Tune Tag #79 with NUK of "Infrequency-FM": Todd Rundgren, Lisa Loeb, Crowded House, Peter Ivers, Fanny, M. Frog, Amy Helm, Paul Butterfield
It's the Tune Tag where everyone knows everyone else! Familial, familiar and fun, you'll want to pull up a front row seat and take notes👂....This kind:🎶🎵🎶❗
Hey, NUK! Tag’n’Wag……You’re IT!
Tune Tag welcomes of Infrequency-FM!
Last week, we enjoyed the company of of Kalowski’s Substack:
Next week, we’ll welcome of Music’s Most Underrated!
NUK’s Song #1 sent to Brad: Peter Ivers/The Peter Peter Ivers Band, “Audience of One,” 1974
NUK’s rationale: I don’t really have a good reason for picking this song other than I was listening to it a lot last year (2024), and it checks the boxes I thought would make an interesting start to this thread — lots of connections, but also a little obscure [Brad: A little obscure?!?].
Not to mention, Peter’s life was as interesting as his death [murder] — which, to this day, remains unsolved. I’ve been meaning to put together an article about Ivers, but there’s already a bunch of articles that all pretty much say the same thing, and there haven’t been any updates to the story... but I might do it anyway. So... look out for that, I guess. Not really sure what else to say here... take it away, Brad!
Brad’s response: We now have 2 of the five people on the planet who have ever had or heard Terminal Love! In 1974 (summer, I believe), when the album was released, I was 19, and in between college years…my first at U of N. Texas in Denton, and, in my own apartment from Fall on, attending the U. of Houston, doing 3 hours on-air and acting as Music Director at their campus station, KUHF-FM. Dad likely brought the promo home, and as he had done for a decade with promos, given it to me!
I remember being struck by the stark cover photo, and the “Peter Peter” part, as well as the unusual name of Peter’s co-producer, Buell Neidlinger! I was not entirely entranced by Peter’s decidedly quirky music, however.
Shortly after this Tune Tag, NUK/Infrequency-FM put together this incisive and comprehensive look at the life and influence of Peter Ivers:
Brad’s song #1 sent to NUK: Fanny, “Last Night I Had a Dream,” 1973
NUK’s response: This is a cover song — though, with an additional verse — of a track originally from Randy Newman’s Sail Away album (like Fanny at the time, also on Reprise Records), released in 1972. The following year, Fanny’s drummer, Alice DeBuhr, played the drums on The Peter Peter Ivers Band’s album, Terminal Love, on Warner Bros. Records.
As she told one interviewer: “Yeah, The Peter Ivers Band. It was very strange; I don’t think you can even call it rock’n’roll. I mean, it was really strange music. Peter was a harmonica player. We did the one album, and I think we played one gig.”
Coincidentally, Peter Ivers had a song on his next (self-titled) Warners album (above, 1976, produced by Gary “The Dream Weaver” Wright) titled “I’m Sorry Alice” (lead track on Side 1, above) which made me stop and wonder who that Alice was — because I also noticed Alice DeBuhr (shown below) wasn’t involved in that album. Then I read that she was a lesbian, so... yeah, that theory is out.
Terminal Love was apparently the last album she played on due to an ultimatum from her aspiring-actress girlfriend, which was also a big part of her quitting Fanny. Before totally calling it quits, she sat behind the drums for the Terminal Love sessions (and one live show) with Ivers. She then went to work at a telephone answering service at night and a veterinarian’s office during the day — her drums became furniture. Don’t know what happened to the girlfriend.
To be totally honest, I hadn’t heard either song before this (though, I liked the Fanny version enough to add it to my Stack’s ‘70s playlist), so I went with what might have been a safe/easy choice, and chose the producer of Mother’s Pride, Todd Rundgren, as the link to my next song.
Brad’s rationale: Alice DeBuhr played drums on the Peter Ivers sessions from which “Audience of One” came. As Fanny’s drummer, she’s also on this Randy Newman cover, “Last Night I Had a Dream” from Fanny’s Todd Rundgren-produced Mother’s Pride album from 1973 (same corporate entity as the Ivers album…Warner Bros’ Reprise Records subsidiary). Dad had brought this promo home the year before!
