and roll musicians had begun in jazz and carried some of these elements into
30956-471: The majority of the punk scene pursued an understated "street look", the New York Dolls followed an English glam rock "look of androgyny —leather and knee-length boots, chest hair, and bleach". According to James McNair of The Independent , "when they began pedalling their trashy glam-punk around lower Manhattan in 1971, they were more burlesque act than band; a bunch of lipsticked, gutter chic-endorsing cross-dressers". Music journalist Nick Kent argued that
31174-476: The many recordings which have been suggested as "the first rock and roll record ". Contenders include " Strange Things Happening Every Day " by Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1944); " That's All Right " by Arthur Crudup (1946), which was later covered by Elvis Presley in 1954; " The House of Blue Lights " by Ella Mae Morse and Freddie Slack (1946); Wynonie Harris ' " Good Rocking Tonight " (1948); Goree Carter 's "Rock Awhile" (1949); Jimmy Preston 's " Rock
31392-669: The mid-1950s by white singers such as Carl Perkins , Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly and with the greatest commercial success, Elvis Presley . Hispanic and Latino American movements in rock and roll, which would eventually lead to the success of Latin rock and Chicano rock within the US, began to rise in the Southwest ; with rock and roll standard musician Ritchie Valens and even those within other heritage genres, such as Al Hurricane along with his brothers Tiny Morrie and Baby Gaby as they began combining rock and roll with country- western within traditional New Mexico music . In addition,
31610-603: The mid-1960s the Left Banke , the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys, had pioneered the inclusion of harpsichords , wind , and string sections on their recordings to produce a form of Baroque rock and can be heard in singles like Procol Harum 's " A Whiter Shade of Pale " (1967), with its Bach -inspired introduction. The Moody Blues used a full orchestra on their album Days of Future Passed (1967) and subsequently created orchestral sounds with synthesizers. Classical orchestration, keyboards, and synthesizers were
31828-479: The mid-1960s and so called because of the perception that it was rehearsed in the suburban family garage. Garage rock songs often revolved around the traumas of high school life, with songs about "lying girls" and unfair social circumstances being particularly common. The lyrics and delivery tended to be more aggressive than was common at the time, often with growled or shouted vocals that dissolved into incoherent screaming. They ranged from crude one-chord music (like
32046-435: The mid-1960s as acts developed a sound similar to British blues musicians. Key acts included Paul Butterfield (whose band acted like Mayall's Bluesbreakers in Britain as a starting point for many successful musicians), Canned Heat , the early Jefferson Airplane , Janis Joplin , Johnny Winter , the J. Geils Band and Jimi Hendrix with his power trios , the Jimi Hendrix Experience (which included two British members, and
32264-401: The mid-1960s onwards, rock music often used the verse–chorus structure derived from blues and folk music, but there has been considerable variation from this model. Critics have stressed the eclecticism and stylistic diversity of rock. Because of its complex history and its tendency to borrow from other musical and cultural forms, it has been argued that "it is impossible to bind rock music to
32482-466: The more song-oriented No World Order Lite . The music itself was quite a departure from Rundgren's previous work, with a dance/ techno feel and much rapping by Rundgren. The follow-up, The Individualist (1995), featured interactive video content, that could be viewed or in one case, played; it was a simple video game along with the music, which was more rock-oriented than No World Order . Rundgren returned to recording under his own name for With
32700-446: The most popular cult records in rock. The line-up at this time consisted of vocalist David Johansen , guitarist Johnny Thunders , bassist Arthur Kane , guitarist and pianist Sylvain Sylvain , and drummer Jerry Nolan ; the latter two had replaced Rick Rivets and Billy Murcia , respectively, in 1972. On stage, they donned an androgynous wardrobe, wearing high heels, eccentric hats, satin, makeup, spandex, and dresses. Nolan described
32918-421: The most popular group in Philadelphia. He and bassist Carson Van Osten left before they released the eponymous first album to form the rock band Nazz in 1967. By then, Rundgren had lost interest in the blues and wanted to pursue a recording career with original songs in the style of newer records by the Beatles and the Who . As a member of the Nazz, he learned his craft as a songwriter and vocal arranger, and
