The Tubes “Remote Control”
Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#162 in the Series) is the Tubes, Remote Control
Remote Control, 1979 was the album where The Tubes decided to tone down the outrageous and wackiness at least a little. Well, not as outrageous, but a heck of a satire on the overgrowth of television.
So there might not have been anything as memorable as “White Punks on Dope” from their debut, but overall, this is a great Tubes album.
Besides toning down the crazy, they also wanted to tighten up the sound some. Well how would you do that in the late Seventies, or late eighties or ever for that matter. You make a phone call and ask Todd Rundgren to produce your album. Todd’s sound is all over this project. He even co-wrote a couple of the tracks.
The album starts off with four great songs ‘on the trot.’ (We say ‘in a row’ here in the States. But we have to take care of our UK readers every so often!)
Those songs are “Turn Me On,” ‘T.V. is King,” “Prime Time” and “I Want it All Now.”
The Tubes in 1979 were Fee Waybill, Vocals; Bill Spooner, Guitar; Prairie Prince, drums; Michael Cotton, Synthesizer; Vince Welnick, keyboards; Roger Steen, guitar; Rick Anderson, bass and of course, Re Styles on vocals.
Remote Control peaked at #46 on the Billboard Album Charts. No Singles Charted
Track listing
- “Turn Me On” – 4:10
- “T.V. Is King” – 3:08 (The Tubes, Todd Rundgren)
- “Prime Time” – 3:15
- “I Want It All Now” – 4:27
- “No Way Out” – 3:22
- “Getoverture” (instrumental) – 3:23
- “No Mercy” – 3:27
- “Only the Strong Survive” – 3:54
- “Be Mine Tonight” – 3:30
- “Love’s a Mystery (I Don’t Understand)” – 3:27 (The Tubes, Todd Rundgren)
- “Telecide” – 5:41
Personnel
- Fee Waybill – vocals
- Bill Spooner – guitar, vocals
- Michael Cotten – synthesizer
- Mingo Lewis – percussion
- Prairie Prince – drums
- Roger Steen – guitar, vocals
- Re Styles – vocals
- Vince Welnick – keyboards
- Rick Anderson – bass
- Todd Rundgren – guitar, keyboards
Related Link
- See our piece on its follow up, The Completion Backward Principle
I do recall the true experience was to see the band in concert. I felt really special after seeing them in 1979 and later they were on SCTV, but SCTV did the musical guests differently than SNL. SCTV would incorporate the bands into one or even two sketches. After that I remember WXRT playing “Don’t Touch Me There”, and of course the grand phrase of “a baby’s arm holding an apple”.