The Tubes

The Tubes emerged as pointed critics of mainstream entertainment, their wildly provocative stage spectacles—oscillating between explicit erotic displays and prim conventional attire—often overshadowing the slippery essence of their music. Guitarist Bill Spooner, keyboardist Vince Welnick, and bassist Rick Anderson first coalesced in Phoenix, Arizona, during the late 1960s as the Beans, sometimes performing under the alternate name the Radar Men from Uranus. Relocating to San Francisco in 1972, the Beans added guitarist Roger Steen and drummer Prairie Prince, formerly of Red, White & Blues, before evolving into the Tubes upon the arrival of keyboardist Michael Cotten and ex-roadie Fee Waybill as lead vocalist.

Throughout the ensuing years the group cultivated a loyal underground audience through Spooner’s satirical compositions and the band’s dreamlike concerts, in which Waybill inhabited multiple alter egos such as the “crippled Nazi” Dr. Strangekiss, country singer Hugh Heifer, and Quay Lewd, a drug-addled British pop star. After inking a deal with A&M in 1975 they issued their self-titled debut, followed the next year by Young and Rich; although neither captured the frenetic intensity or theatrical intricacy of their live performances, the single “White Punks on Dope” achieved modest chart success and frequent airplay.

The 1977 conceptual release The Tubes Now failed to connect commercially, yet a subsequent British tour generated widespread media attention when several concerts were prohibited. While documenting the live album What Do You Want from Live?, Waybill fractured his leg onstage during a portrayal of his punk persona Johnny Bugger, forcing cancellation of the remaining dates and stalling the band’s commercial trajectory. Back in the United States they enlisted producer Todd Rundgren for the 1979 concept album Remote Control, which examined television’s cultural sway; when it likewise underperformed, A&M dropped the Tubes.

Signing with Capitol, the band delivered 1981’s Completion Backwards Principle, structured around a real sales-training manual; both “Talk to You Later” and “Don’t Want to Wait Anymore” received substantial radio exposure, propelling the album to the Tubes’ first Top 40 placement. The provocative video for “She’s a Beauty” helped the track reach the Top Ten and lifted the 1983 album Outside/Inside into the Top 20 Albums chart. Following the commercial disappointment of 1985’s Love Bomb the Tubes dissolved, after which Welnick joined the Grateful Dead; long plagued by depression, he took his own life in June 2006.

Reconvening in 1993 with Waybill, Steen, Anderson, Prince, and new keyboardist Gary Cambra, the Tubes toured across the United States and Europe before issuing the album Genius of America in 1996. Spooner simultaneously released his solo effort Mall to Mars. An extensive 2000 tour prompted the live greatest-hits collection Tubes World Tour. The band performed at London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire in December 2004, a concert later preserved on the 2005 CD Wild in London. Bassist Rick Anderson passed away on December 16, 2022, at the age of 75.