Subject: Re: John Martyn

Hi Bob…I was so surprised to see you reference John Martyn’s “Head and Heart” as you developed this topic, so had to write. He was a British “folk singer” and quite a trip…talented, fun and outspoken! We were so fortunate to work with and become friends with John during those embryonic beginnings of our band in England in 1970-71. His album, “Bless The Weather” was released at the same time as our 1st album “America” in the U.K., and of course that is the album that included “Head and Heart”. We would hear him sing it often when we did shows with him in those days, and when he sang his voice carried such heart and emotion it could bring tears to your eyes. Like you, this song stayed with us so much that we had to record it ourselves when we returned to the U.S. recorded our second album, “Homecoming”! He had a prolific career making lots of music, and a tragic life in the end but we remember him fondly. Thank you for reminding me of those days. 

best always, Dewey Bunnell

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Subject: Re: John Martyn

Hi Bob,

After seeing the reference to John Martyn, I had to chime in.  I worked at a small label in the early 90’s called, Mesa/Bluemoon.  We released a John Martyn album in 1993 called, No Little Boy.  It was a really great album.  I got to spend some time with John, spoke with him a lot on the phone.  He was funny, friendly, really delightful.  I took him to an interview at KCRW back then.  He did a gig at McCabe’s guitar shop in Santa Monica around that time.  Tiny place, but it was packed to the brim.  Not only was John a legendary songwriter, he was an amazing guitarist.  One of the best of his time.  Sorry we lost him.  Thank you for bringing him to your readers’ attention again!

Bud Harner

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Re: John Martyn

I was John Martyn’s agent in 1975/6.
One of the most extraordinary talents I’ve ever worked with.
When he was clean and sober he was absolute charmer.
When he wasn’t he could be nightmare.
He’s never had the acknowledgement his work deserves.

Richard Griffiths

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Subject: Re: John Martyn

john martyn, ‘solid air’, play what would have been the first side back in 73.  the lyrics are unintelligible, the guitar playing like a fred neil acid trip—-and it will blow your mind.  i wanted to see one of his last shows before he died.  played for 20 people, was in a wheelchair with both legs gone and so drunk he fell out of it.  i couldn’t bear to be part of this freak show—–but that’s rock and roll.

Chris Spector 

Midwest Record

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Subject: Re: Leo Sayer Responds

Hey, Bob. I was at Leo’s original showcase for Warners above a fish and chip restaurant in Brighton, England. We got reacquainted when he supported Foreigner on an Australian cruise a few years ago. He’s right, he’s still got it with great songs, a strong voice, and all his own hair!

Best, Phil Carson

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Subject: Re: Leo Sayer Responds

Love Leo. I did like 5 albums with him back in the day starting in the late 70’s.

A great singer/writer and an even nicer guy!

Luke

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Re: Wolfman Jack

My son, age 21, a self taught  musician, a bit of a savant (high functioning autism), absolutely loves Todd Rundgren. He knows everything about him (and other music icons of many genres). Spotify said he was the second most frequent listener of Todd Rundgren in the whole world in 2019.  Like Todd, he does it all himself.

I’ve been reading you for years. Thank you for staying real.

Marit Sathrum

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Re: Todd & the Wolfman

Your podcast with Todd Rundgren was the best interview I have ever heard with him, and I highly recommend it to your readers who haven’t yet listened.

I was Wolfman Jack’s last Program Director in 1996 for the Liberty Broadcasting Network. We had him on fifty stations.  Early in our relationship, he asked me to join him in his limo to critique an aircheck from the previous week. I expressed my admiration for him and my hesitancy to review tape with a legend. He just laughed and said, “Come on, man….I wanna hear what ya have to say. Everybody can get better, including me!”  I’ve been expressing that simple thought to talent ever since, and while not everyone listens, those who do invariably achieve greater creativity.

“Look me in the eyes baby, now you cut that jive
You know the Wolfman’s just about
The number one cat alive”

Whenever I listen to Todd’s song, I feel like I’m back in that limo with The Wolfman.

