By the end of 1976, there wasn't a rock fan worth his/her salt who couldn't gleefully recite, word-for-eccentric-word, the hysterical list of fictional game show prizes in The Tubes' "What Do You Want From Life?" The theatrical roller-coaster of a song was never a huge hit single, but regardless, it became anchored in a late '70s-'80s pop culture understandably obsessed with the giddy lampooning of "The Groove Tube" and "Kentucky Fried Movie," and the foreign lunacy of "Monty Python's Flying Circus." More importantly, it actually had something to say.
On stage, and, later, on seven wildly varied studio album releases, the weird and wonderful Tubes catapulted their wry, twisted and immensly entertaining fantasies in the early- '70s as a theater rock troupe based in San Francisco. Founded by guitarist Bill Spooner, and a bunch of art-school comrades, The Tubes planted their tongues firmly in cheek, their feet in Godzilla-sized platform shoes, and their warped sites on a hodgepodge of satirical subjects from musical trends ("Slipped My Disco") superstardom ("White Punks On Dope") and B-movie culture ("Attack Of The Fifty Foot Woman"), to S&M ("Mondo Bondage") and chastity ("Don't Touch Me There", a risque concert favorite).
With sets and costumes cooked up by the band, inventive choreography courtesy of Kenny Ortega ("He cut his teeth with us," says vocalist Fee Waybill.), and the valuable support from booking king Bill Graham, The Tubes also became known for the environmental theater stage shows. They were the pioneers of rock video, the first to use video projection and on-stage monitors as part of their presentations. These wild revues featured hundreds of extras, including dancing girls (The Tubettes), strippers, animal acts, marching bands, graffiti artists, break dancers, skaters, ballerinas, record executives, rock critics and audience members in such events as The Streakers Ball, to which all naked members of the audience were admitted free (Fee streaked too).
Fantastic Delusion...
The Tubes soon became particularly notable for the extroverted on-stage exploits of lead singer Fee Waybill, nee Omaha-born John Waybill, a former roadie for guitarist Roger Steen's previous band. An imposing figure (especially in skyscraper shoes, an exaggerated plastic 'do and mammoth dildo), Waybill masterminded such unforgettable characters as Dr. Strangekiss, a disabled neo-Nazi occasionally possessed by the spirit of Tom Jones; Johnny Bugger, the world's most obnoxious punk; and Quay Lewd, who would stagger onstage in spandex and stilt like platforms in an unflattering magnification of a rock star drug casualty, much to the chagrin of the tacky pop superstars after whom Quay was molded.
The Tubes -- fundamentally composed of frontman Waybill, Spooner, and Roger Steen on guitar and vocals, bassist Rick Anderson, Michael Cotten on synths, drummer Prairie Prince, female singer Re Styles, keyboardist Vince Welnick and, joining just prior to the third Tubes album, percussionist Mingo Lewis -- created stunningly original music as peculiar as their show, yet consistently accessible to those fans who never saw them live.
Piece By Piece...
Over a 10-year recording career, The Tubes scored six singles in the Billboard Hot 100, five of which appeared on three Capitol Records releases, and the biggest of which was the Top 10 hit "She's A Beauty," an April 9, 1983 singles chart entry from Outside Inside. "'She's A Beauty' really opened things up for us," Fee remembers. "Before that, we were strictly a bi-coastal band. But after 'She's A Beauty,' we were welcome in every 'burb on the face of the Earth -- although we were required to post an obscenity bond when we hit town. We even had to switch air brushed body stockings with painted genitalia."
Meanwhile, overseas, "Talk To Ya Later" became a #1 single in numerous countries. "With solid gold songs like 'Talk To Ya Later,' 'Amnesia,' 'Attack Of The Fifty Foot Woman,' and 'Sushi Girl,' The Completion Backward Principle was absolutely our best album," Fee remarks of The Tubes' first album produced by David Foster. "We hated being pigeonholed as a 'circus' band, a novelty, and at last, that was the album that changed everybody's perceptions."
From the 1983 album Outside/Inside (also produced by Foster), "Tip Of My Tongue" followed the Top 10 success of "She's A Beauty" by rising to #52 in July, '83, then "The Monkey Time" hit #68 in October of that year. The Tubes' final chart hurrah was earned with "Piece by Piece" from 1985's Love Bomb album, produced by Todd Rundgren.
Tying up The Tubes...
At their best, The Tubes had an uncanny knack to turn the commonplace into the horrific and vice versa, sometimes shocking audiences along the way, but always making them think. Once considered the Marshall McLuhans of rock 'n' roll, The Tubes became both the medium and the message, stirring imagination through the power of their toe tapping audio-visual dramas.
Whatever the year, whatever the subject, whatever the means, The Tubes always managed to expose, enlighten and entertain by astutely mixing art with trash, comedy with tragedy, bullshit with ballet. "Are you straight, or gay?" someone once asked Fee while costumed as Quay. "Neither," he replied. "I'm Bicentennial."
-- Vicki Arkoff, Capitol Records, 1992
"I know this will sound like total bull%#@*, but honestly, The Tubes owed everything to the fans, and if it wasn't for their loyalty and their total derangement (God love 'em) we would have quit before we really even got started. Since our reputation was largely based on word-of-mouth, the only reason we at first sold a single record, or concert ticket was because people were blown away and they told their friends who told their friends. And they, in turn, let us know that as wacky as we got, we couldn't ever get wacky enough! That's why we never did the same show twice, why we loved to let the audience choose the set list, and why I would duke it out with security guards who wouldn't let the crowd come to the front of the stage...That's also why this new CD reissue, (The Best Of The Tubes) exists, and why I'm here now to say thanks."
-- Fee Waybill, July 1992
