Blue (1971) or Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks (1975), Rundgren reflected that the album's songs were not necessarily autobiographical: "I wouldn't make that close a connection to my real life. Like 'Too Far Gone' wasn't directly about me leaving home as a teenager. Like most of my songs, they're only biographical to the point that other people can identify with them." The song "Onomotoapoiea" served as comic relief for the album, being a music-hall number in a similar vein to Rundgren's "Just Another Onionhead" from A Wizard, a True Star (1972) and "An Elpee's Worth of Toons" from Todd (1974). Release and reception Hermit of Mink Hollow was released in May 1978 with a cover that depicts a blue-tinted video screen image of Rundgren alone in his garden. In the US, the LP peaked at number 36, while single "Can We Still Be Friends" reached number 29. At the urging of Bearsville executive Paul Fishkin, Rundgren supported the record with a run of "Greatest Hits" shows held at The Bottom Line in New York and The Roxy in Los Angeles, followed by an August 23 date at the Agora Ballroom in Cleveland. The shows were recorded with select performances included for the double live album Back to the Bars (December 1978). The album was generally well-received by critics and fans. Popularly viewed as his most immediately accessible work since Something/Anything?, it received more public attention and radio airplay than most of Rundgren's efforts since A Wizard, a True Star and was heralded as a "return to form" after a string of prog records with Utopia. On release, Rolling Stones Michael Bloom reviewed that the songs "all stem from the universal library of luminous pop enjoyment that this curious artist carries around in his head. They condense the whole world into a three-minute capsule and promise eternal youth. They know the rules so well that it's almost a joy to conform. ... Neither simple nor always pleasant, Todd Rundgren is still an artist to be taken seriously." Conversely, Robert Christgau of The Village Voice wrote a single-sentence review that stated: "Only a weight as willfully light as Todd can be trusted to put his smartest song ('Onomatopeia') on 'the easy side' and his dumbest ('Bag Lady') on 'the difficult side.'" "Can We Still Be Friends?" became Rundgren's most-covered song, with versions by Robert Palmer, Rod Stewart, Colin Blunstone, and Mandy