Keep up the excellent work, Bob,

Mark Lapidus

Fairfax, Virginia

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Re: Wolfman Jack

Todd has been a good friend for years.

Unique in every way and wonderfully unpredictable.

There is a lesser-known album of his called “Healing”

It is profound from the first note.

Recommend head-phones of you want to be in the  room with him.

Joe Walsh

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From: Tony Hawk

Subject: Re: The Tony Hawk Documentary

Thanks Bob! I was hoping you’d see it because you know the mindset it takes to do this stuff at a high level. I was excited to hear your take and it did not disappoint. We are driven, determined and obsessed – sometimes to a fault – with an activity that was largely misunderstood for decades. And I look forward to returning to it as soon as possible. 

Tony

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From: PORKFOOT and The One Man Boyband

Subject: Re: The Tony Hawk Documentary

I once met Frank Hawk when I as 15 years old. We helped him set up for a skate contest and he took my friend and I to 7/11 for slurpees. We hung out around him all week, and I only found his strictness to be complete dad vibe. You are right. Tony was so lucky to have a father that was so invested in his son’s own interests.

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From: Tony Hawk

Subject: Re: The Tony Hawk Documentary

That sums up my dad; gruff but warm and giving.

Tony

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From: Wendy Waldman

Subject: Re: Mailbag

In Warsaw right now and reminded in a million different ways that many Americans have absolutely no clue. My Polish friends are stepping up to the plate even when their stupid government lags behind. The PEOPLE of Poland are sheltering more than a million refugees themselves. Everyone is helping.

Cause these guys lived under communism- Mietek wasn’t allowed to record until after the wall fell- then he had hits out of the box- he remembers standing in line for cabbage with his grandmother and he speaks excellent Russian which was forced on him— yeah they remember and they hate the Russians. They know how it can be and they’re rallying like they did in Solidarity. The head of one of the big centers downtown personally brought back 70,000 people in his car back and forth to the border.

Everyone is helping in whatever way they can.

As the brilliant and well known here composer bassist Marcin Poszpieszalski said, this is a historic moment.

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Subject: Re: Dann Huff-This Week’s Podcast

Bob, the podcast with Dann Huff was one of the best yet.  No wonder it went almost three hours — could’ve gone for eight!

Such a brilliant guy, but so humble and (comfortably) introspective. Loved the bit about what he had learned from his first co-production stint — for just one example.

Also really fun to hear how the conversation built momentum all the way til the end. Together you guys got to the very core of things.

When he asked you “Bob, how long do you plan on doing this?” it was like a perfect ellipsis had been reached.

Hope he gets U2 as a result of your show with him.  I’d love to hear the result.

Stev Lindstrom

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Subject: Re: Book Recs/Bonnie Raitt

I first heard Bonnie Raitt late one night while attending college. I had just discovered my girlfriend was cheating on me with the big drug dealer on campus.

Call it love, call it infatuation, or maybe it was just the sex but I was in love with that girl some kinda bad. She had long blonde curls and I had a huge fro. This was ‘69/‘70 and our relationship was very much taboo in Virginia.

“Love Has No Pride” made me cry a river. Even listening to it now is like a time trip. So I fell in love with Bonnie (naturally).

I had a friend who ran Whisper Concerts and was fortunate enough to catch whenever she played the DC/Richmond/  Norfolk region. Usually with Little Feat and/or Jackson Browne.

I got to meet her backstage (it was my birthday) and someone tipped her off. She came over and said “Ok Tom, the jig is up” and gave me a peck on the cheek. I almost peed my pants.

And much later when she was was signed to Capitol I mentioned the incident to her and she laughed. I think she was just being polite.

Bonnie is one of those REAL artists. 

Genuine and true. It’s nice to grow old with her music.

Tom Cartwright

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From: Arny Schorr

Subject: RE: The Grammy Ratings

I watched parts of it because my wife wanted to see it but I just couldn’t bring myself to endure the entire show. I was trying to explain to her why it was so horrendous and it came to me…it was over produced (too slick, too busy, too schmaltzy). When announcing the nominees, you couldn’t focus on the artist because there were so many graphics laid over the artist visual and the “in memoriam” was just too busy, too much camera movement, too many distractions from acknowledging those who passed.

