So...when are we getting an Idiot's Guide to The Tubes?
DwDunphy
· 1 year ago
This whole darn week has been something of an idiot's guide (if I'm involved, could it be anything but?)
Next up, tomorrow's Chartburn! Come back, little Sheba!
DavidMedsker
· 1 year ago
I have an unhealthy fondness for Love Bomb. I know it's not a good record ("Stellaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"), but that entire second side just fascinates me. I saw them live on that tour (Utopia was the opening band, snap!), and they played that second side in its entirety. It was actually really cool.
ZVance
· 1 year ago
You go David, Bora, Bora 2K! The kicker was seeing the Tubes Live.They were incredible! Turn me on again and again, say youalways want to be my friend. Todd busted his professorial arse to try to help save that band after Fee's Legofmyego, so's David can make me a star, flowed out of the band , after recording the Bomb. I saw Tubes @ the cellar door in DC without Fee. Spooner & the boys turned Love Bomb into a continuous dance party.. We sweat all the alcool from our selves the elves.
jbacardi
· 1 year ago
Young and Rich, Remote Control and the excellent live twofer What Do You Want from Live? are all good records, not particularly "weird", and well worth revisiting. If you started with the past-their-prime Genius, you started way too late.
"Wild Women" is on Outside/Inside, by the way.
DwDunphy
· 1 year ago
Yes, and "Fifty Foot Woman" was on Completion Backwards... I was just saying that the band has a strangely entrenched relationship to the opposite sex material wise.
And I'm not denigrating the earlier Tubes stuff, but for anyone who associates them first as arena rock, it's really a shock. Besides, judging from the sales of Genius Of America, nobody started with Genius Of America (although it's never too late, guys!)
steed
· 1 year ago
"Tip of My Tongue" is one of my favorite songs ever! The Tubes were a little too all over the place for me, but my lord if Tip isn't awesome.
terje
· 1 year ago
Oh, I agree! Maurice White co-wrote that one. And there's a great build-up with the horns in the middle of the track that I love (from "I can't find the words...")
Elaine
· 1 year ago
Oh, you're not alone. I love that song, too. I know the whole "Outside, Inside" album backwards & forwards. I saw The Tubes perform in the 90's, Fee-less, and while they were entertaining, it just wasn't the same. No horns during "Tip" = not even the same song.
Eric S.
· 1 year ago
I listen to that 1992 compilation on a regular basis, but I have to admit that while I own Genius of America, I've probably only listened to it two or three times at the most. I would say "wildly uneven" pretty much sums up The Tubes.
As for "a fine three-song EP", I also nominate Fee's 1984 solo outing "Read My Lips" (Yeah, I know David Foster produced and wrote that too). "You're Still Laughing" and "Saved My Life" (from St. Elmo's Fire) are as good as anything The Tubes did up to that point. Foster was at least smart enough to bring along Steve Lukather for co-writes/guitar and Richard Marx, Bill Champlin and Bobby Kimball for backing vocals.
chimster
· 1 year ago
You are doing a disservice to yourself by not listening to the Tubes during their A&M years. The Tubes sold out with mainstream crap during their Capital years (Completion Backwards Principle) The first two album were progressive rock genius. The other three were not as good as the first two, hence their sell-out to Capital gave them a last ditch effort to become well know. (Heck, they even showed up on the Xanadu soundtrack with a duet with Olivia Newton John. How embarrasing.
If you don't have their self-titled album and Young and Rich, you don't deserve to review them.
DwDunphy
· 1 year ago
I didn't say I didn't have them, I said that for the purposes of this article I was foregoing them. The A&M stuff barely resembles Genius Of America, the focal point of the write-up.
retroblog
· 1 year ago
oh come on! Love Bomb is a classic. Especially the second side. yes, it just sounds like Tubes mashed up with Utopia but still, it's a fun listen. :)
All Comments
Next up, tomorrow's Chartburn! Come back, little Sheba!
"Wild Women" is on Outside/Inside, by the way.
And I'm not denigrating the earlier Tubes stuff, but for anyone who associates them first as arena rock, it's really a shock. Besides, judging from the sales of Genius Of America, nobody started with Genius Of America (although it's never too late, guys!)
As for "a fine three-song EP", I also nominate Fee's 1984 solo outing "Read My Lips" (Yeah, I know David Foster produced and wrote that too). "You're Still Laughing" and "Saved My Life" (from St. Elmo's Fire) are as good as anything The Tubes did up to that point. Foster was at least smart enough to bring along Steve Lukather for co-writes/guitar and Richard Marx, Bill Champlin and Bobby Kimball for backing vocals.
If you don't have their self-titled album and Young and Rich, you don't deserve to review them.