''Nearly Human'' is a 1989 album by the rock musician

Todd Rundgren Todd Harry Rundgren (born June 22, 1948) is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, multimedia artist, sound engineer and record producer who has performed a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of the band U ...

, released by

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...

. It was his first release in four years, although he had been active as a producer in the intervening years. Many of the album's songs deal with loss, self-doubt, jealousy and spiritual recovery. It was also the first collaboration between Rundgren and Michele Gray, a singer and ex-model who helped to organize the sessions. Gray sang

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are u ...

, both on the record and on subsequent tours, and the pair later married.

Recording

The song "Parallel Lines" was originally written for Rundgren's musical theater Off Broadway production of

Joe Orton John Kingsley Orton (1 January 1933 – 9 August 1967), known by the pen name of Joe Orton, was an English playwright, author, and diarist. His public career, from 1964 until his death in 1967, was short but highly influential. During this brie ...

's ''

Up Against It ''Up Against It'' is an unproduced script by Joe Orton, written in 1967 for The Beatles at the height of their fame. Background Orton's screenplay was a revised version of a 1966 script called ''Shades of a Personality'', by Owen Holder, wh ...

''. The original version is rather slow and can be found on Rundgren's Japan-only album, ''

Up Against It! ''Up Against It!'' is a 1997 album by Todd Rundgren consisting mostly of song demos he wrote and recorded between 1986 and 1989 for the musical theater adaptation of the never-produced screenplay ''Up Against It''. The play was originally written ...

''. The song was re-recorded here with an uptempo and lusher arrangement. Unlike a large portion of Rundgren's solo albums on which he played all the instruments and sang all lead and backing vocals, ''Nearly Human'' was performed live in the studio with numerous musicians, including the members of Rundgren's defunct band

Utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book '' Utopia'', describing a fictional island socie ...

which had broken up three years earlier; Roger Powell,

Kasim Sulton Kasim Sulton (born December 8, 1955) is an American bass guitarist, keyboardist and vocalist. Best known for his work with Utopia, Sulton sang lead on 1980's "Set Me Free," Utopia's only top 40 hit in the United States. As a solo artist, Sulton ...

and John "Willie" Wilcox all play on the track "Can't Stop Running".

Scott Mathews Scott Mathews (born July 25, 1955) is an American music producer, composer, performer, and entrepreneur. He has appeared as a musician, songwriter or producer on recordings with sales of more than 40 million units which earned more than 20 gol ...

and the former

The Tubes The Tubes are a San Francisco-based rock band. Their eponymous 1975 debut album included the single " White Punks on Dope," while their 1983 single "She's a Beauty" was a top-10 U.S. hit and its music video was frequently played in the early ...

members

Vince Welnick Vincent Leo Welnick (February 21, 1951 – June 2, 2006) was an American keyboardist-singer-songwriter best known for playing with the band The Tubes during the 1970s and 1980s and with the Grateful Dead in the 1990s. He was inducted into ...

(keyboards) and

Prairie Prince Charles Lempriere "Prairie" Prince (born May 7, 1950) is an American drummer and graphic artist. He came to prominence in the 1970s as a member of the San Francisco–based rock group The Tubes, was a member of Jefferson Starship from 1992 to ...

(drums) also perform on ''Nearly Human''. The track "Feel It" was originally recorded (with slightly different lyrics) by the San Francisco band on its 1985 album '' Love Bomb'', produced by Rundgren.

Brent Bourgeois Brent Thomas Bourgeois (born June 16, 1958) is an American rock musician, songwriter, and producer. He was co-leader of the band Bourgeois Tagg with Larry Tagg, and has released several solo albums. His later work has been classified in the gen ...

and Larry Tagg of Bourgeois Tagg, whom Rundgren had produced, also played on the album along with the rest of the band, making ''Nearly Human'' effectively a Rundgren-Utopia-Bourgeois Tagg-Tubes collaboration, plus extra vocalists and keyboard players.

Reception

''Nearly Human'' received very favorable reviews. The album's single, "The Want of a Nail", featuring the soul legend

Bobby Womack Robert Dwayne Womack (; March 4, 1944 – June 27, 2014) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. Starting in the early 1950s as the lead singer of his family musical group the Valentinos and as Sam Cooke's backing guit ...

, was Rundgren's last charting ''Billboard'' single. One other single was released "Parallel Lines" B/W "I love My Life" but did not chart. Andrew Martin, reviewer of British music newspaper ''

Music Week ''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future. History Founded in 1959 as '' Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music W ...

'', praised the album by saying "Todd Rundgren forays into making his own albums are rarer these days, but when they do arrive they tend to be slick, taut affairs which exude class. This is no exception." In the end Martin said: "From the delicious horn-tinged overdrive of 'The Want of a Nail' to the strident bass-lead 'Unloved Children' it demonstrates a man cable of delving into a myriad of rock styles without floundering." In review of 10 June 1989 David Spodek of ''

RPM Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimension ...

'', named this album "a welcome return." He wrote: "This is radio-tailored pop at its best, with material that will fit both AOR and NC formats" and summarized that "this LP should be a winner on radio and in the stores, provided it is backed with the right promotion in order to attract a new legion of fans to Rundgren's sound."

Japanese release

For the Japanese release of the album, the sixth finger of the handprint on the cover was removed, "due to the religious significance of six fingers in Japan".

Track listing

CD issue

LP issue

The LP release had a slightly different track list and did not include "Two Little Hitlers".

Personnel

- lead vocals, guitar, arranger, producer, cover art design *

Lyle Workman Lyle Dean Workman is an American guitarist, composer, session and touring musician, and music producer. His music has been widely distributed since his debut on the eponymous ''Bourgeois Tagg'' album in 1986, and is known for his work as compose ...

- guitar * Vernon Black - guitar *

Larry Tagg Larry Tagg is an American rock musician, songwriter and producer; a retired high school English and drama teacher; and also an American Civil War historian. He was co-leader of the band Bourgeois Tagg in the 1980s with Brent Bourgeois and has rel ...

- bass guitar *

Randy Jackson Randall Darius Jackson (born June 23, 1956) is an American record executive and television presenter, perhaps best known as a judge on ''American Idol'' from 2002 to 2013. Jackson began his career in the 1980s as a session musician playing bas ...

- bass guitar * Kasim Sulton - bass guitar *

- organ, synthesizers * Vince Welnick - piano, electric piano, accordion * Byron Allred - keyboards, piano * Jimmy Pugh - organ * Nate Ginsberg - piano * Michael Pluznick - congas, shaker * Mingo Lewis - shaker * Michael Urbano - timbales * Gary Yost - tambourine *

Michael Urbano Michael Urbano (born March 19, 1966 in Sacramento, California, USA) is a musician, programmer, and record producer. Career One of Urbano's first gigs was as a member of Bourgeois Tagg, a 1980s band that was fronted by Brent Bourgeois and Larry ...

- drums * Prairie Prince - electronic drums, drums * Barbara Imhnoff - harp * Bobby Strickland - flute, saxophone * Peter Apfelbaum - clarinet * Jim Blinn - trombone * Mike Rose - trumpet *

- lead vocals on "The Want of a Nail" * Various guests - backing vocals * Various guests - strings *

Narada Michael Walden Narada Michael Walden ( ; Michael Walden; born April 23, 1952) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. He acquired the nickname Narada from Sri Chinmoy. He began his career as a drummer, working primarily in the jazz ...

- choirmaster on "I Love My Life"

Charts

Album -

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

Singles -

References

{{Authority control Todd Rundgren albums 1989 albums Albums produced by Todd Rundgren Warner Records albums