Todd Rundgren
Faithful

Classics. That's what we call them. Albums, songs, and artists from the '60s and early '70s, which we appreciate but from which we have hardly inherited anything for a long time. Today the '60s are fifty years old, and 1968 is forty. Certain works and artists still have much to say today, but I believe that, after four or five decades, there's no reason to complain if someone labels them as "classics"—albums, canons, and authors...

In 1976, however, Todd Rundgren already equates them with European classical music, affirming the freedom and right of each artist, as if they were an orchestra conductor, to reinterpret them, to offer their version... In "Faithful", he re-records six of these songs, two by the Beatles, and then Beach Boys, Yardbirds, Dylan, and Hendrix. Four of these six songs, in '76, were just ten years old, the remaining two even less. Was it right to elevate them to classics just ten years later? If we consider that in '76, of the five artists covered, one was dead, the bands had broken up (except for the Beach Boys who never really were a true band, rather a sort of "cooperative"), and only Dylan persevered, then yes. If we consider what the hippie movement was, and what was about to happen the year following this album, 1977, then also, and even more so.

Agreeing with Todd on the reasons for these covers, what was he truly in this project? An artist? Or rather an arranger, a re-arranger, a producer, something akin to an orchestra conductor? There is no doubt that he was primarily a sound engineer, of his own sound. This time dealing with someone else's material. Accompanied by the Utopia of the time (Kasim Sulton is still missing), he performs all the songs without altering them, leaving you practically bewildered by the actual resemblance, in arrangements and vocals, between his versions of "Good Vibrations" and "Strawberry Fields Forever" and the originals. The other Beatles song, "Rain" (not even a classic, as it was merely a B-side of a '66 single, quite jingle jangle in Byrds style), is more grounded and less dreamy, gains depth but loses ethereal suggestiveness.

If Todd wins the contest with the Yardbirds in the opener "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago" (a symbolic song since almost all the songs date back to ten years earlier, also a single whose B-side, for the USA, was "The Nazz Are Blue", the song from which Todd coined the name of his first band), in Dylan's folk of "Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine)" Rundgren, who had never sung-spoken like the old Bob, adds trumpets and subtracts mouth harmonicas, replaces acoustics with electrics, and ruins the situation. Impossible, though perfectly executed, the comparison of "If 6 Was 9" with the original. The richness of Hendrix's guitar and voice are unmatched. As long as blues rock was English and white, it was doable, but against Jimi...

And so far the album is what it is: evocation, beautiful but ultimately heartless, of what once was and never will be again. But albums also have a B-side. And what is the B-side of "Faithful"? Engineering? Extravagance? Mannerism? Fillers? Outtakes? The answer is simply Todd Rundgren as he should always be remembered, a splendid artist of pop, soul, and rock, but above all, an exceptional songwriter of truly great songs.

If "Black And White" is an obnoxious and captivating rock song, with excellent choruses, "Love Of The Common Man" is all to sing, absolutely one of the ten most beautiful songs of his four-decade-long career. "When I Pray" is a danceable piano soul in the style of Elton John's "Bennie And The Jets"... But Todd goes even further: he imitates the nasal timbre, pronunciation, and interpretative style of a Central African singer, adds multiple ethnic percussions, and inserts spectacular "Gna Gna" and "Ya Ya Yooh" in chorus: the whole tribe is celebrating...

"Cliché" is an autumnal but brilliantly luminous ballad, amidst thousands of arpeggios and second, third, and hundred twentieth voices. "The Verb 'To Love'" is pop soul tinged with psychedelia, somewhat spacey and technological but without losing style. "Boogies (Hamburger Hell)", as the title suggests, is a glam rock boogie worthy of being shoved into a Gary Glitter greatest hits.

The most beautiful vinyl side of Todd Rundgren's career, for me but not only, thwarted by a presumptuous side A, from an artist who, even knowing he is capable of wonders, settles, disappointing us. If in 1976 Todd had only written these great songs, what was the need to include the covers? Just wait for the time to accrue another handful of songs of equal caliber in his hands. Knowing him, it wouldn't have taken more than six months. And if Todd wanted to record an album of only covers, what was the problem with recording another handful?