And with all due respect, the fact Taylor Hawkins got 90 seconds and Charlie Watts got 3 seconds encapsulates a major problem with the Grammys and the RnR Hall of Fame. The Taylor Hawkins of this world rode in on the path laid down by Charlie Watts, Neal Peart, Keith Moon, Ed Cassidy, Ginger Baker and others of their ilk who’d been around for years and were also cultural icons. 

The Hall of Fame recognizes more current artists while shunning artists who had a massive cultural impact…Steppenwolf, Jethro Tull, Bad Company, King Crimson, New York Dolls, DEVO, Link Wray, Dick Dale all have had an impact musically and culturally but Journey, Def Lepard, ELO, Dells and (solo) Stevie Nicks are in?

Just the whiny ramblings of an old man who views the concept of musical ‘justice’ differently….

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Re: Spotify’s Share

I’m certain that Apple completely dropped the ball re: music by making iTunes a completely unusable piece of orphan software. As a Gen Xer, I tried all sorts of ways to leverage my huge ripped CD library, punctuated by Napster-era stolen music and infrequent MP3 purchases from Amazon and other sources), but it was a complete mess to manage.  I am convinced that “synching” anything is the biggest software lie ever perpetrated.

Despite all its flaws, after my kids hoodwinked me into setting up a famils membership two years ago, Sporify’s been nothing short of transformational.  Now that’s had time to stew, it’s suggesting stuff I’d long forgotten about … especially “Yacht Rock” era gems such as https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMlB0302S50 . After your recent Todd Rundgren piece, I backfilled elements of “Something, Anything” I hadn’t heard in 35 years since college, and now they’re once again part of my daily listening rotation. Magic.

In addition, its usefullness as an incredible podcast organization tool is not to be underestimated (that’s how I listen to you, by the way, including the back catalog).

Sincerely,

Gunnar Miller

Frankfurt, Germany

From: Dan Millen

Re: Spotify’s Share

In the olden days you wanted to sell a revolutionary new widget you needed:

Cash – The widget itself cost $ – cash you need to pay upfront in order to even manufacture the widget and / or to hire the employees to make it and sell it.
You sold it to someone else at 50% off list (not 30% or less which is what apple takes) or you sold it to a distributor sometimes at an even sharper discount.

You pay the shipping, either to the distributor or to retail.

You hired a sales force to knock on doors to get your widget placed into stores even if you go through a distributor, because chances are the distributor isn’t going to go out of their way to push your widget to retail unless it’s a big smash hit.  And you’ve got to give the salespeople incentives, spiffs and bonuses.
You make volume discounts and net terms to retailers (30 day payment saves you 1%)

At the end of the day you’re lucky if you’re making 15% margin on your widgets.

With physical records the artist got screwed even more.

Cost the same for the label to make, but they’ll only pay you mechanicals on up to ten songs.
Maybe you get 10-13 points on your albums after deductions.

Packaging deductions
Breakage deductions

Holdback against returns
Holdback against marketing
If you have a shitty attorney they cross collateralize your mechanicals with your record royalties, and maybe even publishing if they can get their mitts on it.

Nowadays they want a piece of your merch and touring too.

You never recoup, it costs you more than it’s worth to audit, and all you see is publishing.

If you are selling apps as widgets on IPhones you are still making 15-20% more gross margin than if you were shipping the widgets to retailers.

If you are putting music up on Spotify without a label you have a chance of making much more than you’d make on a traditional deal – you just need to be heard.

The level of ignorance around this is stunning, but wilful ignorance and finger pointing is what passes for culture around the world.

Pandemics and wars apparently are not enough to quell the selfishness, entitlement mentality and finger pointing of humanity.

Perhaps next a zombie apocalypse will get humans back to basics?

/end of rant.

