The Tubes
Encyclopedia
The Tubes are a San Francisco
-based rock
band
, whose 1975 debut album
included the hit single
, "White Punks on Dope". During its first fifteen years or so, the band's live performances combined quasi-pornography
with wild satire
s of media
, consumerism
, and politics
. They are perhaps best-remembered for their 1983 single "She's a Beauty," a top 10 US hit with a frequently-played music video in the early days of MTV
.
and Scottsdale, Arizona
. Two Phoenix bands, the Beans and The Red, White and Blues Band, both relocated to San Francisco in 1969 and eventually merged. The new band's core membership remained largely intact for more than a decade: Fee Waybill
(real name John Waldo Waybill) (vocals), Bill "Sputnik" Spooner
(guitar, vocals), Roger Steen (guitar), Prairie Prince
(real name Charles L. Prince) (drums), Michael Cotten (synthesizer), Vince Welnick
(piano), and Rick Anderson (bass). Singer Re Styles (born Shirley Marie MacLeod) (vocals) and ex-Santana
percussionist Mingo Lewis were also fixtures for much of the band's early history.
Show business
excess was a common theme of the band's early work, with Waybill sometimes assuming the onstage persona of "Quay Lewd" (a pun on Quaalude), a drunk, drugged out, barely coherent lead singer, wearing flashing glasses and stilt-like tall platform shoes.
The Tubes' first, self-titled album was produced by Al Kooper
. The track "White Punks On Dope" was an "absurd anthem of wretched excess" and a tribute to their rich, white teenage fan base in San Francisco. "White Punks On Dope" has been covered
by Mötley Crüe
. The German rock musician Nina Hagen
took the tune and set new lyrics to it (not a translation of the original lyrics), titled her work TV-Glotzer ("Couch Potato"), and used this song as the opening track of her own debut album Nina Hagen Band
, released 1978 on CBS/Germany records. The album track "What Do You Want From Life?", which became another of the Tubes' signature songs, satirizes consumerism and celebrity culture and climaxes in a "hard-sell" monologue by Waybill which name-checks celebrities such as Bob Dylan
, Paul Williams
and Randolph Mantooth
and well-known products of the period including the Dynagym exercise machine and a host of American vehicles including the Winnebago
and the Mercury Montclair
.
The Tubes' second album, Young and Rich
on A&M Records
, was produced
by Ken Scott
. It featured the hit "Don't Touch Me There", a suggestive duet between Waybill and Re Styles, which was arranged
in classic "Wall of Sound
" style by Jack Nitzsche
and featured Laramy Smith, who with Larry Lee
arranged and performed the backing vocals. The song was co-written by Ron Nagle and Tubes dancer/vocalist Jane Dornacker
, who died in a helicopter crash in 1986.
The Tubes' third album gave way to thematic experimentation with Now and after the live record What Do You Want From Live
, (recorded during their record breaking run at the Hammersmith Odeon, London, England) their fourth for A&M Remote Control was a concept album
produced by Todd Rundgren
about a television-addicted idiot-savant. The cover of Remote Control shows a baby watching Hollywood Squares
in a specially made "Vidi-Trainer".
One critic opined that with their media savvy and theatrical skills, The Tubes were born to create rock video, but arrived several years too early. However, the band did produce at least one collection of music videos, which were issued on the 1982 Pioneer Artists laserdisc
"The Tubes Video." This videodisc contained versions of twelve of the band's hits, including "White Punks On Dope," "Mondo Bondage," "Talk To Ya Later," and several others from "The Completion Backwards Principle" album, in slickly produced music videos based on the group's stage shows.
The Tubes put their creativity and art skills mainly into their live performances, in which songs could be full fledged production numbers, from a beach movie parody
for "Sushi Girl", to leather clad S&M
hijinks in "Mondo Bondage", to the game show
antics of "What Do You Want From Life?" At their peak, their live act featured dozens of other performers, including tap dancers and acrobats
. The Tubes' stage productions were choreographed by Kenny Ortega
and featured cast members Jane Dornacker
, LeRoy Jones, Michael Holman, Michael Springer, Edwin Heaven, Cindi Osborn, Heline Gouax, and Mary Niland from 1975-1977. From 1978-1979, the cast included Sharon Collins, Caty Bevan, and Loryanna Catalano. The Completion Backward tour featured Shelly Pang, Cheryl Hangland, and Cynthia Rhodes
. From 1983-1985, Michelle Gray (who later married Rundgren) and Cheryl Hangland were principal dancers. Several crew members — including Tour Manager Steve "Chopper" Borges, Lee Collins, and Gail Lowe — made frequent appearances on stage in various roles as well.
The Tubes' live shows in the late 1970s and early 1980s were rife with allusions to mainstream film (Dr. Strangelove, Rollerball
, Saturday Night Fever
, Grease
), then-forgotten B-movies (Wild Women of Wongo
, Attack of the 50 Foot Woman
), music (Tom Jones
, punk rock
, a medley of Nelson Riddle
television themes), contemporary pop culture (Patty Hearst
, the Viking program), television (Let's Make a Deal
, Fernwood 2Nite
, the anime
Raideen), and literature (Nelson Algren
's A Walk on the Wild Side), presaging the subcultural reverence and over-the-top theatricality of later groups like The World/Inferno Friendship Society
.
These shows were expensive to produce, however, and while they earned the band a reputation for being one of the most entertaining live acts of all time, by the early 1980s, they found themselves short of money. Their proposed fifth album, the self produced Suffer for Sound, was rejected by A&M Records
, who dumped the band instead, finishing out its contract with the oddities collection T.R.A.S.H. (Tubes Rarities and Smash Hits).
The band was signed to Capitol Records
by Bruce Garfield and Bobby Colomby
, scaling back the live shows and redesigning itself as a straight laced rock band, teaming with producer David Foster
. The Completion Backward Principle
, another concept album, featuring the classic rock
staple "Talk to Ya Later", presented itself as a motivational business document, complete with shocking pictures of the band members cleaned up and wearing suits. The band also had their first Top 40 hit in the United States in 1981 with a tongue-in-cheek ballad imploring a woman to have sex, "Don't Want to Wait Anymore" (recorded almost entirely by Spooner, without Waybill's participation). Also in 1981, they had a song, "Gonna Get It Next Time", in the movie Modern Problems
(starring Chevy Chase
); this song was not released on an album. Outside Inside
followed a few years later and yielded a few hits, including the number 10 (USA) hit "She's a Beauty".
