The Burt Bacharach Discussion Forum

Todd Rundgren's involvement in this show is a bit of a surprise, to say the least.

As a long-time fan, I wasn`t at all surprised to see TR involved in this. Like most of us first-wave "Boomers", Todd heard and loved pop music before the Beatles existed. It was the music of our parents` generation and largely introduced to us through Broadway musical cast recordings. He mentioned long ago that he was a fan of these.
It was, oddly, a pleasure vehemently denied later by too many of us, when the rock psy-op (sorry, "revolution") kicked in and we all denounced everything musical that was older than "Love Me, Do" or "Satisfaction." I, for one, paid a terrible social price for refusing to deny my earlier tastes and I continued to buy - and hype - gravely un-cool music along with "acceptable" Airplane and VU albums. (I also knew people with sterling reputations for hipness who had stashed - literally in their closets! - Andy Williams albums and `Sound of Music` cast albums). Cliches like "peer pressure" and the like don`t entirely explain this to me. Why couldn`t we have just said "That was then; this is now"?
Anyway, my only reservation about TR`s participation in this show is the fact that his voice is now so nearly ravaged that he often can no longer hit the notes to his own songs even after lowering their keys. I cringe to think which of Burt`s compositions he`s planning to tackle.

No, it's not exactly a big shock that Todd Rundgren should be an admirer of Burt's, it's just the performing aspect that I'm surprised about.