Description
Label Review.
59 track round up of The Tubes time with A&M Records between 1975-79. The Tubes (1975) Young And Rich (1976) Now (1977) What Do You Want From Live (1978) Remote Control (1979). Housed in a sturdy clam shell box, each disc comes in a replica cardboard wallet of its original LP artwork.
Our Overview.
The Tubes formed in San Francisco in 1972 and in three years scored a record deal with A&M Records who would release four studio and one live album in a five year period. Their debut album ‘The Tubes’ (1975) was produced by Al Kooper, who was on a roll after producing three hit albums for Lynyrd Skynyrd. The best known track from the album is ‘White Punks On Dope’ which belatedly became a Top 30 in the UK in 1977.
They went to Ken Scott (David Bowie / Supertramp) to produce their second album ‘Young & Rich’ in 1976. They had a small hit in the US with ‘Don’t Touch Me There’ and the album breached the Top 50. Third Album ‘Now’ released in 1977 saw the band with another producer and record company meddling behind the scenes scuppered the albums chances. A live album recorded in Hammersmith, London, gave the band their first album success in the UK and recovered some of their standing in the US. For their final album with A&M they turned to workaholic Todd Rundgren for ‘Remote Control’, a concept album based on the book ‘Being There’ by Jerzy Kosinski which was also made into a film with Peter Sellers that same year. They scored a second UK Top 40 with ‘Prime Time’ and the album fared well stateside too.
Despite this they were dropped by A&M who rejected their proposed self-produced fifth album. They appeared in the film ‘Xanadu’ and got picked by Capitol Records and then entered their most popular period before winding down in the mid-80s.