1982 saw the release of The Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect album as well as the broadcast of the documentary of the same name. The documentary was filmed for UK Televisions Channel 4 and compiled and written by Todd, with interview footage and song visuals that illustrated Todd's career and personal life until this point. The album was very much a straight forward rock album and contained 'Bang the Drum All Day' - a popular hit for Todd and a song still played at concerts.
Credits:
Produced, engineered and performed by Todd Rundgren for Alchemedia Productions, Inc.
All songs by Todd Rundgren 1982 Humanoid Music/Fiction Music, Inc. BMI. All rights recerved. Used by permission. Except "Tin Soldier" by Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane. Published by Unart Music Corporation BMI.
Recroded at Utopia Sound Studios
Additional Engineering and Reproduction by Bean
Originally Mastered at Sterling Sound by Greg Calbi
Art Direction/Desing: Todd Rundgren
Titl Graphics: Jane Millet
Track Listing:
Discography:
LABEL Cat.
No Tracks/Title Format Cover Country
Bearsville 29686 Bang the drum all day/Chant 7"
single No PS USA
Bearsville 29759 Hideaway/Emporer of the highway 7"
Single No PS USA
Bearsville R7-74426 Bang the drum all day/Can we still be
friends 7" single No PS USA
Lamborgini LMG1 Band the Drum all day/Drive 7"
single PS UK
Lamborgini LMGLP2000 The Ever Popular Tortured Artist
Effect Album Standard UK
Bearsville 23732 The Ever Popular Tortured Artist
Effect Album Standard USA
Lyrics:
Influenza
Don't Hurt yourself
There Goes Your Baybay
Tin Soldier
Bang the Drum All Day
Drive
Chant
Hideaway
I've been watching how you dance
Watching how you smile
Watching how you carry yourself around in a crowd
And watching what you say
You've got something that's a secret to the average eye
You've been saving something nobody's seen until now
In a hideaway
I'm not trying to invade your privacy
There are things you have a right to hide
But it's oh so cold
Standing on the outside
Will you take me to your secret hideaway
I won't tell nobody where I'm going
Won't you tell me that we're leaving right away
For the heart of your hideaway
Everybody's looking for a heaven on earth
A slice of paradise where nobody gets hurt
Someone to put the pieces back together again
When your daydreams die
Are you trying to get a message through the air to me?
Get me on your wavelength and tell me which way to go
To your hideaway
I can't stand another second in this tinker-toy world
Give me your direction
Don't make me wait anymore
It seems so far away
You can trust me with your secret fantasy
You will never know until you've tried
But it's oh so cold
Standing on the outside
I've been trying to get a message
Through the air to you
Get on my wavelength
And I'll tell you which way to go
To my hideaway
I will show you to my secret hideaway
We will tell nobody where we're going
I can feel, I can tell
I can feel, I can tell, I can see
Something is changing
To me change is no stranger
I don't run, I don't hide
I don't run, I don't hide, I don't fight
What fate arranges
I don't think about danger
If it was meant for me
I'd know just where to go
But if I can take it slow
Then I might be in control
In the back of my head
In the back of my head there is doubt
There is suspicion
With my new fascination
I don't know what it is
I don't know what it is, you might say
It's intuition
It's a true indication
I should trust myself
I should beware of this
But it's like a stranger's kiss
And somehow I can't resist
I can feel my will slip away
From a strange influenza
I can feel my mind slip away
Under your influenza
I can feel my heart slip away
Under your influenza
There's a part of my heart
There's a part of my heart that cries out
Please go no further
I just can't take the pressure
So I try to resist
So I try to resist and my heart
Tells me don't bother
That this pain is a pleasure
If I were someone else
I wouldn't disagree
But it's always hard to see
When something's controlling me
I've done some bad things
This I know
If I can't change things
Tell me so
It does no good to break your toe on the wall
I know you're angry
That's all right
I said I don't care
Well, I lied
But I don't care who wins the fight after all
As long as you don't hurt yourself
Don't hurt yourself
It's bad enough
Don't hurt yourself
I wouldn't want to see you make
Trouble for yourself over
My mistake
That's all I'm asking so
Don't Hurt Yourself
I don't want to see you hurt
Hurt a single second for me
You burn your bridges
When you're cross
There's nothing left when
You cool off
You can't go back so
Now you're lost like a rolling stone
It seems like trouble
So you hide
You keep it bottled up inside
'Til its too late and
You end up crying alone
And there you go
Your ship is sinking in a swirling sea
The water's rising up around your knees
Let's pop the question
Is it time to leave?
