Todd Rundgren: “Time Heals” (1981)

Rundgren flashes his filmmaker chops (and a few dance moves) on this early music video single.

Kronomyth 10.01: The surreal world.

Todd Rundgren took an early interest in digital video editing and was something of a pioneer in the music video space, creating several early music videos including, here, one for Time Heals. The video features Rundgren in various outfits against a backdrop of famous surrealist paintings. It’s interesting to note how new technologies often completely disregard copyright issues at first (e.g., Napster, YouTube, AI). Although dated by today’s standards, this was actually pretty advanced stuff for the time. As for the song itself, it’s a good melody and message delivered in the compressed style of Utopia. The B side, Tiny Demons, is a dreamlike song with lots of cool sounds that fits right into the excellent style of Healing. The single itself was included when you bought the Healing album and appended to the end of side two on the cassette versions.

Original 7-inch single version

A1. Time Heals (Todd Rundgren) (3:33)
B1. Tiny Demons (Todd Rundgren) (3:08)

Original 7-inch EP picture disc single
A1. Time Heals (Todd Rundgren)
A2. Why Can’t We Be Friends (Todd Rundgren)
B1. I Saw the Light (Todd Rundgren)
B2. Tiny Demons (Todd Rundgren)

The Plastic

Released on 7-inch single in February 1981 in the US (Bearsville, BSS 49696) and the UK (Bearsville, PSR 455). Also released as promotional 7-inch single in 1981 in the US (Bearsville, BSS49696) with A mono on flip. Released on four-track 7-inch EP picture disc in 1982 in the UK (Avatar, AVAB1P).