Apple is under scrutiny for taking a huge slice of in-app purchases and the belief that it favors its own applications over others. This is a fight that has garnered headlines when it comes to gaming, i.e. the Epic Games (Fortnite) lawsuit, but the heavy lifting is being done by the Europeans.

And thank god for that, but I don’t agree with everything the European Commission proffers. Like the standardized connector. Tech moves at light speed and you don’t want to hold back innovation. Also, the iPhone is much more secure because of Apple’s vetting process, to open the iPhone up to third party app stores is a recipe for disaster.

But what I’m talking about today is music streaming services.

In order to back its position, Apple commissioned a study:

“The Success of Third-Party Apps on the App Store”: https://apple.co/3E8Q5Rw

I got wind of the report via MusicAlly, a newsletter from the U.K. that I get every day. But I haven’t seen reference to it anywhere else. The music press is focused on the minutiae. Who’s going up, who’s going down, the petty wars. Meanwhile, the big stories are ignored. All we hear about Spotify is that artists are starving. I’d beat this dead horse, but no one can convince people otherwise, so I won’t.

But Spotify is not the only music streaming service in the game. Perception is that Apple is a significant rival. But the research says the opposite:

“Focusing on dedicated streaming services (i.e., not including YouTube), Spotify is by far the most popular music streaming service for iPhone users in the US, UK, France, Germany, and Australia and New Zealand, based on listening time. In the US, iPhone users spend more than 50% more time on Spotify than on Apple Music, and more than double the time on Spotify than on Pandora, followed by Musi, YouTube Music, and SoundCloud. In the UK, Germany, and Australia and New Zealand, the gap between the largest player (Spotify) and other streaming services is larger. Across these countries, Apple Music’s share out of the top music streaming apps among iPhone users ranges from 19% in Australia and New Zealand to 29% in Germany. 

In Japan, Apple Music is the most popular, followed by Spotify and regional player LINE MUSIC.”

We’ve been hearing all this b.s. about Apple catching up with Spotify, but just the opposite appears true, Spotify is pulling away from Apple where it counts, in listenership. Furthermore, the report says that Spotify is especially popular amongst the young, who listen most and are most responsible for the breaking of new artists.

Now in truth Amazon is a stealth competitor. But in reality, Spotify is the world’s default streaming music app.

So if more people are listening more…the payment per stream is less. Not that any of these streaming services pay per stream, it’s all a percentage, but people want to translate payment into an old metric, when streaming is a new method of consuming music.

Distribution is king. Far more powerful than content providers. Because if you can’t hear it, it doesn’t exist. And the most people hear it on Spotify, giving the Swedish streaming service the most power in the music business.

So, if you want to be heard, you need to be on Spotify. Same deal if you want to get paid. You can rail against this all you want, but in truth the distributor always has more power than the individual. I could analogize to straight business…it’s very hard for independent companies to get their products in grocery stores unless they align with a distributor. The stores only want to deal with the distributor, for numerous reasons, for payment and accounting if nothing else Furthermore, distributors/manufacturers pay slotting fees, yes, they pay to have their wares on the shelves.

So…

Spotify is a business. And it’s the biggest business in the sphere. It won via a first mover advantage and constant innovation. There’s an illusion that brand names mean everything online, but they don’t. If you don’t continue to innovate, you die. This is how Facebook was superseded by TikTok.

If you’re a music maker, don’t complain about Spotify, use it to your advantage. The rock sphere has been hobbled by constant beating up of Spotify, almost always with false facts spewed by uninformed performers. It’s not that complicated, but I’ve rarely dealt with a successful musician who truly understands. An on demand stream pays more than one from radio, like Pandora, and Spotify has a radio feature too. Also, free tier streams pay less than paid tier streams. And you might say to get rid of the free tier, but it’s the free tier that undermines piracy and also converts listeners to paying customers. Statistics tell us this.

So Spotify won. Apple Music is an also-ran in music streaming.

And Spotify continues to innovate.

Amazon is leveraging its regular consumer goods business to make inroads in not only video, but music. The company’s inroads should be watched, even though they do little self-promotion, they reveal little.

