By way of contrast with that Wipers album, I also listened to this last night:
I’ve left the album art at full size cos I do think it is pretty cool, and is much the best thing about the record. Todd Rundgren’s Initiation from 1975, infamous at the time for being one of the longest single LPs ever, running some 68 minutes in total; the record was so delicate as a result that the album actually came with the advice to, more or less immediately, change your turntable needle and record the thing onto tape and listen to it that way rather than risk damaging the record.
I’d read about this album many years ago, noting the extreme length and how the whole of side two was occupied by one 35-minute instrumental track. And I’d read about Rundgren in various books, and he always seemed like the sort of person whose work I should find interesting… but I never actually knowingly heard anything by him apart from “Can We Still Be Friends” until I listened to Something/Anything a few years ago. I… kind of hated it. I can’t remember if I even played the whole thing before quitting it.
I definitely didn’t finish Initiation, finally having had more than enough about six minutes into the instrumental side. FUCK this record. I REALLY hate this. Generally overplayed and overdone, and there’s an accent Rundgren sings in for some parts of the song “Eastern Intrigue” that, frankly, came over as kind of racist. It may be one of those records that needs multiple listens to properly absorb, but I rather doubt I’d actually gain anything from doing that. Like I said, I always felt like Rundgren sounded like someone I should be interested in… but I think this might be the last time I try anything by him.
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