NUK’s song #2: Todd Rundgren, “International Feel,” 1973
Brad’s response: Todd, who produced the Fanny album! A Wizard, A True Star (Bearsville/Warner Bros. Records): One of my favorite albums by Todd, it was notable for many reasons, one of them being the fact that it came in at nearly an hour in total length (55:56)! Todd included a “Turn it up!” note on the back of the jacket about the album’s length (with the resulting thinner and shallower grooves) necessitating an increase in volume during playback!
NUK’s rationale: As mentioned, the connection here is that Fanny’s album, Mother’s Pride, was produced, engineered, and mixed by Todd Rundgren. According to keyboardist, Nickey Barclay, to Charles Shaar Murray in UK’s New Musical Express in 1973: “The only person that the four of us could agree on to produce us — that was available to produce us – was Todd, and he was into it. We’d done a few gigs with him, and he liked the idea.”
Fanny guitarist June Millington and sister, bassist Jean Millington, later expressed dissatisfaction with the album, feeling it was overproduced, according to journalist, Nicole Blizzard, in 2002. The band had wanted a more raw and live-sounding production, as well as input in the final mixes. “When it came to mixing the album, Todd essentially locked us out of the studio,” Jean Millington told Blizzard in 2003.
One of the production techniques on both of these songs is the use of flanging on the piano in Fanny’s cover of “Last Night...” and on the drums for “International Feel” — which I actually love.
Analog tape flanging explained and demonstrated, here:
On top of making them sound kinda trippy, it made them distorted in a way you didn't hear a lot in recordings back then, giving it a bit more of a modern aesthetic — at least to my ear.
Also: trombone player, Barry Rogers (above), appears on both albums, and both albums were also produced in 1973 at Rundgren’s NYC studio, Secret Sound.
Brad’s song #2: M. Frog, “Suckling-Pigs Game,” 1973
NUK’s response: This one made me sweat a little at first because it’s another one I haven’t heard, but the connection here is pretty obvious as soon as you start browsing production credits: mixed by Todd Rundgren. But also, M. Frog played synths for Todd on our previous song from, A Wizard, A True Star.
And, to connect this to the previous two songs: During a Fanny show at Max’s Kansas City (above) — just after finishing production of their Mother’s Pride album —Rundgren mentioned to M. Frog (Labat) that he wanted to start a band with him on synthesizer.
So, obviously, Todd’s Utopia would be the logical choice for the next step, but M. Frog was only on the first album, and none of the Utopia songs I like are on that album (I’d probably choose something like “Trapped” from Oops! Wrong Planet…here they are, playing it live, recently). Then, I thought maybe I’d use a French connection to get us out of the ‘70s and away from this Rundgren rut we’ve started to form, but then I decided that simply being French was probably too weak of a connection to be in the spirit of the game.
I then noticed the album cover was done by Milton Glaser (1929-2020). The colors used are very Milton of this period, so I kinda have some doubt about the claims of the graph featured on the cover actually being an alternate form of music notation...unless he just colored it in, or it’s a coincidence... either way, I figured this would get us out of the Todd Rundgren web. [Unseen Narrator: it didn’t]
Brad’s rationale: Long-time confidante (I guess that’s the accurate word) of Todd’s was one Jean-Yves Labat, keyboard player, and early synth pioneer (again, I think that’s the correct word). Labat played on Todd’s A Wizard a True Star album. Labat is more known, I think, by that name these days, whereas the M. Frog moniker was certainly more prevalent in his ‘70s recording days (as that’s how he was marketed):
One would almost have to have known Labat’s M. Frog persona from back in that day to recognize the Labat name and put the two together! I’ll be interested to see if NUK knows Labat’s career. I had this album at the time, and it stands out as being a debut album that had a purposeful production “anomaly” (and is another that, like Todd, is on Bearsville, distributed by Warner Bros.):
Warner Bros. actually marketed the album with “a 6-page booklet (detailing artist history and his unique musical notation) affixed to front cover,” as Discogs described it (staples and booklet thickness evident in photo above…this is what mine looked like, a Promo brought home from radio-station-ad-exec Dad! While Labat/Frog produced, Todd actually mixed several tracks on the album, including this song.
