Ya know, I never know what blogs I write that people will actually read. I think that if I do something by The Stones or Neil Young, people will find it and maybe read it. Then I do something like The Slickee Boys or Jacobites, and I get a ton of hits from all over the world. I really don't get it. Then again, even when I have a blog entry more read than another one it still means almost no one on the planet has read it. So I think I'll just keep doing it the way I have been and if I have time, and I'm thinking about a record all day, I'll write about that one.
With The Tubes - Remote Control album I wasn't so much thinking about this album all day, but how odd I always thought it was that I knew people that liked The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, but couldn't stand The Tubes. I really kind of don't get that. I always thought that if I had the chance to see both of those bands in like a co-headlining thing I'd have paid pretty much anything they asked. I saw The Tubes and I never saw Alex, and I'll tell you some time how much I liked seeing them. For now, I'm gonna stick with what I was thinking all day.
The Tubes should have been bigger. I don't know why they weren't. My friends and I loved them. I went to a school where they were really popular. I mean, everyone knew who they were. Even this album, Remote Control, was a constant at parties all over town. I liked that after some stupid fucking Ted Nugent album was over I could put on something like this and everyone liked it. So where was the rest of the country? Why weren't these guys huge?
By the time they got to Remote Control, they had Todd Rundgren producing, and I think he went a long way to making sure that Remote Control sounded like a modern, major label release. They always sounded pretty good, but Todd is good at making a big sound huge. If there was anything The Tubes needed it was the hugeness of their live show to translate onto vinyl. I think they succeeded here. It gets some Todd signature backing vocals here and there, but the record still sounds like The Tubes.
In 1979 when this came out, I was pretty sure that TV was evil, and that bands like The Tubes that were pointing out just how really horrible TV really is would maybe be able to help change things for the better. Here's one of those bands that I thought was going to change the way things were, but all it did is eventually show my idealistic young self that as much as it seemed like it was changing my life, Rock N' Roll was never going to change the world and make it better. It was just going to be another way for rich people to print money. Man, that sucked when I really finally understood that.
I have a friend who had an old Nova he bought from the old lady across the street. It was a blue 4 door, early 70's. It was rotted from the bottom of the door panels about a quarter of the way up the doors and fenders. It looked like someone dipped it in acid or something. We couldn't put any speakers in the doors because they'd get wet, but we got a decent sounding stereo in there in spite of the challenges. The damned thing only had like 25.000 miles on it, but man, was it rusty!
We used to drive around and listen to Remote Control all the time. I think we listened to side one most of the time, because everyone really liked the title track, and Prime Time, which is kind of a derivative of Don't Touch Me There, their first brush with chart success. The one two punch of opener Remote Control going into TV Is King was a pretty strong way to kick off an album, and it was hard to argue when someone wanted to hear that side of the album again.
Side two has strong tracks, too. Where my friends liked the opening songs on side one, and the hit single, I still to this day think my two favorite songs are Only the Strong Survive and Telecide. I especially love Telecide. It's one of my all time favorite Tubes songs. It starts off really fast and it's got a wailing guitar solo. I guess there's just not that much more that I need to make me happy!
I bought this a couple years ago. I think I got it at a record show. It's in really nice shape, with a nice, clean cover and the record is nice and flat. It was probably only two or three dollars and I can't think of a better thing to spend the price of a coke and a bag of chips on.
Hey 2000
ReplyDeleteBeing a blogger like myself I have gone from days of single digit reviews to a very rare 100 and even more rarer 200 views, to which 278 folks came over to read assorted stuff, now I'm back to single digits again can't figure that out. Blogging is so hit and miss, Paul Rodgers Bad Company blog gets nil views but the Brian Howe one is one of the top five. Casually mention something like Mom's Apple Pie or the Swinging Steaks and the Apple Pie manager responds or even better having the Steaks do a direct link to that blog. Basically it's a hobby to preserve the music I like best, Singles Going Steady and all although even with pics, the ratings are single digits.
That said, The Tubes were more of a acquired taste for me although perhaps in the near future I might seek out Remote Control or T.R.A.S.H. Of course The Tubes I know, are the Talk To Ya Later band of the 1980s and I always loved that song and to a lesser extent Power Tools or that Sushi Song. The downside was that David Foster, scmaltz producer was behind the boards on that Completion Backwards CD (too tired to look up the full title) I think Todd Rundgren did come back to produce the underrated Love Bomb.
