Some of the best rock albums have been seriously road tested. It's not unusual for a band's first to be their finest. That was the case with the Tubes eponymous 1975 debut.
As good as The Tubes is, it still doesn't capture the glory that was their 1970's stage show. I hoped to post a 1975 set on Sunday but the buggers at the Music Archive buggered off with it. I know the band doesn't disapprove of their shows being online: the Tubes Project at YouTube was initiated by original member Michael Cotten.
Back to the stage show. I saw them a lot back in the day. They were master satirists, neo-vaudevillains, social commentators, and a helluva rock band rolled into one. For example, they performed the Latin chestnut Malaguena Salerosa with Fee Waybill dressed as Che Guevara and Ree Styles as Patty Hearst and danced the tango. Ole without the tilde. End of old fart reverie.
The album cover was designed by synth player Michael Cotten and drummer Prairie Prince. The latter is the exception to my "most drummers are dumbasses" rule. He's one smart and very talented dude. The team of Prince and Cotten have created stage designs for artists such as Todd Rundgren, Bette Midler, Styx, and Billy Joel. Anyway, PP can drum, paint, design, you name it, he can do it. Here's the LP cover:
Here's the back cover. It's tubular, dude:
Here's the whole consarn album:
Here are the Tubes live at Winterland playing their magnum opus White Punks On Dope. Give it up for Quay Lewd:
They’re still pretty damn good live (what do you want from live?) these days. They’re in Hermosa Beach on Friday.
I believe it. They seem to play mostly West Coast gigs nowadays. Cannot blame them.
My college roommate had this album (and a couple more by The Tubes). We played the shit out of it. I’ll have to pop back by later and listen to a couple of cuts.