What Do You Want From Live - The Tubes

Somewhere in time between Janet Jackson's "Great Boobie Incident" and Jim Morrison's "Showing Mister Happy" episode, a band from San Francisco was producing such family favorites as Mondo Bondage, Don't Touch Me There, I Was A Punk Before You Were A Punk ("...you want some action, I'll put your ass in traction!") and White Punks On Dope. This was delivered with a stage show featuring nudity, simulated (I guess) oral sex, violence, ballet (sort of), bondage and other assorted fun.

This live album documents the late-70's Tubes at their excessive best. In addition to the aforementioned 'hits', there's a great crime medley (Dragnet->Peter Gunn->Perry Mason->Untouchables), an appearance of rock star-archetype "Quay Lude", a game show (of sorts) and a fun cover of "I Saw Her Standing There".

What Do You Want From Live is also one of those records that for whatever reason comes with autobiographical information still attached (High Fidelity's Rob Gordon organized his records autobiographically, a cool concept...but I don't think I'm up to the task). I bought the record on a Saturday back in high school. Me and a friend hitchhiked to the town (Waterville, Maine) with the record store (DeOrsey's). It was the first (and only) time I ever hitched a ride. Pathetically, a friend (Sherry) of mine's mother picked us up on the way down. Anyhow....bought the Tubes record as well as the first Cars album. There's no information about the ride home so we must have avoided any weirdos.

(P.S. This being Memorial Day weekend, my first thought was to pull out some prototypical 'summer' record, like Pet Sounds or something. But my current schedule has me more than a little wiggly due to sleep deprivation)

(First posted on Mark Is Cranky)