The MARK’S VINTAGE VINYL page features something from Mark’s collection of recordings from over the years. Most of it is on vinyl – hence the name – though there will be a few entries from his CDs (remember those?).
Healing, by Todd Rundgren
- Ninth studio album by Todd Rundgren, released in 1981.
- I discovered Rundgren in college, and got way into his early music, including his work as frontman for the band Utopia. By the time the Healing album came out, he had evolved from a pop musician to an alt/art rocker.
- In addition to the 9 tracks on the album, it came with a bonus 7 inch 33 rpm single with an A and B side. Side A was released as a single – Time Heals made it all the way to #107 on the Pop Singles chart, and #18 on the Mainstream Rock chart. Its most notable distinction is that the video to the song was eighth video ever shown on MTV, on August 1, 1981. I guess the video didn’t do much to drive record sales.
- Rundgren has released 26 solo studio albums, with another reportedly due to be released in 2021, his seventh decade in the business. I own the first 10 of them on vinyl – pretty good, since I haven’t been buying vinyl since the mid-80s. Healing is my favorite – certainly not his most acclaimed, but when it came out I liked its art rock about the human condition. As it was with many of his albums, he did it all – songwriter, producer, engineer, and he played all of the instruments on the album.
- Not surprising that he had a video before hardly anyone had a video. He’s always been known for innovation – one of the first to use computers in music production, and one of the first to use the internet to distribute music. Here’s the video to Time Heals.