{"id":1147,"date":"2019-10-23T21:14:30","date_gmt":"2019-10-24T01:14:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/?p=1147"},"modified":"2019-10-23T21:18:04","modified_gmt":"2019-10-24T01:18:04","slug":"the-tubes-enthusiastically-moving-forward-with-the-completion-backward-principle-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/the-tubes-enthusiastically-moving-forward-with-the-completion-backward-principle-tour\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tubes enthusiastically moving forward with \u2018The Completion Backward Principle\u2019 tour"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Tubes were getting close to finishing what would become their sixth studio album, The Completion Backward Principle<\/em>, when producer David Foster went to lead singer and frontman Fee Waybill and said, \u201cWe really don\u2019t have a rock radio song on this record.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The band was making its first album for Capitol Records in the fall of 1980 after having been released by A&M Records. They had recorded a big power ballad, \u201cDon\u2019t Want to Wait Anymore,\u201d co-written by Foster and the band members, which Capitol had decided to release as the first single.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Band members had a couple of songs they had submitted to Foster for consideration, but none of them were what he was looking for in a rock radio song to fill out the album.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo David asked me what I thought about meeting Steve Lukather of Toto,\u201d said Waybill. Foster and Lukather had worked together in mid-1979 as session musicians on the \u201cI Am\u201d album by Earth, Wind & Fire, featuring the hit single, \u201cBoogie Wonderland,\u201d which reached reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot Soul Singles chart and No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDavid said Steve was a great guitar player, was very quick and had great ideas. And I said fine, no problem,\u201d said Waybill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tubes were coming in for a 4 p.m. to midnight recording session at Record One Studios in Los Angeles to finish the album, but Foster asked Waybill to meet him and Lukather at the studio at 10 a.m. that day to work on what they hoped would be the rock radio song that Foster believed the album needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo we met, bullshitted for a little while and then it didn\u2019t take five minutes for Lukather to come up with the opening lick,\u201d said Waybill. \u201cDavid heard it and said, \u2018That\u2019s it, right there. Go with that.\u2019 But usually lyrics take a while for me. I sit there and listen to the track and try to figure is it happy, is it sad, what is it? And I wait for some kind of muse to hit me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But as he sat there with his notepad, nothing was coming to Waybill . . . until the album\u2019s engineer, Humberto Gatica, provided some inspiration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis was the first record we had done with David, so everybody in the band was asking a lot of questions,\u201d said Waybill. \u201cIn general, working with Foster and Lukather was a huge step up for us in terms of electronics and in terms of technique in the studio. So we were all asking questions all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apparently, all those questions didn\u2019t sit too well with the engineer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHumberto got into the habit of not wanting to answer any of the questions, so he\u2019d say, \u2018I\u2019ll talk to you later, man\u2019 in his Chilean accent. In other words, \u2018I\u2019m too busy and I don\u2019t need it,\u2019\u201d said Waybill. \u201cAnd as I\u2019m sitting there writing this song, I keep coming back to \u2018talk to you later,\u2019 and it fit perfectly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The song \u201cTalk To Ya Later\u201d was finished by the time rest of the Tubes got to the studio that day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe played it for the band, and they all went, \u2018Whoa.\u2019 But to be honest, I think the band was a little miffed that we did it without them. I understood that,\u201d said Waybill. \u201cI think it\u2019s a great song, and I think Foster thought so, too. And I didn\u2019t think anybody was going to shoot us down because we (the band) didn\u2019t write every note on the song.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those instincts proved to be correct. \u201cTalk to Ya Later\u201d reached No. 7 in the U.S. on the Billboard Top Rock Tracks \u2014 and was No. 1 in 17 other countries \u2014 and \u201cDon\u2019t Want to Wait Anymore\u201d made it into the Top 40 checking in at No. 35 on both the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart and the Cashbox Top 100 Singles chart. The Completion Backward Principle <\/em>became a Top 40 album for the Tubes, reaching No. 36 on the Billboard chart and No. 37 on the Cashbox chart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That history will be on full display as the Tubes embark on their latest tour, where they will perform The Completion Backward Principle <\/em>album in its entirety \u2014 along with the band\u2019s other classic songs \u2014 that includes a northeast swings with stops Oct. 25 at the Borgata in Atlantic City and the Iridium in New York City for two shows Oct. 30 and Oct. 31.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Waybill said the band decided to do The Completion Backward Principle <\/em>on this tour for a couple of reasons: One, because he believes it was the best record the band ever did; and two, because when it was first released in 1981, the album was a parody of corporate rock and formulaic corporate rock bands of that era, something that Waybill thinks is still relevant today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEven though we\u2019re maybe not parodying corporate music today, there is a world of big corporations now and political doublespeak,\u201d said Waybill. \u201cWe\u2019re getting so used to political doublespeak these days, I just thought it (the album) was still so relevant and current.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to Waybill, the the San Francisco-based Tubes still feature three other original members, including world-class drummer Prairie Prince, guitarist Roger Steen and bassist Rick Anderson. Rounding out the group is keyboardist and vocalist David Medd. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Waybill said for this tour, which will feature two of his alter-ego characters \u2014 Quay Lewd and Mr. Hate \u2014 the band had to re-learn a couple of songs from The Completion Backward Principle \u2014 <\/em>\u201cLet\u2019s Make Some Noise,\u201d which they hadn\u2019t played live since the 1980s; and the opening track on Side 2 of the album, \u201cThink About Me,\u201d which they hadn\u2019t done in about 15 years in concert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s also looking forward to the upcoming shows, particularly the two at the Iridium, at 1650 Broadway in New York City. Beginning in 1994, the club featured weekly performances by Les Paul, a jazz, country and blues guitarist and one of the pioneers of solid-body electric guitars, until his death in 2009.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been waiting to play Broadway my whole life,\u201d said Waybill. \u201cEven though I\u2019m not acting on Broadway \u2014 which is what I really want to do, and I am gonna act on Broadway before I die \u2014 at least we\u2019re playing Broadway at the Iridium. I want to fill that place out, I want it to be standing room only for the Tubes on Broadway.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fee also believes the Tubes are a better band today than they were in the 1980s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe all grew up and we all stopped taking drugs,\u201d said Waybill. \u201cRoger (Steen) just sits there and plays his guitar all day long, and he\u2019s ridiculously good. Prairie (Prince) is so good that everybody wants him to play with them. And we haven\u2019t changed the key of any songs. My voice is better than it\u2019s ever been, mainly because I\u2019m not beating it to death like I used to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Waybill believes that it\u2019s his purpose in life to bring joy to the people who come see the Tubes in concert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what I try to do every night. Be funny, be stupid, be scary, be tragic \u2014 all those things,\u201d he said. \u201cThe payoff, especially when we do smaller venues like the Iridium, is that you can see the sparkle in the eyes of the people there, when they\u2019re saying to themselves, \u2018Oh my God, this guy is insane.\u2019 I can\u2019t wait to get back out there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Tubes were getting close to finishing what would become their sixth studio album, The Completion Backward Principle, when producer David Foster went to lead singer and frontman Fee Waybill and said, \u201cWe really don\u2019t have a rock radio song on this record.\u201d The band was making its first album for Capitol Records in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":1149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[306,305,304],"class_list":["post-1147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tvdbook","tag-fee-waybill","tag-the-completion-backward-principle","tag-the-tubes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1147"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1147"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1154,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1147\/revisions\/1154"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}