Confession: I skipped out on the Berkeley Ukulele Club Wednesday night. Why?? Getting too old to be out two nights in a row, and being a Todd-head Thursday night took priority. "Todd-head" you say?? Well, for those who are in-the-know, I'm speaking about Todd Rundgren...ya know, from "Todd is Godd" fame. The diehard AARP-in-training audience (fans from the last 30+ years) had to endure true rock concert conditions: SRO with His Toddness not appearing until 9:50 p.m.. Crazy, yes? But worth it?? If you have to ask...
If you are unfamiliar with Todd, he is an incredible singer, song writer and record producer, having long been on the cutting edge of music and video technologies. Besides having a prolific solo career, he headed up the power rock group, Utopia, in the '70s and '80s. More recently he has been touring with The New Cars, taking the place of Ric Ocasek. (Saw them over a year ago with Blondie; what a show! Felt like I was really hearing the old Cars. What a hoot!)
Anyway, for the ukulele connection...Todd has been living in Kauai for the last several years. Cleverly, he has repenned one of his big hits, "Bang the Drum All Day" as "Bang on the Ukulele Daily," a loose take-off on the "Hawaiian War Chant." Very cool, so check it out on iTunes. Unfortunately, he didn't do this one on Thursday night; it was much more an amped up R&R show. But Todd was in top form, and for one evening I got to relive a little of my past. Sigh....
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