Love is the Answer: Friday Music Collects “The Complete Todd Rundgren + Utopia: 1974-1982” On New Box Set, Coincides with Reunion Tour

February 22, 2018 By Joe Marchese — 1 Comment
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Friday Music is traveling The Road to Utopia with an upcoming 7-CD box set from Todd Rundgren’s progressive band.  The April 20 release of The Road to Utopia: The Complete Recordings 1974-1982 will coincide with the long-awaited reunion tour of Rundgren, Kasim Sulton (who toured with his own iteration of Utopia earlier this year), Willie Wilcox, and Ralph Schuckett which kicks off this April and runs through June.

The new box set will trace Utopia’s evolution from its 1974 debut album – featuring the Mark II line-up (Mk. I was a short-lived touring unit) of Kevin Ellman (drums), Moogy Klingman (keyboards), Jean-Yves “M. Frog” Labat (synthesizers), Ralph Schuckett (keyboards) and John Siegler (bass/cello) – through 1982’s Swing to the Right, the fifth and final Bearsville album from the “classic” line-up of Rundgren, Roger Powell, Wilcox, and Sulton.  Across seven albums, all of which have been expanded with bonus tracks, the band synthesized influences as disparate as prog rock, jazz fusion, pop, new wave, and even The British Invasion.  From the 30-minute opus “The Ikon” to the pop classic “Love is the Answer” and the spot-on, slightly naughty Beatles pastiche “I Just Want to Touch You,” Rundgren’s Utopia refused to be musically pigeonholed.

Friday’s box set has all six of the band’s studio and live albums as originally released between 1974 and 1982 as newly remastered by the label’s Joe Reagoso from the Warner/Bearsville tapes.  Each album will be housed in an individual gatefold digipak with original art elements from each LP including inner sleeves and inserts.  Rundgren, Sulton, Wilcox, and Powell have all made written contributions to this set, as well.  Fifteen bonus tracks are spread across the seven albums, including live performances, promotional single versions, and more.

Following the period chronicled in the new box, the band recorded three more albums for the Network and Passport labels between 1982 and 1985.  Numerous compilations and archival releases have celebrated Utopia in recent years (including a “lost” album, 1976’s Disco Jets) but The Road to Utopia has all of the band’s music as originally released during the period covered.

The 2018 reunion tour will likely touch on various eras of the group’s long history; Schuckett was part of the first 1974-1975 line-up, while Sulton has recurred in the band over the years: 1976-1982, 1982-1986, and 1992.  Wilcox was a member between 1975 and 1986, and joined again for the 1992 reunion.  The tour will kick off in Pennsylvania on April 18 and will wrap up on June 5 in California.

You can peruse the track listing below.  The Road to Utopia: The Complete Recordings 1974-1982 is due from Friday Music on April 20.

Utopia, The Road to Utopia: The Complete Recordings 1974-1982 (Friday Music, 2018) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Link TBD)

CD 1: Todd Rundgren’s Utopia (Bearsville BR 6954, 1974)

  1. Utopia
  2. Freak Parade
  3. Freedom Fighters
  4. The Ikon
  5. Do Ya (Live at St. Louis, MI 11/9/74) (*)

CD 2: Another Live (Bearsville BR 6961, 1975)

  1. Another Life
  2. The Wheel
  3. The Seven Rays
  4. Intro / Mister Triscuits
  5. Something’s Coming
  6. Heavy Metal Kids
  7. Do Ya
  8. Just One Victory
  9. Open My Eyes (Live in Cape Cod, MA 8/23/75) (*)

CD 3: Ra (Bearsville 6965, 1977)

  1. Overture (Instrumental)
  2. Communion With The Sun
  3. Magic Dragon Theatre
  4. Jealousy
  5. Eternal Love
  6. Sunburst Finish
  7. Hiroshima
  8. Singring And The Glass Guitar (An Electrified Fairytale)
  9. Communion With The Sun (promo single mix) (Bearsville BSS 0317, 1977) (*)

 CD 4: Oops! Wrong Planet (Bearsville BR 6970, 1977)

  1. Trapped
  2. Windows
  3. Love In Action
  4. Crazy Lady Blue
  5. Back On The Street
  6. The Marriage Of Heaven And Hell
  7. The Martyr
  8. Abandon City
  9. Gangrene
  10. My Angel
  11. Rape Of The Young
  12. Love Is The Answer
  13. Love Is The Answer (promo single mix) (Bearsville BSS 0321, 1977) (*)