In 1985, the band teamed up with Rundgren once again for Love Bomb
. With Bruce Garfield and Bobby Colomby
no longer with Capitol, The Tubes were dropped just as they were going on a national tour in support of the album — a tour that would leave the band a half million dollars in debt, forcing them to play low-budget gigs for a year to pay off their debts. Waybill had already released an unsuccessful solo album (Read My Lips, on Capitol Records) in 1984. He left the band in 1986 ("Fee broke up", one band member said). During this time, Waybill also happily enjoyed a fruitful writing partnership with Capitol Records label mate, Richard Marx
, their most popular and well known collaboration being "Edge of a Broken Heart", recorded by the female band Vixen
.
In 1986 The Tubes took on a longtime friend from Phoenix, Arizona, David Killingsworth, as lead vocalist, he was the singer in Red, White Blues Band with Prairie and Roger. Michael Cotten relocated to New York to pursue a career based on his artwork, stage design and production. Today he is one of the world's top production designers. In the fall of 1988, Bill Spooner made his final tour with the band and left in early 1989. Vince Welnick departed as well to take to the road with Todd Rundgren in 1989 and then joined the Grateful Dead
in 1990. Gary Cambra joined on keyboards and guitar in 1989. He and Roger Steen took over most the lead vocal duties after Killingsworth left in early 1990.
In 1993, Waybill rejoined the band. This lineup toured Europe and released two CDs, a compilation and the 1996 Genius of America
. David Medd joined in 1996 to play keyboards alongside Cambra. In 2001, the band released a live CD, The Tubes World Tour 2001, and continued to tour. On April 22, 2005 a reunion show took place at the Rio Theater in Santa Cruz, CA, with Waybill, Steen, Anderson, Spooner, Welnick and Cotten. 2005 also saw the release of their live album "Wild in London".
Michael Cotten started "The Tubes Project" in 2005, to save and digitize the band's reel to reel and video tape archive. The collection had been kept in the closet of Tubes fan club president Marylin Wood's son after being discarded in the late 80s. Included in the vault are full color shows taped for TV at Bimbos in San Francisco, 1975 and VARA TV from the 1977 European tour. Over 70 interviews were conducted with band members, crew, managers, cast and friends such as Re Styles, Todd Rundgren, Al Kooper, Devo and David Foster. Hundreds of photos were scanned and compiled from band members and fan collections for use in the hour and half documentary which was edited and shopped for further financial backing, gaining interest until the economic crash of 2008.
Welnick, who long suffered from depression, committed suicide
on June 2, 2006.
Cambra left the band in 2006 leaving David Medd as their sole keyboardist.
On September 23, 2007, the remaining members of the Tubes reunited in Phoenix for their induction into the Arizona Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame.
On November 10, 2009, "Mondo Birthmark" a CD of previously unreleased rarities was released through Fuel 2000. The package was designed by Michael Cotten and Prairie Prince with rare photos and interviews of the group. The demos also feature former member Bob Macintosh on drums.
film Resurrection of Eve as Jesus Bongo and the Millionaires
1973: Opened for the New York Dolls
at the Matrix, Iggy Pop
at Bimbos, and Led Zeppelin
at Kezar Stadium
in San Francisco
1974: Tubes shoot "video
demo" at California Hall which lands a record deal at A&M Records
, Cotten/Prince paint "Flying Record" mural on A&M sound stage
1975: Tubes play for two weeks of shows at David Allen's nightclub The Boarding House
in San Francisco, several sell-out dates at The Roxy
in Los Angeles and The Bottom Line
in New York. Dec, 31- Headline and sell out Bill Graham's Winterland Ballroom
1976: Held residency at Bimbos in San Francisco for one month, Prairie Prince dubbed "The One, The Only" by columnist Herb Caen
. Tubes hold "Talent Hunt" at the Boarding House hosted by Martin Mull
; Robin Williams
is contestant but loses
1977: Held residency at the Palace of Fine Arts
in San Francisco for one month, The Whisky a-Go-Go in Los Angeles for two shows a night for one month, and Hammersmith Odeon in London for a week
1978: Headlined the Knebworth Festival with Frank Zappa
and Peter Gabriel
. On April 3, The Tubes performed live with Dolly Parton
on Cher... Special
, in the "Musical Battle to Save Cher's Soul Medley". As the title would imply, the performance was a duel between the forces of good and evil to determine where Cher
would spend her eternal destiny. Dolly Parton was dressed in white and, with a team of brightly clad singers, portrayed an angelic host while The Tubes, dressed in black leather and performing "Mondo Bondage", battled to send Cher's soul into eternal damnation.
1979: Tubes play Japan; Cotten/Welnick/Prince/Styles appear on Japanese soap opera. Tubes appear in Andy Warhol
's Interview
magazine
1980: Appear in the film Xanadu
singing the rock portion of the cross-genre song "Dancin'" opposite a big band
.
1981: Record Grammy nominated "The Tubes Video" at Shepperton Studios
, one of the first long form video discs.
1981: Sang "Sushi Girl" and "Talk to Ya Later" on the television sketch comedy program SCTV
, Episode #86 airing July 24.
1981: Appeared and sang, "Sushi Girl", on late night talk show,"Tomorrow", with Tom Snyder.
1981: Compose the song "Road Map of My Tears" for the film Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains
, in which Waybill and Welnick appear, among other musicians, as the fictional rock group The Metal Corpses.
1982: Appeared in a commercial for Activision's video game Megamania
1983: Opened several dates for David Bowie
on the Serious Moonlight
tour and on this tour, among other highlights, they were the first artists to ever play the newly opened Tacoma Dome in Tacoma, Washington. At the end of the Bowie tour, they played a few shows featuring their classic no-holds-barred theatrics in Portland, Oregon, and other west-coast cities.
1985: Tour with Todd Rundgren
's Utopia, play Radio City Music Hall
.
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
-based rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
band
Musical ensemble
A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...
