Piece Description

Jason Wilber hosts this rare interview with the fantastic Todd Rundgren about his life and music. Todd has an enormous and innovative body of work, and has been a prime sculptor of progressive rock and soulful modern songrwriting. This is part one of a two part interview recorded during his visit to Bloomington, Indiana. Todd was selected as the Class of 1963 Wells Scholars Professor at Indiana University Bloomington for the fall of 2010. Rundgren, the ninth instructor in the Wells Scholars Program, taught the middle two weeks of a four-week honors seminar designed for 22 Wells Scholars and Hutton Honors students. The class commenced in late October and finished in mid-November. Co-teaching the class and also interviewed here in our show is IU Professor of Music Glenn Gass -- whose relationship with Rundgren helped make the professorship possible -- and IU Distinguished Professor of Sociology Bernice Pescosolido, who was instrumental in helping to plan the course. This piece can stand alone, and is "EVERGREEN", i.e. the show can be run anytime as the content is not date specific.

Topics discussed include: How Todd's songwriting approach changed after his first record, about the concepts behind his record "Something Anything", writing "I Saw The Light" in 20 minutes, where his inspirations come from, techniques in remembering songs before he can write them down, literally dreaming the song "Bang the Drum All Day", his insights into producing music for other artists, his insights into what makes a great song. Finally, Indiana University Professor Glenn Gass discusses Todd's visit to Indiana University in November of 2010.

Musical selections include: Sometimes I Just Don't Know What To Feel, Does Anybody Love You, I Saw The Light,  I Don't Want to Tie You Down, Bang The Drum All Day, Zen Archer, Pretending to Care, Dogfight Giggle, Just Another Onion Head, Couldn't I Just Tell you?

Also included, a visit from Professor Glenn Gass who hosted Todd's trip to Indiana University, and also weighs in on this amazing musicians life, and gives some insight into Todd Rundgren's historic visit to Indiana University.

For more information, visit In Search of a Song.com