33136-461: The new music genre zeuhl with their first albums in the early 1970s. Greater commercial success was enjoyed by Pink Floyd, who also moved away from psychedelia after the departure of Syd Barrett in 1968, with The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), seen as a masterpiece of the genre, becoming one of the best-selling albums of all time. There was an emphasis on instrumental virtuosity, with Yes showcasing
33354-433: The new music. In Britain the subgenre of blues rock, and many of its leading figures, like Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce of the Eric Clapton -fronted band Cream , had emerged from the British jazz scene. Often highlighted as the first true jazz-rock recording is the only album by the relatively obscure New York–based the Free Spirits with Out of Sight and Sound (1966). The first group of bands to self-consciously use
33572-423: The newer material was written or conceived under the influence of marijuana. However, by this time, he had also begun experimenting with Ritalin . He recalled, "my songwriting process had become almost too second-nature. I was writing songs formulaically, almost without thinking, knocking [them out], reflexively, in about 20 minutes." The use of Ritalin also helped him focus on the process as he worked up to 12 hours
33790-486: The next 20 years would have such an empowering effect on future artists as to render redundant record producers, big studios, and even record labels. — Paul Myers , A Wizard, a True Star: Todd Rundgren in the Studio The mid-1990s saw Rundgren recording under the pseudonym TR-i ("Todd Rundgren interactive") for two albums. The first of these, 1993's No World Order , consisted of hundreds of seconds-long snippets of music, that could be combined in various ways to suit
34008-426: The next few years. Rundgren was to produce Janis Joplin 's third and ultimately final album, Pearl (1971), but plans fell through, as the two artists could not get along with each other. Following a period where he thought he would never return to being a performing artist, Rundgren approached Grossman with the idea of what would become his debut solo record, Runt . Although his general attitude for any project
34226-511: The popular children's television show Pee-wee's Playhouse in 1986. Nearly Human (1989) and 2nd Wind (1991) were both recorded live—the former in the studio, the latter in a theater before a live audience, who were instructed to remain silent. Each song on these albums was recorded as a complete single take with no later overdubbing . Both albums marked, in part, a return to his Philly soul roots. 2nd Wind also included several excerpts from Rundgren's musical Up Against It , which
34444-412: The psychedelic rock and the Canterbury scenes came Soft Machine, who, it has been suggested, produced one of the artistically successfully fusions of the two genres. Perhaps the most critically acclaimed fusion came from the jazz side of the equation, with Miles Davis , particularly influenced by the work of Hendrix, incorporating rock instrumentation into his sound for the album Bitches Brew (1970). It
34662-461: The quintet hired producer George "Shadow" Morton , whose productions for the Shangri-Las and other girl-groups in the mid-1960s had been among the band's favorites. By 1975, the Dolls were playing smaller venues than they had been previously. Drug and alcohol abuse by Thunders, Nolan, and Kane, as well as artistic differences added to the tensions among members. In late February or early March, Malcolm McLaren became their informal manager. He got
34880-464: The recording of Nazz's second album, as the other members bridled at the formerly unassuming Rundgren asserting complete control of the sessions as the producer. By the time Nazz Nazz was released, Rundgren and Van Osten had both left the Nazz, so the track selection was done without any input from them. Nazz III , which included leftover tracks from the Nazz Nazz sessions, was likewise released without Rundgren's involvement. After departing Nazz,
35098-413: The regional hit " Let's Go Trippin ' " in 1961 and launched the surf music craze, following up with songs like " Misirlou " (1962). Like Dale and his Del-Tones , most early surf bands were formed in Southern California, including the Bel-Airs , the Challengers , and Eddie & the Showmen . The Chantays scored a top ten national hit with " Pipeline " in 1963 and probably the best-known surf tune
35316-449: The remainder of the tour after which the band broke up. Following the tour's conclusion and announcement of the band's breakup on April 25, Duren and Kane moved to Los Angeles to form the short-lived band Killer Kane. The band reformed in July for an August tour in Japan with Jeff Beck and Felix Pappalardi . Johansen, Sylvain and Jordan were joined by former Elephant's Memory keyboardist Chris Robison and drummer Tony Machine. One of
35534-400: The rise of rock and roll in the US, found new popularity in the UK, visiting with successful tours. Lonnie Donegan 's 1955 hit " Rock Island Line " was a major influence and helped to develop the trend of skiffle music groups throughout the country, many of which, including John Lennon 's Quarrymen (later the Beatles ), moved on to play rock and roll. While former rock and roll market in
