10/28/10
Todd spoke on the Beatles effect on the following things: hair, fashion, media, politics, drugs and religion.
Hair
- Todd hated haircuts, even as a child.
- The first thing he noticed about the Beatles was their hair.
- He was rooting for the Beatles to be successful largely because of their hair and his affinity for long hair.
- Todd had few goals as a young person but long hair was one of them.
- Juergen Vollmer gave the Beatles their signature hair idea.
- Todd got a haircut for HS at the insistence of his father; his parents did not even attend his HS graduation, he was pissed.
Fashion
- Todd had to go to London once a year to buy his clothes, there was nowhere in the US to get clothes he wanted.
- People often thought he was English due to the clothing he wore.
- Granny Takes a Trip was where TR bought clothes.
Media
- Todd talked about the Beatles being bigger than Jesus, what they were trying to say.
Politics
- The Beatles greatly threatened the status quo.
- Long hair meant harassment. Todd talked about how the police would haul longhairs to the station and make fun on them.
Drugs
- The Beatles were a drug band from the start.
- The Beatles openly smoked cigarettes and liked rum and coke.
- Lennon first smoked pot when he met Bob Dylan.
- Definitely believes Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds is a LSD song.
- In order to fully appreciate Sgt. Peppers it is said you must be on acid.
- Todd has never listened to Sgt. Peppers on acid.
- Close to the Edge by Yes was the first album he listened to on acid.
- During this time the music shifted from the single to the album concept.
Religion
- Keep it to yourself is the English way.
- Talked about the Maharishi Yogi and how the Beatles were first fascinated and then saw him as a huckster.
- Sexy Sadie was written about the Maharishi and made fun of him.
- Todd was always very suspicious of the Yogi thing - he was very agnostic during this time.
Q&A session
- Todd talked about Burton Cummings and how he licked the microphone on the All Starr tour.
- On the All Starr tour there were the AA folks and the A folks.
- Jimmy Page is one of Todd's least favorite guitar players.
- Todd hates country music.
- Paul McCartney has no sense of irony.
- Todd knows Alice Cooper.
- The movie Roadie was the source of the Deface the Music album. Todd was asked to produce the soundtrack by Alice. Also asked to do a Utopia song for it. Utopia wrote and played I Just Want To Touch You. Feedback was negative...sounded too much like the Beatles....so Todd said, hell, we will do a whole album like this, maybe we will get some attention from it.
- Although the technology was available to record 24 tracks, Deface the Music only used 4 tracks to record to give it as close to a sound as possible to the Beatles.
- Todd has dabbled in cover art. He lamented the end of the album and album art. CD is too small for this.
- Todd's father was a draftsman and painter and was very skilled. Todd did not have a good relationship with his Dad until his later years.
- Todd painted the cover of Meet the Beatles exactly except that he had blood coming out of Ringo's nose.
- George Martin re-defined what a producer did with a record. Originally, they only concerned themselves with budget.
- The Beatles changed a lot of stuff in the studio as they played all instruments.
- Todd talked about publishing and writers credits.
I was so enamored with a lot of his stuff that I did not write it all down. But this captures the gist of it.
It was a fantastic night. Todd talked for over 2 hours and stayed afterwards until everything was signed and every photo taken. He is such a gifted, witty and gracious person. Thanks Todd! And thank you Gordon and IU for arranging for all of us to be with Professor Todd Rundgren.
