The Utopia lineup kept changing, and by 1976 it was down to a foursome: Rundgren, Powell, Wilcox and Siegler. Keyboardist Roger Powell had a thriving career with ARP Synthesisers, and had already released a solo album of his own ( Cosmic Furnace see sidebar) before joining Utopia. He suggests that “prog is a much more organized version of where jazz came from.” Though his work with Hall & Oates and Midler was pop- and rock-oriented, Wilcox transitioned easily into the Utopia repertoire. “I ended up joining Utopia while I was playing in Bette Midler’s show,” Wilcox says. After touring in support of War Babies, Wilcox met John Siegler, then the bassist in Utopia. The Hall & Oates session was Wilcox’s first time in the recording studio. By the time of Utopia’s live second album, M Frog and drummer Ellman were gone, replaced by synthesiser virtuoso Roger Powell and John “Willie” Wilcox, a drummer Rundgren met during his production sessions for Hall & Oates’ 1974 LP War Babies. Rundgren continued with his solo career, releasing two more albums: the double-LP Todd (1974) and 1975’s Initiation both bore the influence of Rundgren’s progressive leanings – and included some of the same musicians – blurring the line between his solo work and Utopia. The whole of Side Two was taken up by the epic, 30-minute prog extravaganza The Ikon. “I felt like I was sort of losing my chops, so I formed Utopia as a way to get myself more in shape as a guitar player.” The six-man Utopia took to the road, and released its debut record, featuring a live version of Utopia Theme. On songwriting, which was a product of working with a piano as opposed to a guitar,” he says. Rundgren says that with Utopia, he hoped to concentrate on his guitar playing. He readily acknowledges the influence of Mahavishnu Orchestra, Return To Forever, and Weather Report. Prog rock had yet to be recognised as an actual genre, but there was obviously something happening with bands doing extended, less pop-oriented music.” “There weren’t really a lot of labels yet. “We were all fascinated with fusion,” Rundgren says.
Utopia band 1984 plus#
“The concept was just kind of mothballed,” Rundgren says, “until I decided to revive it with musicians I had been working with in the studio.” Rundgren reconstituted the band, bringing back M Frog (born Jean-Yves Labat), adding three New York musicians who had played on A Wizard/A True Star (Moogy Klingman, John Siegler and Ralph Shuckett), plus former Bette Midler drummer Kevin Ellman. The other thing was that we were a little overly ambitious in terms of the production technical issues prevented us from doing things the way that we hoped to do them.” That embryonic lineup splintered before ever recording, but audience tapes captured the group live at a college in New York, debuting material including the band’s anthem, Utopia Theme. “We went out on tour with a grand concept,” Rundgren recalls, “but no product to promote, nothing that remained after we did it.” He says that part of Utopia Mk I’s failure was due to “not having a record out to kind of signify that this was a lineup. Initially, Utopia featured Rundgren on double-neck guitar, two keyboardists (an unknown Florida musician named David Mason, and a French synthesiser wizard calling himself M Frog Labat), and the rhythm section that had backed Rundgren on his first two solo LPs: brothers Hunt and Tony Sales on drums and double-neck bass, respectively.
Rundgren’s fascination with the progressive and fusion territory being explored by artists like John McLaughlin and Frank Zappa’s Mothers led him to create a prog band of his own. AWATS also found Rundgren indulging his love of ambitious, complicated progressive rock. While the LP contained occasional flashes of Rundgren’s pure pop sensibility and love of Philadelphia soul, it also featured oddities like a cover of The Capitols’ 1966 hit Cool Jerk, re-imagined in the decidedly non-danceable 7/8 time signature. That next album would be the dense, late-psychedelic opus A Wizard, A True Star. Instead of crafting an ear-candy follow-up, he instead followed on upon the album’s more ambitious works such as The Night The Carousel Burned Down. On the heels of his critically-acclaimed 1972 2LP Something/Anything? Rundgren seemed determined to confound fans and critics alike who loved On the eve of the tour, guitarist Rundgren, bassist Kasim Sulton and drummer Willie Wilcox took the opportunity to look back on Utopia’s history.īy 1973, studio wunderkind Todd Rundgren’s creative impulses were pushing him in a variety of directions. In 2018, Todd Rundgren’s Utopia embarked on a two-month tour, one that would survey the band’s musical journey from a groundbreaking progressive ensemble to a more conventional (yet distinctive) melodic rock band.
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