#nearly human

[nedison]

TIME! The ameliorator of all our endeavors...

TIME! Is an illusion.

Who decides what is truth and what is not truth?

[izhunny]

Todd Rundgren - Parallel Lines

[mystacoceti]

[krispyweiss]

Todd Rundgren, Bobby Womack Sing “Good,” Make Hit

“The whole reason why everybody is here is to make me sing good,” Todd Rundgren says with an impish grin as he tries to herd studio cats.

Poor grammar notwithstanding, Rundgren makes more sense than Bobby Womack, who utters some gibberish he and the studio denizens find humorous. And it likely would be if it was decipherable.

It’s 1989 and Rundgren, Womack and a slew of musicians - strings and horns abound in addition to the usual complement of guitarists, bassists, keyboardists and drummers from the Tubes, Bourgeois Tagg and other bands - are laying down “The Want of a Nail,” Rundgren’s most-recent charting single.

Rhino Records dug the video out of the vaults and re-released it simply because it’s “exceedingly cool.” And it is - it’s also a stupendous song, sung and played stupendously “good” by a stupendously good group of players and singers.

And they look to be having a blast, even as Rundgren tells them “it’s time to get serious.” They don’t. And the montage rolls by with scenes torn away by the six-fingered hand that featured on the cover of Nearly Human.

As if to make a statement about the music-buying public’s tastes, Rhino points out that when “The Want of a Nail” peaked at No. 15, Don Henley’s “The End of the Innocence” was No. 1.

The war was lost.

8/25/21

[krispyweiss]

Virtual Concert Review: Todd Rundgren, “Virginia Beach,” Feb. 19, 2021

With concerts as we once knew them on hold until who knows when, Todd Rundgren is giving fans something to fall back on with his first-of-its-kind Clearly Human virtual tour.

Headquartered at an undisclosed Chicago venue with full production - massive lights, a big screen for more impact, a 10-piece band (three female singers, two horns, two keyboard players, guitar, bass and drums), choreography and a 23-song set list - Rundgren is beaming shows to 25 U.S. markets at 8 p.m. local time over the next several weeks.

On Feb. 19, it was “Virginia Beach,” which the Sound Biteses took in from Ohio. And for two hours, 10 minutes, it seemed like a real concert, save for an audience of computer heads - and 19 lucky souls - and fake crowd noise. Oh, and cheap beer - no lines! - clean bathrooms - no lines! - amazing seats and adjustable volume.

“We’re going to bring you a joyful noise,” Rundgren said early on. “Forget about your cares; come along with us.”

And we did. While Rundgren and band - with familiar faces like Kasim Sulton (bass), Gil Assayas (keys), Bobby Strickland (horns), Prairie Prince (drums) and Michelle Rundgren and Grace Yoo (vocals) - performed, there was no pandemic, no cabin fever, no vaccine anxiety. Just sweet live music in a comfortable setting.

Billed as a full performance of Nearly Human - it wasn’t - the show featured eight of that LP’s 10 songs not in order and an almost career-spanning setlist from songs everyone knows (“Can We Still Be Friends,” “Hello it’s Me”) to off-off Broadway oddities (“The Smell of Money”) to 21st-century masterpieces like “God Said.”

“Love Science” brought the funk. “Compassion” was balladic. Utopia’s “Secret Society” was a disco nod to the fans. And “Feel It” and “Sweet” were pure soul.

When he wasn’t playing “Foamy,” his trusty axe, Rundgren prowled the stage all in black, singing to the avatars and doing the vaunted Todd Rundgren shuffle. At 72, his voice is still in good shape even as he struggled to hit the high notes on the opening “Real Man” and the during their complex vocal arrangements of “The Waiting Game.”

Anyone who witnessed Rundgren’s late-1980s tours behind Nearly Human and 2nd Wind would have experienced a serious bout of dèjá vu as the big-band setup - sequined jackets for the men; skimpy getups for the women - the setlist and enthusiasm recalled those monumental treks. Of course everything - not just the passing of three decades - is different now, a point reinforced by occasional buffering issues and the cat on Mr. Sound Bites’ lap.

And even Rundgren cracked up when - standing on stage in cold Chicago - he thanked the fans in balmy Virginia for coming out.

But when he belted out the gospel-tinged “Hawking” on a smoke-enshrouded stage and donned a preachers’ robe for the joyful, celebratory “Love My Life” closer, everything was normal - if only for a little while.