, whose 1975 debut album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
included the hit single
Hit single
A hit single is a recorded song or instrumental released as a single that has become very popular. Although it is sometimes used to describe any widely-played or big-selling song, the term "hit" is usually reserved for a single that has appeared in an official music chart through repeated radio...
, "White Punks on Dope". During its first fifteen years or so, the band's live performances combined quasi-pornography
Pornography
Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...
with wild satire
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
s of media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
, consumerism
Consumerism
Consumerism is a social and economic order that is based on the systematic creation and fostering of a desire to purchase goods and services in ever greater amounts. The term is often associated with criticisms of consumption starting with Thorstein Veblen...
, and politics
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
. They are perhaps best-remembered for their 1983 single "She's a Beauty," a top 10 US hit with a frequently-played music video in the early days of MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
.
Career
The Tubes started as a group of high school friends from PhoenixPhoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
and Scottsdale, Arizona
Scottsdale, Arizona
Scottsdale is a city in the eastern part of Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, adjacent to Phoenix. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2010 the population of the city was 217,385...
. Two Phoenix bands, the Beans and The Red, White and Blues Band, both relocated to San Francisco in 1969 and eventually merged. The new band's core membership remained largely intact for more than a decade: Fee Waybill
Fee Waybill
John Waldo Waybill , known as Fee Waybill, is the lead singer and songwriter of the band the Tubes...
(real name John Waldo Waybill) (vocals), Bill "Sputnik" Spooner
Bill Spooner
William "Sputnik" Spooner is a musician, guitarist, and songwriter, and the founder of The Tubes, a theatrical rock band. His songwriting is known for its use of humor and satire. He has released three solo albums: First Chud , Mall to Mars , and Demo-licious...
(guitar, vocals), Roger Steen (guitar), Prairie Prince
Prairie Prince
Prairie Prince is a rock drummer. He was a member of The Tubes and a founding member of Journey...
(real name Charles L. Prince) (drums), Michael Cotten (synthesizer), Vince Welnick
Vince Welnick
Vince Welnick was an American keyboardist, best known for playing with the band The Tubes during the 1970s and 1980s and with the Grateful Dead in the 1990s.-Music career:...
(piano), and Rick Anderson (bass). Singer Re Styles (born Shirley Marie MacLeod) (vocals) and ex-Santana
Santana (band)
Santana is a rock band based around guitarist Carlos Santana and founded in the late 1960s. It first came to public attention after their performing the song "Soul Sacrifice" at the Woodstock Festival in 1969, when their Latin rock provided a contrast to other acts on the bill...
percussionist Mingo Lewis were also fixtures for much of the band's early history.
Show business
Show business
Show business, sometimes shortened to show biz, is a vernacular term for all aspects of entertainment. The word applies to all aspects of the entertainment industry from the business side to the creative element ....
excess was a common theme of the band's early work, with Waybill sometimes assuming the onstage persona of "Quay Lewd" (a pun on Quaalude), a drunk, drugged out, barely coherent lead singer, wearing flashing glasses and stilt-like tall platform shoes.
The Tubes' first, self-titled album was produced by Al Kooper
Al Kooper
Al Kooper is an American songwriter, record producer and musician, known for organizing Blood, Sweat & Tears , providing studio support for Bob Dylan when he went electric in 1965, and also bringing together guitarists Mike Bloomfield and Stephen Stills to...
. The track "White Punks On Dope" was an "absurd anthem of wretched excess" and a tribute to their rich, white teenage fan base in San Francisco. "White Punks On Dope" has been covered
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
by Mötley Crüe
Mötley Crüe
Mötley Crüe is an American heavy metal band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1981. The group was founded by bass guitarist Nikki Sixx and drummer Tommy Lee, who were later joined by lead guitarist Mick Mars and lead singer Vince Neil...
. The German rock musician Nina Hagen
Nina Hagen
Nina Hagen is a German singer and actress.-Early years:Hagen was born as Catharina Hagen in the former East Berlin, East Germany, the daughter of Hans Hagen , a scriptwriter, and Eva-Maria Hagen, an actress and singer...
took the tune and set new lyrics to it (not a translation of the original lyrics), titled her work TV-Glotzer ("Couch Potato"), and used this song as the opening track of her own debut album Nina Hagen Band
Nina Hagen Band (album)
- Track listing :All lyrics by Nina Hagen; except "Pank" by Hagen and Ariane Forster Music as indicated# "TV-Glotzer" — 5:15# "Rangehn" — 3:27...
, released 1978 on CBS/Germany records. The album track "What Do You Want From Life?", which became another of the Tubes' signature songs, satirizes consumerism and celebrity culture and climaxes in a "hard-sell" monologue by Waybill which name-checks celebrities such as Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, Paul Williams
Paul Williams (songwriter)
Paul Hamilton Williams, Jr. is an Academy Award-winning American composer, musician, songwriter, and actor. He is perhaps best known for popular songs performed by a number of acts in the 1970s including Three Dog Night's "An Old Fashioned Love Song", Helen Reddy's "You and Me Against the World",...
and Randolph Mantooth
Randolph Mantooth
Randolph Donald Mantooth is an American character actor of stage, film and television. Mantooth is best known for his work in the 1970s medical drama, Emergency!, as Johnny Gage, a Los Angeles County Fire Department paramedic...
and well-known products of the period including the Dynagym exercise machine and a host of American vehicles including the Winnebago
Winnebago Industries
Winnebago Industries Inc., , is a manufacturer of motor homes, a type of recreational vehicle or RV, in the United States. It is based in Forest City, Iowa.-Corporate history:...
and the Mercury Montclair
Mercury Montclair
The Mercury Montclair was a full-size automobile produced by the Mercury Division of the Ford Motor Company from 1955 to 1957, the M-E-L Division of Ford Motor Company 1958 to 1959 and by the Lincoln Mercury Division of the Ford Motor Company from 1964 to 1968...
.
The Tubes' second album, Young and Rich
Young and Rich
Released in 1976, Young and Rich was the second album released by The Tubes. While Young and Rich is no longer available on CD, all of the songs from Young and Rich and their first record are now available on a single CD from Acadia Records called White Punks on Dope.-Track listing:#"Tubes World...
on A&M Records
A&M Records
A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that operates under the mantle of its Interscope-Geffen-A&M division.-Beginnings:...
