Audio Autopsy, 1980: New Wave "Wasp"🐝The Unlikely Shaun Cassidy Album Produced by Todd Rundgren

Unheard then, forgotten now: Unlike his half-brother David, Shaun actually CHOSE to become a record-making teen idol, and enjoyed a couple hits. Suddenly, a hard turn, and I don't think he signaled.

“I played the Houston Astrodome for like 50,000 people and said goodnight, and I thought I’d probably do another concert in the next year or so. I didn't know Wasp would be the last record I’d make, but it was.”

Some reports claim Shaun’s Astrodome audience actually swelled to 55,000. Shaun appears here from that Dome show in 1980, all but spray-painted into his leather pants. Six years before, he was a teenaged lead singer of a Hollywood punk band, Longfellow, and frequented Sunset Blvd. haunts with rock stars. A year or two after that final show, I bumped into Shaun and new wife (they wed in December 1979 when Shaun was 21), Ann Pennington (who had just left Rod Stewart’s arms), at a San Fernando Valley restaurant, each of us waiting for tables. Not much was said (they were exceedingly pleasant), although I think I managed to mention I interviewed David six years prior.📸Corbis/VCG via Getty Images

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Shaun Cassidy, in the above quote, was reflecting in a 2020 interview with Lyndsey Parker, YahooMusic’s Editor-in-Chief, on what turned out to be his recording career swan song, 1980’s Wasp album, produced by Todd Rundgren. Shaun spent the early ‘70s as a young teen spending countless nights rubbing punk elbows with his favorite British and American rockers. For example:

From the We Wish We Had Been There Dept., West Coast Division: Hollywood debauchery, circa 1973/4: Shaun, in plaid jacket, center, is surrounded by his garage band Longfellow mates (Shaun was lead singer). When pix like these showed up in CREEM and Hit Parader magazines, Shaun was nothing more or else than “David Cassidy’s kid brother,” hanging around Hollywood with famous rockers: Here, and from l-r are New York Dolls’ bassist, Killer Kane, with whom I became good buds in my two weekends spent with the Dolls in Texas in September 1973 (when Killer had a cast on his left arm, and needed a roadie named Peter, to fill in onstage), a couple Longfellows, Dolls lead singer, David Johansen, whose puckered lips are coming dangerously close to Shaun’s 15-year-old left cheek, “baby groupie” supreme, Sable Starr (with headwrap). Platinum blond Iggy Pop, drink in hand, is being hugged from behind by a thumbs-up Kim Fowley, about a year from discovering and managing the teenage Runaways.

He signed his recording contract with Curb/Warner Bros. Records before graduating from Beverly Hills High, and released five albums before calling it an eventual quits after Wasp was released to thunderous indifference. We’ll discover how the songs on Wasp were selected, and how and why Shaun chose eventual (2021) Rock’n’Roll Hall Famer, Todd, to produce. We took a deep-dive snapshot of Shaun’s first 5 albums here:

Wasp, and Its Resultant Buzz

Shaun, touring in ‘22.

Lyndsey Parker, in her 2020 interview with Shaun, put Album #6, and the players’ rationale for its need to exist into tight perspective: “To say that the new wave album was a departure from what both his record label and fanbase expected would be a massive understatement.

“Produced by the legendary Todd Rundgren [and featuring Todd’s proggy side band, Utopia, backing him up], Wasp boasted a slew of hip cover tunes — David Bowie’s “Rebel Rebel,” Talking Heads’ “The Book I Read,” the Who’s “So Sad About Us” [released as the second single from the album], the Animals’ “It’s My Life,” Ian Hunter’s “Once Bitten, Twice Shy,” even the Four Tops’ “Shake Me, Wake Me” — as well as four fiery, feisty, funky originals written or co-written by Rundgren himself” [including “Cool Fire,” with lyrics by Todd and music composed by Shaun.]

Todd’s Utopia featured (above, l-r) Kasim Sulton on bass, Todd on sax, guitar, bass, and drums, Roger Powell on various keyboards, and Willie Wilcox, drums. All but Kasim sang background vocals.