35752-475: The romantic concept of art as artistic expression, original and sincere". In the new millennium, the term rock has occasionally been used as a blanket term including forms like pop music, reggae music , soul music , and even hip hop , which it has been influenced with but often contrasted through much of its history. Christgau has used the term broadly to refer to popular and semipopular music that caters to his sensibility as "a rock-and-roller", including
35970-468: The same era, and by percussion produced from a drum kit that combines drums and cymbals. This trio of instruments has often been complemented by the inclusion of other instruments, particularly keyboards such as the piano, the Hammond organ , and the synthesizer. The basic rock instrumentation was derived from the basic blues band instrumentation (prominent lead guitar, second chordal instrument, bass, and drums). A group of musicians performing rock music
36188-459: The same time," and a guitar solo having "truly amazing dexterity and inflection". In 2003, Something/Anything? was ranked number 173 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" . Subsequent albums, beginning with A Wizard, a True Star and the spin-off group Utopia , saw a dramatic shift away from straightforward three-minute pop. After the success of Something/Anything? , Rundgren felt uncomfortable that he
36406-434: The same week that they quit the Dolls. Thunders later pursued a solo career. He died in New Orleans on 23 April 1991, allegedly of an overdose of both heroin and methadone . It also came to light that he suffered from t-cell leukemia . Nolan died on 14 January 1992 following a stroke , brought about by bacterial meningitis . In 1976, Kane and Blackie Lawless formed the Killer Kane Band in Los Angeles. Immediately after
36624-555: The second half of the 1970s, punk rock reacted by producing stripped-down, energetic social and political critiques. Punk was an influence in the 1980s on new wave , post-punk and eventually alternative rock . From the 1990s, alternative rock began to dominate rock music and break into the mainstream in the form of grunge , Britpop , and indie rock . Further fusion subgenres have since emerged, including pop-punk , electronic rock , rap rock , and rap metal . Some movements were conscious attempts to revisit rock's history, including
36842-422: The shows was documented on the album Tokyo Dolls Live (Fan Club/New Rose). The material is similar to that on Red Patent Leather , but notable for a radically re-arranged "Frankenstein" and a cover of Big Joe Turner 's "Flip Flop Fly". The album is undated and has no production credit, but was issued circa 1986. After their return to New York, the Dolls resumed playing shows in the US and Canada. Mercury dropped
37060-498: The singles format to albums and achieved cultural legitimacy in the mainstream. Led by the Beatles in the mid-1960s, rock musicians advanced the LP as the dominant form of recorded music expression and consumption, initiating a rock-informed album era in the music industry for the next several decades. Progressive rock, a term sometimes used interchangeably with art rock , moved beyond established musical formulas by experimenting with different instruments, song types, and forms. From
37278-413: The skills of both guitarist Steve Howe and keyboard player Rick Wakeman , while Emerson, Lake & Palmer were a supergroup who produced some of the genre's most technically demanding work. Jethro Tull and Genesis both pursued very different, but distinctly English, brands of music. Renaissance , formed in 1969 by ex-Yardbirds Jim McCarty and Keith Relf, evolved into a high-concept band featuring
37496-445: The sloppy, rambunctious Dolls of punk mythology but of a tight, lean hard-rock band." According to the Encyclopedia of Popular Music (1995), the New York Dolls were "one of the most influential rock bands of the last 20 years". Writer Sean Sennett credited the band as a part of a legacy of raunchy, influential rock bands predated by the Rolling Stones, and succeeded by Aerosmith and Hanoi Rocks and eventually Guns N' Roses . By
37714-401: The song "didn't sound much like what [Harrison had] done" and speculated that the credit to Harrison "may or may not have been something purposeful, just some by-product of a general Beatle hubris". The Straight Up sessions lasted two weeks in September, after which Rundgren returned to Los Angeles to work on his third solo album, originally planned as a single LP. As with Ballad , much of
37932-438: The sound of lawnmowers . America's mass rock audience's reaction to the Dolls was mixed. In a Creem magazine poll, they were elected both best and worst new group of 1973. The Dolls also toured Europe, and, while appearing on UK television, host Bob Harris of the BBC 's Old Grey Whistle Test derided the group as " mock rock ", comparing them unfavorably to the Rolling Stones . For their next album, Too Much Too Soon ,
