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Hermit of Mink Hollow

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Released
  
April 7, 1978

Producer
  
Todd Rundgren

Release date
  
7 April 1978

Genres
  
Pop rock, Power pop

Length
  
34:50

Artist
  
Todd Rundgren

Label
  
Bearsville Records

Hermit of Mink Hollow httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediaenthumb8

Recorded
  
Utopia Sound Studios, Lake Hill, NY

Hermit of Mink Hollow (1978)
  
Back to the Bars (1978)

Similar
  
Todd Rundgren albums, Pop rock albums

Hermit of Mink Hollow is Todd Rundgren's eighth solo album, released in 1978. It was his first album to be written and recorded entirely by Rundgren alone, though large portions of earlier albums also had been recorded alone (such as the first three sides of the double-LP Something/Anything).

Contents

The album is reminiscent of the artist's earlier, more pop-oriented records and marks a lyrical return to the subject of relationships (as in the single "Can We Still Be Friends"), as well as his views on social inequality (as in the songs "Bag Lady" and "Bread"). It remains one of his most popular albums.

Mink Hollow refers to a valley, and the road that runs through it, in Lake Hill, New York just west of Woodstock, NY. Rundgren recorded this album while living in a house on Mink Hollow Road. While many think that the hermit referred to in the title is Todd, it actually originated and refers to the character and events from a local legend centered on Mink Hill Road in Lake Hill, NY. The legend involved a 3-legged dog, a missing girl and an escaped mental patient hiding in the surrounding forested mountains. Yet, Rundgren himself acknowledged being a "studio hermit", working in an "insular little 24-hour-a-day think tank", and declared that prior to this experience he wasn't aware that "too much social interaction [had] affected [his] overall creativity."

Conception

Rundgren intended the songs on the album to be performed on piano with minimal arrangements, apart from the bass, drums and voices. In that sense, he stated that the songwriting process appeared to be "fairly conventional". Most of the songs on the record didn't have lyrics until completed.

Track listing

The original track listing for the album, which can be found on the back of the album jacket, was rejected by Bearsville as being too haphazard. Bearsville re-listed the songs in a more "Pop Friendly" sequence, comprising the lighter poppy songs on "The Easy Side" and the more cerebral or harder rock songs on "The Difficult Side".

All songs written by Todd Rundgren.

Side one - The Easy Side

  1. "All the Children Sing" - 3:08
  2. "Can We Still Be Friends" - 3:34
  3. "Hurting for You" - 3:20
  4. "Too Far Gone" - 2:38
  5. "Onomatopoeia" - 1:34
  6. "Determination" - 3:11

Side two - The Difficult Side

  1. "Bread" - 2:48
  2. "Bag Lady" - 3:13
  3. "You Cried Wolf" - 2:20
  4. "Lucky Guy" - 2:04
  5. "Out of Control" - 3:56
  6. "Fade Away" - 3:04

Personnel

  • Todd Rundgren - Arranger, Instruments, Producer, Vocals.
  • In the 30 Rock episode The C Word, show producer Liz Lemon tries to tell producer Pete Hornberger and writer Frank Rossitano that someone insulted her with a word that "rhymes with your favorite Todd Rundgren album," expecting them to say Runt. Frank responds: "It rhymes with Hermit of Mink Hollow?"

    • Charts

    Album

    Single

    Songs

    1All the Children Sing3:12
    2Can We Still Be Friends3:38
    3Hurting for You3:22

    References

    Hermit of Mink Hollow Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA