My Amazon Reviews: The Tubes "Young and Rich/Now"

Young and Rich; 4 Stars, Now; 3 Stars
4 Out Of 5 Stars

Finally, a sound upgrade for The Tubes' "Young and Rich." Or for that matter, that it's back in print at non-extortion prices. The Tubes got some serious road work in after their first album, and it shows on "Young And Rich." They also had a more sympathetic producer in Ken Scott (over Al Kooper's helming of album one). Scott gave "Young And Rich" a sense of discipline, and you need go no further than "Tubes World Tour" to catch how fast the Tubes had grown under his control in the studio. A tightly wound if somewhat exaggerated account of the mayhem that trailed in the wake of The Tubes' concerts, it has a conciseness that the first album lacked.

The range displayed on "Young And Rich" is also evident on the album's next two songs. "Pimp" and "Brighter Day" feature vocals from Bill Spooner and Roger Steen, giving the individual Tubes a chance to prove they were more than Fee's backers. But Waybill (listed here as "method frontman") struts his stuff admirably. His finest moments on "Young And Rich" come with the progressive opus "Poland Whole/Madam I'm Adam" (where Fee reluctantly is cast as man one in God's creation porno-movie and Cher is his Eve) and the almost Top 40 "Don't Touch Me There" duet with Re Styles.

A highlight of their live shows, "Don't Touch Me There" sent up girl groups with a Phil Spector wall of innuendo that was at once finely crafted and hilarious. It's the kind of media satire that would be honed to perfection by their next album. In fact, the only misstep here is "Proud To be An American," which plays it too close to "What Do You Want From Life" to come off as clever. Other than that, "Young And Rich" comes highly recommended and shows The Tubes ducking the dreaded sophomore slump.

The same could not be said of "Now," which could be The Tubes' most experimental album. That's not saying the music is all too interesting, frankly, it's not. There was everything here from fusion jazz experimentation ("God-Bird-Change," the main contribution from one album member Mingo Lewis) to a Captain Beefheart cover of "My Head Is My Only House Unless It Rains." Which was apparently enough to get the Captain himself to sit in on sax for the otherwise draggy "Cathy's Clone," Re Styles' vocal contribution to "Now." On the original liner notes to the LP, The Tubes gave heavy acknowledgement of having recently discovering The Ramones. So in tribute, they nick Dee Dee's trademark "One Two Three Four" kickoff and insert it twice into "You're No Fun."

Fun is exactly what is missing from "Now." There are a couple of Tubes Classics here ("Smoke" and "Pound Of Flesh," in which Fee brags about being a 98 pound weakling with another, more serious attribute). But for a band that made their bones on outrageousness and top-notch musicianship, "Now" comes up short. They'd blow "Now" out of the water soon after with the genius of "Remote Control." Think of it as parallel to Alice Cooper's lackluster "Muscle of Love" before the brilliant "Welcome To My Nightmare" concept.

As a pair, it's worth having just to get the disc of "Young and Rich."

     

My Amazon Reviews: The Tubes "Love Bomb"

Bang Zoom To The Moon
3 Out Of 5 Stars

By the time of "Love Bomb," tensions in The Tubes was at a boiling point. Fee Waybill was on the brink of launching his solo career, while the rest of the band wanted to get "Love Bomb" out there. For whatever reason, Capitol Records decided to put their muscle behind Fee's "Read My Lips" while "Love Bomb" slid under the radar. Even worse, Fee's album was a commercial dud. It turned into a lose-lose situation, effectively breaking up the band and Waybill with a solo stint that excited exactly no-one. Even worse, "Love Bomb" was easily as good as "Outside/Inside," the previous Tubes album.

The band had re-enlisted Todd Rundgren to produce again, as he also helmed one of the Tubes' most artistically satisfying albums, "Remote Control." As is typical with any Rundgren production, his hand weighs heavy on the proceedings here. But the Tubes had some great material up their collective sleeve, including the terrific first single "Piece By Piece." Todd even helped make an ahead of its time computerized video. But again, with no label support, it vanished with barely a trace. You can still find the vid on YouTube, and it's worth a look-see.

The real genius was to be found on what was originally the album's side two. A twenty minute collage of mini-tunes strung together as a medley, it should have been a critically acclaimed masterwork. It shows just how musically adept the Tubes in their prime truly were, even with the sideshow style of their burlesque concert act. Mixing found sound, narratives, and "Theme From A Summer Place" mashed up with "Wooly Bully" (keeping in mind that mash-ups weren't this commonplace as now) into another ahead of its time number (there weren't any other rock bands that I can recall at the time using samples), it holds "Love Bomb" up all by itself.

Still, Capitol bet on Waybill's solo career over this, and when you compare the two, it's frustrating. One one hand, you had the Tubes and Todd Rundgren working an arty album, and Fee recording with David Foster, most of Toto, and an up and coming songwriter named Richard Marx. Don't get me wrong, "Read My Lips" is as good as any 80's pop album from the period, but "Love Bomb" should have been salvaged from the scrap pile. Given a decent remaster from the folks at BGO Records but not adding any additional liner notes, this is a must for Tubes fans and probably Todd fans, too.

     

My Amazon Reviews: The Tubes "Goin' Down The Tubes"

Tube Trippiness
3 Out Of 5 Stars

Trying to follow all the reissues on all sorts of labels can make a Tubes fan crazy. Their theatrical brand of rock and roll combined sex, vaudeville and an under-rated quality of musicianship. Depending on how you ask, The Tubes peakedin any variety of their many albums, and this particular collection, "Goin' Down The Tubes," collects highlights, alternate takes and for some odd reason, the entirety of "Remote Control." That was my main reason for picking this up in the first place, though that's since been nullified by an actual re-master/reissue of "Remote Control" as a stand alone deluxe CD. But would I give "Goin' Down" up because of that? No way.

The disc opens with a couple of oddities, a half live/half re-edited version of "White Punks on Dope" (that also neuters the F-word) and then an alternate take of "Up From The Deep" than the one on the debut. Then you get three re-mastered tracks from the debut, including the seminal "White Punks On Dope" is all it's glitzy glory. (Which begs the question of why this, or the bulk of The Tubes' albums not been given a proper re-issue? "White Punks" sounds amazing here.) The slicker "Young and Rich" may have tried to make lightning strike twice with "What Do You Want From Life," but the real clincher was Fee Waybill and Re Styles duet on the S&M meets boy-girl Phil Spector mashup, "Don't Touch Me There."

There are a few songs from the disappointing "Now," which you can find re-issued but it was a hot-mess of a record. And how is this for cover selections? "My Head is My Only House Unless It Rains" and "Love Will Keep us Together"? Yes, Captain Beefheart and Captain and Tennille. That's one wild pair of captains. Onetime and one album member Mingo Lewis gets a showcase on his instrumental "God Bird Change" (from "Now"), which sounds close to fusion jazz/rock. That's just the first disc of "Goin' Down."

The aforementioned "Remote Control" takes up 11 of disc two's 17 tracks. The rest of "Goin' Down" is taken from concert material, I'm guessing from the "Now" tour and - I think - the "What Do You Want From Live" - double album, including a lively version of The Beatles' "I Saw Here Standing There." Just in case you missed it the first two times, "White Punks On Dope" gets a thorough workout with the audience going berserk. This was the period where The Tubes could have been the contemporaries of anyone from Zappa to Alice Cooper with a plenty of sideshow comedy thrown in for good measure. That's what makes "Goin' Down The Tubes" a best bet for Tubes fans that don't want to chase after the getting harder to find earlier CD's.

      

My Amazon Reviews: The Tubes "Remote Control - Expanded Edition"

Tube-opia!
4 Out Of 5 Stars

The Tubes were licking their wounds from the dismal dismissal of their highly experimental "Now," when they decided to pool all their strengths and shoot for a concept album. It made perfect sense that they would create a grand satire of pervasive media, since most of their best work lampooned that topic with gleefully broad strokes. This time, however, The Tubes brought on board a secret weapon in the person of Todd Rundgren. He was running hot as a producer at the time, coming off the huge success of Meat Loaf, solo albums, and the breakout of his band Utopia.

What Rundgren did to "Remote Control" was to slicken the sound to a commercial sheen that the band had lacked in the past. For their part, The Tubes came forth with a very strong batch of songs, all tied together with the Marshall McLuhan styled "medium is the message" theme. The protagonist of "Remote Control" wanders the album becoming increasingly absorbed/disillusioned with the fact that his life isn't matching the programs he's watching, from the desire for instant gratification in "I Want It All Now," to the terrific ballad "Love's A Mystery (I Don't Understand)," featuring a superb vocal from Fee.

Perhaps the most interesting moment here is the instrumental "Get Overture," which had the band showing off their musicianship in a way that was only hinted at before (though it also bears the very heavy hand of Todd). It proved once and for all that The Tubes were more than just comical music pranksters and had more to offer than the shocking stage antics of their live shows. It's hard for me to decide which Tubes CD is really their finest, but between "Remote Control" and "The Completion Backwards Principle," I'd give this disc the higher scores for composition. "TCBP" was a sleeker musical effort, but in their desire to land that elusive hit single, had a damper lyrical bite. However, in all things Tubular, you really need both.

The best two things about this re-issue? There are four bonus tracks from the long unreleased "Suffer For Sound" sessions. They show the metamorphosis of the band in transition to what would eventually be their slicker sound. I think "Holy War" is my favorite of the batch. Then there's the sound. Beefed up and sharpened considerably from my old original A&M CD, the disc sounds terrific. Add the story of the album's gestation in the liner notes, and you have the best Tubes issue in their always eclectic discography.

     

My Amazon Reviews: The Tubes "The Completion Backwards Principle"

"We're Here Because You're There"
4 Out Of 5 Stars

That quote was part of the original album's liner notes, and it pretty much sums up The Tubes' general attitude. They were irreverent and shocking, with enough playing chops to keep those in the know interested in the music. Put that with the live show that get them banned from numerous venues (in their early days), and you had a band that seemed to be perennially on the brink of making it big. But The Tubes also spent just a little too much time being weird to climb all the way to chartland. "The Completion Backward Principle" saw them almost making it yet again, as David Foster did his best to smooth out the jarring edges and polish the band even more than Todd Rundgren did on "Remote Control." The Tubes did their part by writing some tunes that sounded absolutely Toto-ish, if Toto ever contemplated amnesia, schizophrenia and late night B-Movies as song fodder.

The buff job paid off, with The Tubes' first across the board Album Radio hit, the tough strutting but uncharacteristic "Talk To You Later." The band then hit late night TV and began showing up in swim flippers performing "Sushi Girl" in a wading pool from the stage of the Tonight Show. Radio took notice and the ballad "Don't Want To Wait Anymore" snuck into the lower reaches of the Top 40. Fortunately, Foster wasn't completely able to tame these yahoos. "Attack Of The Fifty Foot Woman" was sci-fi silly in a manner that only The Tubes could make credible, and the punchy "Mr. Hate" was the confrontation of a shattering personality that the band executed perfectly on stage. "TCBWP" is likely The Tubes' most consistent album musically, but misses five stars because it was too slickly over produced, and the band never regained their experimental edge after this (unless you count the second half of "Love Bomb").