Utopia - Deface the Music

Utopia is one of those bands I was always curious about as this was Todd Rundgren's band, and for years I'd seen his name pop up on various albums over the years. After a fairly long dry spell (at least two or three weeks) where I could only find obscure show tunes and old Disney records in the dollar bin, up popped what looked to be a decent copy of Deface the Music. There was a slight wobble but I figured it was worth a chance so I brought it home and gave it a little TLC and put it in the queue.

Well, the slight wobble was more than slight and effectively made the first tracks on both sides unplayable, which was a shame. But not all was lost. I'm not sure what I was expecting musically as I hadn't looked it up prior to dropping the needle. I suppose the cover should have given it away, but come on, everyone seemed to have a cover like this at some point. Of course as soon as the music started I found myself listening to a long lost Beatles record ... or The Rutles, depending on your preferences. Personally after a couple of times through the album, I'm leaning to The Rutles - but played straight. Over the baker's dozen of tunes represented Utopia replicates the various eras with uncanny precision. It is an odd love letter that I'm not sure I actually like or am just more impressed they carried the conceit through an entire album. I'll call it 50/50 and admit there are some pretty impressive moments scattered throughout the album.

As my album didn't have any credits I actually wanted to see who was doing what. Sadly I couldn't really find a track by track who's who - but from what I can see the band during this period was pretty stable and was comprised of

Roger Powell - synthesizers, keyboards, backing and lead vocals
Todd Rundgren - lead guitar, lead and backing vocals
Kasim Sulton - bass, lead and backing vocals
John "Willie" Wilcox - drums, percussion, backing and lead vocals

This would sort of explain the band's ability to cover a lot of ground as the band had four lead vocalists ... just like The Beatles, that is assuming you count Ringo - me, I love Ringo, he counts.

For me the album really starts to come alive near the end of the side one starting with "Take It Home" that more or less puts "Day Tripper" in a blender. Then the second side is all gravy. I'm going to have to revisit my 50/50 assessment ... but maybe not, as I think much of my reaction is my response to hearing the bits and pieces the band is paying homage to - as a stand alone piece of music I'm still split.

Whatever, this was 1980 and I find it amazingly cool that a band like Utopia figured it was a good idea to dedicate an entire album to The Beatles.

I know it may seem like I was more or less "meh" to the whole thing, but it did have a certain charm. Enough so that I went back to the store to look for a copy in their regular section. I found a few, and for about seven bucks I picked what I thought was the best of the lot.

I'm hoping to find more of their stuff one day in the discount bin to see what else they had up their collective sleeves. Besides, if I can't wait there's always the regular section that regular people use.

As to Utopia on this one, they were indeed outstanding in their field.

Garfield - Strange Streets

I'd seen this before in the bin, but kept flipping through the stacks. I'd see it a few more times, each time stopping to look at it a little more. There was something kind of cool about the cover where the stylized Celtic knot had the dotted yellow line - it was a strange street for sure. I pulled the record out of the jacket and I was struck by the centre image. There was the familiar Mercury label, the same one I'd seen a thousand times on BTOs Head On album. Well, I'd bought things based on odd associations before - like when I had to buy anything that Solid Rock Records released (this was generally a good thing) who knows maybe this was a hidden gem. There weren't any real scratches or rash, just a lot of dirt and dust - it seemed to clean up okay, but we'll see how it goes. The album opens with the title track, and this wasn't straight ahead pop, or rock. It was leaning to the progressive, but with a pop bent. Oddly enough the vocals reminded me of Mi...

Hoodoo Gurus - Mars Needs Guitars!

The first time I got this album it was a gift from my old roommate Otto. For a goofy little nebbish he would occasionally surprise me with some left of field musical treasures. Although, I still think he was reaching a little when he brought home the new "Led Zeppelin" album by Kingdom Come and forced me to listen to "Get it On" over and over again. I'd not listened to Mars Needs Guitars in a long, long, long time. The first thing that I jumped out at me was how David Faulkner's vocals reminded me of his fellow countryman Peter Garrett from Midnight Oil. I think the reason this never occurred to me was at the time I didn't have any Midnight Oil until Diesel and Dust in 1987. I'm not saying it was all the time, but there were a couple of songs where it stood out. Not a bad thing, just a thing. Even at the time this felt slightly out of step with what was going on in 1985. It seemed like everyone was using drum machines and synthesizers and having t...

Saturday Night Fever - The Original Movie Soundtrack

It was going to happen sooner or later. Nostalgia is a cruel Mistress...she can dull the sharpest edges and over time can even soften the hardest of opinions. I found this in the dollar bin, and frankly at a dollar I was worried about what this would cost me. Not only from a monetary perspective, but my time, and more important my credibility. Fourteen year old me was screaming "Don't you dare. DON'T DO IT! Put it down. Walk away!" Then there was grey bearded me holding it and looking at it, thinking, "How bad could it be? I actually kind of like "Staying Alive" and me buying this record won't bring disco back, and no one will have to know I bought this." I pulled the album out of the bin, and carefully took out the records. They'd seen better days, and there were a couple of decent scratches that would no doubt make their presence known later. The jacket was in decent condition, and both of the albums had the original sleeves. I dusted the...

Old Enough to Forget

Search This Blog