38150-578: The spoken-word track "Intro", in which he teaches the listener about recording flaws for an egg hunt -type game he calls "Sounds of the Studio". Magazine ads depicted a smiling Rundgren daring the reader to "ignore me". The album peaked at number 29 on the Billboard 200 and was certified gold in three years. Lead single " I Saw the Light " peaked at number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Hello It's Me", which followed late in 1973, reached number 5. According to music critic Colin Larkin , Something/Anything? has since been "rightly regarded as one of
38368-558: The three-octave voice of Annie Haslam . Most British bands depended on a relatively small cult following, but a handful, including Pink Floyd, Genesis, and Jethro Tull, managed to produce top ten singles at home and break the American market. The American brand of progressive rock varied from the eclectic and innovative Frank Zappa , Captain Beefheart and Blood, Sweat & Tears , to more pop rock orientated bands like Boston , Foreigner , Kansas , Journey , and Styx . These, beside British bands Supertramp and ELO , all demonstrated
38586-436: The time the band's debut album was released, they had already spawned a number of derivative bands in New York including the Stilettos , the Brats , Teenage Lust and the Harlots. Two of the earliest groups that they inspired were Kiss and Aerosmith, which would in turn become two of the most influential bands in rock music, especially hard rock and heavy metal . Hanoi Rocks ' music and aesthetic too were heavily inspired by
38804-422: The tracks from this title – sometimes referred to as The Mercer Street Sessions (though actually recorded at Blue Rock Studio , New York) – are included on the CD Private World , along with other tracks recorded elsewhere, including a previously unreleased Dolls original, "Endless Party". Three more unreleased studio tracks, including another previously unreleased Dolls original, "Lone Star Queen", are included on
39022-409: The vehicle for cultural and social movements, leading to major subcultures including mods and rockers in the U.K., the hippie movement and the wider Western counterculture movement that spread out from San Francisco in the U.S. in the 1960s, the latter of which continues to this day. Similarly, 1970s punk culture spawned the goth , punk, and emo subcultures. Inheriting the folk tradition of
39240-479: The way we want it?' Our engineer didn't mind if we went and just started diddling around on the board ... It was pretty much trial and error." He took an experimental approach to the recordings, employing techniques such as varispeed and flanging , and despite having no formal training, scored music charts for string and horn arrangements. Engineer James Lowe , who Rundgren recruited for his involvement with arranger Van Dyke Parks , believed that Rundgren had become
39458-539: The weekend on Friday afternoons. "Bang The Drum All Day" was also featured in a Carnival Cruise television advertising campaign. It is now considered one of Rundgren's most popular songs. Tortured Artist marked the end of Rundgren's tenure with Bearsville Records. Rundgren signed with Warner Bros. Records , who issued his next album, A Cappella (1985), which was recorded using Rundgren's multi-tracked voice, accompanied by arrangements constructed entirely from programmed vocal samples. Rundgren scored four episodes of
39676-426: The word ... A fortunate by-product of being so out of everything all the time and always being the odd man out ... is that you have plenty of time for self-examination." He intended the songs on his next solo album to be performed on piano with minimal arrangements, apart from the bass, drums and voices. In that sense, he stated that the songwriting process appeared to be "fairly conventional". Hermit of Mink Hollow
39894-418: The work of the Beach Boys , formed in 1961 in Southern California. Their early albums included both instrumental surf rock (among them covers of music by Dick Dale) and vocal songs, drawing on rock and roll and doo wop and the close harmonies of vocal pop acts like the Four Freshmen . The Beach Boys first chart hit, " Surfin ' " in 1961 reached the Billboard top 100 and helped make the surf music craze
40112-533: The work of established performers such as the Rolling Stones' Beggar's Banquet (1968) and the Beatles' Let It Be (1970). Reflecting on this change of trends in rock music over the past few years, Christgau wrote in his June 1970 "Consumer Guide" column that this "new orthodoxy" and "cultural lag" abandoned improvisatory, studio-ornamented productions in favor of an emphasis on "tight, spare instrumentation" and song composition: "Its referents are '50s rock, country music, and rhythm-and-blues, and its key inspiration
40330-425: The work, Rundgren undertook an American tour playing at smaller venues including The Bottom Line in New York and The Roxy in Los Angeles. These shows resulted in the double live album Back to the Bars , which featured a mixture of material from his solo work and Utopia, performed with backing musicians including Utopia, Spencer Davis , Daryl Hall and John Oates and Stevie Nicks . In 1980, Utopia recorded
