The Tubes
Outside Inside

Sixth studio album (1983) of the total eight released by the Tubes, a band from San Francisco active from 1975 to 1996, excluding the reunions of oldies past two thousand. Their recording career is easily divisible into two phases: the first is quite compact, marked by an album each year until '78, the most spectacular and innovative, irreverent and parodic; it includes three studio works and a thrilling performance of the same in a fourth, unmissable live release.

The second cycle begins in '79 with the fourth studio work "Remote Control" and unfolds, more spread out over time, for another four records until they threw in the towel in the mid-nineties. The Tubes sound in this circumstance comes more to terms with the market and the stereotypes of classic rock, maintaining in any case high quality and interest, not to mention the brilliant theatricality and imagination in their exuberant stage outings.

Oh yes... if there was a band to truly experience live before forming a definitive judgement, it was the Tubes. They could rely on an athletic and solid frontman, with acting talent beyond musical, perfectly at ease in extreme disguises and even obscene poses, mostly shared with dancer and backing vocalist Re Styles (who however... was with the drummer!), without losing a note of powerful and communicative singing. They also had an excellent composer in the person of Bill Spooner, one of the two guitarists, as well as a drummer not only Re Styles' boyfriend but also outrageously good: Prairie Prince is still today a top-tier rhythm machine, indeed Champions League level and he can be found in the credits of a plethora of records, besides those of the Tubes.

In 1983, however, Re Styles had already left; at the same time in USA pop rock music, the Toto style was quite prevalent, due to their seminal fourth album from the previous year. A hallmark, that of Toto, which rose then even to the likes of commercial hits like Michael Jackson's infamous "Thriller," which was practically their album with him on vocals. On the first side of this "Outside Inside" the Toto stamp is clear, if only for the massive contribution of their guitarist Steve Lukather, a close friend of the frontman. The prodigious axeman from Los Angeles reigns supreme, delivering two terrifying solos on the opening track "She’s a Beauty" and the third "Out of the Business". Both episodes, together with the explosive "No Not Again" placed between them, are bright examples of substantial, invigorating, pugnacious American hard pop of that fertile time.

The second side is less commercial, more artistic and quirky, or rather more authentically Tubes. There is even a drum solo titled… "Drums", a danceable "cinematic" piece called "Theme Park" with an irresistible bass riff, an idiosyncratic episode titled "Wild Women of Wongo" which is a place towards South Africa, and in short, the more eccentric things are relegated to the end of the album to leave room at the beginning for more conventional and accessible music, which is nonetheless equally invigorating and worthy.

I conclude by mentioning the unusual experience of frontman Waybill that inspires the lyrics of "She’s a Beauty", the album's opening and a successful single at the time: one evening the singer, heading home, passed through San Francisco's red-light district. Without absolutely intending to engage in paid sex, he was nonetheless attracted by a box, slightly bigger than a phone booth, placed on the sidewalk in front of one of the many sex clubs, where it was stated “one dollar to talk to a nude woman”.

Intrigued, he inserted the dollar in the appropriate slot, causing a small window to open and a beautiful girl to appear, who, starting to undress, began urging him to enter the club to relax with a “massage.” Instead, he spontaneously began questioning her, about why she didn’t dedicate herself to something else and why, as beautiful as she was, she wasn’t a model instead... But she was blatantly ignoring him, continuing with her poses and suggestive urgings until the window abruptly closed and displayed “Insert another dollar!”

And he did! And another and another, continuing and insisting with his questions, asking her if she could sing and dance, explaining that he was a musician and they were looking for dancers for their rock show... But she didn’t respond, continuing to strip and flirt without paying the slightest attention to his words, each time until the cycle of time purchased by the dollar expired! Women… there’s no way to understand them.