8/6/2023 0 Comments Utopia band 1984![]() Part of the problem was that Utopia's sound had progressed, but its glossy arena rock was no longer contemporary. Oblivion performed respectably in the charts, peaking at number 74, but the following year its follow-up, POV, tanked, reaching only number 161. Their first album for the label was titled Oblivion, released in January 1984. They settled with another new label, Passport. Unfortunately, the label folded the following year, which meant Utopia had to find yet another new home. Thanks to the minor hit "Feet Don't Fail Me Now," which received moderate airplay on MTV, the record performed better than its predecessor, peaking at 84 and spending 19 weeks on the charts. Several months later, the group released Utopia. He was able to wrangle Utopia free from the label after Swing to the Right, moving the quartet over to the fledging Network label. Its failure was one of many problems Rundgren had with his longtime label, Bearsville. The record stiffed, failing to crack the Top 100. It was a good, clever record, but it shredded the group's recently expanded audience.įollowing Rundgren's solo 1981 venture, Healing, the group returned in 1982 with Swing to the Right. Utopia quickly followed the record in October with Deface the Music, a devastating satire of the Beatles. On the strength of the Top 30 single "Set Me Free," the album climbed to number 32, spending 21 weeks on the charts. Released in January 1980, Adventures in Utopia brought the band their largest audience to date. ![]() No Rundgren or Utopia records were released in 1979, but the following year found Utopia reaching new heights. Back to the Bars featured both solo and Utopia material. Utopia played on a club tour that resulted in the 1978 solo Rundgren live album Back to the Bars, which appeared after his hit record The Hermit of Mink Hollow. Ra was released early in February 1977 and was followed seven months later by Oops! Wrong Planet, a record that found the quartet abandoning prog for streamlined pop/rock with a hard rock bent. By any measure, Ra, the first album released by the new lineup, was a prog rock record, but it was heavier and less overtly experimental than before. After recording the solo pop album Faithful in 1976, he revamped Utopia, stripping away two of the keyboardists (Klingman and Shuckett), as Elliman and Siegler left. Utopia's live concerts were marked by these improvisatory excursions, yet they were also distinguished by their video backdrops and random, computer-generated music.Īnother Live proved to be the culmination of the synth experiments and, in some ways, the long stretch of willfully difficult records Rundgren was making during the mid-'70s. Mere months later, Utopia released Another Live, a wild live album devoted to long synth experiments, and the band's first release with Roger Powell replacing Labat. Rundgren continued in that direction on his next solo album, Initiation, which was released in spring 1975. Appearing in October 1974, Todd Rundgren's Utopia consisted of only four tracks, all of which were mainly instrumental, and none of which were less than ten minutes apiece. The band's first album was released months after Rundgren's Todd hit the stores. Frog" Labat - a bassist (John Siegler), a percussionist (Kevin Elliman), and a drummer (John "Willie" Wilcox), along with Rundgren on lead guitar. In its original incarnation, the group consisted of three keyboardists - Moogy Klingman, Ralph Shuckett, and Jean Yves "M. At that point, Utopia was over a decade old, which made them something more than a folly, but even hardcore Rundgren fans will admit that it's impossible to view Utopia's career as being completely independent from his own.Īfter all, the band was born out of his desire to experiment with synthesizers and delve into prog rock. And to a certain extent, that was accurate, since the band's musical evolution often mirrored his own - plus, once he decided he had enough of the group in 1985, they ceased to exist. By the early '80s, Utopia had developed into a hitmaking entity in their own right, even if much - if not all - of their audience were simply dedicated Rundgren fans, which highlights the problem with Utopia: although they did develop their own signature sound, they were nevertheless always perceived as Rundgren's folly. Initially, Utopia was a prog rock septet featuring three keyboardists, but as the '70s progressed, the band evolved into a shiny mainstream rock quartet, and Rundgren retreated into the background, as each of his bandmates contributed songs and lead vocals to the albums. He wanted to explore new musical territory instead, and his adventures led him to form Utopia in 1973. Stardom was handed to him with Something/Anything?, but Todd Rundgren rejected it.
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