40548-412: The world", which later came true. Rundgren said he was initially relegated to "various old folk artists that they had who needed an upgrade: people like Ian & Sylvia , James Cotton , and other artists in Albert's stable." Shortly after producing the eponymous 1969 album by Great Speckled Bird , he was promoted as Bearsville's house engineer. Accompanied by Robbie Robertson and Levon Helm of
40766-404: The world, except as a new brand of painkiller ... In the '70s the powerful took over, as rock industrialists capitalized on the national mood to reduce potent music to an often reactionary species of entertainment—and to transmute rock's popular base from the audience to market." Roots rock is the term now used to describe a move away from what some saw as the excesses of the psychedelic scene, to
40984-462: Was John Mayall ; his band, the Bluesbreakers , included Eric Clapton (after Clapton's departure from the Yardbirds) and later Peter Green . Particularly significant was the release of Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton (Beano) album (1966), considered one of the seminal British blues recordings and the sound of which was much emulated in both Britain and the United States. Eric Clapton went on to form supergroups Cream, Blind Faith , and Derek and
41202-474: Was 1963's " Wipe Out ", by the Surfaris , which hit number 2 and number 10 on the Billboard charts in 1965. Surf rock was also popular in Europe during this time, with the British group the Shadows scoring hits in the early 1960s with instrumentals such as " Apache " (1960) and " Kon-Tiki " (1961), while Swedish surf group the Spotnicks saw success in both Sweden and Britain. Surf music achieved its greatest commercial success as vocal pop music, particularly
41420-487: Was a complete loss of about half of my audience at that point ... This became the model for my life after that. The sound and structure of Wizard was heavily informed by Rundgren's hallucinogenic experiences. It was envisioned as a hallucinogenic-inspired "flight plan" with all the tracks seguing seamlessly into each other, starting with a "chaotic" mood and ending with a medley of his favorite soul songs. He said: "With drugs I could suddenly abstract my thought processes in
41638-611: Was a concept album based on Egyptian mythology, which prefaced a lavish tour involving an extravagant stage set with a giant pyramid and Sphynx head. Oops! Wrong Planet (September 1977), recorded immediately after the tour, signaled the start of a more pop-oriented direction for the group. By late 1977, Rundgren was in the midst of separating from then-girlfriend Bebe Buell and their infant daughter Liv Tyler . Rundgren recalled leaving his home in New York City and sequestering himself at Mink Hollow, "after I discovered that I didn't want to cohabit any longer with Bebe, in any sense of
41856-473: Was a major influence on subsequent rock-influenced jazz artists, including Herbie Hancock , Chick Corea and Weather Report . The genre began to fade in the late 1970s, as a mellower form of fusion began to take its audience, but acts like Steely Dan , Frank Zappa and Joni Mitchell recorded significant jazz-influenced albums in this period, and it has continued to be a major influence on rock music. Reflecting on developments that occurred in rock music in
42074-412: Was adapted from the screenplay (originally titled "Prick Up Your Ears"), that British playwright Joe Orton had originally offered to the Beatles for their never-made follow-up to Help! . Rundgren was an early adopter of the NewTek Video Toaster and made several videos with it. The first, for "Change Myself" from 2nd Wind , was widely distributed as a demo reel for the Toaster. Later, he set up
42292-408: Was an early adopter and promoter of various computer technologies, such as using the Internet as a means of music distribution in the late 1990s. A native of Philadelphia, Rundgren began his professional career in the mid-1960s, forming the psychedelic band Nazz in 1967. After two years, he left Nazz to pursue a solo career and immediately scored his first US top 40 hit with " We Gotta Get You
42510-496: Was being increasingly tagged as "the male Carole King ". "With all due respect to Carole King," he said, "It wasn't what I was hoping to create as a musical legacy for myself." Now relocated back to New York and experimenting with a host of psychedelic drugs , he began to think that the writing on Something/Anything? was largely formulaic and borne from laziness, and sought to create a "more eclectic and more experimental" follow-up album. His music tastes also started to lean toward
42728-424: Was continued in the 1970s by figures such as George Thorogood and Pat Travers , but, particularly on the British scene (except perhaps for the advent of groups such as Status Quo and Foghat who moved towards a form of high energy and repetitive boogie rock ), bands became focused on heavy metal innovation, and blues rock began to slip out of the mainstream. By the 1960s, the scene that had developed out of
