10 Artists Who Slated The Beatles
3. Todd Rungren
There’s no doubting that Todd Rungren is a hugely talented songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, capable of hugely varied work in a variety of styles. What band does that remind you of? If you’re Todd, the answer is your own 1960s band The Nazz, with whom he compared The Beatles unfavourably.
Promoting his 1974 album Todd, Rungren told Melody Maker:
“Like, The Beatles had no style other than being The Beatles. So the Nazz used to do, like heavy rock, and also these light, pretty ballads with complex ballads,”
But Rungren wasn’t content to simply talk up his old band. Instead he had some bile stored up for John Lennon. Turned off by Lennon’s political efforts he told the music paper:
“John Lennon ain’t no revolutionary. He’s a !*$% idiot, man. Shouting about revolution and acting like an ass. It just makes people feel uncomfortable….He’s an important figure, sure, but so was Richard Nixon. Nixon was just like another generation’s John Lennon. Someone who represented all sorts of ideals, but was out for himself underneath it all.”
Lennon, not being one to shy away from confrontation, wrote an open letter to one “Sodd Runtlestuntle,” in which he hit back at his young detractor. Amongst other things, Lennon says,
“So the Nazz use to do “like heavy rock” then SUDDENLY a “light pretty ballad”. How original!…Yes Godd, the one thing those Beatles did was to affect PEOPLES’ MINDS. Maybe you need another fix?”
Lennon never liked other people slagging off his former band or their music. That, after all, was his job…