Search - Tubes :: Best of the Tubes 1981-1987

The Tubes will be awesome forever!!!

Dan De Federicis danielde@acsu.buff | Buffalo,NY | 03/05/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"There are many unfortunate circumstances in this world and the facts that The Tubes are not widely considered one of the top Rock acts of all times is certainly one of them. The early 80's was the period of most of the commercial success of the Tubes and this CD is a tribute to mostly that period. Don't expect any 70's greats in there like 'White Punks on Dope' or 'What do you want from life' The cover indicates this is from 1981-1989. The CD takes a number of tracks from one of the greatest albums of all time - The Completion Backwards Principle - but a Tubes best of the 80's CD could/should really be almost that entire album anyway. Completion /Backwards selections include a lot of Tubes' fans favorite song: 'Talk to ya later (Good music to play on your answering machine, time it just right and you can say your message and then let Fee Waybill hit the 'Talk to ya later" at the end.) The totally awesome and virtually unplayed 'Sushi Girl' follows, (great on headphones - give credit to the background singing there) then Amnesia, then the funny 'Attack of the Fifty foot woman, then the Tubes' totally awesome ballad 'Don't want to wait anymore', ( How did this song never make it to a hit romantic movie soundtrack I'll never know) then the enjoyable 'Lets Make some noise' ( wish they threw 'power tools' in there.). Then three hits from 'Outside/Inside, of course, the great and often played 'She's a beauty' and also 'The Monkey Time' showing a good male/female song and 'Tip of my tongue' which is certainly a great and different type of song - but true Tubes fans know never to be surprised by their range of talen. Wish they would've thrown 'No not again' and 'Out of the business' in there. I'm embarassed to admit I wasn't familiar with the last song - 'Sports Fans'. But it's the only live song on the CD so that makes it special. The Tubes are the best - and this album is wrongly put in the bargain bin category - but at least you can save $ while getting fantastic, unique music. Saw the Tubes in '93 and they were great and really played to the crowd. Wish I was old enough to see them when they were really crazy!!!! VH-1 should do a retrospective of them. These guys should give a clinic to new bands on live performances. This CD is another example of totally fantastic Tubes songs, If you can possibly manage the time, please buy it!!!"

Before you Tubes fans go complaining about the title of the

John S. Harris | Memphis, TN | 11/23/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"...remember that is the best of the 1981-1987 period. A little strange, too, considering their last studio album was in 1985 and none of the material on this album was released after 1983. They did release another album in 1996 but that was WAY after this compilation was released.



The primary reason the tracks are limited to their 1980's commercial period is that all of that material is from their Capitol Records days, the song "Sports Fans" being an unreleased track from the "Completion Backward Principle" sessions in 1981.



The independent label that released this compilation disc didn't have the rights to any of the band's A&M Records material from the band's artistic heyday.



Not a bad compilation if you want a collection of radio-friendly 80's rock hits. But fans of the band know the best material from The Tubes never hit the airwaves. I recommend their earlier work in addition to the complete albums from 1981 and 1983 that these tracks came from."