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 satires of media, consumerism, and politics.
|
THE TUBES TICKETS
|
Career
The Tubes started as a collection of high school friends from
Phoenix 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.
[1]
Showbiz 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, decked out with flashing glasses and impossibly 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 Tubes' second album,
Young and Rich
on
A&M Records, was
produced by
Ken Scott. It featured the hit "Don't Touch Me There" (
arranged by
Jack Nitzsche), and featured Laramy Smith, who with
Larry Lee arranged and performed the backing vocals. 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.
[2] Instead, they put their creativity and art skills 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)
.
[3]
The band then signed to
Capitol Records, scaling back the live shows and redesigning itself as a strait 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 serious ballad, "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
, a flop that led Capitol to drop the band just as it was going on 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.
[4] Waybill released an unsuccessful solo album (
Read My Lips
, on Capitol Records) earlier in the year, and soon left the band ("Fee broke up", one band member said). The band attempted to carry on with a new lead singer but after just a few appearances it split up. During this time, Waybill also 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 1988, The Tubes reactivated minus Cotten, and took on a longtime friend from Phoenix, Arizona, David Killingsworth as lead vocalist. After their fall tour of 1988, Bill Spooner left the band. Vince Welnick took to the road with Todd Rundgren in 1989, and then joined the
Grateful Dead in 1990. Gary Cambra, who had previously been filling in for Vince, joined on keyboards and guitar in 1989. In 1993, Waybill rejoined the band. This lineup toured Europe and released two CDs, a compilation and the 1996
Genius of America
. 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, Cotten and Styles. 2005 also saw the release of their live album "Wild in London".
Welnick, who long suffered from depression, committed suicide on June 2, 2006.
On September 23, 2007, the remaining members of the Tubes reunited in Phoenix for their induction into the Arizona Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame.
Career highlights
Category:Articles with sections that need to be turned into prose
1972: Tubes appear in
Mitchell brothers 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 [5]
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.
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.
Discography
Albums
- The Tubes
(1975) #113 U.S.
- Young and Rich
(1976) #46 U.S.
- Now
(1977) #122 U.S.
- What Do You Want from Live
(1978) #82 U.S., #38 UK
- Remote Control
(1979) #46 U.S., #40 UK
- T.R.A.S.H. (Tubes Rarities and Smash Hits)
(1981)
- The Completion Backward Principle
(1981) #36 U.S.
- Outside Inside
(1983) #18 U.S., #77 UK
- Love Bomb
(1985) #87 U.S.
- The Best of the Tubes
(1992)
- Genius of America
(1996)
- The Tubes World Tour 2001
(2001)
- Wild In London
(2005)
[6]
Singles
Year
| Song
| U.S. Hot 100
| U.S. M.S.R.
| UK Singles Chart
| Album
|
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
|
1981
| "Talk to Ya Later"
| -
| 7
| -
|
1983
| "She's a Beauty"
| 10
| 1
| -
| Outside Inside
|
1983
| "Tip of My Tongue"
| 52
| -
| -
|
1983
| "The Monkey Time"
| 68
| 16
| -
|
1985
| "Piece by Piece"
| 87
| 25
| -
| Love Bomb
|
References
- Jancik and Lathrop
- Jakubowski and Tobler
- Kimberlye Gold interview with Fee Waybill, "He'll Talk to Ya Now!", accessed 15 March 2007
- Kimberlye Gold interview
- Concerts.wolfgangsvault.com
- British Hit Singles & Albums