42946-571: Was credited as having played "second bass". Jordan filled in for Kane when he was unable to play numerous times, such as following a thumb injury sustained prior to the band's 1973 West Coast dates. In March and April, McLaren took the band on a tour of South Carolina and Florida . Jordan replaced Kane for most of those shows. Thunders and Nolan left after an argument, forming The Heartbreakers with Richard Hell on April 11. Subsequently, Blackie Lawless , then known by his birth name of Steven Duren, who later founded W.A.S.P. , replaced Thunders for
43164-447: Was delayed to the next February due to a vinyl shortage caused by the 1973 oil crisis . During the making of Todd , Rundgren took note of the " fusion jazz sensibility" between session musicians Kevin Ellman (drums) and John Siegler (bass). Rundgren chose them, along with Klingman and keyboardist Ralph Shuckett, to be the new configuration of Utopia. This line-up performed their first show at Central Park on August 25, 1973, sharing
43382-498: Was determined to equal the artistry of the Beatles. In 1968, after recording four demo discs, the Nazz were signed by Atlantic Records subsidiary Screen Gems Columbia (SGC). They were flown to Los Angeles to produce their first album at ID Sound studio. Rundgren had no prior production experience and remembered that the producer, Bill Traut , "just whipped through the mixes in a day or two ... So I got it into my head, 'Well, he's gone now, so why don't we just mix it again, more like
43600-531: Was found dead on the morning of November 6, 1972, at the age of 21. Once back in New York, the Dolls auditioned drummers, including Marc Bell (who was to go on to play with Richard Hell , and with the Ramones under the stage name " Marky Ramone "), Peter Criscuola (better known as Peter Criss , the original and former drummer of Kiss ), and Jerry Nolan , a friend of the band. They selected Nolan, and after US Mercury Records ' A&R man Paul Nelson signed them, they began sessions for their debut album. In 1972,
43818-449: Was founded in Britain), and Band of Gypsys , whose guitar virtuosity and showmanship would be among the most emulated of the decade. Blues rock bands from the southern states, like the Allman Brothers Band , Lynyrd Skynyrd , and ZZ Top , incorporated country elements into their style to produce the distinctive genre Southern rock . Early blues rock bands often emulated jazz, playing long, involved improvisations, which would later be
44036-444: Was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021. Todd Harry Rundgren was born in Philadelphia on June 22, 1948, the son of Ruth (née Fleck; April 29, 1922 – April 6, 2016) and Harry W. Rundgren (1917–1996). His father was of Swedish descent and his mother was of Austrian and German descent. He grew up in the bordering town of Upper Darby Township, Pennsylvania and taught himself how to play guitar with little help. As
44254-450: Was influential to many artists in the power pop genre. His 1973 album A Wizard, a True Star remains an influence on later generations of bedroom musicians . Rundgren is considered a pioneer in the fields of electronic music , progressive rock , music videos, computer software, and Internet music delivery. He organized the first interactive television concert in 1978, designed the first color graphics tablet in 1980, and created
44472-437: Was no point in doing it anymore and it was kinda spent. You know, David really does enjoy the Buster thing. He's so good at it. I've seen him do it a couple of times this last year, and man! He's got it down, you know." Sylvain Sylvain died on January 13, 2021, at age 69, leaving David Johansen as the last surviving original member of the band. Certainly neither great nor punk in any of its variations were words applied to
44690-444: Was not aware of the connections until "way after the fact". When asked about the Melody Maker feud, Chapman stated he was not aware of the musicians' interactions in the press until years after they occurred. The year 1981 saw the album-long concept work Healing . His music video for the song "Time Heals" was among the first videos aired on MTV , and a video he produced for RCA , accompanied by Gustav Holst 's The Planets ,
44908-437: Was not originally credited to Rundgren due to his anxieties about starting a full-fledged solo career, and instead bore the moniker "Runt". The album featured a bright sound and songs inspired by Laura Nyro. It was recorded with the 17-year-old bassist Tony Fox Sales and his 14-year-old brother Hunt Sales on drums. Nazz engineer James Lowe returned for the sessions and recalled that Rundgren seemed "more able to really lead
45126-467: Was on Christmas Eve 1971 at a homeless shelter, the Endicott Hotel . After getting a manager and attracting some music industry interest, the New York Dolls got a break when Rod Stewart invited them to open for him at a London concert. While on a brief tour of England in 1972, Murcia was invited to a party, where he passed out from an overdose. He was put in a bathtub and force-fed coffee in an attempt to revive him. Instead, it resulted in asphyxiation. He
