Friday 2 December 2011

Dave's 500 Bus Albums No 10 - Todd Rundgren's Utopia "Another Live/More Another Live" (1975)

I first saw the LP "Another Live" in the Grays Record Library about when it was first released. I was incredibly excited because I'd only just discovered Todd and his band Utopia. I'd been attracted by the psychedelic sci-fi design of the first Utopia album, and then captivated by the music. This then was the second Utopia LP I'd ever seen. I took it out, got it home and played it immediately, and it was fantastic. It was a live album (I love live albums) with a close-up grainy picture of Todd's sweaty head on the cover - presumably taken in the throes of some mean guitar solo!

Now years (decades!) later I have the CD, and it's still as good as I remember it. It has a very energetic quality, as if the band are really enjoying themselves, and the whole LP is incredibly upbeat. Also, for a live album it strikes a good balance between old and new material. There's 8 tracks on it, only 2 of which have ever been heard on a Todd album before. Of the rest, 4 are new compositions, and 2 are covers ("Do Ya" by The Move and a rocked-up version of "Something's Coming" from West Side Story). It's also the last time you get to hear the original "Utopia" band, as Todd split them up after this tour. "Utopia" reformed two years later, but as a slimmed-down 4-piece.

Which brings me to "More Another Live". Recorded on the same tour as "Another Live", this is actually a bootleg. It's kind of an alternative version of the official album, in that it shares some of the tracks, and the running order is roughly the same. However there are some differences that make it an essential buy for the discerning Todd fan. Recorded in London for Radio One's "In Concert", the quality is excellent. A lot more between-songs banter and the fact that it's one complete gig (whereas the official LP was culled from several performances) make it flow much better. It also contains live versions of songs from this era of Utopia that never appeared on official live albums (like "Freedom Fighters"), and preshadows the 1978 Todd live album "Back to the Bars", containing a lot of the songs that would become a staple of the man's live set for the next decade.

Oh and it's a nice surprise when you realise that the version of "Mister Triscuits" on "Another Live" actually starts halfway through the song, and the bootleg has the full version.

Two cracking 70s Prog/Rock n Roll albums!

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