Todd Rundgren brings his Still Me (Still We) tour to Artpark’s Mainstage Theater on July 3. The Rock Hall inductee and prolific record producer’s backing band includes bassist and longtime collaborator Kasim Sulton from Utopia, drummer extraordinaire Prairie Prince of The Tubes, multi-instrumentalist Bobby Strickland, and keyboardist Gil Assayas.
The show’s setlist, a continuation of last year’s successful Me/We tour, draws from 15 of Rundgren’s albums and includes some deep cuts along with fan favorites.
“I don’t have a new album to promote, so anything that I do is going to be substantially retrospective in one way or another. This combination of songs and the way they are put together has a certain cohesion, and it takes people on a journey of moods and thoughts. I’m not done with it, and we’re still enjoying playing it,” Rundgren said during a recent interview.
One of the songs that has been a consistent part of Rundgren’s live shows is “Buffalo Grass,” from his 2000 release “One Long Year,” a compilation of songs released on Rundgren’s PatroNet platform, which he revived recently and renamed Global Nation.
Even though Rundgren has performed at a multitude of Buffalo area venues over the years, the song has nothing to do with the Queen City.
The song ‘Buffalo Grass’ is a prime example of Rundgren’s unique songwriting process. He explains, ‘I don’t know how it got the name Buffalo grass, but it’s a type of grass that grows out of control. We bought this piece of property (in Hawaii), but we hadn’t built on it, and I wanted to maintain it. So, I would come out and mow essentially two acres of property, just mowing down this grass, this, this really thick, wild grass. And this song is going on in my head while I’m mowing the lawn.’
Fans of Todd’s music shouldn’t be surprised that he found inspiration in something as simple as cutting the lawn and made it into a compelling song. Rundgren is also quick to note that he hasn’t written a traditional love song in decades.
“My early songs were not necessarily a pre-ordained formula, but when you start out, you write what you know, so most people start out writing love songs. And you can use the term loosely; it can mean anything in the context of the song, from puppy love to something deeper.”
Rundgren’s 1972 double album, ‘Something/Anything?’ was a massive success, but instead of capitalizing on this, Rundgren chose to change his songwriting philosophy completely. This shift led to the groundbreaking follow-up, ‘A Wizard a True Star.’
“It was around then that I realized that I had other things in my head, and I had just ignored them when it came to songwriting. Then I thought, why not pay attention to those, and then that’s when ‘Wizard a True Star’ happened.”
“Everything went out the window, and at that point, I also resolved — I did make a hard and fast rule, and I can’t remember when it took full effect — still, I resolved not to use the word ‘love’ in a song unless I was being particular about something. So I could write a song called ‘Love is the Answer,’ but I never wrote any songs that were talking about how much I loved somebody, you know, or something like that. “
That has resulted in some people misinterpreting the meaning of some of Todd’s songs, including “Beginning of the End,” which he recorded with John Boutté on Rundgren’s 2017 release “White Knight.”
“At a certain point, John started ad libbing stuff as if it was about someone who had left him, a romantic disaster of some kind, and I thought I said, “No, no, John, this song is about addiction. So, he had to look at the song differently, and any ad libs that came after that suddenly had a completely different meaning.”
Concerning future projects, Rundgren noted that he will be releasing new music and unreleased archival material on the subscription-based Global Nation.