, was produced
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
by Ken Scott
Ken Scott
Ken Scott is an English record producer and recording engineer.-Career:Scott started at the age of 16 working in the tape library at Abbey Road Studios. He became a recording engineer working with such acts as The Beatles, Jeff Beck, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones and Procol Harum...
. It featured the hit "Don't Touch Me There", a suggestive duet between Waybill and Re Styles, which was arranged
Arrangement
The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
in classic "Wall of Sound
Wall of Sound
The Wall of Sound is a music production technique for pop and rock music recordings developed by record producer Phil Spector at Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles, California, during the early 1960s...
" style by Jack Nitzsche
Jack Nitzsche
Bernard Alfred "Jack" Nitzsche was an arranger, producer, songwriter, and film score composer. He first came to prominence in the late 1950s as the right-hand-man of producer Phil Spector, and went on to work with the Rolling Stones, Neil Young and others...
and featured Laramy Smith, who with Larry Lee
Larry Lee
Lawrence H. "Larry" Lee, Jr. was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist from Memphis, Tennessee, best known for his work with Al Green and Jimi Hendrix.-Gypsy Sun and Rainbows:...
arranged and performed the backing vocals. The song was co-written by Ron Nagle and Tubes dancer/vocalist Jane Dornacker
Jane Dornacker
Jane Dornacker was an American rock musician, actress, and comedienne turned traffic reporter.In 1986, while working for WNBC 660 AM Radio in New York City , Dornacker was aboard during two unrelated crashes of the helicopters leased to WNBC...
, who died in a helicopter crash in 1986.
The Tubes' third album gave way to thematic experimentation with Now and after the live record What Do You Want From Live
What Do You Want From Live
What Do You Want from Live is the fourth album released by The Tubes. It is a live album, recorded at the Hammersmith Odeon, London.-Track listing:#"Overture"#*"Up from the Deep" – 2:00#*"Young and Rich" – 1:27#*"Madam I'm Adam" – 0:49...
, (recorded during their record breaking run at the Hammersmith Odeon, London, England) their fourth for A&M Remote Control was a concept album
Concept album
In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...
produced by Todd Rundgren
Todd Rundgren
Todd Harry Rundgren is an American multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and record producer. Hailed in the early stage of his career as a new pop-wunderkind, supported by the certified gold solo double LP Something/Anything? in 1972, Todd Rundgren's career has produced a diverse range of recordings...
about a television-addicted idiot-savant. The cover of Remote Control shows a baby watching Hollywood Squares
Hollywood Squares
Hollywood Squares is an American panel game show in which two contestants play tic-tac-toe to win cash and prizes. The "board" for the game is a 3 × 3 vertical stack of open-faced cubes, each occupied by a celebrity seated at a desk and facing the contestants...
in a specially made "Vidi-Trainer".
One critic opined that with their media savvy and theatrical skills, The Tubes were born to create rock video, but arrived several years too early. However, the band did produce at least one collection of music videos, which were issued on the 1982 Pioneer Artists laserdisc
Laserdisc
LaserDisc was a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision in North America in 1978, the technology was previously referred to interally as Optical Videodisc System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical...
"The Tubes Video." This videodisc contained versions of twelve of the band's hits, including "White Punks On Dope," "Mondo Bondage," "Talk To Ya Later," and several others from "The Completion Backwards Principle" album, in slickly produced music videos based on the group's stage shows.
The Tubes put their creativity and art skills mainly into their live performances, in which songs could be full fledged production numbers, from a beach movie parody
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
for "Sushi Girl", to leather clad S&M
Sadism and masochism
Sadomasochism broadly refers to the receiving of pleasure—often sexual—from acts involving the infliction or reception of pain or humiliation. The name originates from two authors on the subject, Marquis de Sade and Leopold von Sacher-Masoch...
hijinks in "Mondo Bondage", to the game show
Game show
A game show is a type of radio or television program in which members of the public, television personalities or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving puzzles usually for money and/or prizes...
antics of "What Do You Want From Life?" At their peak, their live act featured dozens of other performers, including tap dancers and acrobats
Acrobatics
Acrobatics is the performance of extraordinary feats of balance, agility and motor coordination. It can be found in many of the performing arts, as well as many sports...
. The Tubes' stage productions were choreographed by Kenny Ortega
Kenny Ortega
Kenneth John "Kenny" Ortega is an American producer, director, and choreographer. He is known for directing the High School Musical trilogy and Michael Jackson's This Is It concert tour.-Life and career:...
and featured cast members Jane Dornacker
Jane Dornacker
Jane Dornacker was an American rock musician, actress, and comedienne turned traffic reporter.In 1986, while working for WNBC 660 AM Radio in New York City , Dornacker was aboard during two unrelated crashes of the helicopters leased to WNBC...
, LeRoy Jones, Michael Holman, Michael Springer, Edwin Heaven, Cindi Osborn, Heline Gouax, and Mary Niland from 1975-1977. From 1978-1979, the cast included Sharon Collins, Caty Bevan, and Loryanna Catalano. The Completion Backward tour featured Shelly Pang, Cheryl Hangland, and Cynthia Rhodes
Cynthia Rhodes
Cynthia Rhodes is an American actress, singer and dancer most noted for her roles in Dirty Dancing, Flashdance and Staying Alive.- Career :...
. From 1983-1985, Michelle Gray (who later married Rundgren) and Cheryl Hangland were principal dancers. Several crew members — including Tour Manager Steve "Chopper" Borges, Lee Collins, and Gail Lowe — made frequent appearances on stage in various roles as well.
The Tubes' live shows in the late 1970s and early 1980s were rife with allusions to mainstream film (Dr. Strangelove, Rollerball
Rollerball (1975 film)
Rollerball is a 1975 American dystopian fiction film directed by Norman Jewison from a screenplay by William Harrison, who adapted his own short story "Roller Ball Murder", which first appeared in 1973 in Esquire magazine.-The Game:...
