Quote:
Originally Posted by Catfish
reminded me of The Tubes 
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Ah, The Tubes...
I saw them perform a few times back in the day and remember them well; they were really more of a performance art review than a regular rock band; one of the performances was at the famed Roxy Theater on the Sunset Strip; IIRC, the band was in the midst of negotiations as their contract with their then current record label was expiring and there was much interest/speculation that they might have been in the market for a better deal than they had, and there was a bit of a bidding war among the labels; on the night I saw The Tubes at the Roxy, Clive Davis, then the very, very powerful President of Columbia Records, came to the show to see the act and, perhaps, to make a pitch for the group to sign to Columbia Records; Davis arrived with an entourage, a bit of a rare thing in those pre-Rap days, and was seated in the VP area, an elevated platform at the rear of the house and was accorded much reverence and deference by the Roxy staff and a lot of the audience; the Roxy is an open scheme venue where the seating is only brought out for more formal presentations, so the floor is wide open, as would be found in, say a night club; The Tubes had a number in their act where Fee Waybill, the lead singer, portrayed a character who goes berserk and careens around the stage wielding a chain saw (actually just a prop saw) wreaking destruction on the other props on the stage, then he would come down off the stage, into the audience, wildly swinging the saw; those of us who had seen The Tubes before knew it was all an act and there was no danger, but, apparently, Clive Davis wasn't in on the joke and, when Fee careened towards Davis' table, Davis panicked and went scurrying for cover under the table; the sight of one of the most powerful men in entertainment cowering in abject fear under a table was an image very few in the room that night would forget...
Interestingly, The Tubes did record on a number of different labels over the years, but never for Columbia Records...
This is the number that made The Tubes famous, a send up of Glam Rock and, since it was written around 1972-73, the use of the word "punks" predates the use of the word to describe the much vilified form of rock by about half a decade...
...and this is one of my favorite Tube numbers, their take on modern consumerism, still rather valid today...
BTW, the lead singer with the great voice, Fee Waybill, was hired by an earlier incarnation of The Tubes... as a roadie; he was drafted as a singer after a couple of the original group members quit and the group was in immediate need of a singer...
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