So I’ve been thinking about how we truly do need a “Group Grope” with the Super Ginchy Rock Combo, The Tubes!
I’m really not kidding. These guys were way ahead of the curve when they came out. I can remember dropping a quarter into the jukebox at Master Pizza and playing both sides of the “White Punks on Dope” 45, and standing on my chair and letting it wail above the Pong machine. Was I cool? Hells, yeah! I thought so, anyway (it was a pretty quiet pizza shop, we weren’t bothering anyone). The Tubes were a band that thought the kids were important. They understood that kids want sex and violence, and that parents had no idea what popular culture, their kids, rock and roll, and the freedom of a Driver’s License were capable of on an unsupervised Saturday night.
Their music holds up today. The synth flourishes tend to be a bit much, but the drum sound and the guitars are still there. The lyrics are smart and funny, and Re Styles was the greatest “Secret Weapon” any band ever had. Trust me. I saw her. I saw what she did on that motorcycle. I wanted to be on that motorcycle with her so bad. “Don’t Touch Me There” was one of those hit singles your mom cringed at when driving you to swimming practice in 1976. “What Do You Want From Life” and its final line, “A baby’s arm holding an apple,” made a lot of teenagers go “huh?” But the old man just said, “I don’t like these guys.” But I did. I loved The Tubes.
I think the first time I saw them was at Public Hall in Cleveland in 1976. If my mom knew what happened there, she’d have never dropped me off, let alone let me pick up a few odd jobs around the house to pay for my ticket. By the time What Do You Want From Live came out, I played “Mondo Bondage” almost every morning before school as loud as I could. I convinced my parents that everyone was up anyway, so a little thumping from my room shouldn’t hurt anyone. Hey, the ’70s weren’t a bad place to grow up. But then again, Punk came and a spectacle like The Tubes were a little passe. But then again Disco was huge, and The Tubes actually drew plenty of rockers toward them because they had more than just pushing in the bush, or boogie oogie oogieing. If The Stones could do Disco, then why shouldn’t The Tubes?
If you find any of their albums, I think you’d be pleasantly surprised at the talent level in the band and the quality of their music. I think it will make you wish you had the chance to see them way back when they were demanding No Titties in the Twin Cities! They were one of a kind, and I’m glad I got the chance to be part of it.
i equate The Tubes with Sparks and I love them both.
lotsa fun!
Pre-Regan Rock.
at least attitudinally
Thanks for bringing up Sparks, because it reminds me of the comment I meant to make in that thread but never did — too smart for their own good. And somewhat like Zappa, the Tubes end up stuck in adolescence. But ironically I still get the feeling of being talked down to, which I don’t appreciate.
I used to see the Tubes on TV and they just rubbed me the wrong way. I don’t like the spectacle aspect of rock, and I shy away from music that seems to be primarily a vehicle for something else — in this case satirical social commentary I guess — instead of an end in itself.
To me the Tubes belonged Off Broadway, where they would have been easier for me to ignore. It ain’t what I call rock & roll.
Sorry, 2k. Nothing personal.
I’ve always been terrified of these guys. It begins with the singer, Fee Waybill? His Look does not bode well, and the whole Rocky Horror Picture Show/Alice Cooper vibe rubs me the wrong way. That second song…it’s what I imagine that High School Musical thing is that the teenage girls today are getting into. There’s also a kind of White Funkadelic thing going on with the cast of whacky characters, isn’t there? Yikes! I avoided Funkadelic for years because of that scene.
I think I’m a little younger than you, 2K. I appreciate your tales of discovering them in the mid-70s, and in that context this stuff makes some sense. I will say that their decision to surround themselves with good-looking women is a major plus, but the guys are so ugly that I feel like a voyeur in a strip club.
Even more than Sparks, perhaps I one day need to revisit The Tubes after having all visuals wiped clean from my memory. OK, the girls in the first video can stay.
BigSteve, I certainly wouldn’t take it personally. It’s just a band that came up in the Sparks thread (I think), and I really liked the idea of a “group grope.” If any band deserves groping, it’s the band that groped their fans, the Tubes. I tought they were funny when they came out with a song like I Was a Punk Before You Were and it was so far removed from what Punk really was.
I think they kind of lost it after The Completion Backward Principle and their albums prior to that had some filler, but what’s not to love with the cheerleader part of the first video?
Gimme another “B!”
Maybe next week I’ll do fart jokes!
Whiel I wouldn’t put them in the same league as Sparks or DEVO, their performance on SCTV was hilarious.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7aO5eRkSxk
White Punks on Dope is a really good song. I’m with Mr. Mod though on the schtick. I don’t dig costume changes and horror or comedy routines in my rock. Too Cats. Seems like a Benny Hill romp could break out at any moment. Give me a dignified laser light show or inflatable pig for a visual.