My Top 1000 Songs #384: I Saw The Light

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

There's something kinda magical about Todd Rundren's early solo work. His fascination with Laura Nyro/Carole King-styled folk and light pop gives the music a gentle singer-songwriter touch, but wielded to more of a classic rock/power pop sensibility. The blend works beautifully on "I Saw The Light," the highlight of his epic 1972 double-LP Something/Anything? It's a catchy, captivating power pop song that blends in well alongside purveyors like McCartney, Big Star, the Raspberries, and Emitt Rhodes; but the bouncy pianos and Rundgren's gentle, androgynous vocal delivery is feather-light and entrancing, sheer joy that captures a distinctive early 70s vibe yet is too winning to be dismissed as dated.

Rundgren-the-production-wunderkind is present, from the lofty harmonies to the slide guitar flourishes, giving the song a bit more heft without bogging it down. The track presents a wonderful little blueprint of the ideal pop song.

Live in 2011 with Daryl Hall:

An early video!

Kids keeping it alive!