So okay, right - I'm just a kid going across the street to the aforementioned Roger Woodfill's house and listening to all kinds of things (though a little too much Kiss, if you ask me; it was NOT my choice and they did NOT make my 30 in 30, even if I did enjoy the Peter Criss song Hard Luck Woman, which is BASICALLY a Faces song as I recall). Many the afternoon was spent at Roger's playing Careers and listening to the White Album (time well spent on both fronts). But maybe in the summer of 1976 or so the second Tubes album came out, Young and Rich, and Roger bought that, and suddenly I was listening to the FIRST Tubes album from 1975 and wondering what the hell was going on. In White Punks on Dope they said "fuck"; in Boy Crazy a girl was off to the clinic to get an IUD; Mondo Bondage - likely that is self-explanatory. And then of course the hit from Young and Rich was the duet Don't Touch Me There ("I love your salty taste"; hmmm...). Be assured this kind of thing was NOT on any radio station I had access to at age 13 and 14...
I chose to go with What Do You Want From Life from the first album (with it's provocative "does your bank account swell while you're dreaming at night" line). Sadly, later (sometime after the Remote Control record), the Tubes became a crappy commercial corporate rock band. So there's that. Although I'm sure they're still touring around playing these old songs to this day; everybody else seems to be.
What Do You Want From Life.
IBL:mm
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Here's an example of a band I simply wasn't ready for. They always had my respect, one did not talk shit about the Tubes, still it was hard for me to listen to their tunes all the way through. It was almost more like musical theater than music for me than. We are talking really hard core attitude.
ReplyDeleteI remember KMET in LA used to play the Tubes fairly regularly when they came out- certainly this song, "White Punks on Dope" and "Don't Touch Me There" (my personal favorite). I still think the show they put on at the Pantages, which was later released as a live album, was one of the best things I ever saw. Completely over the top. It's too bad what became of them, but "Prime Time" is a pretty good song off of Remote Control
ReplyDeleteJohn - I remember Prime Time; a good song. Also, I remember the Pantages shows and the live record - neighbor Roger went to those and came home with photos - but that was one show my parents were never going to let me attend. My debut at the Pantages was Beatlemania. Much, much safer...
ReplyDeleteGeorge - musical theater is a good way to put it. I've got to assume they're early stuff was influenced by at least Zappa, but I honestly don't know enough about Zappa to be sure.
ReplyDeleteIt was definitely musical theater. Zappa, Bowie and Alice Cooper among the obvious influences and probably a lot more that I was unaware of due to my youthful ignorance. How they ended up recording junk like "She's a Beauty" is hard to fathom.
ReplyDelete"A baby's arm holding an apple" is a phrase that still rolls through my mind all these years later.
I saw that Beatlemania show as well. I now have to wonder how many times we were in the same audience.
Beatlemania in maybe 1977, I think it was. My first concert was Anaheim Convention Center, 3/30/78, April Wine opening for Styx. And, yet, Styx did not make this list.
ReplyDeleteGod She's a Beauty is awful...
If Styx appears on the list I may have to stop reading. My first show was Kiss at the Forum in '75 for the first Alive tour. To this day it remains one of my very favorite concerts of all time. I think Montrose was the opening act, but I'm not certain. When I saw them the next time, when they were recording Alive II at the Forum (friends of mine appear in the inner sleeve photo) and Cheap Trick was the opener. It was what, only three years later Cheap trick was headlining that huge show at the LA Colosseum?
ReplyDeleteIf Styx appears on this list I will have lost my fool mind and you SHOULD stop reading...
ReplyDeleteAcross the street Roger was a huge Kiss fan and went to all those shows; I remember wishing I could see the show with Cheap Trick opening. And, yes - that show at the Coliseum was Cheap Trick headlining and it also had the Dio-version of Black Sabbath, plus Molly Hatchet and The Babys (!) and a band called Russia. Oh, and maybe Journey was there, too? Clearly I have blanked that out of my mind if they were...
(Yes, I attended.)
Yes, Journey was there too- wow your memory is far superior to mine. I don't remember Russia. The Babys had a couple of good pop songs "Isn't it Time" and "Head First."
ReplyDeleteWhile I liked "Heaven and Hell," I pretty much gave up on Sabbath after that- the more Dio became this silly character the less interesting, though I liked what he did with Blackmore- especially Rainbow's "Rising" album, which I have listened to in 30 years and would probably be appalled that I loved it at one point.
Ozzy-era Sabbath on the other hand, along with Bon-era AC/DC, were my favorite bands at the time. In fact I still like them very much.
When I pulled up a Babys video (I needed a prompt to recall the songs I liked) the associated videos were a kick- Bob Welch, Nick Gilder and the Climax Blues Band, who I'm pretty sure opened one of the Cult shows I saw, to tie it all back.
Climax Blues Band - one of the finest band names ever.
ReplyDeleteI know even more Russia trivia. They were also called Force 10 at one point and changed their name. Though now I don't recall which direction the change went.
I had a soft spot for The Babys for awhile, mostly based on the song Broken Heart which I haven't heard in forever. I'm going to track it down and send it to you to see if you remember it.
I enjoyed Heaven and Hell but probably would not so much now, with the exception, perhaps, of Neon Knights (Nights?). I was a big Rainbow fan, too - saw them with Graham Bonnet singing on the Down to Earth tour; with Joe Lynn Turner on the Difficult to Cure tour. By the album after that, Rainbow had turned into Foreigner, and I stopped listening.
I like the very early Sabbath; was never very much into AC/DC but I will say that Whole Lotta Rosie I could hear today and probably appreciate its explicitly sexual appeal.
And while I type all this, I'm listening to Emmylou cover Townes Van Zant (Pancho and Lefty). Times change...
Emmylou's most recent album I quite like, though I rarely listen to that style of music.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to recommend a book I think you'd enjoy titled "Out of the Vinyl Deeps" by Ellen Willis, who was the first pop music critic for the New Yorker- her taste in music doesn't quite gel with my own sensibilities, but it's a very good read.
You lasted with Rainbow much longer than I did- and your Foreigner comment is so true!
AC/DC was just so good at what they did. There's an all-female cover band who only do Bon-era songs called AC/DShe who are quite good- in fact, I wish AC/DC would fire Brian Johnson and hire her instead- that would be great!
I will look into that book, thanks...
ReplyDeleteI know of the cover band but never saw them (which stands to reason, I guess).
And this album of Emmylou's is not my favorite, I have to say, though I don't dislike it. I sure do like her voice, though, and much of her other music...