 

CD 5: Adventures in Utopia (Bearsville BRK 6991, 1980)

  1. The Road To Utopia
  2. You Make Me Crazy
  3. Second Nature
  4. Set Me Free
  5. Caravan
  6. The Last Of The New Wave Riders
  7. Shot In The Dark
  8. The Very Last Time
  9. Love Alone
  10. Rock Love
  11. Umbrella Man (B-side of “Set Me Free”) (Bearsville BSS 49180, 1980) (*)
  12. Set Me Free (promo single mix) (Bearsville BSS 49180, 1980) (*)
  13. Second Nature (promo single mix) (Bearsville BSS 49545, 1980) (*)
  14. The Very Last Time (promo single mix) (Bearsville BSS 49247, 1980) (*)
  15. Anyhow Anyway Anywhere (Live in Syracuse, NY 11/16/79) (*)
  16. 96 Tears (Live in Syracuse, NY 11/16/79) (*)
  17. Just One Victory (Live in Syracuse, NY 11/16/79) (*)

CD 6: Deface the Music (Bearsville BRK 3487, 1980)

  1. I Just Want To Touch You
  2. Crystal Ball
  3. Where Does The World Go To Hide
  4. Silly Boy
  5. Alone
  6. That’s Not Right
  7. Take It Home
  8. Hoi Poloi
  9. Life Goes On
  10. Feel Too Good
  11. Always Late
  12. All Smiles
  13. Everybody Else Is Wrong
  14. I Just Want To Touch You (promo single mix) (Bearsville BSS 49579, 1980) (*)

CD 7: Swing to the Right (Bearsville BRK 3666, 1982)

  1. Swing To The Right
  2. Lysistrata
  3. The Up
  4. Junk Rock (Million Monkeys)
  5. Shinola
  6. For The Love Of Money
  7. Last Dollar On Earth
  8. Fahrenheit 451
  9. Only Human
  10. One World
  11. Special Interest (B-side of” One World”) (Bearsville BSS 50062, 1982) (*)
  12. Lysistrata (promo single mix) (Bearsville 7-29947, 1982) (*)
  13. One World (promo single mix) (Bearsville BSS 50062, 1982) (*)

(*) denotes bonus tracks

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Joe Marchese
Joe Marchese

JOE MARCHESE (Editor) joined The Second Disc shortly after its launch in early 2010, and has since penned daily news and reviews about classic music of all genres. In 2015, Joe formed the Second Disc Records label. Celebrating the great songwriters, producers and artists who created the sound of American popular song and beyond, Second Disc Records, in conjunction with labels including Real Gone Music and Cherry Red Records, has released newly-curated collections produced and annotated by Joe from iconic artists such as Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross and The Supremes, Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, The Spinners, Johnny Mathis, Bobby Darin, Meat Loaf, Laura Nyro, Melissa Manchester, Liza Minnelli, Darlene Love, Al Stewart, Michael Nesmith, and many others.

Joe has written liner notes, produced, or contributed to over 200 reissues from a diverse array of artists, among them America, JD Souther, Nat "King" Cole, Paul Williams, Lesley Gore, Dusty Springfield, BJ Thomas, The 5th Dimension, Burt Bacharach, The Mamas and the Papas, Carpenters, Perry Como, Rod McKuen, Doris Day, Jackie DeShannon, Petula Clark, Robert Goulet, and Andy Williams.

Over the past two decades, Joe has also worked in a variety of capacities on and off Broadway as well as at some of the premier theatres in the U.S., including Lincoln Center Theater, George Street Playhouse, Paper Mill Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, and the York Theatre Company. He has felt privileged to work on productions alongside artists such as the late Jack Klugman, Eli Wallach, Arthur Laurents, Betty Comden and Adolph Green. In 2009, Joe began contributing theatre and music reviews to the print publication The Sondheim Review, and in 2012, he joined the staff of The Digital Bits as a regular contributor writing about film and television on DVD and Blu-ray.

Joe currently resides in the suburbs of New York City.

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1 thought on “Love is the Answer: Friday Music Collects “The Complete Todd Rundgren + Utopia: 1974-1982” On New Box Set, Coincides with Reunion Tour”

  1. Philip

    Amazon in the UK tells you to follow a link to sellers (asking £57) then tells you there are no sellers…..

    Reply

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