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Todd Rundgren’s breakthrough album, Something/Anything?, was a winding double-LP on which he wrote, produced, and performed nearly everything himself. That says a lot about 1972, but it says even more about Rundgren, who’s been seen as something of a pop-rock prodigy ever since. If it seems he’s never been quite as famous or iconic as he should have been to a broader audience, you might be looking at his career the wrong way. The better question: How was he ever famous at all? The moment his career took off, he began indulging his prog-rockier tendencies, and aside from the fluky “Bang the Drum All Day,” which came out on an album he actually called The Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect, he never did much allowing for those fans who came for the hooks. That basically is the ever-popular tortured artist effect: When you’re the only one banging on the drums and producing the albums and designing and coding the website, nobody’s left to say, “Hey, I don’t think Casey Kasem is going to play this.” It didn’t make for a ton of hits, but Todd Rundgren’s need for control has produced a fascinating career.
