“Didn’t hold up”: Todd Rundgren knew Grand Funk Railroad could never match Cream
Being a producer-for-hire might sound like a wonderful job to have, but at the same time, it means you’ve got to subject yourself to all sorts of music that you might not want to have to listen to, which Todd Rundgren found himself doing plenty of times in the 1970s.
As a solo artist, Rundgren was always free to experiment with whatever he wished, and this led him to creating some of the most bizarre, unorthodox but fascinating art rock records of the decade. It was a freewheeling approach to studio experimentation that always led him towards his most innovative work, but this isn’t always something that you are afforded when you’re set to work alongside others on their records.
As a producer, your freedom becomes significantly more limited, and you’re having to follow the artist’s stylistic choices to a certain degree. Of course, there’s always going to be a little bit of opportunity for you to tell them where they’re going wrong, but if you speak too frequently, you’re likely to get ditched, and this is a fine line that all producers find themselves having to tread across lightly when it comes to working for others.
This ultimately means that you’re going to get stuck with projects that don’t suit you, and this is exactly how Rundgren ended up producing a record for Grand Funk Railroad. The group, at the time of hiring him to produce their seventh studio album, We’re An American Band, consisted of Mark Farner, Craig Frost, Mel Schacher and Don Brewer, were known for their blues-oriented style of rock, but had been given the heads-up that they needed to be making their work more commercially accessible, and sought expertise from a professional.
Having done some work with Sparks (when they were known as Halfnelson), The Band and Badfinger, his reputation was on the rise as a producer, but he was perhaps better known for his own studio albums, having released Something / Anything? in 1972, and the follow-up album, A Wizard, A True Star in 1973. Both sonically and compositionally ambitious albums, Rundgren knew that by working with Grand Funk Railroad, they would require nothing of this nature, and he revealed in a 2009 interview with Classic Rock that it was one of the least taxing jobs he’d ever had.
“We’re An American Band was one of the easiest things I ever did,” he admitted, “It simply required my normal sensibility, particularly because the band was operating with such low expectations. They’d had some great success but they were not well-regarded critically.”
However, despite having an easy ride with the band, he also acknowledged that they weren’t up to par with other bands of the same ilk. “They had a huge live following but were excessively jammy, and if you compared them to real jam bands like Cream they really didn’t hold up,” he noted.
Having taken over their reins of production from their manager, who Rundgren confessed was “terrible at it”, his sole mission was to make a half-decent album and nothing more, simply because expectations were so low. The album itself may have ended up surprising a few listeners and critics, but for Rundgren to insinuate that they weren’t anywhere near the standard of their peers was perhaps a little harsh on a band who ended up releasing six platinum albums.
