The Tubes - Outside Inside (1983)

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

The group's biggest-selling album, this release is more of the catchy, high gloss power pop found on their previous album, The Completion Backward Principle, with production from David Foster and playing help from the members of Toto. Now that I read the previous sentence, it seems like the putdowns the music critics used (see below), but not so - since I liked Completion Backward Principle, I like most of this one as well.

Press of the time:

• Rolling Stone (★★): "this Tubes fan is disappointed"
• Stereo Review: "characterless, hook-riddled, heavy-metal contrivances"
• Billboard: "the emphasis on the band's musicality, rather than its earlier penchant for outrageous satire"
• CashBox: "the band seemed to move beyond mere cult status and become embraced by the rock mainstream"
• Robert Christgau (C+): "these soulful California cats did their professional best to simulate a Journey album."
• Trouser Press: "the kind of empty wind their pals in Toto generate."

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #18
• Billboard Rock: #2
• CashBox: #18
• Rolling Stone: #16

Tracks: Three singles were released in the US, including the band's biggest hit, She's A Beauty (#10 pop, #1 rock), The Monkey Time (#68 pop, #16 rock), and the EWF knock-off Tip Of My Tongue (#52 pop). Coincidently(?), those three singles weren't primarily written by the band:

• She's A Beauty - Toto's Steve Lukather and producer David Foster
• The Monkey Time - Curtis Mayfield
• Tip Of My Tongue - Maurice White

Nevertheless, those three are the top tracks on the album, but I also have a strange affection for the wacky Wild Women Of Wongo. Of the remaining filler, I dig No Not Again, Out Of The Business, and Fantastic Delusion. 

The version of Monkey Time included on this CD is the original duet with Martha Davis; the US single contained a re-recorded version with Davis' vocal replaced by Michele Gray.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: Nothing immediately comes to mind. My time during the spring and summer months of 1983 were spent working the drive-thru window at Burger King, a time I recapped when I posted about The Completion Backward Principle. I also spent a week in Austin being brainwashed; you can read my memories of that experience over at My Favorite Decade. The brainwashing didn't take.

Around the time this album was released, I was finishing up my junior year of high school. My grades that semester? According to my personal archives (a.k.a. a shoebox of stuff my mother saved for me), here ya go:

• Band: 96
• Chemistry: 82
• Typing: 95
• English: 85
• Government: 92
• French I: 95

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

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)

The Tubes - The Best of The Tubes 1981-1987 (1991)

The title of this CD puzzles me. They list the years as 1981-1987 when all the songs come from 1981-1983. Nothing from the band's 1985 release Love Bomb is included here. The years 1981-83 could be known as 'The David Foster/Toto Years' because Foster's slick pop production and songwriting is all over these songs and the band is mostly replaced by the session musicians of Toto (Foster did the same thing with Chicago around the same time). By this time, the group had definitely abandoned their glam/punk roots in search of commercial success. I borrowed a friend's copy of 1981's The Completion Backward Principle and dubbed a tape of it before buying my own vinyl copy, then bought a copy of 1983's Outside Inside on LP. I was also aware of the group from their appearance on the fabulous Xanadu soundtrack.

Tracks: The first 6 tracks are from The Completion Backward Principle and, except for Amnesia, they're all good and bring back great memories of riding around in my car singing Sushi Girl at the top of my lungs with my windows down. I'm sure I was the most entertaining mobile show in my little hometown, circa 1982. Attack Of The Fifty Foot Woman isn't a great song, but the lyrics make up for the lack of good music. The ballad Don't Want To Wait Anymore is classic Foster and seems like it should have been included in a cheesy '80s summer movie as the love theme.

The next 3 tracks are from Outside Inside. She's A Beauty was the band's biggest hit and contains many of the group's trademark double entendre lyrics. The final track is Sports Fans, a 1982 single-only released produced by Bobby Columby of Blood, Sweat & Tears. I could complain about this song few have heard being included in a Best Of collection, but could I expect anything less from a CD bought in the bargain bin at Wal-Mart? I would have preferred Wild Women Of Wongo to Sports Fans, but whatever.

Song	Hot 100	Rock
Talk To Ya Later	101	7
Sushi Girl	-	-
Amnesia	-	-
Attack Of The Fifty Foor Woman	-	-
Don't Want To Wait Anymore	35	22
Let's Make Some Noise	-	-
She's A Beauty	10	1
The Monkey Time	68	16
Tip Of My Tongue	52	-
Sports Fans	-	-

It should also be noted that the version of Monkey Time included on this CD has guest vocals from Michele Gray. The original cut on the Outside Inside album had vocals from Martha Davis of The Motels.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: I've mentioned my vocal contributions to the community (above), but this music also makes me think of working at Burger King. I seem to remember staying late after we had closed (fast food places closed at 9 PM back then) and played poker with some co-workers. It seems that The Tubes was background music during that game.