Customer Reviews

Nazz Nazz / Nazz 3: The Fungo Bat Sessions

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The follow up to their self-titled debut was to be a 2 record set called "Fungo Bat". The band had flown to England and were going to record their but due to lack of work permits they only played one 20min impromptu show and it was back home to the U.S. to record the second album in L.A. with James Lowe (former singer of The Electric Prunes") as engineer. After finalizing the running order and due to increasing friction in the band the group decided to cut the record down to one LP and called it "Nazz Nazz". If the first record was varied this one was even more so. Starting with the sparkling pop of "Forget All About It" and "Gonna Cry Today" to rockers like "Under The Ice" and "Hang On Paul" to the opus "A Beautiful Song" in other words another great album. It was apparent that Todd Rundgren was looking to spread his musical horizons even more and considering he was dating Laura Nyro at the time her influence was also becoming apparent much to the chagrin of the rest of the band. So Todd quit the group and began a very successful solo career that is still going strong. In a latch ditch attempt for product their record label released "Nazz 3" in 1970, which was basically the leftovers from the "Fungo Bat" sessions. That is not to say that it's not good, it is but most of it sounds like demos than completed tracks. So if you pick up this and the first album you will basically have everything the Nazz laid to tape from 68 to 70. So go nuts.

I am a very big fan of Todd Rundgren, these Nazz cd's are him at the begining of his illustrious career. The cd's are a mish-mosh of styles that Todd was trying out to see where he is the most comfortable, but this is just a blue print for a very eclectic career. Fusion, pop, power pop, R and B, blues, experimenting. He is one of the most talented people in music. If you followed him like me from Nazz to his solo and Utopia cds to Arena, he is always facinating.Now to get back to this cd. There are many great songs, Forget All about It, Under The Ice,Hang on Paul etc. his guitar playing as usual is amazing,. The vocal harmonizing is picture perfect. This is great '60's style music(done in the '60's)very influenced by The Move, Beatles and Cream. There are very few weak songs(on a 2-cd set) but for a bunch of teenagers, those songs are forgivable.(ps-The rest of the band are supurb musicians too!
Very highly recomended.
Ed