Swing to the Right | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | February 24, 1982 | |||
Studio | Utopia Sound Studios | |||
Genre | Rock, new wave | |||
Length | 38:55 | |||
Label | Bearsville | |||
Producer | Todd Rundgren and Utopia | |||
Utopia chronology | ||||
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Singles from Swing To The Right | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Allmusic | [1] |
Swing to the Right is the sixth studio album by Utopia. It followed the Beatles parody-homage Deface the Music . Swing to the Right moves into hard-edged commentary on corporate raiders, warmongers, political villains, and despicable music industry moguls. There is little in the way of progressive rock on this album, which is limited to its title track.
Recorded in winter 1981 and set for release that June, Bearsville Records was reluctant to release the album because of its political and religious themes. In protest Utopia took this material on the road for a full year begging audiences to petition Bearsville Records execs to release it, even going as far as giving out the phone number and address of Bearsville Records and instructing audiences to ask for Albert Grossman.
The album cover is a retouched and tinted reproduction of a well-known photograph taken at a public burning of Beatles records, which took place in August 1966 in the town of Waycross, Georgia, in response to John Lennon's controversial "more popular than Jesus" remark. The photograph, distributed by UPI and printed on front pages of newspapers including The Savannah Morning News, depicts the burning of the Beatles albums in Waycross in a large bonfire, while in the foreground a boy holds an LP which is about to be thrown into the fire. In the original image, the album the boy holds is a copy of The Beatles' Capitol Records debut LP Meet The Beatles , but on the Utopia cover this has been photographically replaced with an image of the Swing To The Right cover (thereby creating the illusion of an endless regression of the same image). The August 1966 event was promoted by WAYX radio in Waycross and was one of dozens that took place across the country in August 1966 in response to Lennon's remarks.
All songs by Utopia (Rundgren, Powell, Wilcox, Sulton) except where noted.
Some CD reissues include the bonus track "Special Interest".
Note
There were 2 revisions of this album before Bearsville would agree to release it.
Initial track list as presented to Bearsville in May 1981 with expected release of June of '81.
Side One
Side Two
Note
Second track listing presented to Bearsville September of '81 with expected release of October of '81
Side One
Side Two
The final track listing (as released) was presented to Bearsville in December 1981 and approved for release in February 1982
Album – Billboard
Year | Chart | Position |
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1982 | Pop Albums | 102 |
Todd Harry Rundgren is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, multimedia artist, sound engineer and record producer who has performed a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of the band Utopia. He is known for his sophisticated and often unorthodox music, his occasionally lavish stage shows, and his later experiments with interactive art. He also produced music videos and was an early adopter and promoter of various computer technologies, such as using the Internet as a means of music distribution in the late 1990s.
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Bearsville Records was founded in 1970 by Albert Grossman. Artists included Todd Rundgren, Elizabeth Barraclough, Foghat, Halfnelson/Sparks, Bobby Charles, Randy VanWarmer, Paul Butterfield's Better Days, Lazarus, Jesse Winchester, and NRBQ. The label closed in 1984, two years before Grossman's death. Sally Grossman, Albert Grossman’s widow, was running Bearsville Records from 2010 until her death in March 2021, at the age of 81.
Something/Anything? is the third album by American musician Todd Rundgren, released in February 1972. It was his first double album, and was recorded in late 1971 in Los Angeles, New York City and Bearsville Studios, Woodstock. Three quarters of the album was recorded in the studio with Rundgren playing all instruments and singing all vocals, as well as being the producer. The final quarter contained a number of tracks recorded live in the studio without any overdubs, save for a short snippet of archive recordings from the 1960s.
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Initiation is the sixth album by American musician Todd Rundgren, released May 23, 1975 on Bearsville Records. With this album, Rundgren fully embraced the synthesized prog sound he had begun exploring in more depth in his work with his band Utopia. However, unlike Utopia, in which Rundgren had limited himself to playing guitar, most of the synthesizers on Initiation were played and programmed by Rundgren himself.
