The Tubes - Outside Inside (1983, Capitol Records)

Fee Waybill (lead vocals), Prairie Prince (drums), Bill Spooner, Roger Steen, Rick Anderson, Michael Cotten, Vince Welnick

Produced by David Foster

San Francisco sure gave us some of the more spectacular AOR and melodic rock acts - Journey, Jefferson Starship, Y & T and ... The Tubes. Having gone AOR with 1979's Remote Control and tasted success with 1981's Completion Backward Principle, they clearly wanted some more because what we have here is AOR central !! Steve Lukather, Bobby Kimball, David Paich and Steve Porcaro dropped by to contribute to the sessions and David Foster is again in the 'chair'. The Tubes are often overlooked when we all do our roll call of favourite AOR acts, but they shouldn't be. Here's why ...

She's A Beauty was not only a midtempo AOR feast full of hooks and melodies, the public finally responded big time and vaulted the single to #10 on Billboard ! Possibly even better is the harder rocking No Not Again, more unmissable hooks and a chorus that takes the prize for melodic manipulation - this is AOR arrangement at it's finest, think Winds Of Change era Jefferson Starship. Then the instrumental passage is pure Toto, sealing the deal on a classic. A slight dip would be understandable at this point, but instead Out Of The Business rocks even harder (read 707 meets early Survivor) and delivers one of the AOR anthem choruses to base our creed on : "I'm out of the business, and into rock and roll"!! The Monkey Time deviates from the script a little, being a duet with Martha Stewart that develops into a passable brass laden pop tune but no more.

Glass House swings right back onto AOR Boulevard though, power and melody not unlike 'Playing To Win' era Little River Band. Wild Women Of Wongo is pure novely and tribal silliness, while Tip Of My Tongue is somewhat better, providing funk AOR for Sunday afternoons. Fantastic Delusion is, well, fantastic ... taking Peterik's staccato keys, part of Neal Schon's solo from Who's Crying Now (I kid you not !!), and vocal arrangements from the Toto songbook : all building into a melodic crescendo that can only be the Tubes. At this point the album falls away a little, but it hardly matters such is the quality so far. Drums and Outside Lookin' Inside are both avoidable novelty bits, while Theme Park is very passable west coastish AOR. Come to think of it, great for Sunday afternoons and strong coffee, not unlike the more laid back side of Ambrosia (for those in doubt, Ambrosia can certainly rock - check out One Eighty and Road Island for evidence !).

Outside Inside was the most successful Tubes album and they certainly deserved the success. The trio of silly novelty tracks make it hard to call this an absolute classic of AOR (such as Survivor / Vital Signs), but I'd say it's essential anyway because the highlights are nothing short of spectacular. It may still be available on cd so if you can find it, grab it.

Lee Bradfield www.glory-daze.com

01. She's A Beauty
02. No Not Again
03. Out Of The Business
04. The Monkey Time
05. Glass House
06. Wild Women Of Wongo
07. Tip Of My Tongue
08. Fantastic Delusion
09. Drums
10. Theme Park
11. Outside Lookin' Inside