, Saturday Night Fever
Saturday Night Fever
Saturday Night Fever is a 1977 drama film directed by John Badham and starring: John Travolta as Tony Manero, an immature young man whose weekends are spent visiting a local Brooklyn discothèque; Karen Lynn Gorney as his dance partner and eventual friend; and Donna Pescow as Tony's former dance...
, Grease
Grease (film)
Grease is a 1978 American musical film directed by Randal Kleiser and based on Warren Casey's and Jim Jacobs's 1971 musical of the same name about two lovers in a 1950s high school. The film stars John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Stockard Channing, and Jeff Conaway...
), then-forgotten B-movies (Wild Women of Wongo
Wild Women of Wongo
The Wild Women of Wongo is a 1958 American film directed by James L. Wolcott, featuring low budget, stereotypical portrayals of fictional tropical islanders. The movie was released on DVD in 2004.- Plot summary :...
, Attack of the 50 Foot Woman
Attack of the 50 Foot Woman
Attack of the 50 Foot Woman is a 1958 American science fiction feature film produced by Bernard Woolner for Allied Artists Pictures. It was directed by Nathan H. Juran from a screenplay by Mark Hanna, and starred Allison Hayes, William Hudson and Yvette Vickers. The original music score was...
), music (Tom Jones
Tom Jones (singer)
Sir Thomas John Woodward, OBE , known by his stage name Tom Jones, is a Welsh singer.Since the mid 1960s, Jones has sung many styles of popular music – pop, rock, R&B, show tunes, country, dance, techno, soul and gospel – and sold over 100 million records...
, punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
, a medley of Nelson Riddle
Nelson Riddle
Nelson Smock Riddle, Jr. was an American arranger, composer, bandleader and orchestrator whose career stretched from the late 1940s to the mid 1980s...
television themes), contemporary pop culture (Patty Hearst
Patty Hearst
Patricia Campbell Hearst , now known as Patricia Campbell Hearst Shaw, is an American newspaper heiress, socialite, actress, kidnap victim, and convicted bank robber....
, the Viking program), television (Let's Make a Deal
Let's Make a Deal
Let's Make a Deal is a television game show which originated in the United States and has since been produced in many countries throughout the world. The show is based around deals offered to members of the audience by the host. The traders usually have to weigh the possibility of an offer being...
, Fernwood 2Nite
Fernwood 2Nite
Fernwood 2 Night is a comedic television program that ran from July 1977 – September 1977. It was created by Norman Lear as a spin-off/summer replacement from Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman...
, the anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
Raideen), and literature (Nelson Algren
Nelson Algren
Nelson Algren was an American writer.-Early life:Algren was born Nelson Ahlgren Abraham in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Goldie and Gerson Abraham. At the age of three he moved with his parents to Chicago, Illinois where they lived in a working-class, immigrant neighborhood on the South Side...
's A Walk on the Wild Side), presaging the subcultural reverence and over-the-top theatricality of later groups like The World/Inferno Friendship Society
The World/Inferno Friendship Society
The World/Inferno Friendship Society is a band from Brooklyn, New York. Its style merges punk, soul, klezmer and jazz, while its collective membership features horns, piano and guitar. The ensemble has over 30 members, including a former member of Dexys Midnight Runners. About nine or ten members...
.
These shows were expensive to produce, however, and while they earned the band a reputation for being one of the most entertaining live acts of all time, by the early 1980s, they found themselves short of money. Their proposed fifth album, the self produced Suffer for Sound, was rejected by A&M Records
A&M Records
A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that operates under the mantle of its Interscope-Geffen-A&M division.-Beginnings:...
, who dumped the band instead, finishing out its contract with the oddities collection T.R.A.S.H. (Tubes Rarities and Smash Hits).
The band was signed to Capitol Records
Capitol Records
Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...
by Bruce Garfield and Bobby Colomby
Bobby Colomby
Bobby Colomby is an innovative jazz-rock fusion drummer, and an original member of the group Blood, Sweat & Tears...
, scaling back the live shows and redesigning itself as a straight laced rock band, teaming with producer David Foster
David Foster
David Walter Foster, OC, OBC , is a Canadian musician, record producer, composer, singer, songwriter, and arranger, noted for discovering singers such as Michael Bublé, Josh Groban, and Charice Pempengco; and for producing some of the most successful artists in the world, such as Céline Dion, Toni...
. The Completion Backward Principle
The Completion Backward Principle
The Completion Backward Principle is the sixth studio album from the rock group The Tubes.-Side one:#"Talk to Ya Later" #"Sushi Girl"#"Amnesia"#"Mr...
, another concept album, featuring the classic rock
Classic rock
Classic rock is a radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format features music ranging generally from the late 1960s to the late 1980s, primarily focusing on the hard rock genre that peaked in popularity in the...
staple "Talk to Ya Later", presented itself as a motivational business document, complete with shocking pictures of the band members cleaned up and wearing suits. The band also had their first Top 40 hit in the United States in 1981 with a tongue-in-cheek ballad imploring a woman to have sex, "Don't Want to Wait Anymore" (recorded almost entirely by Spooner, without Waybill's participation). Also in 1981, they had a song, "Gonna Get It Next Time", in the movie Modern Problems
Modern Problems
Modern Problems is a 1981 comedy film written and directed by Ken Shapiro and starring Chevy Chase, Patti D'Arbanville and Dabney Coleman. The film grossed $26,154,211 in the United States. A DVD release of the film was issued in 2005.-Plot:...
(starring Chevy Chase
Chevy Chase
Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase is an American comedian, writer, and television and film actor, born into a prominent entertainment industry family. Chase worked a plethora of odd jobs before moving into comedy acting with National Lampoon...
); this song was not released on an album. Outside Inside
Outside Inside
Outside Inside is a 1983 release on Capitol Records by The Tubes. The album was produced by David Foster. The Tubes had their biggest radio hit with the single "She's a Beauty" ....
followed a few years later and yielded a few hits, including the number 10 (USA) hit "She's a Beauty".
In 1985, the band teamed up with Rundgren once again for Love Bomb
Love Bomb
Love Bomb is an album by The Tubes produced by Todd Rundgren. It was released in 1985 on Capitol Records. It is the last major-label release by The Tubes....