Hermit of Mink Hollow is the eighth album by American musician Todd Rundgren, released May 1978 on Bearsville Records. All of the instruments and vocals were performed solely by Rundgren. He intended the songs on the album to be performed on piano with minimal arrangements, apart from the bass, drums and voices, and for the material to showcase his newly refined singing ability.
Utopia was an American rock band formed in 1973 by Todd Rundgren. During its first three years, the group was a progressive rock band with a somewhat fluid membership known as Todd Rundgren's Utopia. Most of the members in this early incarnation also played on Rundgren's solo albums of the period up to 1975. By 1976, the group was known simply as Utopia and featured a stable quartet of Rundgren, Kasim Sulton, Roger Powell and John "Willie" Wilcox. This version of the group gradually abandoned progressive rock for more straightforward rock and pop.
Runt is the self-titled debut album of the band Runt, commercially released September 1970. Runt was a trio consisting of Todd Rundgren, Hunt Sales (drums), and Tony Fox Sales (bass). The entire album was written and produced by Rundgren, formerly of Nazz, and he performed most of the instruments. Many regarded Runt as Rundgren's debut solo album, and later reissues credit the album to Rundgren rather than to the group.
Gregory A. Hawkes is an American musician best known as the keyboardist and later bassist for the rock band The Cars.
Kasim Sulton is an American bass guitarist, keyboardist and vocalist. Best known for his work with Utopia, Sulton sang lead on 1980's "Set Me Free," Utopia's only top 40 hit in the United States. As a solo artist, Sulton hit the Canadian top 40 in 1982 with "Don't Break My Heart".
Back to the Bars is a live album by rock musician Todd Rundgren, which was released as a double LP in 1978.
Another Live is a live album by the progressive rock band Utopia. It was recorded in August 1975 and released in 1975 on Bearsville.
Utopia is the second of two self-titled albums by the rock group Utopia. It was released in 1982. It was also their only album for Network Records.
Ra is the second studio album and third release by Utopia on Bearsville Records, released in 1977. Rundgren planned on releasing the LP in 1976 on his own label "Ethereal Records" as the new 4 piece line up was not signed to Bearsville. Replete with an elaborate $250,000 stage show featuring a 22-foot-tall (6.7 m) pyramid and golden sphinx which took 18 months of prep, Ra was Rundgren's most ambitious live undertaking.
Adventures in Utopia is the fourth studio album by Utopia.
Todd Rundgren's Utopia is the debut album by the American rock band Utopia, released in October 1974 on Bearsville Records. The band was formed in 1973 by musician, songwriter, and producer Todd Rundgren who decided to expand his musical style by moving from pop-oriented rock towards progressive rock. He assembled a six-piece group that featured three keyboardists and toured as a live act. Most of the album was recorded in the studio except "Utopia", the opening track, which was recorded live in concert in 1974.
This article is a discography of American rock musician Todd Rundgren.
Deface the Music is the fifth studio album by the band Utopia. The concept of the album was to pay homage to The Beatles and create songs which sounded very similar to the Fab Four's tunes throughout the various stages of their career. Their song "Take It Home", replete with guitar riff, is their homage to "Day Tripper". The first track, "I Just Want to Touch You", was written by Todd Rundgren for the Roadie soundtrack. It was rejected by the movie's producers for fear of legal action because it sounded so much like the Beatles. The original pressing was made to look like an early 1960s Beatles release, with custom inner sleeve advertising their previous three albums even down to the way the vinyl was mastered with wide bands of silence between each song.
John "Willie" Wilcox is an American drummer, vocalist, producer, recording engineer, sound designer, composer and senior audio director. He is best known for being a member of the band Utopia. He also has been the senior audio director for Bally Technologies and Scientific Games in Las Vegas, Nevada from 2010 to 2020.