“Dour”: Why did The Beatles disappoint Todd Rundgren?
It can’t be easy being a celebrity. Constantly under scrutiny from the masses, it becomes a daily issue for you to have to save face and maintain a good public image, all the while attempting to hold onto your sanity as you live two separate lives – the one that everyone knows about, and the private one that people wish they knew about. The Beatles probably had it the worst due to how they were constantly required to maintain the public perception of themselves as being happy-go-lucky heartthrobs with a certain scampish Northern charm and wit about them.
Behind closed doors, The Beatles were understandably different from their public personas, grappling with personal issues that occasionally spilt into public view. John Lennon’s marital problems were well-documented, with his separation from his first wife, Cynthia, and subsequent relationship with Japanese performance artist Yoko Ono becoming a scandalous and highly publicised story. Meanwhile, the band’s various instances of drug use often placed them under intense scrutiny, turning them into subjects for the average Joe to observe, analyse, and pass judgment on.
Can they be blamed for how they lived double lives as the beyond-reproach Fab Four and the fallible individuals? Arguably not – they were humans prone to mistakes just like the rest of us mortals, but at the same time, some of their more objectionable behaviours ought to be disparaged in the same way we would do for any other public figure or regular person. One person who certainly pinned some responsibility on the band for their more disgraceful moments was Todd Rundgren, who, upon interacting with all members of the band on separate occasions, had plenty to say about their true characters.
In an interview with Louder Sound, the musician and producer discussed having met each of the Beatles in different environments and revealed some rather disparaging truths about the men behind the moptops. Rundgren himself is not known for being any more outspoken than other artists, but on multiple occasions has slammed John Lennon for various grievances that irked him. That being said, his revelations on the other three members were a lot more eye-opening, and presented them in a much different light to how they were normally portrayed.
While Rundgren and Lennon only met once in Los Angeles, with Rundgren claiming he “wasn’t loaded enough” to have a full conversation with the Liverpudlian, he lambasted him publicly for his negative and contradictory attitudes. Describing Lennon as “boorish”, he criticised him for being a public face of social change and revolution while regularly being abusive and derogatory towards women, saying that “if you start going backwards and abusing women when ostensibly you are supposed to be a feminist, it’s time to either be just what you are or drop the revolutionary shtick and clean up your act.”
Rundgren was a lot kinder in his words about Ringo Starr, whom he had more personal interactions with throughout his career. While he did acknowledge that the drummer’s drinking habits were something of an issue that impeded their relationship, Rundgren would call Starr “the most approachable of all of the Beatles,” adding that he “never saw him having any pretence that he was building some giant musical legacy.”
As for George Harrison and Paul McCartney, Rundgren didn’t offer too much additional detail about his meetings with the two, stating that he only ever met the former in the studio while working on a Badfinger album and that McCartney was an “unusually dour” character that differed greatly from the impression he had gained of the band from his time growing up watching the band in their films, A Hard Day’s Night and Help!.
“To actually meet them in person was often a let-down,” Rundgren would claim. They often say to ‘never meet your heroes’, and if these accounts are anything to go by, that’s true at least three-quarters of the time.
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