. With Bruce Garfield and Bobby Colomby
Bobby Colomby
Bobby Colomby is an innovative jazz-rock fusion drummer, and an original member of the group Blood, Sweat & Tears...
no longer with Capitol, The Tubes were dropped just as they were going on a national tour in support of the album — a tour that would leave the band a half million dollars in debt, forcing them to play low-budget gigs for a year to pay off their debts. Waybill had already released an unsuccessful solo album (Read My Lips, on Capitol Records) in 1984. He left the band in 1986 ("Fee broke up", one band member said). During this time, Waybill also happily enjoyed a fruitful writing partnership with Capitol Records label mate, Richard Marx
Richard Marx
Richard Noel Marx is an American adult contemporary and pop/rock singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. He had a string of hit singles in the late 1980s and 1990s, including "Endless Summer Nights", "Right Here Waiting", "Now and Forever", and "Hazard"...
, their most popular and well known collaboration being "Edge of a Broken Heart", recorded by the female band Vixen
Vixen (band)
Vixen is an all-female American hard rock band which achieved some commercial success during the late 1980s and early 1990s as part of the Los Angeles, California glam metal scene.-Early years:...
.
In 1986 The Tubes took on a longtime friend from Phoenix, Arizona, David Killingsworth, as lead vocalist, he was the singer in Red, White Blues Band with Prairie and Roger. Michael Cotten relocated to New York to pursue a career based on his artwork, stage design and production. Today he is one of the world's top production designers. In the fall of 1988, Bill Spooner made his final tour with the band and left in early 1989. Vince Welnick departed as well to take to the road with Todd Rundgren in 1989 and then joined the Grateful Dead
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long...
in 1990. Gary Cambra joined on keyboards and guitar in 1989. He and Roger Steen took over most the lead vocal duties after Killingsworth left in early 1990.
In 1993, Waybill rejoined the band. This lineup toured Europe and released two CDs, a compilation and the 1996 Genius of America
Genius of America
The Tubes returned to the studio in 1996 for this release. Genius of America marked a number of firsts for the band: the first CD-only release, the first self-produced release, and the first body of work which includes Gary Cambra...
. David Medd joined in 1996 to play keyboards alongside Cambra. In 2001, the band released a live CD, The Tubes World Tour 2001, and continued to tour. On April 22, 2005 a reunion show took place at the Rio Theater in Santa Cruz, CA, with Waybill, Steen, Anderson, Spooner, Welnick and Cotten. 2005 also saw the release of their live album "Wild in London".
Michael Cotten started "The Tubes Project" in 2005, to save and digitize the band's reel to reel and video tape archive. The collection had been kept in the closet of Tubes fan club president Marylin Wood's son after being discarded in the late 80s. Included in the vault are full color shows taped for TV at Bimbos in San Francisco, 1975 and VARA TV from the 1977 European tour. Over 70 interviews were conducted with band members, crew, managers, cast and friends such as Re Styles, Todd Rundgren, Al Kooper, Devo and David Foster. Hundreds of photos were scanned and compiled from band members and fan collections for use in the hour and half documentary which was edited and shopped for further financial backing, gaining interest until the economic crash of 2008.
Welnick, who long suffered from depression, committed suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
on June 2, 2006.
Cambra left the band in 2006 leaving David Medd as their sole keyboardist.
On September 23, 2007, the remaining members of the Tubes reunited in Phoenix for their induction into the Arizona Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame.
On November 10, 2009, "Mondo Birthmark" a CD of previously unreleased rarities was released through Fuel 2000. The package was designed by Michael Cotten and Prairie Prince with rare photos and interviews of the group. The demos also feature former member Bob Macintosh on drums.
Career highlights
1972: Tubes appear in Mitchell brothersMitchell brothers
The brothers James "Jim" Lloyd Mitchell and Artie Jay Mitchell were pioneers in the pornography and striptease club business in San Francisco and other parts of California from 1969 until 1991, when Jim was convicted of killing Artie.They opened the O'Farrell Theatre in 1969 as an adult cinema...
film Resurrection of Eve as Jesus Bongo and the Millionaires
1973: Opened for the New York Dolls
New York Dolls
The New York Dolls is an American rock band, formed in New York in 1971. The band's protopunk sound prefigured much of what was to come in the punk rock era; their visual style influenced the look of many new wave and 1980s-era glam metal groups, and they began the local New York scene that later...
at the Matrix, Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Though considered an innovator of punk rock, Pop's music has encompassed a number of styles over the years, including pop, metal, jazz and blues...
at Bimbos, and Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
at Kezar Stadium
Kezar Stadium
Kezar Stadium is a stadium located adjacent to Kezar Pavilion in the southeastern corner of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California. It is the former home of the Oakland Raiders and the San Francisco 49ers of the NFL, and of the San Francisco Dragons of MLL. It also served as the home of the...
in San Francisco
1974: Tubes shoot "video
Video
Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.- History :...
demo" at California Hall which lands a record deal at A&M Records
A&M Records
A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that operates under the mantle of its Interscope-Geffen-A&M division.-Beginnings:...
, Cotten/Prince paint "Flying Record" mural on A&M sound stage
1975: Tubes play for two weeks of shows at David Allen's nightclub The Boarding House
The Boarding House (nightclub)
The Boarding House was a nightclub located at 960 Bush Street in San Francisco, California. Steve Martin's first three albums, Let's Get Small, A Wild and Crazy Guy, and Comedy Is Not Pretty were recorded there, in whole or in part...
in San Francisco, several sell-out dates at The Roxy
The Roxy Theatre
The Roxy Theatre is a famous nightclub, on the Sunset Strip, in West Hollywood, California. The Roxy is owned by Lou Adler and Adler's son, Nic, who operates the club.- History :...
in Los Angeles and The Bottom Line
Bottom Line
The Bottom Line was a music venue at 15 West Fourth Street between Mercer Street and Greene Street in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City...
in New York. Dec, 31- Headline and sell out Bill Graham's Winterland Ballroom
Winterland Ballroom
The Winterland Ballroom, often referred to as Winterland Arena or simply Winterland, was an old ice skating rink and 5,400-seat music venue in San Francisco, California...
