Now (The Tubes album)

The Tubes
File:Now (The Tubes album).jpg
Studio album by The Tubes
Released	May 1977
Recorded	Winter (?) 1976 His Masters Wheels, San Francisco; The Record Plant, Los Angeles; The Record Plant, Sausalito; Funky Features, San Francisco
Genre	Rock
Length	42:09
Label	A&M
Producer	John Anthony
The Tubes chronology
Young and Rich (1976)Young and Rich1976 Now (1977) What Do You Want from Live (1978)What Do You Want from Live1978
CD Cover
CD Cover

Professional ratings
Review scores
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Allmusic

Now is the third album released by The Tubes. It was produced by John Anthony. Fed up with constant meddling from Scoppa and Wood under the direction of Spooner including surreptitiously remixing a track when John was not at the studio, John Anthony was advised to quit the project by Jerry Moss. Head of A&M A&R Kip Cohen said they took advantage of John and believed they overran the budget to bump up their union fees. Bill Spooner took over and completed the project with the help of engineer Don Wood and Bud Scoppa. John believes in retrospect he should not have tried to be "one of the boys" with this band but remains proud of his idea to get the band playing again live in the studio liked they used to do in the Bay Area bars. 'My Head Is My Only House Unless It Rains' is a firm Anthony favourite and sonically shows what he was trying to achieve.

Now features a cover version of Captain Beefheart's "My Head Is My Only House Unless It Rains" and Captain Beefheart also played saxophone on "Cathy's Clone". The project was intended to be a double album but delays lead to cutting several songs including a version of Gene Pitney's "Town Without Pity" complete with horn arrangement by Bay-area comedian/musician, Dick Bright. The cover of Now was drawn by Tubes drummer, Prairie Prince entitled "Tubes Descending a Staircase", and was inspired by a similar drawing in Time magazine of the Ramones. In an A&M leaflet they described the album as "This outrageous and zany band have developed musically and visually since their inception in San Francisco and their previous albums.

2012 Reissue

Real Gone Records reissued "Now" with "Young and Rich" the band's second album as a 2-CD set. The liner notes included comments from drummer Prairie Prince. Unlike the reissues from Iconclassic, this reissue had no bonus tracks. This reissue is currently out of print.

Track listing

1. "Smoke (La Vie en Fumér)" 4:50 (Bill Spooner, Michael Cotten, Vince Welnick)
2. "Hit Parade" 3:35 (Bill Spooner, Vince Welnick)
3. "Strung Out on Strings" 4:10 (Bill Spooner, Roger Steen, Michael Evans)
4. "Golden Boy" 4:00 (Bill Spooner, Michael Evans)
5. "My Head Is My Only House Unless It Rains" 4:30 (Don Van Vliet)
6. "God-Bird-Change" 3:18 (Mingo Lewis)
7. "I'm Just a Mess" 3:10 (Bill Spooner, Roger Steen)
8. "Cathy's Clone" 3:30 (The Tubes)
9. "This Town" 3:15 (Lee Hazlewood)
10. "Pound of Flesh" 3:00 (Ron Nagle, Scott Mathews)
11. "You're No Fun" 4:51 (Michael Cotten, Vince Welnick)

Personnel

• Fee Waybill - vocals
• Bill Spooner - guitar, vocals
• Michael Cotten - synthesizer
• Mingo Lewis - drums, percussion
• Prairie Prince - drums
• Roger Steen - guitar, vocals
• Re Styles - vocals
• Vince Welnick - keyboards
• Rick Anderson - bass

Additional personnel

• Bud Scoppa - voices
• Don Van Vliet - saxophone
• Roberta Burger - violin

References

• Michael Cotten's upcoming documentary, White Punks on Dope
• Now CD liner notes