The Todd Rundgren Interview

He takes swings at not only Taylor Swift, but Paul McCartney! Beck has a new album, I see the press everywhere. About an old girlfriend, a return to form...can't say I read any of them, for numerous reasons. First, I loved "Loser," an iconic number, nothing else Beck has done has been in the league of his initial hit. I mean if this is a major artist, who are the Beatles? Remember when stars walked the earth? They keep telling us today's acts are in the same league, but nothing could be further from the truth. But it's more than that, these articles are pure hype. Trying to convince us the latest work deserves our attention, that we should listen to it, believing if we see enough stories we'll think something is happening here, even if it is not exactly clear, and then like lemmings, we'll follow the bread crumbs to it. Assuming you think print means anything anyway. Even mainstream stuff online. We're overwhelmed, we do not want to waste our time on fluff, we're immune. And then comes this Todd Rundgren interview. I read about it on Twitter, now called X. There was some headline, not from "Vulture," the "New York" magazine section where the interview appeared, but some other source. If you're hyping yourself... You don't know how bad you look. Whenever someone's name is in the paper, they spam everybody they know to alert them to it. Cracks me up. Is this how desperate for attention you are, is this how insecure you are, that you need to be anointed by others in order to believe your life works? I mean if I'm on TV saying something interesting or funny, I'll let you know, but every time I'm in the news...I'm not that desperate. And I'm a Todd fan, so I click through. Now the funny thing is this interview/story has now been spread amongst all the other music sites, from Pitchfork to Consequence of Sound to NME...it's endless, they've got brain dead workers (they can't get anybody good, the pay is so bad), just plucking headlines from somewhere else hoping for clicks. And you wonder why the music press is derided. And in this case, you can go to the source. Then again, can you? The article is kind of behind a paywall, as in you have to register to read it for free. Assuming you do not subscribe to Apple News+. Now 60% of Americans use iOS, i.e. use iPhones, so they have access to Apple News, and they should sign up for +, for only $12.99 a month. You can read some articles for free, but I don't know what you can and cannot, but pound for pound, dollar for dollar, this is your best news investment period, even includes the "Wall Street Journal" and the "Washington Post" along with many other newspapers and magazines. In any event, here is the article: "The Wizard of Rock Would Like a Word - 'The biggest artists in the world are female,' Todd Rundgren observes, 'and that’s because of video games.'" https://apple.news/AtQKnT2jGR6-5O6_Bd66PCQ https://www.vulture.com/article/todd-rundgren-has-seen-everything.html Yes, Todd posits music is female-dominated because boys are too busy playing video games. I'm not sure if this is true, but it's an interesting theory, one worthy of debate, as opposed to the fluff in most interviews about acts' significant others and clothing. But there is that swing at Taylor Swift. "Taylor Swift, of course. There’s an argument to be made that she ruined music. It’s an understandable phenomenon. It’s just that, to me, Taylor Swift is the apotheosis of mediocrity." YOU CAN'T SAY THAT! There's some criticism of the four tracks Swift just added to her "Showgirls" album to increase its Grammy possibilities, but the media has agreed that Swift is an icon, deserving of 24/7 coverage, and if you say anything negative you're a mean hater who deserves to be driven back into the hole you climbed out of. Todd does praise Gaga as being a real musician, but then he sticks the knife in Swift's heart: "Taylor Swift doesn’t do anything particularly great except grow hair. She’s not a great singer. She’s not a great songwriter. She’s not a great dancer. She’s a role model for what was a very young generation of women, and now for those women’s daughters as well, because it’s mothers and daughters going to Taylor Swift shows." Chew on that as you see Swift cheer on her husband Travis Kelce from the skybox, finally able to be the cheer captain that she always dreamed of being. Then there's "Sir Paul." Why people insist on using the "Sir"...if John Lennon were alive, he'd be puking. Anyway, Todd says: "Paul McCartney, even today, is so afraid that people forget who he is that he’ll show up at a mall opening." This is sacrilegious! Paul is off limits, he's a Beatle! But it's true, McCartney even appeared on Chicken Shop Date to try and promote his last album. Did this even move the needle? Just because you can do it, that doesn't mean you should. And there's a lot of other meat on the bone in this interview. Makes for fascinating reading. Todd's got a personality, but not an agenda. He's not a rapper in a pissing match. These are his real opinions, ask him and he's going to tell you. HOW REFRESHING! 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