The Tubes - The Completion Backward Principle (1981)

Note: this release was originally purchased as an LP, later replaced by this CD.

While the corporate motivation theme of the album packaging ("credibility, growth, direction") gets an eyeroll from me these days, I still dig the use of a pic of a floating PVC tee on the album cover.

Even though I was vaguely aware of The Tubes from their duet with Olivia Newton-John on the Xanadu soundtrack, my formal introduction to the group happened a few years later when Jim, a high school buddy, loaned me his cassette of The Completion Backward Principle, a tasty collection of catchy, high gloss power pop. I wore that tape out. And then returned it. Sorry, Jim.

Comparisons to Toto and Chicago are appropriate, mainly due to David Foster's participation: production as well as co-writing four of the ten tunes here. Foster is also somewhat known for bringing in session musicians if the band isn't meeting his standards. That must go over well. Toto guitarist Steve Lukather was brought in to co-write and do the guitar work on the album's second single, Talk To Ya Later, which 'bubbled under' at #101 on the pop chart, but peaked at #7 on the rock chart. And the lead single, a ballad titled Don't Want To Wait Anymore (#35 pop, #22 rock) sounds like it could have been lifted directly from a Foster-produced Chicago album and/or included in a cheesy '80s summer movie as the love theme. The critics didn't like that, but young Mark sure did. And still does.

The band would stick with Foster for another album, Outside Inside, which would yield the band's biggest hit, She's A Beauty. I had that on vinyl back in '83 and would be happy to find a used CD copy of the thing.

Press of the time:

• CashBox: "Producer David Foster has tightened up all the loose ends"
• Rolling Stone (★★★½): "The Tubes have constructed a swell 1981 model"
• Stereo Review: "Kinky bands need hits too."
• Musician: "sound like outtakes from Toto Variety Hour"
• Trouser Press: "have been studying Top 40 stalwarts like the Doobies and Hall & Oates"
• High Fidelity: "delivering barbs in a fully integrated musical style."
• Record Mirror (no stars): "There are 10 tracks on this LP and no songs."

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard Top 200: #36
• Billboard Rock: #11
• CashBox: #37
• Rolling Stone: #27

Tracks: 

• Exceeds expectations: Talk To Ya Later, Sushi Girl, Don't Want To Wait Anymore
• Meets expectations: Mr. Hate, Attack Of The Fifty Foot Woman, Think About Me, A Matter Of Pride, Power Tools, Let's Make Some Noise
• Growth opportunity: Amnesia

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: As mentioned earlier, before I purchased my own copy of The Completion Backward Principle my buddy Jim lent me his prerecorded cassette of this release. And while it was a 1981 release, I didn't discover it until about 2 years later with the borrowing of said cassette. Brings back great memories of riding around in my car singing Sushi Girl at the top of my lungs with the windows down. Said tape got a lot of play in the Markmobile on my way to and from my job at the local Burger King, admittedly not a difficult job to land.

Ad from my junior yearbook.
That particular BK location has since closed;
the building is currently a Mexican food restaurant.

It was a minimum wage job, which, at the time, was $3.35/hr. (Then price of a Whopper w/tax: $1.41). I was fortunate/entitled and didn't have to work; my parents provided me with everything I needed. However, I wanted to buy a new trumpet as I had decided to major in music at college, had a burgeoning record buying habit to support, all my other friends were working part-time jobs, I didn't have any girlfriends, so why not?

Buttons worn on my polyester knit Burger King uniform, ca. 1983-84

As you can guess, it's fairly easy to move up quickly in such a turnover-rich environment. So, within a matter of months I had progressed from stock boy to cook to the choice non-management job position: drive-thru cashier - most likely because I could correctly add, substract, and therefore make change.

Burger King drive-thru: The dream job of children everywhere.

At the time, the restaurant's hours were from 10:30 AM until 9 PM (to the best of my recollection) which seems hard to believe now with many fast food places open 24 hours a day. During my time there, I remember three new ideas rolled out by the corporate offices: 1) a salad bar, 2) breakfast, 3) "late night" drive-thru open after 9 PM. The salad bar didn't last long, but the other two are still around.

I worked that job for the first seven months of 1983, had to quit to accommodate the time commitments of extracurricular activities during my senior year of high school, then picked up again the following summer after I had graduated but before I left town to start college adventures. The Tubes tape would have been on heavy rotation in my Pioneer deck during that first go-round at the drive-thru. Like this Tubes album, two other tapes of the time immediately take me back to that job: Cuts Like A Knife and Chicago 16.

Previously revisited for the blog:
The Best of The Tubes 1981-1987 (1991)