But then again in the late 70s I was into the junk rock of Terrible Ted Nugent who's music nowadays I have no use of. If I want to hear the Nuge, I'll pull out The Amboy Dukes.
Keep on writing, you never know what you post, just might be a hit. ;)
Man, I'm so annoyed! i replied to this in the morning and I don't know where it went. Trust me, it was brilliant and insightful, not at all poorly thought out and flip like this reply will be!
DeleteI just find it strange when I look through Statcounter and see what people actually look at here. I had someone from Sweden spend like an hour here a few weeks ago (thanks, whoever you are!) but most people just look really quick. I think they're disappointed that I don't give away free rips of my music collection, but I'm just not interested in that. this is really mostly for me to write SOMETHING now and then, so I don't forget how to spell!
Anyway, The Tubes are like a lot of bands. They started out strong and got weaker the longer they tried for the big hit. The first two albums are fantastic, weird, goofy and fun records. The live album suffers a little from the long instrumental parts where the visuals were the thing. The first few times you listen it's like they stretch out the songs, but then you can kind of tell that they aren't jamming so much as locking into a groove that the bit can use. It's still cool, but if you had seen them back then, it just kind of made you wish that you could see it, too. Maybe these days they'd have been able to release a blue ray or something so you could watch the show on a home entertainment set up that really didn't exist in the 70's.
I feel bad that you were into Ted. I know a lot of people that were, and for some reason, I've just always hated the guy. I've always thought the guy was a misogynistic piece of trash (and c'mon - I'm a huge Stones fan, so it's not like I have problems with misogynistic music!). I just wish he'd hurry up and shoot himself in the face already. You've come a long way, though. Your Townedger radio shows look really cool, I wish I could download them ans play them whenever I want, like with Rock town hall's Saturday Night Shut Ins (they're sporadic, but they're all great).
I grew out of Ted Nugent when he started Wango Tango and being the right wing nut job that he's become. And besides there's plenty of music yet to be heard. I think the record played Tubes What Do You Want From Live but what I heard I didn't care much for.
DeleteThanks for nice comments. Being a blogger for 10 plus years I tend to favor more of musical view rather than the usual bashing of something I don't like. That gets old in a hurry. I'm proud that I get a chance to do a hour long show TE Radio but it comes on 10 PM (PST) (midnight my time) that third wed of the month on Lucky Star Radio. I don't think they have on demand or a way to hear past shows. But basically I do post the playlist; I'll do anything to keep the forgotten music going. And to hell with Ted Nugent ;)
PS I hear you on replying to things. I lost a few trying to post on a outdated computer. Not fun to lose something you spent an hour typing it out and having gone to the big black cyber hole in net land. Which is where most of My Space blogs prior to 2008 is now at.
This album IS a lot of fun, it came out when I was in the record store, and it brings those days back for me. I especially liked "I Want it All Now," thought it should have been a big hit, loved the line about dying like a fish at the end of a pole. Whole first side was pretty great, like you said.
ReplyDeleteSecond side, eh. Fave was "Love's a Mystery," which to me sounds JUST LIKE a Todd Rundgren song, and sort of like a dry-run for their later "Don't Wanna Wait Anymore."
You have good taste -- when you gonna review HALL OF THE MOUNTAIN GRILL?
I have good taste? I'm really not sure about that! I tend to think I'm really picky about what I think is cool and what I think sucks. I have almost no middle ground when it comes to music. I either love it, or i hate it. The stuff in the middle that I can't get worked up either way about, I tend to think is boring, and that's where a whole lot of everyone else' sweet spot seems to be. I tend to like things like bands that sound like The Beatles or led Zeppelin, but I don't like either of those bands. Well, I can't say I don't like The Beatles because I like them, but I'm not blown away by them, ya know? People just sound stupid when they say they don't like The Beatles but they claim to like Rock music. I don't want to sound like that.
DeleteI don't know when I'll get around to Hawkwind. I haven't really had much exposure to them. That's the first album of theirs I ever bought. I can tell you this so far, I'll buy some more, that's for sure!