But right now Spotify is where the action is, where the people are listening, where the money is.

These facts were known by insiders, but now they’re public.

You don’t want to complain about Spotify, you want to embrace it.

But I know you still hate it.

Todd is God

Alan Childs

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Love Something/Anything! One of my favorite albums of all time.

Didn’t get hip until 1987. (I’m 53) I worked for Record World in Waterford CT. One day, I mentioned to my manager (who is my best friend to this day) that I loved “Hello It’s Me” but didn’t know much else about Todd. I gave him a Maxell XLII 90 and he taped me “Something/Anything”. I fell in love with it immediately. Everything about it was fantastic and I, like you, was impressed with the fact that he had done all of it himself. (Side 4 aside) I hipped a twenty something musician to it about 4 years ago and its one of his faves now too. Glad to have “passed it on”.

It is one of the VERY few studio double albums that has no filler. I speak of course of double albums from the classic era. Pre “vinyl resurgence”. (“Songs In The Key Of Life”, “Physical Graffiti”,  “Sign Of The Times”)

It took a few years before I did a full on deep dive with Todd. But I did. And I am all the better for it. One of my favorite artists.

Ed Toth

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I can’t pretend to be conversant in “Something/Anything”, but “The Ballad of Todd Rundgren” has a slew of absolutely wonderful tunes. “Wailing Wall” is as good as record-making gets. It’s brilliantly written, beautifully performed, brilliantly arranged, and beautifully recorded. For that one song alone I’d be willing to put Todd up there in the Pantheon.

Berton Averre

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We called him Todd.  Like he was a bud.  And we felt him in the room with us when we blasted his stuff to whatever it was that we were doing. Every listen was like a home visit.  You could feel him. Great songs, one after another, all of them evoking different feelings. And he’s still doing home visits with me, all these years later.  And I could tell stories and meander on.   But I’m short on words despite my excitement.  And you never could capture him with words, anyway. Could you?  Thanks for this piece.  I’ll settle in and “take a few of these…..”  And fans of Todd know what I mean.

Bill Nelson

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This is fun. Some footage for a music video?

Bill Seipel

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I’ve always loved this song.. To me it was a throwback to Motown back in the 60’s.

Jeff Laufer

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Believe it or not but in the early 60’s this boy, in his early teens…in Queens NY (!) was able to pick up Wolfman Jack on my transistor radio in the wee hours of the morning…@ 2 AM EST.
Sometimes it was fuzzy, sometimes the reception went in and out but using micro fiddling with the plastic tuning circle I was sometimes able to get a clear signal from Mexico.
I am still amazed.
Alan Crane

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The Mighty 1090 XERB out of Chula Vista is how I remember first hearing Wolfman Jack back in 1966 ~ Seems he was taking away listeners from all the local rock LA radio stations with that voice that made him famous ~ Also his playlist was different ~ He sounded crazy to most listeners so although as I remember it if your transistor radio wasn’t powerful enough or your battery was low you could hardly hear him ~ Not really as crazy as say Howard Stern but he did stand out from the norm back in the day ~

RS

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When I opened my first office upstairs in the Whisky a Go Go in August, 1969, Rundgren was one of my first customers, seaching for a keyboardist for his band, “Runt”.  He only came in once, and I never knew if he found someone through me or not.

Sterling Howard, founder/owner
https://www.MusiciansContact.com

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Nice!

Something/Anything is a desert Island LP/CD/Stream for me.

Michael Becker

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Back in the 1960’s, we had a radio unit made by a company called Telefunken.  It was state of the art/high tech at that time.

Late at night on the East Coast, we could get radio stations as far away as Laramie, Wyoming.  And in Laramie, there was a station on which you could catch the Wolfman Jack radio show.  And so we were among the very few high schoolers who not only knew who he was, but heard him live.  It was cool to be in such a select club.

