Your little baby sister can do it with ease, it's as easy as learning your ABC's, so come on, come on and...I'm (eleven days--criminy!) late again....
I've mentioned a time or two here that one of my biggest musical influences was Rolling Stone's tenth anniversary issue in which a plethora of some of rock's greatest critics listed their top ten albums/songs over the first ten years of the magazine's existence. One pick was this week's artist's Something/Anything? which to this day stands as one of my all-time favorite albums. As such, when he came out with a new album a few years after reading the above noted issue, I took a chance on it--and promptly fell in love with this week's featured tune. In a nutshell, it's a bit like six degrees of Rolling Stone magazine....
I wrote about Todd Rundgren a thousand years ago in Vol. XLVI. In the interim he has released two more studio albums, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021 (he did not attend the ceremony), and at the ripe old age of seventy-eight is currently on tour. I noticed as I was doing my half-assed research that I was remiss in mentioning Rundgren's rather extensive discography, which can be found here. All in all, a top notch musical career.
"Determination" (yet another week with no Wikipedia song entry) was the last song on the first side of Rundgren's 1978 LP, the rather antisocially entitled Hermit of Mink Hollow. The song was not released as a single, and the album reached #36 on the Billboard 200.
Fun Fact: Every instrument, and every vocal, on this week's tune (for that matter, this week's album) was played and sang by Todd Rundgren. Maybe the reason he felt like a hermit?
Every now and again when I play one of my Friday Night Jukebox tunes prior to writing the post, it's been a while since I've heard it and I wonder to myself "Why the fuck did I want to feature this song?" Fortunately, it's always come back to me, and this week's tune was no different--the second time through I was "Ah, yes, that's why." From the snappy guitar intro to Rundgren's impassioned vocals (listen toward the end for a killer elongated "yeah" and a killer elongated "woo"), this one captures all the heart and soul it's seeking in three minutes and twelve seconds. I've often wondered if Rundgren was singing this one to a lover, a friend, or a potential leader (my money would be on lover as he'd just ended a long-term relationship before beginning work on this album), but I don't know that it matters. It's a determined song about...uh, determination and that's all ye need know....
Lyric Sheet: "Three days in the rain and I ain't had no sleep/But I won't break down now, I got a promise to keep..."
Enjoy:
Fuck Donald Trump
Peace,
emaycee
