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

Todd Rundgren Todd Harry Rundgren (born June 22, 1948) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer who has performed a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of the bands Nazz and Utopia. He is known for his sophistica ...

, released by

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (known as Warner Bros. Records Inc. until 2019) is an American record label. A subsidiary of Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division ...

. 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 us ...

, 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 murder in 1967 committed by his partner, was short but highly i ...

's '' Up Against It''. The original version is rather slow and can be found on Rundgren's Japan-only album, '' Up Against It!'' 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 imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or near-perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', which describes a fictiona ...

which had broken up three years earlier; Roger Powell,

Kasim Sulton Kasim as a given name, a variant of Qasim. It may refer to: People known only by the given name Kasim *Kasım Pasha, Ottoman general and governor *Kasım of Karaman, the last bey of the Karaman Beylik, a Turkish principality in Anatolia *Şehza ...

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 50 million units which earned more than 30 gol ...

and the former

The Tubes The Tubes are a San Francisco-based rock band. Their self-titled 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 ear ...

members

Vince Welnick Vincent Leo Welnick (February 21, 1951 – June 2, 2006) was an American keyboardist and 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 ...

(keyboards) and

Prairie Prince Charles Lempriere "Prairie" Prince (born May 7, 1950) is an American drummer and visual 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 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 and guitarist. Starting in the early 1950s as the lead singer of his family musical group the Valentinos and as Sam Cooke's backing guitarist, Womack's ...

, 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 We ...

'', 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 r⋅min−1) is a unit of rotational speed (or rotational frequency) for rotating machines. One revolution per minute is equivalent to hertz. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 def ...

'', 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

Credits adapted from the CD liner notes. *

- lead vocals (all tracks), guitar (6), arranger (all tracks), producer (all tracks), 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 compos ...

- guitar (1-7, 9, 10) * Vernon Black - guitar (5, 8, 9) * Larry Tagg - bass guitar (1-4, 10), backing vocals (5, 6, 9) *

- bass guitar (5) * Rick Anderson - bass guitar (6) *

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

- bass guitar (8, 9) * Brent Bourgeois - Hammond organ (4), synthesizer (3, 5, 7, 9), backing vocals (1, 2, 6) *

- piano (1), digital piano (1-3, 6, 8), accordion (4), synthesizer (5) * Byron Allred - synthesizer (2), piano (9) * Nate Ginsberg - synthesizer (3, 7), piano (10) * Scott Moon - synthesizer (3) * Roger Powell - synthesizer (5) * Jimmy Pugh - Hammond organ (6, 10) *

Mingo Lewis James "Mingo" Lewis (born 8 December 1953) is an American percussionist and drummer who played with Santana, Al Di Meola (he was a band member for Di Meola's first five albums), Return to Forever, and The Tubes. Playing Lewis plays congas, bong ...

- congas (5) * Michael Pluznick - shaker (5), congas (7-9) * Gary Yost - tambourine (1, 6) * Ralph Legnini - tambourine (5) *

Willie Wilcox John "Willie" Wilcox (born September 21, 1951, in Trenton, New Jersey) is an American drummer, vocalist, producer, recording engineer, sound designer, composer, and senior audio director. He is best known for being a member of the band Utopia (A ...

- drums (5) *

Michael Urbano Michael Urbano (born March 19, 1960) is an American 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 Tagg and included L ...

- drums (1-4, 6, 7, 9, 10), timbales (5) *

- percussion (3), electronic drums (5), drums (8) * Barbara Imhoff - harp (1) * Bobby Strickland - tenor saxophone (1, 4, 8, 9), baritone saxophone (6), flute (7) *

Peter Apfelbaum Peter Noah Apfelbaum (born August 21, 1960) is an American avant-garde jazz pianist, tenor saxophonist, drummer, and composer born in Berkeley, California. Career Apfelbaum formed the Hieroglyphics Ensemble in 1977. He performed with Carla Bley ...

- clarinet (7) *

Jim Blinn James F. Blinn (born 1949) is an American computer scientist who first became widely known for his work as a computer graphics expert at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), particularly his work on the pre-encounter animations for the Voyag ...

- trombone (1) * Bruce Paine - trombone (8) * Mike Rose - trumpet (1, 8) * Paul Shaghoian - trumpet (4) *

- co-lead vocals (1) *

Vicki Randle Vicki Randle (born December 11, 1954)Hillgirlz, the les ...

, Jeanie Tracy - backing vocals (1, 10) * N.D. Smart - backing vocals (1, 2, 7, 8) * Michele Gray - backing vocals (1-3, 5-8, 10) *

- backing vocals (2, 3, 6-8, 10) * Keta Bill - backing vocals (2, 3, 9) * Melisa Kary - backing vocals (2, 3, 10) * Kim Cataluna, Cary Sheldon - backing vocals (2, 5-8, 10) * Skyler Jett - backing vocals (2, 9, 10) *

John Hampton John Stephen Hampton (c. 1806 – 1 December 1869) was Governor of Western Australia from 1862 to 1868. Early life Little is known of John Hampton's early life. His death certificate states that he was born in 1810, but other evidence sugge ...

- backing vocals (3) * Annie Stocking - backing vocals (3, 9) * Mary Lou Arnold, Bill Spooner - backing vocals (5) * Bryan Thym - backing vocals (5, 9, 10) *

Shandi Sinnamon Shandi Sinnamon (1952 – July 4, 2024) was an American singer and songwriter. Career Shandi was born to a Huguenot family as Shandra Sinnamon in Miami, Florida. After dropping out of high school, she left home for Big Sur, California. Her amb ...

- backing vocals (7, 8, 10) * Raz Kennedy - backing vocals (9) *

Clarence Clemons Clarence Anicholas Clemons Jr. (January 11, 1942 – June 18, 2011), also known as The Big Man, was an American saxophonist. From 1972 until his death in 2011, he was the saxophonist for Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band. Clemons rel ...

, Daymon Cooper, Vince Ebo, Shirley Faulkner, Emma Jean Foster,

Paul Gilbert Paul Brandon Gilbert (born November 6, 1966) is an American hard rock and heavy metal music, heavy metal guitarist. He is the co-founder of the band Mr. Big (American band), Mr. Big, and was also a member of Racer X (band), Racer X, with whom he ...

, Derick Hughes, Eric Martin,

Kelly Moneymaker Kelly Susan Moneymaker (born June 4, 1970) is an American singer, songwriter, producer, and documentary film director. Early career She was born and raised in Fairbanks, Alaska. As a teenager, Moneymaker moved to Seattle to co-found the band Boy ...

, Jenni Muldaur, Charles Reed, Paul Scott - backing vocals (10) * Dean Franke, Roberta Freier, Stephen Gehl, Nathan Rubin - strings (1) * Paul Brancato, John Tenney - strings (1, 8) * Stefan Hersh - strings (8) * The Dick Bright Strings - strings (8) *

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 (10)

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