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16/31 Todd Rundgren & Utopia

Rewind: Utopia - Deface the Music (1980)

At the dawn of the 1980s, Todd Rundgren, Kasim Sulton, Roger Powell and John “Willie” Wilcox emerged from the studio with an album that sounded so much like a Beatles compilation, John, Paul, George and Ringo should have received co-writing credits.

In fact, if you were to play Utopia’s Deface the Music for a non-Beatlemaniac and tell him he was listening to recently unearthed Fab Four outtakes, he’d likely believe you.

With its 13 numbers, Deface the Music spoofs most of the Beatles’ career, from Meet the Beatles to Magical Mystery Tour, in just over a half an hour. Utopia uncovers the Beatles from the opening “I Just Want to Touch You” to the closing “Everybody Else is Wrong,” a hilarious “Strawberry/Walrus” sendup of John Lennon’s late-1960s/early-‘70s arrogance featuring a chanted fade out and Wilcox’s exceptional Ringo imitation behind the kit.

Harmonica breaks; hand claps; falsetto “oooohs;” spoken, English-accented asides; ambient sounds; strings; and other effects add to the album’s Anglo ambience.

But while Utopia eerily reproduced the Fabs’ sound, they weren’t content to hold your hand.

I just wanna get inside you/if you’ll just give a minute to me, goes the opening track.

Rundgren and Lennon had a very public feud in the 1970s, but the former nevertheless held the latter in high esteem. Rundgren included note-perfect renditions of “Strawberry Fields Forever" and “Rain” on his 1976 album Faithful and recorded a version of “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away" for 2015’s Keep Calm and Salute the Beatles, after playing the song live for years.

So when it came time to deface the music, he and Utopia took the next logical step and crafted (semi)-original songs from the Beatles’ blueprints. Although Rundgren does a respectable Lennon and Sulton pulls off a reasonable approximation of Paul McCartney, if anything betrayed the rouse, it would be the vocals.

While the singing is not always Beatlesque, the songwriting and arrangements are 100-perfect Fab.

“Take it Home” is a reimagined “Day Tripper;” “Hoi Poloi” is a stroll down “Penny Lane;” “Life Goes On” and “All Smiles” fawn over “Eleanor Rigby" and “Michelle,” respectively; “Feel too Good” is a rewritten “Getting Better;” and “That’s Not Right” is “Eight Days a Week” recast in a 1980s motif. Other tracks are less obvious in their inspiration, but capture the Beatles’ essence without coping specific song structures.

On “Always Late,” the faux Fabs sing in goofy, four-part harmony, and extol the virtues of wide-eyed tardiness.

Let’s go out for an anniversary dance/you say our anniversary’s yesterday/always late/yes it’s always the same/procrastination is my middle name/but the rest of the world is ahead of the game/and that’s why I’m always late

The boys from Utopia obviously had a jolly good time lovingly aping the lads from Liverpool. As it turned out, Lennon was murdered mere months after Deface the Music hit the streets, so what was meant as an endearing ribbing wound up sounding like a sick joke. But with 36 years behind it, Deface the Music stands as the bizarre, loving tribute it was meant to be and holds appeal for both Utopians and Beatlemaniacs.

Grade card: Utopia - Deface the Music - A-