“This music is going nowhere”: The five musical icons Todd Rundgren hates

John Lennon

John Lennon was a man of distinct contradictions. These have been pointed out countless times since his passing, but when he was the most famous person on the planet, doing so was rather perilous. This didn’t stop Rundgren from telling Melody Maker, “All he really wants to do is get attention for himself, and if revolution gets him that attention, he’ll get attention through revolution.” In a manner akin to Steely Dan’s takedown with ‘Only a Fool Would Say That’, the Philadelphian claimed there was a glib, high and mighty posturing to Lennon’s protests for peace.

He argued, “Nixon was just like another generation’s John Lennon. Someone who represented all sorts of ideals but was out for himself underneath it all. Like the Beatles had no style other than being the Beatles.” Rundgren then even wrote the song ‘Rock and Roll Pussy’ that hit out at the ‘Bigger than Jesus’ behemoth in another bold move.

Lennon didn’t turn the other cheek to this assault, either. In a comical letter, he responded, “I guess we’re all looking for attention Rodd, do you really think I don’t know how to get it, without ‘revolution’? I could dye my hair green and pink for a start!”. No prizes for guessing what haircut Todd was sporting at the time… it was actually blue and pink, the inaccuracy adding a further barb to Lennon’s comment, as though he hadn’t even bothered to double-check.

Bruce Springsteen

“Last Thursday, at the Harvard Square theatre, I saw rock ‘n’ roll past flash before my eyes,” Jon Landau once wrote. He had been trying – and failing – to write music himself and was growing weary in his role as a critic, so he went to a gig searching out inspiration. “And I saw something else: I saw rock and roll future and its name is Bruce Springsteen,” he went on. “And on a night when I needed to feel young, he made me feel like I was hearing music for the very first time”. Landau soon became Springsteen’s manager, and the rest is history.

History is a pertinent term because Todd Rundgren thought Springsteen represented music’s death by “nostalgia“. As he explained: “Even though Bruce Springsteen would represent them as still being real, the iconography was still out of the ’50s, you know? It was switchblades and leather jackets and motorcycles and that sort of junk“.

The producer wasn’t impressed by what he saw as pantomime rather than invention. “It was also so annoying to me personally that Bruce Springsteen was being declared the saviour of rock and roll,“ he told Billboard. “You know, he was on the cover of Time magazine, and I thought, ‘this music is going nowhere’. He may represent the image that people want, but from a musical standpoint, it’s going backwards“.

Kanye West

The wheels have finally come off the Kanye West rollercoaster. In truth, it was a wild ride that had been tempting this crashing fate for a farcical eternity. After years of portents, it would seem that Donda was the tipping point when ‘antics’ overtook artistry – they’ve been growing more nettlesome ever since. Music legend Todd Rundgren was brought in as a producer for the ill-fated album, and he offered a clear warning about the waning ways of the wayward Mr West from his besieged spot behind the mixing desk. 

“There is so much junk on there,” Rundgren scathingly told Ultimate Classic Rock at the time, “I have three albums worth of Kanye stems on my computer. Because I kept getting called by Kanye to add vocals onto the record.” This slew of trash began to pile up in Rundgren’s inbox as West frantically threw the kitchen sink at the project, and this time, possibly not in the proverbial sense. Rundgren is a man who craves refinement in music, and he was far from impressed by this slapdash nonsense.

In the esteemed producer’s view, he was just continually gunning to outdo himself, and ultimately, this had very little to do with artistic integrity. As Rundgren concluded, “he’s a shoe designer… He’s just a dilettante at this point. Nobody would regularly make records like that unless they had stupid money to throw around.” His opinion hasn’t softened since, feeling that West has fallen off the map entirely.

Robbie Robertson

The late Robbie Robertson is widely revered as one of the greatest men in music, but as has well and truly been established, Rundgren has no time for the token tag of being a ‘hero’. In fairness, once again, this is based on intense first-hand experience. In 1970, hot on the heels of the dissolution of Nazz, Rundgren proved his chops by producing The Band’s 1970 record, Stage Fright.

He was young, a fair bit younger than most of The Band, and that led to a few friendly scrapes with the well-travelled group. Without realising that Garth Hudson had narcolepsy, he would joke that he was an “old man” who couldn’t stay awake to finish the session. But by and large, the notoriously humble Band took these quips as well-meaning jokes, and a friendship blossomed.

However, Rundgren recently clarified that this didn’t apply to all of them. “In later years they all became my friends except Robbie Robertson,” Rundgren told the Guardian, “who was kind of a snob.” So, while he kept in touch with the others, he decided to cut ties with Robertson for good.

Rock Hall

True to type, this aversion to iconography also means that Rundgren also takes issue with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – perhaps rightly so. While some might point to the fact that he isn’t in it as proof that he’s just being a sourpuss, he rather believably asserts, “I really don’t care.” Continuing, “This is an institution that arose within my lifetime. It doesn’t have the same cache as a Nobel Peace Prize or some historical foundation.” 

But it’s not just the lack of longevity that he takes issue with – after all, rock ‘n’ roll is a relatively new facet of art – it’s also the cynical, corporate mechanics of the whole thing. “If I told you about how they actually determine who gets into the Hall of Fame, you’d think that I was bullshitting you, because I’ve been told what’s involved,” he said. “It has to do with who’s in already. Who’s in already carries a lot of weight when it comes to who gets in.”

While for a man who doesn’t care about being included, he certainly knows a lot about it, he continues, “It’s very weird. All it takes is one veto from one person who’s got a bug up their ass about a certain artist, so that artist is never getting in as long as that person is a voting board member. It’s just as corrupt as anything else, and that’s why I don’t care.”