R. Lowenstein

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Along with the “do it yourselfers” McCartney, Rhodes and Rundgren, let’s not forget the amazing Roy Wood. Founder of The Move, ELO, Wizard and curator of two brilliant early 70’s albums, “Boulders” and “Mustard”. He did everything and played everything on those two albums, including cello, saxes, banjo and much more. I was so thankful that he was inducted into the RRHOF with ELO. A truly gifted musical artist.
Dan Sturtevant

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Bob, don’t forget that Stevie Wonder was also a one-man band back then!

JimV

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He was a fun guy to hang with …he stopped by my club on a promo tour …..I blew his mind mixing records ….he came back later that night and had a blast hanging with the Disco folks  .. 1977 @ Celebration / Boston

Joseph Carvello

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Oh, contrare ….

In 1965, we listened to Wolfman Jack (from Del Rio, Texas) while in college in Fairfield Iowa – and he came in crystal clear (on clear nights).

He was somewhat a religious experience in those day.

A long time ago

Onward …

Alan Newman

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One of my favorite albums. “Marlene” is my go to song. I knew Todd in Phiadelphia during his Woody’s Truck Stop days. He was the first person I knew with multi-colored hair. He was always a star.

Rich Arfin

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Thank you, sir, for the lesson!  Wow what a track!

Joshua Hall

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Ah yes. Wolfman Jack.
I knew I wasn’t the only one who looooooved that one. I was also a “real” Wolfman Jack fan. I used to imitate him when I was a teenager, who wanted so bad to get in to radio.
As I recall, there was also a single of that glorious song released and they had Wolfman add his little adlibs throughout the song.
As a kid, I was living in Grand Forks North Dakota, and as was my usual thing, I stayed awake nights with my transistor radio under my pillow looking for those songs, and DJ’s who told us what we wanted to know about the music. I first heard The Wolfman when he was doing his shows with the transmitter in Mexico so they could blast his show to all of us who wanted to hear what he would play and the crazy things he would say.
Nothing beats those good old days for listening. Give me the Wolfman over any Spotify playlist any day.
Bill live from MN.

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Bruno Mars should do a cover of this song. He could definitely bring this to life again!

Anita Heilig-Zaccaro

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The Wolfman magic captured 4 thirteen year old teenage imaginations’ thousands of miles away in an industrial town on the river Thames (Gravesend) Great Britain – we listened to the soundtrack for months. Knew every song off by heart. There’s a story behind the songs chosen by George Lucas. Please get him on the Podcast :-)  Thanks Bob..

‘The songs and music of American Graffiti were all Poetry In Motion to us boys who knew off by heart everything Wolfman said on the record. “Those Green Onions are hanging around the studio, especially to keep them Vampires away – you understand” in his husky, gravel voice as he cued-up the Booker T and MGs instrumental organ twister Green Onions’.

Eddie Gordon

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You nailed it. For me, Wolfman Jack was *exactly* something from the early 60s, pre-Beatles.

As an adolescent in what seemed to me to be the ultimate stagnant backwater town in Florida, I was truly thrilled to discover his late night show on XERF, blasting out at 100,000 watts from Mexico across the river from Del Rio, TX. This was years before FM and AOR came on the scene, and I was perpetually searching for better music than the Bobby Vee-Little Peggy March fare cycled endlessly on the local Top 50 station. The black radio station that played the stuff I liked went off the air at night, and that’s when I began scanning the AM dial and found the marvelous pre-FM clear channel AM stations like XERF and WLS out of Chicago. I had to sneak my very 50s style pink plastic clock radio under the covers to listen, as I was around 12 or 13 and was supposed to be asleep. My mom never knew I was listening to Bobby Blue Bland instead of getting my shuteye.

Long time reader, and always enjoy your thoughts and insights.

Marty DeHart

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Wolfman Jack on XERB, coming through the transistor radio in my Cupertino, California bedroom, when I was supposed to be sleeping, dancing between the static. It felt like audio contraband, the Wolfman was breaking the rules, emanating from below the Mexican border.

Ecstasy.

One more thing – the search for copies of all three Nazz albums and Todd’s two Ampex releases consumed a big chunk of my teenage years. The SGC red vinyl of Nazz Nazz was the biggest prize; it  contained “Under the Ice,” a song that would have fit Black Sabbath quite well.

