It's no "She's a Beauty," but Tubes fans might be excited to know that the band's final album for Capitol, 1985's Love Bomb, is coming to CD with bonus tracks from Cherry Red Records.
The Tubes were well known in the late '70s for their no-holds-barred live shows and sly songwriting, with a mind to skewer an increasingly saturated media landscape. As the 1980s dawned, however, The Tubes unexpectedly made moves to turn into a leaner, meaner, rock band. Two albums were cut with producer David Foster, The Completion Backward Principle (1981) and Outside Inside (1983), the latter of which featured Top 10 hit "She's a Beauty" (written by Foster, lead singer Fee Waybill and Toto guitarist Steve Lukather and featuring much of Toto as guest performers).
After a commercially-nonexistent solo album, Waybill and the rest of The Tubes reconvened with producer Todd Rundgren, who helmed their 1979 effort Remote Control, on an album that attempted to jell all parties' styles up to that point, with elements of The Tubes' early and later years peeking through alongside some Utopia-inspired work. Unfortunately, audiences and critics were not impressed. To make matters worse, Capitol dropped them just as they were about to embark on a tour. Waybill left the band in 1986, finding success as a songwriter for others (often partnering with Richard Marx), but rejoined the band in 1993.
This expanded album includes two bonus tracks: the original edit of lead single "Piece by Piece" and its B-side, a combination of both parts of the two-part album cut "Night People." Love Bomb detonates once more on February 20 and can be ordered after the jump.
The Tubes, Love Bomb: Expanded Edition (Cherry Red Records CMRED 521 (U.K.), 2012)
- Piece by Piece
- Stella
- Come As You Are
- One Good Reason
- Bora Bora 2000/Love Bomb
- Night People
- Say Hey
- Eyes
- Muscle Girls
- Theme from A Wooly Place (Wooly Bully/Theme from A Summer Place)
- For a Song
- Say Hey (Part 2)
- Feel It
- Night People (Reprise)
- Piece by Piece (Single Edit)
- Night People (Parts 1 & 2)
Tracks 1-14 released as Capitol LP ST-12381, 1985
Tracks 15-16 released as Capitol single B-5443, 1985
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Actually, the band DID tour for the Love Bomb album - I saw them. Utopia opened. The show was excellent.
Late to the conversation, but I saw that tour too... In Utica, NY! It was great! Utopia drumset looked like a rocket ship and spun around if I remember correctly.
You remember correctly - it did just that!