1976: Held residency at Bimbos in San Francisco for one month, Prairie Prince dubbed "The One, The Only" by columnist Herb Caen
Herb Caen
Herbert Eugene Caen was a Pulitzer Prize-winning San Francisco journalistwhose daily column of local goings-on, social and political happenings,...
. Tubes hold "Talent Hunt" at the Boarding House hosted by Martin Mull
Martin Mull
Martin Mull is an American actor who has starred in his own television sitcom and acted in prominent films. He is also a comedian, painter, and recording artist...
; Robin Williams
Robin Williams
Robin McLaurin Williams is an American actor and comedian. Rising to fame with his role as the alien Mork in the TV series Mork and Mindy, and later stand-up comedy work, Williams has performed in many feature films since 1980. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance...
is contestant but loses
1977: Held residency at the Palace of Fine Arts
Palace of Fine Arts
The Palace of Fine Arts in the Marina District of San Francisco, California, is a monumental structure originally constructed for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in order to exhibit works of art presented there. One of only a few surviving structures from the Exposition, it is the only one still...
in San Francisco for one month, The Whisky a-Go-Go in Los Angeles for two shows a night for one month, and Hammersmith Odeon in London for a week
1978: Headlined the Knebworth Festival with Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
and Peter Gabriel
Peter Gabriel
Peter Brian Gabriel is an English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career...
. On April 3, The Tubes performed live with Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton
Dolly Rebecca Parton is an American singer-songwriter, author, multi-instrumentalist, actress and philanthropist, best known for her work in country music. Dolly Parton has appeared in movies like 9 to 5, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Steel Magnolias and Straight Talk...
on Cher... Special
Cher... Special
Cher... Special was a one-off television special from American singer/actress Cher that aired on ABC on April 3, 1978 at 9:00 pm ET/PT and was recorded at ABC Studios. Cher ... Special was a huge ratings success for ABC and it was ranked among the Top 10 most watched programs of the week...
, in the "Musical Battle to Save Cher's Soul Medley". As the title would imply, the performance was a duel between the forces of good and evil to determine where Cher
Cher
Cher is an American recording artist, television personality, actress, director, record producer and philanthropist. Referred to as the Goddess of Pop, she has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, three Golden Globes and a Cannes Film Festival Award among others for her work in...
would spend her eternal destiny. Dolly Parton was dressed in white and, with a team of brightly clad singers, portrayed an angelic host while The Tubes, dressed in black leather and performing "Mondo Bondage", battled to send Cher's soul into eternal damnation.
1979: Tubes play Japan; Cotten/Welnick/Prince/Styles appear on Japanese soap opera. Tubes appear in Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
's Interview
Interview (magazine)
Interview is an American magazine which has the nickname The Crystal Ball Of Pop. It was founded in late 1969 by artist Andy Warhol. The magazine features intimate conversations between some of the world's biggest celebrities, artists, musicians, and creative thinkers...
magazine
1980: Appear in the film Xanadu
Xanadu (film)
Xanadu is a 1980 romantic musical fantasy film written by Marc Reid Rubel and directed by Robert Greenwald. The title is a reference to the poem "Kubla Khan, or, A Vision in a Dream: A Fragment" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, which is quoted in the film. Xanadu is the name of the Chinese province...
singing the rock portion of the cross-genre song "Dancin'" opposite a big band
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
.
1981: Record Grammy nominated "The Tubes Video" at Shepperton Studios
Shepperton Studios
Shepperton Studios is a film studio in Shepperton, Surrey, England with a history dating back to 1931 since when many notable films have been made there...
, one of the first long form video discs.
1981: Sang "Sushi Girl" and "Talk to Ya Later" on the television sketch comedy program SCTV
Second City Television
Second City Television is a Canadian television sketch comedy show offshoot from Toronto's The Second City troupe that ran between 1976 and 1984.- Premise :...
, Episode #86 airing July 24.
1981: Appeared and sang, "Sushi Girl", on late night talk show,"Tomorrow", with Tom Snyder.
1981: Compose the song "Road Map of My Tears" for the film Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains
Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains
Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains is a 1981 film about three teenage girls, played by Diane Lane, Laura Dern and Marin Kanter, who start a punk band. Shot in British Columbia, Canada, the film also featured Ray Winstone, Christine Lahti, ex-Sex Pistols Steve Jones and Paul Cook, along with...
, in which Waybill and Welnick appear, among other musicians, as the fictional rock group The Metal Corpses.
1982: Appeared in a commercial for Activision's video game Megamania
Megamania
Megamania is an Atari 2600 game designed by Steve Cartwright and published by Activision in 1982. It took about six months to develop the concept, and another three months to fine tune the game. It was later released for the Atari 5200 and Atari 8-bit family in 1983, ported by Glyn Anderson...
1983: Opened several dates for David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
on the Serious Moonlight
Serious Moonlight Tour
The David Bowie Serious Moonlight Tour was thus far Bowie's longest, largest and most successful concert tour. The tour opened at the Vorst Forest Nationaal - Brussels on 18 May 1983 and ended in the Hong Kong Coliseum on 8 December 1983; 16 countries visited, 96 performances, 2,601,196 tickets...
tour and on this tour, among other highlights, they were the first artists to ever play the newly opened Tacoma Dome in Tacoma, Washington. At the end of the Bowie tour, they played a few shows featuring their classic no-holds-barred theatrics in Portland, Oregon, and other west-coast cities.
1985: Tour with Todd Rundgren
Todd Rundgren
Todd Harry Rundgren is an American multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and record producer. Hailed in the early stage of his career as a new pop-wunderkind, supported by the certified gold solo double LP Something/Anything? in 1972, Todd Rundgren's career has produced a diverse range of recordings...
's Utopia, play Radio City Music Hall
Radio City Music Hall
Radio City Music Hall is an entertainment venue located in New York City's Rockefeller Center. Its nickname is the Showplace of the Nation, and it was for a time the leading tourist destination in the city...
.
