I've tabbed a bunch of Todd songs to this site (mostly during the summer), but they were all keyboard
based songs (as most of Todd's are, despite his guitar skills), since I only played keyboard at the time.

At any rate, this past September, I started teaching myself guitar. And here's my first shot at a *guitar*
transcription. Some of Todd's songs just don't cut it on a piano, and this is one of them. I realize there's
a tab of this already on the site, but some of the chord shapes/positions are *way* too complicated,
and un-Todd like (although the chord names themselves are pretty accurate). 

And I'm going to copy Lin Sprague for the format of this.

-----------------------------------------------------

"Chain Letter"
From the album "The Ballad of Todd Rundgren" 
Transcribed by Brian Canfield on 1/5/06.

Intro: 
(x over the fretboard means where to fret, obviously..but on top, it means "don't play that string..)


    Asus4       A       Dadd9        E       <----You can play the 2 bottom strings on that 
   xoo__x    xo___x    xxo__o     xx__oo          E as well, if you want..
   ||||||    ||||||    ||||||     |||x||    
   ||xxx|    ||xxx|    |||xx|     ||x|||     
   ||||x|    ||||||    ||||||     ||||||     
   ||||||    ||||||    ||||||     ||||||   

Repeat this twice.

Acoustic Verse 1:

  "Don't.. .. yourself   too     seriously     

     E        Esus4      E5?       A          D/A        E/A
   xx__oo    xx__oo    xx__oo    xo___o      xo___o     xo___o
   |||x||    ||||||    ||||||    ||||||      ||||||    3||||||
   ||x|||    ||xx||    ||x|||    ||xxx|      ||xxx|     ||xxx|
   ||||||    ||||||    ||||||    ||||||      ||||x|     ||||x|
   ||||||    ||||||    |||x||    ||||||      ||x|||     ||x|||


... Precious.. worth..  nowadays

     D/A        A       G/A        A          
   xo___o    xo___o    xo___o    xo___o      
  5||||||   5||||x|   3||||x|    ||||||      
   ||||||    |||x||    |||x||    ||xxx|      
   ||xxx|    ||x|||    ||x|||    ||||||      
   ||||||    ||||||    ||||||    ||||||  


"..and none of them are me.."


    Dadd9       E      
   xxo__o    xx__oo   
   ||||||    |||x||    
   |||xx|    ||x|||   
   ||||||    ||||||    
   ||||||    ||||||    

Then, this part repeats again, starting with "I was only trying to say..".

Next, the Intro repeats, with electric guitar instead of acoustic. Then, the verse above repeats.

For "This is how I thought I'd start..", the bass implies E --> E/F# --> E/G#..but Todd is just playing
the same E, Esus4, E5 chords I illustrated above.

Bridge:

For this, I'm not entirely sure where Todd plays the chords. So I'm gonna half-ass it. And a lot of
these chords are made easier due to the bass accompaniment.

Dmaj7         C#m7           B/C#      Bmaj7
Now I'm in the middle and I just don't know

       Bm7           Gmaj7          A/G        Dmaj7
If I'll make it any further if the words don't flow

  B               Bbm7      Ab/Bb      Ab
When you live in silence any sound is dear

         Abm                  Emaj7               F#     B
But for those who don't, take heart because the end is near


^Start this with the Dmaj7 as a "Amaj7 Type Barre Chord" on the 5th Fret, then work down the neck.


(Then, the "Carrrryyyy on.." is D/E  to  E. For the long outro, repeat the verse chords)

Sorry I half-assed it towards the end, but hopefully this helps somewhat. I find it a lot easier to
play than the other transcription on here.