Customer Reviews

Love Bomb

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Yep...you read it right. Here is the story. There is tension between Spooner & Fee. Spooner is ready to exit the group. Fee records a solo LP and wants to release it the SAME TIME as Love Bomb comes out. The band asks him no to do it, but Capitol Records chooses to back Fee's LP in a MAJOR way and dump LOVE BOMB on the streets with NO promotion. I know all this becuase I worked in an AOR radio station in the Lexington KY market during that time. Capitol Records would not even consent to a lyrics inner sleeve (with artwork by Cotton & Prince)...you had to write the Tubes Fan Club and request a Xerox copy. Thus ended the group known as the Tubes. This is all too bad because this record had the potential to be even bigger than Outside/Inside. Side 2 is one continuous montage of music...a favorite at college parties. Todd Rundgren was brought aboard replacing David Foster as producer. Prairie got his first computerized drum machine (a Fairlight I believe). This LP rocks more than most others released in 1985. Don't pass it up simply becuase you don't remember it...blame it on Capitol Records.

Bands come and bands go, and many have been the CDs that have spun through my disc player, but "Love " still remains in heavy rotation at my house. An epic work, this album was pretty much the last one that the much-missed Tubes produced. (I've heard they may have recently released a CD and I believe that they still gig in the Bay Area in some variant form, but this was basically their last hurrah.)

If you "get" the Tubes, then you simply must have this CD. If you find yourself baffled by their sound, then you should avoid it. Most folks will remember the Tubes from their often maligned Top 40 hit "She's a Beauty"; older listeners might remember the cult fave "White Punks on Dope". They're quirky, irreverent, and playful, but not perhaps to everyone's liking.

Unfortunately, "Love " met with a very harsh critical reaction and mustered only dismal sales. This fate was unmerited, given the adventurous spirit of experimentation the group showed in this album. One whole "side" (this was originally released as a vinyl LP) is essentially one meta-song, several songs that segue into each other seamlessly and that are framed by an intro and reprise. It's really a delight to listen to the group shift gears and tempo from one segment to another. And the production values (always a Tubes strong point) are superb.

If you're more on the hard or metal end of the rock spectrum--say, Rage Against the Machine or Rob Zombie--then this will make you gag. But if you enjoy stuff by groups like Fountains of Wayne or They Might Be Giants, you'll probably eat this up. Give it a try--after all these years, I'm still humming these tunes.

My second favorite TUBES record following YOUNG AND RICH. This is an overlooked Rock and R&B classic from one of the BEST LIVE bands I've ever seen. When TUBES (we never refer to them as "the" TUBES) played LIVE it was always an event in my neighborhood. Fee Waybill as Quay Lude shoveling mountains of fake cocaine into the audience. Prairie Prince and his monster thunder drums. Dancing cigarette boxes. At one show they even had a girl swinging from the rafters on a trapeze. Awesome stuff!!

By the time this OFFICIAL FINAL album came out, TUBES had perfected an amazing R&B sound to go along with their hard rocking numbers. LOVE BOMB was no exception. This album evokes some crazy memories. The cocaine was flowing everywhere (and I mean everywhere) and this was one of our favorite records to play all night long. The 80's were out-of-control.

The hard rocking STELLA. The R&B beauty of COME AS YOU ARE. Side B is a segue party mix that always sends chills down my spine. The harmonies of NIGHT PEOPLE. The romantic FOR A SONG. And my absolute favorite tune on this record, FEEL IT. Whenever Bill Spooner (they didn't call him Spooner for nothing) started singing this gem, the volume would go to full levels and everyone would croon this tune at the top of their lungs. WHAT A PARTY ALBUM!! WHAT MEMORIES!! I can't believe it's available again. I even have the LOVE BOMB t-shirt from this tour. I have to get this. You have to get this. TURN THIS ONE UP!! ENJOY.

( Oh, if you're looking for YOUNG AND RICH; the WHITE PUNKS ON DOPE CD contains both TUBES first album and YOUNG AND RICH in their entirety.)

How I wish they were still making recordings to this standard today. This recording is so much fun. One reviewer stated Tubes did not tour this record; not true. I saw Tubes perform the whole thing on stage in Columbus, Ohio shortly after it was released. They even did the entire "Night People" medley, uninterrupted, note-for-note perfectly like the record (Prairie Prince had about four large fans on him as the medley goes on for about 25 minutes and he plays through the entire thing). I was just a kid then, but I remember the group made no secret about the fact that Capitol Records had abandoned them on this one, and Tubes actually had to wheel out a large video screen to show a promo film for the record. How sad. Anyway, excellent songwriting, excellent performances, Todd weaves his way through the songs and is creditied for co-writing several, and a very creative effort, sadly overlooked. Don't let that mistake rob you of the experience.

Thank you BGO for correcting your blunder from the first pressing of this disc!! You know what I'm talking about. Anyway, I just read the reviews below and most are favorable for this album. This is a lost masterpiece for the band and it's sad that it got the axe the way it did when it originally came out. I don't really know what the one reviewer is going on about the lack of Fee Waybill vocals. Heck, he's on all the tracks, brother, can't you hear him? And as far as Todd Rundgren being a no-talent hack, I don't really know what to say about that. Todd has produced tons of great records over the years and this is definitely one of my top ten of his producer efforts. Forgive me for being biased, but the man can do little wrong in my book. Prairie Prince using a Fairlight?
C'mon... those are the best drum sounds I've heard on a Tubes album!! Get your facts straight people....

Buy the CD and enjoy it! I know I have...

R.I.P. Vince Welnick... we'll miss ya...

fendemos

What a great album. It was great in the 80's and its great in the new millineum. In my opinion, the best Tubes album ever. Side 1 is excellent, but side 2 is da bomb. The way they mixed all the songs on that side together is fantastic! And in case you haven't heard it.....I say hey...and then I say hey...and then I say hey!

i have this album, i have this cassette, i have this cd. whatever it comes out on in the future, i'll have that too. another absolute masterpiece from the tubes. this is maybe only the second album (the other being queen- night at the opera) that i have unashamedly sang out loud to. in front of people. i love the way they put their own spin on different styles of music. this cd has a nice touch of r&b to it. its like they out waved heat wave, out spun the spinners and out gayed marvin gaye. im sure most people who read these little reviews are probably fans who already own these cds, but if by some chance you are not, its not to late. buy everything the tubes have ever done, take a week vacation, do nothing but listen to the tubes, feel better! listen to love bomb first, though.

Love Bomb is the swansong of the tubes catelog, famously forgotten by Capitol Records. That story has been told by may a reviewer, so I decided not to be one of them. Let's talk about the music. "Piece by Piece", the bombastic opener is a slice of power pop heaven, Brilliantly produced by master musician and studio god Todd Rundgren. "Stella" continues as the same road, both showcasing Fee Waybill's powerful crooning. "Come As You Are" the first obviously Rundgren influenced track (he co-wrote half the album)is a fantastic ballad in the true eighties style. "One Good Reason" Bill Spooner's first vocal features more powerful Rundgren back-up vocals, and a killer solo (probably by Spooner). "Love Bomb" rounds out side one with the most rockin track, also sung by Bill Spooner. Side Two is, as you probably already know, a continuous seague of tracks whose highlights include the wonderful "For A Song" and "Feel It" (later recorded by Rundgren on his Nearly Human album to much greater effect). All in all this album full encompassed the Tubes last statement, and also stands as a worthy addition to Todd Rundgren's vast production catelog.

In what was to be the last album for the most outrageous of the glam bands, The Tubes packed a lot in. Earlier works tended toward comedy (White Punks..., Don't touch me there) and the early 80's records headed more to the guitar rock popular at the time (think...a more creative and talented "Loverboy") this final effort holds a little of both.

First side track "Come as you are" is played as a straight love ballad. "Stella" might remind you an awful lot of "She's a Beauty." The title track is a not at all veiled homage to Dr. Strangelove (the stage version even included Fee riding in on a giant missle. Phallic references are not subtle with the tubes.)

But the second side wich is played (as well as performed on stage way back when) as a whole is where this record is most interesting. "Muscle Girls" will forever be linked in my memory with the fitness craze in the mid-80's that led to films such as Travolta's "Perfect." Some of the humor of the band is here with the mixing of "Wooly Booly" and the Lawrence Welk standard "Theme from a Woody Place". The combination ("Theme from a Woolly Place") is worth owning the album on it's own.

While admittedly not the best Tubes work it stands as a perfect ending to what was always more of a stage show than a band.

The tour for this album bombed. Fee Waybill won't even talk about Love Bomb. Fee was more into raw rock at this time (not his dismal solo effort).

This album is a piece of genius.

The first side contains a number of good songs, similar to Completion Backwards. Side two is where Rundgren and the Tubes shine. (Of course the CD now is a single side).

The blending and incredible mix of the second side is fantastic. Turn off the lights and turn it up. It takes you on a journey. I've loved this album for many years.

The Tubes are still around, but without their former soul. Bill Spooner is gone along with Mike Cotton. Love Bomb was the last of the real Tubes.