You say maybe
You're at the bottom of an avalanche
A swift departure is your only chance
You say it doesn't make a difference 'cause
There goes your baybay
There goes your baybay
There goes your baybay
You never thought you'd see her
Walking away
There goes your baybay
There goes your baybay
There goes your baybay
You never thought that it would
Affect you this way
The Market's closing and the bulls and bears
Are falling out of windows everywhere
You've got it covered and you just don't care
Yeah, it's crazy
You made some clever moves in real estate
It's caviar upon a golden plate
Until you're throttled by the hand of fate
There goes your baybay
You know I've seen it happen all the time
You get too far above the bottom line
One day you're sure that everything is fine
Then the next day you see
I stand behind every word I said
It takes a special thing to make her stay
And I was convinced that I had found a way
Now I can't believe it's happened to me
'Cause there goes my baybay
I am a little tin soldier
That wants to jump into your fire
You, are a look in your eye
A dream passing by in the sky
But I don't understand
And all I need is treat me like a man
'Cause I ain't no child
Take me like I am
I got the love that belongs to you
Do anything that you want me to
Sing any song that you want me to
Sing to you
I don't need no aggravation
Listen, I just got to make you
I just got to make you
I just got to make you understand
All I need is your whispered hello
Smiles melting the snow with one word
Your eyes, they are deeper than time
Say love that won't die without words
So now I've lost my way
I need help to show me things to say
So give me your love
Before I fade away
I just want some reaction
Something to give me satisfaction
[...] to be with you
'Cause I love you
Emporer of the Highway
I am the Emperor of the Highway
I wield the Universal Will
One might chance to overlook on my Divineness
Unless I'm sitting in the Imperial Poupe de Ville
I am the Emperor of the Highway
Strapped with foolish mortals such as these
I need never indicate my intentions
I can stop and go and turn just as I please
For I am the Emperor of the Highway
Hold!
Methinks that thou hast driven too far
I am the Royal Prince of Foreign Sports Cars
Better that I should drive a wheelchair or jog
Than to be blown off by a Regal Road Hog
I am the Emperor of the Highway
(Where did you ever get that gas sucking pig of a car?)
This time my friend, you are outclassed
(Any real man would drive a stick shift)
For my uncle is the Duke of the State Police
(Cut me off again and I will punch your lights out)
And he will place his Royal Boot upon your Ass
(This is my exit, we shall meet another day)
Don't forget who's Emperor of the Highway
For I am the Emperor of the Highway!
I don't want to work
I want to bang on the drum all day
I don't want to play
I just want to bang on the drum all day
Ever since I was a tiny boy
I don't want no candy
I don't need no toy
I took a stick and an old coffee can
I bang on that thing 'til I got
Blisters on my hand because
When I get older they think I'm a fool
The teacher told me I should stay after school
She caught me pounding on the desk with my hands
But my licks was so hot
I made the teacher wanna dance
And that's why
Listen to this
Every day when I get home from work
I feel so frustrated
The boss is a jerk
And I get my sticks and go out to the shed
And I pound on that drum like it was the boss's head
Because
I can bang that drum
Hey, you wanna take a bang at it?
I can do this all day
I'm bleeding
I don't think I can go on
I'm dying
My last breath has come and gone
Pity the man
Searching in the sky
Looking for a sign from above
And he never caught a glimpse of
What he's worthy of
Don't sit and wait
For the world on a plate
It's not a stroke of luck or chance
Just draw a bead on that sucker
And drive
I'm falling
I don't know what's up or down
I'm spinning
I can't turn my life around
Pity the man
Waiting for a clue
Can't tell what to do with himself
Ends up as a fool who
Lives for someone else
Don't sit and cry
While the world passes by
Stop tagging after the other guy
Just get a line on that mother
And drive
We can't turn back the clock
But we can chant for love
Let's cut the idle talk so we can
Chant for love
We always have the time to quarrel
About such problems as money and war
Let's put it off until tomorrow
Who needs another dose of sorrow?
It don't necessitate an act of faith
To chant for love
What alibi is strong enough to wait
To chant for love
Though we don't hold the reigns of power
Somebody else seems to be in control
We mustn't waste another hour
We'll get directly to the soul
If we can
Chant
For a world united
Chant
For a world that's dying for love
The Hare Krishna plays a drum and bell
When he chants for love
The tribal priest is afraid of hell
So he chants for love
I am not pushing some religion
Don't get me wrong,
I never mess with such things
Just be true to your own vision
This is your personal decision
The Dervish spins to a "Hu Hu Hu"
When he chants for love
Nobody knows what the angels do
When they chant for love
You're at the bottom of the ladder
Someone may try to tell you where you should start
But the words, they never matter
If you can feel it in your heart
Then you can
Why don't you chant?
You can chant
Chant, chant, chant ...
Promotional Videos:
Suggested Reading:
