Customer Reviews

Completion Backwards Principle

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This new remastered version has an interesting flaw: At the end of "Talk To Ya Later", the band's signature song from this CD, there is a fade out. What's so odd about that? Well, the song has a "strong ending" - the song is supposed to just END, not fade out. On this remastered version, it does both. There is a slight but detectable fade out during the strong ending. Wierd! Plus, the song order has been shuffled around a bit. The original US pressings of the LP and cassette in 1981 had a different track order, as did the original CD release. This new CD release has the tracks running in the order of this LP's original European release. So, for a collector of all things Tubes this CD is an interesting, though aberrant, addition to your collection. The fade out at the end of TTYL is an insult to those of us who love that song, though.

That quote was part of the original album's liner notes, and it pretty much sums up The Tubes' general attitude. They were irreverent and shocking, with enough playing chops to keep those in the know interested in the music. Put that with the live show that get them banned from numerous venues (in their early days), and you had a band that seemed to be perennially on the brink of making it big. But The Tubes also spent just a little too much time being weird to climb all the way to chartland. "The Completion Backward Principle" saw them almost making it yet again, as David Foster did his best to smooth out the jarring edges and polish the band even more than Todd Rundgren did on "Remote Control." The Tubes did their part by writing some tunes that sounded absolutely Toto-ish, if Toto ever contemplated amnesia, schizophrenia and late night B-Movies as song fodder.

The buff job paid off, with The Tubes' first across the board Album Radio hit, the tough strutting but uncharacteristic "Talk To You Later." The band then hit late night TV and began showing up in swim flippers performing "Sushi Girl" in a wading pool from the stage of the Tonight Show. Radio took notice and the ballad "Don't Want To Wait Anymore" snuck into the lower reaches of the Top 40. Fortunately, Foster wasn't completely able to tame these yahoos. "Attack Of The Fifty Foot Woman" was sci-fi silly in a manner that only The Tubes could make credible, and the punchy "Mr. Hate" was the confrontation of a shattering personality that the band executed perfectly on stage. "TCBWP" is likely The Tubes' most consistent album musically, but misses five stars because it was too slickly over produced, and the band never regained their experimental edge after this (unless you count the second half of "Love Bomb").

The Tubes had run their course at A&M records (and still had one LP left to do on their contract, thus the release of TRASH). They signed with Capitol and picked up David Foster as producer. The results are incredible. The Tubes had always been a polished musical group, but this recording exceeded all their previous efforts. Each tune is well crafted & Don't Want to Wait Anymore is "the" signature ballad of 1980. This (and Outside/Inside) represents the Tubes at the top of their craft. ONE NOTE...the British import (BGO CD) has an extra four measures in the middle of MR. HATE, but at least all the original liner notes and photos are restored, unlike the now out of print USA CD version).

..then track down this record! After some so-so albums and a reputation for being one of the wildest stage acts in the 70's, the Tubes settle down a bit here, superficially (on the cover, the guys are well-groomed and sporting some sharp-looking suits) and musically, continuing good growth in their songwriting with songs that aren't trying to shock, just entertain. Their sense of humor is still evident, though, on "Talk to Ya Later", "Sushi Girl", the sci-fi meets modern relationships tune "Attack of the 50 Ft Woman" and especially "Don't Want to Wait Anymore", a song about trying to coax a girl into bed, essentially, but sung with so much faux sincerity and passion, and sounding just like your typical power ballad that it went over the heads of singles buyers most everywhere (it wasn't a hit). "Think About Me" intrigues me, too--a hyperactive tune that opens the second side and is about--what? Anticipating ends of relationships, even as they begin? Or, less seriously, an overanalysis of a man's specious relationship with a one night stand? (It wouldn't be unlike these guys, especially in the context of this album to have some cerebral fun with that). Perhaps I'm overanalyzing myself, but this is thoughtful, witty music, that really--cliche though it is--rocks. The other tracks don't quite stand up to the sterling standard of the two I just described, but everything's good. Sound quality is good--and slick, which I guess is more than appropriate here. The Tubes are another example of a group that didn't quite click with audiences of the time, and only flirted with mass acceptance with their next album "Outside Inside", and the big hit "She's A Beauty." They deserved better. Get this one!

This has GOT to be one of my favorite albums of all time. I have no earthly idea WHY whomever is putting this piece of junk CD out is rearranging the sequence. Like the "Chewbacca Defense", This does NOT make sense! The original song arrangement on the album just flowed from one song to the next, and after hearing it so many times and playing it in my head to get through nights on guard duty in the Army, seeing that a publisher has released the album in an altered order just makes me flipping sick.

I wore holes in two LP copies of this album, probably one of the greatest (and undersung) albums of the entire 80's decade. Receiving far less exposure than it deserved, this Tubes masterpiece produced by David Foster ranks right up there with Gary Numan's "Pleasure Principle" or DEVO's "Are We Not Men?" albums.

From "Talk to Ya Later" with Roger Steen's blistering lead guitar to "Sushi Girl" and the burning, moaning wail of "Mr Hate", through the grinding jagsaw rips of "Power Tools", this album grabs you by the inner ear and rips your brain out to leave it twitching in rhythm on the floor. Fee Waybill's warbling, yodeling vocals cry out in agony and angst again and again, and Bill Spooner's plaintive ballad singing in "Dont Want to Wait Anymore" just absolutely stand out, as do Rick Anderson's thump-and-pop bass and the twin keyboard stylings of Vince Welnick (God Rest His Soul, he passed away after joining The Grateful Dead) and Mike Cotten (who is currently working on a documentary, "The Tubes Project". Prairie Prince absolutely blows doors on his double-bass drum kit, and all in all, this incredible, badly underrated band is still out there, in a somewhat smaller version, still cranking away and just flooring audiences (and when in the HECK are you coming to Colorado, guys?).

Anyone who had a chance to see The Tubes on SCTV's "Fishing Shack" doing "Sushi Girl" and "Talk to Ya Later" saw what an absolutely serious but imminently humorous band can do with national exposure. I was working at Record Town when this album came out, and it was played religiously at least twice a day for many, many months.

The Tubes were one of the best bands EVER to record an album, and if you love this one, then you have got to also find a copy of "What Do You Want From Live" double live album that features the teenage anthem "White Punks on Dope", "La Vie en Fumer" and "Don't Touch Me There".

This album was The Tubes' "corporate rock" album, and they later reject the business suit/corporate image on their following album, "Inside/Outside" with another incredible tune, "Out of the Business".

Of all the overlooked talent in the 1980s, The Tubes are probably the most talented, and for those who only know The Tubes by their hit "She's a Beauty", don't just scratch the surface with this band. Far more listenable music than that hit can be found on their earlier albums such as their eponymous "The Tubes", "Young and Rich", and "Now".

I would give this album a 100% recommendation, and I could jsut not live without this treasure in my album collection. I also have a DVD of the Laserdisc they released of Completion Backward Principle (nyah nyah nyah)

"As I mentioned near the close of the last record, this record you are now playing is another example of The Completion Backward Principle; if you can possibly manage the time, please play both sides at one meeting. WHAM!"

I have to hand it to BGO (Beat Goes On Records) for salvaging worthy out of print records, but why do they continually botch up the process? This is a brilliant record, one of my favorite Tubes LPs (of the Capitol Years, that is...) and they have reshuffled the tracks, re-edited segues with pointless crossfading and the like. What gives? I have quite a few LPs on CD that BGO has faithfully put out, but very few are flawless.
I don't understand what is so hard about restoring a classic album. Just go out and find the original vinyl copy, A-B it with what you've done, add some nice picture scans and put the puppy out... Quality control is much needed here.
If you're in love with the original version, burn the vinyl copy to CD or find the original Capitol CD. Heck, they've botched it so bad you can't even correct the mistake by programming in the correct sequence!!! Unforgivable!!!

fendemos

This was the album that got me into the Tubes back in '81, and I promptly went out & bought all their previous stuff! It was only then I realized what I'd been missing. This band was so cool. So deliberately outrageous that I remember they caused a huge uproar when they toured the UK in the mid 70's. Many local Councils actually banned them! Of course, they hit the UK at the right time, with rebellion and Punk in full swing (as evidenced on their live album). But even for me, they were a little too 'out there' and I foolishly didn't jump until some years later with 'Completion Backward' - and what a great album it is. It's obvious that here was a band yearning for some commercial success - the obvious FM radio plays are here (Talk to ya Later) but so are the witty observations (Attack of the 50 foot Woman) so evident on their earlier stuff. This album only loses a star because I would have preferred more wit and less AOR. To my mind, their greatest songs came from the 70's era, but their albums were always a little inconsistent. 'Completion Backward', although short (39 mins) is solid, with not a bad track on the album. We all know that the band (in the US at least) went on to more commercial success with the flaky (sorry guys) 'Outside Inside', but for me, 'Completion' was never bettered. BUY IT!

Stanley Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA (now demolished).

Too many costume changes to count. Fee was too wild. Great drum solo by Prairie Prince!!! Everyone jammed on guitars together as ONE of the encores. Ranks as one of my favorite concert experences ever!!!

This was popular when I was just out of High School and it has never lost it's appeal. In some ways it is dated but the music still rocks. "Talk to You Later" is a timeless classic. If you want one of the great albums of the 80's, this is it.

I loved this album back in high school. It still holds up today. I'm a little confused as to why this is now an import and why they changed the order of the songs. You know how when you have listened to an album so many times, you know exactly what song is coming next? That's not the case here if you have previously owned the vinyl version.