Garage Sale Vinyl: Todd Rundgren
Hermit of Mink Hollow / Bearsville Records / May 1978
by Christopher Long
Dig if you will, a picture — an image of a smoke-filled, backroom poker game. Seated at the green, felt-covered table are the most prominent and confident pop-rock songwriters of all time. Then, Todd Rundgren walks in, sits down, and antes-up. The guys from the Eagles fold, posthaste. Shit, it’s Rundgren. He wrote “Hello It’s Me.” We gotta get outta here! Clearly pissed, Elvis Costello wipes away the sweat dripping from his signature horn rims and begrudgingly accepts defeat. You got me with “I Saw the Light,” Rundgren! You bloody, long-haired Yank! Even the Fleetwood Mac dude collects his chips quietly and hits the bricks quickly. The Glimmer Twins were not present, as they’d been detained by local authorities just prior to the game’s commencement. One of the only two cats with the cojones to actually stay in the game fires back in slurred defiance, F-f-f-fuck you, Rundgren! I’ll see your “We Gotta Get You a Woman,” and raise you my “Good Vibrations!” The other one declares with a snarl, I wrote “Let it Be” AND “The Long and Winding Road,” BITCH! I ain’t going anywhere! And then there were three. Five-Card Stud. Deuces wild.
• •
Since first arriving on the international rock scene in the late ’60s with his band, Nazz, Todd Rundgren has been acknowledged widely for being not only a master songsmith, but also the “Grand Poobah” of record producers — perspectives proven by his string of chart-busting solo singles, and his production work on his own albums, as well as iconic LPs from an array of other celebrated artists. And in the spring of 1978, he dropped a doozie: Hermit of Mink Hollow. A brilliant piece of work, the 12-song set was written, performed, arranged, and produced entirely by Rundgren.
As a kid, I only had the money to buy random Rundgren singles. However, as a teenager in the summer of ‘78, I was earning enough scratch from my newly acquired job at the record store that I was able to buy full-length albums at a fervent pace — Stone Blue, Don’t Look Back, Stranger in Town, and of course, Hermit of Mink Hollow.
Lickety split, the Rundgren record became MY “Pet Sounds.” Truth be told, everything I’ve ever known about song crafting and record production, I learned first from Rundgren via Hermit of Mink Hollow. From the seemingly sunny “All the Children Sing” and the quirky-jerky “Onomatopoeia” to the heart-tugging “Bag Lady,” the turbo-charged “Out of Control,” and the oft-covered breakup ballad “Can We Still Be Friends,” Hermit of Mink Hollow remains beautiful and faultless, from start to finish.
I bought the record initially on vinyl, then years later on CD. However, those copies have somehow vanished over the years. Fortunately, I found my latest copy on clean, quiet vinyl at a used joint in Myrtle Beach a couple of years ago, for just $2. A super-score, to be sure.
In sum, to this day, for me, Hermit of Mink Hollow is one of those special records that is SO good, SO wonderfully magical, that it actually hurts to listen to it — forcing me into the fetal position and bawling like a 12-year-old schoolgirl locked out of a Blackpink meet-and-greet. SHUT IT OFF! No, DON’T shut it off! SHUT IT OFF! No, DON’T shut it off! SHUT IT OFF! No, DON’T… Oh, I give up!
(5/5) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Hermit of Mink Hollow Track List
*All songs written by Todd Rundgren
SIDE A (The Easy Side)
1. All the Children Sing – 3:08
2. Can We Still Be Friends – 3:34
3. Hurting for You – 3:20
4. Too Far Gone – 2:38
5. Onomatopoeia – 1:34
6. Determination – 3:11
SIDE B (The Difficult Side)
1. Bread – 2:48
2. Bag Lady – 3:13
3. You Cried Wolf – 2:20
4. Lucky Guy – 2:04
5. Out of Control – 3:56
6. Fade Away – 3:04
Performing live as Utopia, with Rundgren on drums and lead vocals, here is “You Cried Wolf.”