Thanks for the memories. I still listen to Something/Anything fifty years on.

Cheers,

Michael Witthaus

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I was working at a college clothing store in Madison, WI in 1972 when a local FM DJ I knew walked in with the radio demo copy of S/A.  He handed it to me and said it would blow my mind.  I went home, put it on the turntable.  Sat in low light on the top bunk of my bunk bed.  Listened to it track by track and followed with lyric sheet.  I was astonished the each successive song was better than the last one.  Became a lifelong TR fan.  All the songs on S/A ARE memorable.

Agree that Ballad is as good or better.

But S/A changed my life.  Even sounds fresh today.

And the opening track is classic, no matter how you slice it.

ed.wolfman

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Hey Bob –

It’s so great to see you writing about Todd.

He’s such an incredible artist, and he’s known among the musician community but lesser known–at least currently–among the younger music fans.

And “Wolfman Jack” is an amazing piece of art.

Incredible that he played all the instruments on most of that album…..

Mark Feldman

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Hi, just read your piece about Wolfman Jack and was wondering if you’d heard the version by female-fronted Tiny Demons on the tribute album Someone/Anyone? Changes the context a little bit when a woman is singing it.

That whole album is pretty cool if you haven’t heard it yet! Reinterpretations and straight covers galore of the songs we know and love.

https://toddtribute.bandcamp.com/track/tiny-demons-feat-bobby-strickland-wolfman-jack

Holly Duthrie

Note: Entire tribute album here: https://bit.ly/36aDgJU and here: https://spoti.fi/3O7DnXK

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In the military in Germany, early 1970s, on Armed Forces Radio (actually it had been renamed American Forces Radio) we heard this crazy guy called Wolfman Jack.  He wasn’t on any of the Philly radio stations.  Totally new, nuts and refreshing and we all got into him.  My company commander’s last name was Jackson, so of course he was nicknamed accordingly.  And then American Graffiti and Midnight Special.  And I still occasionally pull up Guess Who’s Clap For The Wolfman….

Dave Thorn

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and of course there is the great Guess Who track, “Clap For The Wolfman”!

Bill Migicovsky

Montreal

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Very cool. Wasn’t even aware of the Wolfman track! Thanks for unearthing it from the mothballs. Wolf was one of the first celebrities I ever met as a very young person in Sacramento radio at the time. I was familiar with him based on our syndication of his weekly show and my tuning into XERB during summer camp near Yosemite. Less than a decade later, as a DJ on XTRA (The Mighty 690), broadcasting from a coastal shack about 10 miles south of Tijuana I sorta felt his spirit. What a legend!

Rob Tonkin

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To me, one of the true highlights is the “conversation” that happens before “Slut”.
The cocaine references (way before the general populace had any idea) are hysterical.

And then, of course, the shining moment: “I just decided I’m changing the name of the album to “Throw Money.”

“Something/Anything” LIVES ETERNAL!!!

Matt Auerbach…

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I have been a reader for ages and always look forward to what you have to say.

I enjoyed this riff a lot. Made me smile.

I was at UCSD when “Something Anything” came out. It was right at Todd’s transition to more of the fusion jams of bands like “Yes.” One of my bandmates loved TR.

I also remember when I discovered wWolfman Jack at 13 years old in Vista, California (hipped to him by the older brother of one of my close friends.)

He was the coolest underground disk jockey.

I think you might have missed a track on “Something Anything” that hasn’t aged too well. “S-L-U-T.” Wasn’t that on there?

Big ensemble chorus shout:

S    (S!)   L    (L)!     U    (U!)   T!

She may be a slut but she looks good to me!

Times change.

Will Anderson

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Have always loved all Todd’s Nazz and early solo work. Something/Anything was a huge influence on me as a multi-instrumentalist and session player. Wolfman Jack is such a great cut and totally catches the sound and feel of that era.
Wonder if it provided any inspiration for the Guess Who’s Clap For The Wolfman.

