Todd Rundgren - Parallel Lines

[Nitrateaudio]

I always felt this was one of those perfectly composed and written and recorded songs. Its from Todd Rundgren's R&B gospel phase, as I like to call it. A great album made when he was at the height of his vocal abilities after he had spent many years focusing on the voice. The interesting thing about this album was the concept was to record everything live, as much as possible, in one take -- so "supposedly", this is all a one take performance after many hours of practicing it in studio.

The whole thing is just arranged really well, the song sections and the background vocals, which are just amazingly arranged, which he spent lots of time on as he was very focused on the human voice and what it can do at that point in his career. The parts of the song that really to get me most are the transition to the bridge section, "the gift of empathy" line, and then the transition to the last chorus where the whole song change up to the next key. The lyrics are also quite amazing to read and get your head around how he is writing the melody line to those words and finding ways to sing and perform them. Some of those words come across as really weird phrased words, but they work musically somehow.






And also, the full lyrics below

Kindred spirits moving along the spiral
I can see you up on another level
It's too great a fall
And I can't reach you to pull me higher
But I don't seem to get much closer or any more far

What would you tell me, if I could hear you speaking?
If you could touch me, how would I know the feeling?
I just can't imagine
But I try to do it anyway
I wish I was moving faster, I wish you'd drift back
But it just wasn't meant to happen
Very soon I'll have to

Face the fact
Some things never come together
Parallel lines running on forever
And you can't turn back
There is never any starting over
Parallel lines never do cross over

It's a challenge
Gotta make myself remember
Facing the truth, well, that doesn't mean surrender
What is bravado and how much is a force of will?
I know that the world is full of opposites that attract
But unless we ignore the physics
Very soon we'll have to

Face the fact
Some things never come together
Parallel lines running on forever
And you can't turn back
There is never any starting over
Parallel lines never do cross over

So I send you the gift of empathy
If you'd once in your life acknowledge me
I have visualized so thoroughly
That when I think of me I think of we

Can't face the truth
It means that we must surrender
Understanding won't satisfy the hunger
It whittles away at the destiny we fulfill
And like an animal running wild
You can't call it back
And it's just gonna make it harder
When it's finally time to

Face the fact
Some things never come together
Parallel lines running on forever
And you can't turn back
There is never any starting over
Parallel lines never do cross over

It's like a train that's stuck running on a track
Parallel lines running on, running on, running on