''The Tubes'' is the debut studio
album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...
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 day ...
. Songs which received significant airplay from this album include "What Do You Want from Life?" and "
White Punks on Dope
"White Punks on Dope", abbreviated as "WPOD", is a 1975 song by San Francisco-based rock group The Tubes from their debut, eponymous album, produced by Al Kooper. The song was written by the band's dual lead guitarists, Bill Spooner and Roger St ...
", the latter of which peaked at number 28 on the
UK singles chart
The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...
.
The album was dedicated to Bob McIntosh and Tom Donahue.
Track listing
Side One
#"Up from the Deep"
(The Tubes, Ray Trainer) – 4:28
#"Haloes"
(Al Kooper, Bill Spooner, Roger Steen) – 4:53
#"Space Baby"
(Bill Spooner, Mike Carpenter, Vince Welnick) – 4:25
#"
Malagueña Salerosa
— also known as — is a well-known Son Huasteco or Huapango song from Mexico, which has been cover version, covered more than 200 times by recording artists.
The song is that of a man telling a woman (from Málaga, Spain) how beautiful she ...
"
(Pedro Galindo, Elpidio Ramirez) - 3:52
Side Two
#"Mondo Bondage"
(The Tubes) – 4:34
#"What Do You Want from Life?"
(Bill Spooner, Michael Evans) – 4:01
#"Boy Crazy"
(Bill Spooner) – 4:09
#"
White Punks on Dope
"White Punks on Dope", abbreviated as "WPOD", is a 1975 song by San Francisco-based rock group The Tubes from their debut, eponymous album, produced by Al Kooper. The song was written by the band's dual lead guitarists, Bill Spooner and Roger St ...
"
(Bill Spooner, Roger Steen, Michael Evans) – 6:49
Personnel
Adapted from Discogs.
*
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 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 ...
– guitar, vocals
*Roger Steen – guitar, vocals
*Michael Cotten – synthesizer
*
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
*
Prairie L'Emprere Prince – drums
*
Dominic Frontiere
Dominic Carmen Frontiere (June 17, 1931 – December 21, 2017) was an American composer, arranger, and jazz accordionist. He composed the theme and much of the music for the first season of the television series '' The Outer Limits'', as wel ...
– string and horn arrangements
;Technical
*Lee Rhett Kiefer – engineer
*
Al Kooper
Al Kooper (born Alan Peter Kuperschmidt; February 5, 1944) is a retired American songwriter, record producer and musician, known for organizing Blood, Sweat & Tears, although he did not stay with the group long enough to share its popularity. ...
– mixing
*Lee Rhett Kiefer – mixing
*Roland Young – art direction
*Michael Cotten – design
*Prairie Prince – design
*Ian Patrick – photography
*Harry Mittman – photography
Cover versions
*
Mötley Crüe
Mötley Crüe is an American heavy metal band formed in Los Angeles in 1981. The group was founded by bassist Nikki Sixx, drummer Tommy Lee, lead guitarist Mick Mars and lead singer Vince Neil. Mötley Crüe has sold over 100 million albums ...
covered "
White Punks on Dope
"White Punks on Dope", abbreviated as "WPOD", is a 1975 song by San Francisco-based rock group The Tubes from their debut, eponymous album, produced by Al Kooper. The song was written by the band's dual lead guitarists, Bill Spooner and Roger St ...
" on their album ''
New Tattoo'', and performs it live in concert on their "Lewd, Crüed, & Tattooed" DVD. The
Nina Hagen Band
Spliff was a Neue Deutsche Welle (New German Wave) rock band, active in the 1980s. Three of the members were already playing together in the political rock cabaret ''Lokomotive Kreuzberg'' (founded 1972 in Berlin) before they were 'adopted' by Ni ...
interpreted the song in a German-language version, translated to "
TV-Glotzer
"TV-Glotzer" is a song by Nina Hagen Band, first released in 1978 by CBS Records and later, on 29 August 1979, released in United Kingdom. The song is a cover of " White Punks on Dope" by The Tubes, with different German lyrics from the perspecti ...
" (with re-written lyrics about being an East German who lives vicariously by staring at West German television all day) on
their self-titled debut album in 1978. In the 1993 film ''
Fear of a Black Hat
''Fear of a Black Hat'' is a 1993 American mockumentary film on the evolution and state of American hip hop music. The film's title is derived from the 1990 Public Enemy album ''Fear of a Black Planet''. First screened at Sundance Film Festival ...
'', the band N.W.H. (with
Ric Ocasek
Richard Theodore Otcasek (March 23, 1944 – September 15, 2019), known as Ric Ocasek, was an American singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. He was the primary co-lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, songwriter, and frontman for the rock ...
of
The Cars
The Cars were an American rock band formed in Boston in 1976. Emerging from the new wave scene in the late 1970s, they consisted of Ric Ocasek ( rhythm guitar), Benjamin Orr (bass guitar), Elliot Easton (lead guitar), Greg Hawkes (keyboards), ...
) perform a parody of "White Punks on Dope", titled "White Cops on Dope".
References
The Tubes albums
1975 debut albums
Albums produced by Al Kooper
Albums recorded at Record Plant (Los Angeles)
A&M Records albums
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