Michael Gregory

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50 years ago I took a chance based on a friends half stoned suggestion that we move to  D.C.- but actually ended up in Arlington ,VA in a large house with 14 bedrooms with 15 others  trying to “find ourselves”. The reason we went? Jobs, construction jobs to be more exact- being laborers at almost twice what we were paid back in Michigan being busboys and gas station attendants. So while cleaning the buildings of wood, drywll,nails etc, we would listen to WGTB -Georgetown Broadcasting-and more specifically the “Spiritus Cheese Show”. This is the station and the show that introduced me to so many bands and artists from Tom Waits to Jim Kweskin to Bob Marley and everything in between. This was also the station where I heard so many songs from Something/Anything. I heard all the songs you mentioned and more from that album and on a Friday payday I stopped at a record store on  the way home, bought the album and spent most of the weekend in my room playing it loud on my Columbia stereo. Later bought an 8 track tape for the car. Those songs were such a part of my late teens. Thanks to your email, I guess I know what I will be listening to a great part of this weekend. (I still have the original vinyl I bought then)

Jeff Appleton
Marathon Entertainment

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You didn’t have to live in SoCal to listen to Wolfman Jack.  His taped broadcasts were on XERF in Ciudad Acuna, Coahuila, on the border with Texas.  XERF had 250,000 watts and could be heard in 48 states.  I listened to him in both Texas and Arizona.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfman_Jack#Film,_television,_and_music_career

“Though Smith was managing a Minneapolis radio station, he was still broadcasting as Wolfman Jack on XERF via taped shows that he sent to the station”  1962-64.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XHRF-FM  (this is a cool story)

One of Freed’s fans was Bob Smith, a disc jockey who also adopted the Moondog theme by calling himself Wolfman Jack and adding his own sound effects. Smith took his act to Inter-American Radio Advertising, who sent him to the studio and transmitter site of XERF. It was here that Wolfman Jack invented his own style of border blasting by turning the airwaves into one long infomercial featuring music and off-the-wall products.

Wolfman Jack gained a huge audience which brought in enough money to not only pay the bills, but to cause bandits and corrupt officials to also take enough interest in taking over his promotions for themselves. As a result, Smith began to pay his own security force to protect him, because although he lived in Del Rio, Texas, because of the Brinkley Act he had to actually broadcast from the station itself in Ciudad Acuña in Mexico.

Bill O.

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Yeah. Todd. A B&W Bearsville promo poster of Todd hangs over my studio desk at all times, gazing at me, reminding me to do better; to go in harder. The bar has been set higher.
And just to remind us how chock full o’ song Todd was during this period, “Wolfman Jack” is followed on “Something/Anything” by the Nyro-esque gem “Cold Morning Light”- a full on heart melter. C’mon.
I’m with you- I always preferred “Runt: The Ballad of Todd Rundgren” to “Something/Anything?— perhaps there was just too much content to unpack on the latter? Dare I say: too much brilliance? Dunno. At now age 50, I discovered all Nazz and 70’s era Todd after the fact, and in random order… first really discovering the Todd WTF-ness with a random Dr. Demento spin of “Lockjaw” from A Cappella when it was released, and then picking up the 12” single of the same album’s “Something To Fall Back On” at the glorious Record Trader 5/$1 parking lot sale shortly thereafter. Instantly hooked. I worked backwards, mind constantly blown. It still is.
I get the same feeling of “throw off” 60’s psychedelic whimsy from Runt’s “I’m In The Clique”. But where to begin and where to end with Todd?
I guess I’ll be buying those tickets to the Daryl Hall with Todd show coming up here in L.A. after all, damnit. Maybe I’ll see you there.
Thank you Todd/thank you Bob

-Jeff Babko
the valley

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As we used to say in the day: Todd is God.

queenie taylor

George Thorogood calls in to talk about his new album “The Original George Thorogood.”

Tune in today, April 12th, to Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.

Phone #: 844-6-VOLUME, 844-686-5863

Twitter: @lefsetz or @siriusxmvolume/#lefsetzlive

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If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app: siriusxm.us/LefsetzLive