A reader, “exploresweaters” on Discogs, says this: “Jean-Yves Labat is ‘M. Frog,’ a nickname he acquired when trying to decide on a stage name... an American friend suggested (perhaps insensitively) ‘Monsieur Frog’, and Labat obviously enjoyed the joke. Todd Rundgren assists (a bit more than just the mixing he’s credited for)...Labat later returned the favor...Todd fans know and love Labat’s zany/emotional keyboard work on A Wizard, A True Star.”
NUK’s song #3: Paul Butterfield, “The Flame,” 1976
Brad’s response: Well, we’re still on Bearsville, as with the M. Frog/Labat! We also have Milt Glaser, again (pictured above), with the Butterfield album-jacket artwork giving us the fing-ear. We also have, like the Labat, essentially, an instrumental with “The Flame.” The credit list on this is not only voluminous, but luminous, if not downright legendary: A couple of Motown “Funk Brothers,” a couple members of The Band, major jazz players, a full string section with horns, and a chorus of first-call backing singers! Yet, virtually no one on the planet is aware of its existence!
As for my follow-up, it’d be too easy to simply go to Cheap Trick’s “The Flame,” but NUK and I have proven we can “do better” than that…..so, we shall!
NUK’s rationale: As mentioned, the connection here is that Milton Glaser did the album art for both M. Frog and Put It In Your Ear, but the connections turned out to be a lot deeper:
Paul Butterfield played harmonica on M. Frog, but not the song Brad shared (it was on “Hey Little Lady”). John Holbrook recorded M. Frog (and has writing credits), and he also played guitar on Put It In Your Ear. Nick Jameson mixed one track on M. Frog and played guitar & bass on Put It In Your Ear.
Also, as it turns out — and I swear I didn’t know this beforehand — Todd Rundgren’s first Philadelphia band, Woody’s Truck Stop (pictured above), was a blues rock band directly inspired by...The Paul Butterfield Blues Band! Todd was only in the Truck Stop for eight months (and didn’t record with them) before forming The Nazz.
Fun piece of useless trivia: Paul Butterfield was known for playing harmonica — same as Peter Ivers. Ivers & Butterfield were both from Chicago and both experienced untimely deaths in L.A.
Brad’s song #3: Amy Helm, “Didn’t It Rain,” 2015
NUK’s response: Amy Helm is the daughter of drummer Levon Helm, who was Didn’t it Rain’s executive producer (he also contributed drums, but not on this track — that was David Berger), and back in the ‘70s, he played drums on Paul Butterfield’s Put It In Your Ear!
Gotta be honest, M. Frog made me sweat a little, but, this one made me say WTF?! out loud—because I have no idea who this is, and I don’t know any of the people involved. After a brief moment of panic, I found the connection to the previous song almost immediately — that was a relief — but what song was I going to pick?
Sometimes finding the connection to the previous song isn’t the hardest part!
I started reading through all the people listed in the production credits and noticed that guitarist Daniel Littleton was in the punk band, The Hated, and I thought that would make a funny contrast, but then I noticed that he also played guitar for Lisa Loeb. I thought the fact that he wasn’t front and center, like in his own band, would maybe add a little more difficulty. Plus, I actually know the Lisa Loeb song, so I guess it’s only fair.
Brad’s rationale: Amy is the daughter of former The Band drummer and singer, Levon Helm, who passed away in 2012, three years before she recorded this, the title song from her 2015 album. Levon drummed on those 1976 Paul Butterfield sessions.
And, here she is performing the song with her band, The Handsome Strangers, in 2016. I’ll let her introduce it:
NUK’s song #4: Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories, “Stay (I Missed You),” 1994
Lisa and “Stay,” live on The Howard Stern Show, a dozen years later:
Brad’s response: One female singer/songwriter/guitarist follows another? Not finding another possible link from Helm to Loeb. But, it was a song that made its way onto the soundtrack of 1994’s feature film directed by Ben Stiller, Reality Bites.
From the Wiki entry for the song: “‘Stay’ was originally conceived (and written by Loeb) in 1990, at one point with the intent of selling it to Daryl Hall for a project he was seeking music for. Upon deciding to use the song herself, Loeb’s neighbor and friend, actor Ethan Hawke, heard the song and submitted it to Ben Stiller for use in the film he was directing, Reality Bites.”