Albums
| Year | Album details | Peak chart positions | Sales | Certifications Music recording sales certification Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,... (sales thresholds) |
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
UK UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
|||||||||
| 1975 | The Tubes The Tubes (album) The Tubes is the debut album of The Tubes. Songs from this album which received significant airplay include "What Do You Want From Life" and "White Punks On Dope"...
|
113 | — | |||||||
| 1976 | Young and Rich Young and Rich Released in 1976, Young and Rich was the second album released by The Tubes. While Young and Rich is no longer available on CD, all of the songs from Young and Rich and their first record are now available on a single CD from Acadia Records called White Punks on Dope.-Track listing:#"Tubes World... |
46 | — | |||||||
| 1977 | Now Now (The Tubes album) Now is the third album released by The Tubes. It was partially produced by John Anthony. John Anthony left the project after a drug-induced breakdown, Bill Spooner took over and completed the project with the help of engineer Don Wood.... |
122 | — | |||||||
| 1978 | What Do You Want from Live What Do You Want From Live What Do You Want from Live is the fourth album released by The Tubes. It is a live album, recorded at the Hammersmith Odeon, London.-Track listing:#"Overture"#*"Up from the Deep" – 2:00#*"Young and Rich" – 1:27#*"Madam I'm Adam" – 0:49... |
82 | 38 | |||||||
| 1979 | Remote Control
|
46 | 40 | |||||||
| 1981 | T.R.A.S.H. (Tubes Rarities and Smash Hits)
|
— | — | |||||||
| The Completion Backward Principle The Completion Backward Principle The Completion Backward Principle is the sixth studio album from the rock group The Tubes.-Side one:#"Talk to Ya Later" #"Sushi Girl"#"Amnesia"#"Mr... Capitol Records Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine... |
36 | — | CAN Cria A cria is the name for a baby camelid such as a llama, alpaca, vicuña, or guanaco. It comes from the Spanish word cría, meaning "baby". Its false cognate in English, crya , was coined by British sailors who explored Chile in the 18th century and were quick to describe the camelids onomatopoeically... : Gold |
|||||||
| 1983 | Outside Inside Outside Inside Outside Inside is a 1983 release on Capitol Records by The Tubes. The album was produced by David Foster. The Tubes had their biggest radio hit with the single "She's a Beauty" .... |
18 | — | |||||||
| 1985 | Love Bomb Love Bomb Love Bomb is an album by The Tubes produced by Todd Rundgren. It was released in 1985 on Capitol Records. It is the last major-label release by The Tubes.... |
87 | — | |||||||
| 1992 | The Best of the Tubes
|
— | — | |||||||
| 1993 | Outside Inside
|
— | — | |||||||
| 1996 | Genius of America Genius of America The Tubes returned to the studio in 1996 for this release. Genius of America marked a number of firsts for the band: the first CD-only release, the first self-produced release, and the first body of work which includes Gary Cambra... |
— | — | |||||||
| 2000 | Millennium Collection: The Tubes
|
— | — | |||||||
| 2001 | The Tubes World Tour 2001 (live)
CMC International CMC International was an American independent record label founded by Tom Lipsky in 1991, focused mainly on classic rock, and classic heavy metal. The label was the haven of many hard rock, arena rock, glam metal and AOR artists in the period when all the majors were investing all their financial... |
— | — | |||||||
| 2002 | Hoods from Outer Space
|
— | — | |||||||
| 2003 | White Punks on Dope
|
— | — | |||||||
| 2005 | Wild In London Wild In London The Tubes released this live album in 2005. Wild In London was recorded on 6 December 2004 at Londons' Shepherd's Bush Empire and features some newer Fee Waybill characters such as 'Russell Chaps'... |
— | — | |||||||
| 2006 | Alive in America
|
— | — | |||||||
| 2007 | Alive in America
|
— | — | |||||||
| 2008 | Goin' Down the Tubes
|
— | — | |||||||
| 2009 | Mondo Birthmark
|
— | — | |||||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart. | ||||||||||
Singles
| Year | Song | Peak chart positions | Album | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... |
US Main. Rock Mainstream Rock Tracks Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks is a ranking in Billboard magazine of the most-played songs on mainstream rock radio stations, a category that includes stations that play primarily rock music. Modern rock tracks are counted in the Alternative Songs chart.This chart began with the March 21, 1981, issue... |
UK UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
||||||||
| 1976 | "Don't Touch Me There" | 61 | - | - | Young and Rich | |||||
| 1977 | "White Punks on Dope" | — | — | 28 | The Tubes | |||||
| 1979 | "Prime Time" | — | — | 34 | Remote Control | |||||
| 1981 | "Don't Want To Wait Anymore" | 35 | 22 | 60 | The Completion Backward Principle | |||||
| "Talk to Ya Later" | 101 | 7 | — | |||||||
| "Gonna Get it Next Time" | — | — | — | Sports Fans | ||||||
| 1983 | "She's a Beauty She's a Beauty "She's a Beauty" is a song by American rock band The Tubes. Released in 1983 on The Tubes' album Outside Inside from Capitol Records, the song became the band's biggest hit. It went to number 10 on the Billboard U.S. Hot 100 list, and number 1 on the Billboard U.S... " |
10 | 1 | 79 | Outside Inside | |||||
| "Tip of My Tongue" | 52 | — | — | |||||||
| "The Monkey Time" | 68 | 16 | — | |||||||
| 1985 | "Piece by Piece" | 87 | 25 | — | Love Bomb | |||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart. | ||||||||||
Video albums
| Year | Video details |
|---|---|
| 1981 | The Tubes Video
|
| 1982 | The Tubes: Live at the Greek
Monterey Home Video Monterey Home Video is a home video company co-founded in 1982 by Scott Mansfield, founder of Monterey Movie Company, and Noel C. Bloom, founder of Family Home Entertainment. Monterey is the second sub-label of NCB Entertainment, after FHE.... Betamax Betamax was a consumer-level analog videocassette magnetic tape recording format developed by Sony, released on May 10, 1975. The cassettes contain -wide videotape in a design similar to the earlier, professional wide, U-matic format... , VHS VHS The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan .... |
External links
- http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/the-tubes/video/ Bill Graham Video Archive 1975-79
- The Tubes Project, archive video/press site
- Bill Spooner's website, with Tubes images
- Michael Cotten Studio
- Prairie Prince's website
- The Tubes on A&M Records
- 2007 Prairie Prince radio interview on Rundgren Radio
- 2009 Prairie Prince radio interview on Rundgren Radio