I get a new turntable and dust off some old records. Vinyl Tap #20:

Not the real thing and not really an incredible simulation, side one of this melodic funhouse gem from 1976 comprises a mania of the imitable kind from an inimitable artist. Faithful may err a bit on the south side of a misnomer, but Todd Rundgren’s endeavor to reach beyond the cover song grasp by re-creating, note-for-note, a little ‘60s pop heaven, sends in enough cloning embellishments to do right by the original artists.

Fortunately, the result is more gloriously sloppy than slavish, more hit than miss. Rundgren is a proficient enough guitarist to tune in and turn on to a couple of pre-Altamont archetypal psychedelic freak-outs. The Yardbirds' criminally overlooked acid-rock flashback “Happenings Ten Years Time Ago” comes off spot-on in a hear-the-colors see-the-sounds replication from the group’s Jeff Beck/Jimmy Page dueling-leads incarnation.

Jimi Hendrix’s “If Six Was Nine” is slightly less triumphant. Although the guitar work constitutes the quintessence of blissed-out Bacchanalian cosmic consciousness, Rundgren seemingly abandons all hope of reproducing Hendrix’s vocals, even to the point of supplying only a half-hearted, barely-there spoken aside when it came to singling out “Mr. White Collar Conservative, pointing his plastic finger at me.” Sure, the tangent sounds campy and dated now, but you can’t leave your freak flag at half-staff. Bummer.

Of course, the road to hippie hell was paved with "Good Vibrations," and while there’s no way anybody can improve on the Beach Boys' original, Rundgren’s attempt, after faltering a bit on capturing Carl Wilson's sweetly soulful singing style, is game enough – tremolo-ing theremin and all, intricate vocal harmonies and all. Rundgren seems to have a little more fun on Bob Dylan’s “Most Likely You Go Your Way And I'll Go Mine,” with a spirited, if wavering, Blonde-On-Blonde-era Dylanese complementing the brassy oom-pah loopiness of the winning instrumentation.

Knowing the Beatles are in the details, Rundgren’s nuanced craftsmanship of the Lennon-led “Rain” and “Strawberry Fields Forever” is perhaps the most triumphant on the "faithful" side of things. Vocally, Rundgren – more so than on the album’s other intonation affectations – is pretty pliant in handling the sting of John’s mid-period singing style, even on the songs that relied (to an extent) on studio-bred experimentalism and augmentation.