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“Yestival” Is Here! A Prog Rock Festival With Todd Rundgren!
Exciting news for progressive rock fans – the iconic band YES is heading out on the road in 2017 for a “Yestival” – described as a celebration of the band’s music throughout the 70’s…and Todd is opening for them!
Why? Well, here’s a clue:
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Todd Rundgren’s “Utopia!”
This is a great photo by Chris “Razz” of a great progressive rock band from the 70’s…Todd Rundgren’s Utopia!
After starting out in the band Nazz, Rundgren had his own string of solo albums in the early 70’s, with his massive hit “Something / Anything” giving him his greatest solo success:
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I’ve posted about this masterpiece, which you can see here:
His next album was his psychodelic masterpiece “A Wizard A True Star”, which gave fans a clue of what was next, as his lyrics at the end of side one point out:
“Wait another year, Utopia is here…”
In fact, they were!
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Introducing Utopia – Todd Goes “Prog”!
Progressive rock by bands such as Yes, Gentle Giant and Genesis were hugely popular in the 70’s: intricate, complex songs that would last ten minutes or more, musical suites like “And You And I”, “Roundabout” and “Close To The Edge” by arguably the greatest prog rock band, YES – with their distinct logo:
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It’s exciting to hear that the band is going out on the road to perform their greatest progressive rock classics, and I will share a sneak peek of that at the end of this story. I love that they chose Todd as their opening act – because the debut album of his band Utopia is brilliant – and in the same progressive rock vein as YES was in their prime.
Let’s take a look at Utopia – a progressive rock masterpiece:
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Utopia Theme
The album kicks off with a 13-minute opus that introduces the band…
“City in my head, Utopia
Heaven in my body, Utopia
It’s time for me, for me to go
City in my head, Utopia
Heaven in my body, Utopia
Into the sky, it rises now”
That’s it for the lyrics to the song, but the progressive rock that is on display is mesmerizing…
Here is a live version of the song, recorded much much later at the Highline Ballroom on January 29th, 2011.
Thanks to “Utopianmindset” from YouTube for sharing this
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“Freak Parade” is next, another 10+ minute song that continues the band’s progressive streak…
Here is a live version from the 2011 reunion:
Thanks to “EllensEyes05” for posting this on YouTube
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The so-called “single””Freedom Fighters” is the third song on the album and by far she shortest at just over four minutes…here is a terrific live version from 1975:
Thanks to “Rundgrenfan” for posting this on YouTube. As you can see, they were making great 70’s progressive rock!
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Now, onto side two – yep, “The Ikon” gives you a 30:26 suite of progressive rock – just like Yes could fill an album side with one song, so could Utopia, and the band rocks out…here is a live version from that 2011 reunion:
Thanks to “wvbaker’s channel” for posting this on YouTube.
What an album of great progressive music!
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Because Todd was also a huge success as a solo Artist – a “pop star” to a degree, critical reaction was mixed, with some critics labeling the album as pretentious fluff!
Still, it sold extremely well, peaking at #34 on the Billboard charts, the highest ranking for a Utopia album until “Adventures In Utopia” at the end of the decade…
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Now, Todd will be playing the “Yestival” – will he play songs from his new album? Will he be fully progressive? Well, you know Todd, so who knows!!!!
Here is more information on the “Yestival”:
http://ultimateclassicrock.com/yes-2017-dates-yestival/#photogallery-1=22
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Of course, there were many more Utopia albums, including one also titled “Utopia”. This one however came as power pop met the heavily synthicized world of the early 80’s…
Listen to some of the great music from that 80’s power pop classic here:
If you want to hear Utopia live from the 70’s, here is the place for it:
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The BBC released Todd and Utopia’s live performances on the network in the 70’s – a seminal record of a fantastic musical era for the band…see more here:
And if you aren’t that familiar with YES, here is a clip from their movie “Yessongs”, which shows them at their progressive rock best – “Close To The Edge”:
Let me know if you are going to the “Yestival” to see Todd!
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