''Now'' is the third studio album released by

The Tubes The Tubes are a San Francisco-based rock band. Their eponymous 1975 debut album included the single "White Punks on Dope," while their 1983 single " She's a Beauty" was a top-10 U.S. hit and its music video was frequently played in the early d ...

. It was produced by John Anthony. Fed up with constant meddling from Bud Scoppa and Don Wood under the direction of

Bill Spooner William "Sputnik" Spooner (born August 16, 1949) is a musician, guitarist, singer and songwriter, and the founder of The Tubes, a theatrical rock band. His songwriting is known for its use of humor and satire. He has released three solo albums ...

including surreptitiously remixing a track when Anthony was not at the studio, Anthony was advised to leave the project by Jerry Moss. The head of A&M A&R

Kip Cohen Kip Cohen is an American entertainment and record company executive who once held positions at the Fillmore East, Columbia Records and the Herb Alpert Foundation. Career In 1964 Cohen was the theater production manager for ''The Committee'' and ''T ...

said that they took advantage of Anthony and believed that they overran the budget to increase their union fees. Bill Spooner took over and completed the project with the help of the engineer Wood and Scoppa. ''Now'' includes a cover version of Captain Beefheart's "My Head Is My Only House Unless It Rains" and Captain Beefheart also played saxophone on "Cathy's Clone". The project was intended to be a double album but delays led to cutting several songs, including a version of Gene Pitney's "Town Without Pity" complete with horn arrangement by the Bay-area comedian/musician, Dick Bright. The cover of ''Now'' was drawn by The Tubes' drummer,

Prairie Prince Charles Lempriere "Prairie" Prince (born May 7, 1950) is an American drummer and graphic artist. He came to prominence in the 1970s as a member of the San Francisco–based rock group The Tubes, was a member of Jefferson Starship from 1992 to 2 ...

, entitled "Tubes Descending a Staircase", and was inspired by a similar drawing in ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

'' magazine of the Ramones. In an A&M leaflet, they described the album as "This outrageous and zany band have developed musically and visually since their inception in San Francisco and their previous albums". Anthony believes in retrospect that he should not have tried to be "one of the boys" with this band but remains proud of his idea to have the band playing again live in the studio liked they used to do in the Bay Area bars.

2012 reissue

Real Gone Records reissued ''Now'' with ''Young and Rich'', the band's second album, as a 2-CD set. The liner notes included comments from the drummer Prairie Prince. Unlike the reissues from Iconclassic, this reissue had no bonus tracks. It is currently out of print.

Track listing

#"Smoke (La Vie en Fumér)" 4:50 (Bill Spooner, Michael Cotten, Vince Welnick) #"Hit Parade" 3:35 (Bill Spooner, Vince Welnick) #"Strung Out on Strings" 4:10 (Bill Spooner, Roger Steen, Michael Evans) #"Golden Boy" 4:00 (Bill Spooner, Michael Evans) #" My Head Is My Only House Unless It Rains" 4:30 (

Don Van Vliet Don, don or DON and variants may refer to: Places *County Donegal, Ireland, Chapman code DON * Don (river), a river in European Russia * Don River (disambiguation), several other rivers with the name * Don, Benin, a town in Benin * Don, Dang, a ...

) #"God-Bird-Change" 3:18 (Mingo Lewis) #"I'm Just a Mess" 3:10 (Bill Spooner, Roger Steen) #"Cathy's Clone" 3:30 (The Tubes) #" This Town" 3:15 (

Lee Hazlewood Barton Lee Hazlewood (July 9, 1929 – August 4, 2007) was an American country and pop singer, songwriter, and record producer, most widely known for his work with guitarist Duane Eddy during the late 1950s and singer Nancy Sinatra in the 1960 ...

) #"Pound of Flesh" 3:00 (Ron Nagle, Scott Mathews) #"You're No Fun" 4:51 (Michael Cotten, Vince Welnick)

Personnel

Fee Waybill John Waldo "Fee" Waybill (born September 17, 1950 in Omaha, Nebraska) is the lead singer and songwriter of San Francisco band The Tubes. Waybill has also worked with other acts, including Toto, Richard Marx, and Billy Sherwood. Early life and ...

- vocals * Bill "The Swami" Spooner - guitar, vocals *Michael Cotten - synthesizer *Mingo Lewis - drums, percussion *

- drums *Roger Steen - guitar, vocals *Re Styles - vocals *

Vince Welnick Vincent Leo Welnick (February 21, 1951 – June 2, 2006) was an American keyboardist-singer-songwriter best known for playing with the band The Tubes during the 1970s and 1980s and with the Grateful Dead in the 1990s. He was inducted into ...

- keyboards *Rick Anderson - bass guitar ;Additional personnel *Bud Scoppa - voices *

- soprano saxophone on "Cathy's Clone" (uncredited) *Harry Duncan - harmonica on "Golden Boy" (uncredited) *Roberta Burger - violin ;Technical *Don Wood - engineer, production assistance *Roland Young - art direction *Michael Cotten, Prairie Prince - design "Special thanks to: Captain Beefheart,

Bernie Krause Bernard L. Krause (born December 8, 1938) is an American musician and soundscape ecologist. In 1968, he founded Wild Sanctuary, an organization dedicated to the recording and archiving of natural soundscapes. Krause is an author, a bio-acoustici ...

, Rick Bright and his Sounds of Delight Orchestra, Rob Lawrence and Harry Duncan"

References

*''Now'' CD liner notes The Tubes albums 1977 albums A&M Records albums Captain Beefheart Albums produced by John Anthony (record producer) {{1970s-rock-album-stub