As it happens, I spent 3 nights working as a “background artist” aka extra, on The Newton Boys, a theatrical feature filmed in and around Austin, TX in 1997 (and released the following year), starring Matthew McConaughey and Ethan Hawke:
Former MTV veejay, Karen “Duff” Duffy, co-starred in Reality Bites, also. She and I shared screen time in Disney’s Blank Check (1994), starring skateboarding punk-rocker (and, former Family Ties actor), Brian Bonsall (now 43), as a kid who somehow gets a million dollars from a bank, as we follow the merry mix-ups that ensue. I worked, background, a couple days in Austin and 3 days in San Antonio on that one.
NUK’s rationale: This is the one song on this Tune Tag I know simply because of when I grew up. I’m not sure I’ve ever gone out of my way to hear this song (until now), but 30 years later I still know all the words. Not sure what to say about this... I was just desperate to make a connection to “Didn’t It Rain,” and this seemed like the best option.
As mentioned, the connection here is that Daniel Littleton played guitar, but also that Elizabeth Mitchell (Wiki link) provided backing vocals for both songs as well. Additionally, Elizabeth Mitchell (personal website link) and Lisa Loeb put out an album together in 1989 under the name Liz And Lisa (titled... Liz And Lisa)….on cassette, yet!
And, because we can’t go one song without a Todd Rundgren connection: Todd and Lisa Loeb are to be featured, this year, on a concert tour tribute to David Bowie, called “Celebrating David Bowie 2025”:
Brad’s song #4: Crowded House, “Locked Out,” 1993
Brad’s rationale: All roads lead to the Reality Bites soundtrack, as this Crowded House track joins Lisa and her “Stay.”
NUK’s response: This one was actually the hardest one for me to figure out. So, of course, it was actually the easiest one to figure out! I spent a good 30 minutes reading through production credits trying to find anything in common, digging into each person looking for a secondary or tertiary connection.
Eventually, I happened to go back and read the very first article I pulled up — and there it was, literally the last line (which I had skipped): “‘Locked Out’ reached #12 on the UK singles chart and #8 on the U.S. Modern Rock chart, the latter on the strength of the song’s inclusion on the soundtrack of the 1994 film, Reality Bites”... Oh, yeah... whoops! I never saw Reality Bites, and I never listened to the soundtrack — I just happened to be a teenager in 1994, and was basically forced to know that song!
As far as “Locked Out” goes, it’s another song I’ve never heard (I swear, I do actually listen to music!). That said, I do know at least one Crowded House song. I can still hear “Don’t Dream It’s Over” in my head from when I was a kid (1986), but until now I didn’t realize they were considered a New Zealand band... that’s how much I know about them! Well, at least we finally got away from Todd Rundgren.
Oh, wait... what’s that? “Rundgren’s most recent studio album, Space Force (red vinyl edition above), was released in October 2022. The collaborative project featured the veteran singer/songwriter teaming up with such artists as Crowded House’s Neil Finn....”
Well, if we’ve learned anything today, it’s that, apparently, this is Todd Rundgren’s world and we’re just listening to it!🎶
 | A guest post by
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"[Brad: A little obscure?!?]"
To be fair, Ivers was a bit before my time (I was 3 y/o when he was murdered). I didn't know about him until I was well into adulthood, and from all the reading about him I did, it seemed like he was one of those people who knew everyone. From getting the approval of Muddy Waters early in his career (before it, actually), to his work with David Lynch, to hosting New Wave Theatre, etc... even his early work's influence on rock operas like Jesus Christ Superstar — I figured anyone even slightly into music history would probably know about him. When it comes to artists before my time, I always assume I'm the one who's just catching up. Maybe I really should do post on him... March 3rd is right around the corner!
Anyway... was fun. Thanks again!
Oh... and there was some rather interesting (but only tangentially-related.. and maybe only interesting to me) stuff that was cut — might include it in a future post on my stack.
Liked the Todd Tag Today. Some Motown, some Jazz, some Females. Hit most of the food groups. Well done, Nuk and Brad!