Grade card: Todd Rundgren, “Virginia Beach,” 2/19/21 - A

2/20/21

[krispyweiss]

Sound Opinion: Stephen Hawking is Dead; “Hawking” Plays On

When intelligent, well-rounded individuals learned of Stephen Hawking’s death at age 76 early on March 14, their thoughts likely turned to Hawking the man and his mind-expanding ideas about black holes, the beginning of the beginning and other ideas too radical for most brains.

When the not-so-smart, one-tracked Sound Bites learned of Stephen Hawking’s death at age 76 early on March 14; however, his thoughts turned to “Hawking” - the Todd Rundgren song.

It’s the penultimate track on Rundgren’s landmark, 1989 album Nearly Human, a quasi-spiritual number that finds the protagonist meeting and being kissed by god - the world’s greatest lover, in whom Hawking didn’t believe - and coming to terms with his increasing disability due to ALS that leaves him trapped behind the mirror and out here on the border.

Rundgren never mentions the physicist by name - save for the title, which doesn’t appear in the song. But the subject is clear in Rundgren’s lyrics as he sings about seeing others with bodies strong and running with minds not comprehending.

Whenever I/I close my eyes/then I don’t mind being the way I am/but whenever I try/explaining why/I know I never can/now that it’s/gone, paths I used to travel/gone, things I used to handle/gone, once I had a choice what to be, Rundgren sings at the outset.

A magnificent studio track that clocks in at seven minutes with no chorus, Hawking often runs longer in concert with background singers adding a chorus of sound on key words and a saxophonist playing notes that spiral toward the heavens. Rundgren’s voice sometimes struggles with the nearly inhuman scales and vibrato he wrote for himself some three decades ago that force him to make a polysyllabic word out of I.

But I/know if I can’t recover, at least I/know, I know the book from cover to cover, and who/knows, I might dream forever/since I’ve met the world’s greatest lover/when god kissed me/and I knew it when I fainted in his arms/let’s dream together people, goes the ending.

Sounds Bites doesn’t know if Hawking ever heard “his” song, if he was a Rundgren fan or, indeed, whether he enjoyed music at all. But if he did know of “Hawking,” even if he might’ve first thought, “What the hell? I’m an atheist,” I’d like to think he might have been honored - ’cause it’s - like Hawking’s brain - a thing of great beauty.

3/14/18

[thedalektables]

For Tentoo's Birthday week can you recommend some good Tentoo x Rose fics?

We can definitely do that. Okay, so I may of gotten a little excited when I saw this ask (cause I love me some Tentoo x Rose fics) so I hope you enjoy what we’ve come up with.

Tentoo♡Rose

@buffyann23 recced:

The Slow Path Verse, by @lastincurableromantic (M)

Things Unseen, by #Artist369 (T) 110k

Star Hopping, by @time-nebula (M) 80k

The Hidden Tunnels of London, by @time-nebula (M) 25k

White Walls, by @roughhewnends (M) 25k

A Complicated Journey, by @aldanon (T) 85k

But the Story Never End, by #WhoMe (T) 60k

Identity Theft, by #Goldy & @oodlyenough (T) 35k

Out of the Howling, by #Goldy & @oodlyenough (T) 50k

Revisions which a Minute Will Reverse, by @oodlyenough (K) 20k

OrdinaryVerse, by #rosewarren (T)

Into the Woods, by #SlayGirl4303 (K) 65k

Laddie Lie Near Me, by @abadplanwellexecuted (T) 10k

Skimming Stones, by @gallifreyburning (M) 35k

The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning, by @bookishandi (T) 10K

The Journey Never Ends, by #LaurieSpitzer (M) 65k

The Long Way Around Verse, by @timeladyofthesith (M)

The Wind By Night, by @tripwirealarm (M) 65k

Transgressions, by @callistawolf (M) 25k

Valentine’s Day, What’s That?, by #enchantment (T) 10k

We Do the Best We Can, by @isilienelenihin (K) 20k

ShakespeareVerse, by @thelorelaisquared (M)

Days Hence, by @sunken-standard (M) 85k WIP

Opposite Measure, by @thanatosx49 (M) 125k

The Path We Choose Verse, by @whatswrongwithblue (M)

Stuck With You, by #mugglex (T) 95k WIP

Gallifrey Rises, by @aimtoallonsy (T) 25k

Nearly Human, by @caedmonfaith (T) 30k

My Beloved is Unto Me, by #PhilippaSomerville (M) 20k

And So I Dare to Hope, by @unfolded73 (M) 20k

There is more!! CLICK HERE to see the full reclist!

Don’t forget to follow our #Tentoo♡Rose tag.

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