45344-400: Was released as Dawn of the Dolls. When Thunders decided that he no longer wanted to be the front man, David Johansen joined the band. Initially, the group was composed of singer David Johansen, guitarists Johnny Thunders and Rick Rivets (who was replaced by Sylvain Sylvain after a few months), bass guitarist Arthur "Killer" Kane and drummer Billy Murcia. The original line-up's first performance
45562-552: Was released in May 1978. Popularly viewed as his most immediately accessible work since Something/Anything? , it received more public attention and radio airplay than most of Rundgren's efforts since A Wizard, a True Star and was heralded as a "return to form" after the string of prog records with Utopia. In the US, the LP peaked at number 36, while single " Can We Still Be Friends " reached number 29. The song became Rundgren's most-covered, with versions by Robert Palmer , Rod Stewart , Colin Blunstone , and Mandy Moore . To promote
45780-458: Was released on March 15, 2011. On March 1, 2011, it was announced the New York Dolls would be the opening act for a summer tour featuring Mötley Crüe and Poison . They announced a new lineup for the tour, featuring guitarist Earl Slick , who held previous stints with David Bowie and John Lennon , bassist Kenny Aaronson , who had toured with Bob Dylan , and drummer Jason Sutter , formerly of Foreigner . Between late March and October 2011,
45998-411: Was taken up by bands including Pentangle , Steeleye Span and the Albion Band , which in turn prompted Irish groups like Horslips and Scottish acts like the JSD Band , Spencer's Feat and later Five Hand Reel , to use their traditional music to create a brand of Celtic rock in the early 1970s. Folk-rock reached its peak of commercial popularity in the period 1967–68, before many acts moved off in
46216-548: Was taking place globally in the aftermath of the Second World War . Cliff Richard is credited with one of the first rock and roll hits outside of North America with " Move It " (1959), effectively ushering in the sound of British rock . Several artists, most prominently Tommy Steele from the UK, found success with covers of major American rock and roll hits before the recordings could spread internationally, often translating them into local languages where appropriate. Steele in particular toured Britain, Scandinavia, Australia,
46434-446: Was that extra layer that made her influential. A lot of those chords she got from other people. But beyond the elements of her composition, I always thought it was the way she played her own material that really sold it. ... I met her right after Eli and the Thirteenth Confession . I actually had arranged a meeting, just because I was so infatuated with her and I wanted to meet the person who had produced all this music. ... after I met her
46652-439: Was the first commercially successful folk song to be recorded with rock and roll instrumentation and the Beatles " I'm a Loser " (1964), arguably the first Beatles song to be influenced directly by Dylan. The folk rock movement is usually thought to have taken off with the Byrds ' recording of Dylan's " Mr. Tambourine Man " which topped the charts in 1965. With members who had been part of the café-based folk scene in Los Angeles,
46870-430: Was the major force in American record sales and crooners , such as Eddie Fisher , Perry Como , and Patti Page , who had dominated the previous decade of popular music, found their access to the pop charts significantly curtailed. Rock and roll has been seen as leading to a number of distinct subgenres, including rockabilly, combining rock and roll with "hillbilly" country music, which was usually played and recorded in
47088-400: Was the most popular genre of music in the U.S. and much of the Western world from the 1950s to the 2010s. Rock musicians in the mid-1960s began to advance the album ahead of the single as the dominant form of recorded music expression and consumption, with the Beatles at the forefront of this development. Their contributions lent the genre a cultural legitimacy in the mainstream and initiated
47306-467: Was to "make the record [I] wanted to make and then hope the label can find a way to promote it", Rundgren ensured that any loss to Grossman would be minimal: "I didn't get an actual advance for Runt . I just asked for a recording budget to pay the studio costs. ... I had no idea how much money I even had in the bank. If I needed cash, I would show up at the accountants and they would just give me hundreds or thousands of dollars." Released in mid-1970, Runt
47524-442: Was used as a demo for their videodisc players. Rundgren's experience with computer graphics dates back to 1981, when he developed one of the first computer paint programs, dubbed the Utopia Graphics System; it ran on an Apple II with Apple's digitizer tablet. He is also the co-developer of the computer screensaver system Flowfazer . During this period, Rundgren's Mink Hollow home was robbed. He and his girlfriend were tied up in
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