ARTIST: The Tubes
TITLE: The Tubes
YEAR RELEASED: 1975
CHART ACTION: #113 US
SINGLES: White Punks on Dope (#28 UK)
OTHER SONGS YOU MAY KNOW: Mondo Bondage, What Do You Want from Life?
LINEUP: Fee Waybill, Bill Spooner, Roger Steen, Michael Cotton, Vince Welnick, Rick Anderson, Prairie Prince
WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT: San Francisco shock theatre-cabaret rockers bring their stage show to vinyl.
SOME WORDS, PHRASES AND CLAUSES ABOUT THIS RECORD: You either crack up at their humor or you don’t. The issue with this album is that songs like “Mondo Bondage”work more as a stage routine than on record. However, the band does play well and Al Kooper did a nice job producing it.
Some of the humor seems more fitting for a National Lampoon album, and it is dated, with some definite 70’s references that you kids wouldn’t really get. I mean, I may not get all of them either.
I’d say about half of this record is good, and it’s a shame that it’s not streaming because a couple of the cuts I like are the deeper cuts.
NOTES & MINUTIAE: Finally! Streaming!
IS THERE A DELUXE VERSION: No
GRADE: B- : The good parts are good – the other parts are probably for stage only.