Tubes – Talk To Ya Later

I first found out about the Tubes through MTV in the mid-80s. The song was She’s A Beauty and MTV loved that video. It was in their rotation for a long long time. Just like radio, they could wear out a song as well.

It’s hard to describe this band. Prog, art, theatrical, rock, pop, and everything in between. In 1981, The Tubes were tightening their sound, paring back the theatrical music, and letting producer David Foster make the music sound more commercially viable. The album was Completion Backward Principle, and it was their fifth album. This is when their popularity started to rise.

The Tubes formed in 1973 and were a band with a cult following and a reputation for the most elaborate live shows around. But they weren’t exactly making any money with expenses. When Capitol Records wanted to talk to them, the band saw a chance to remake themselves. What they didn’t expect was the full corporate makeover that awaited them, complete with producer David Foster, determined to rebuild The Tubes.

The concept album The Completion Backward Principle actually began as a joke. Capitol’s marketing department gave the band an old corporate sales-training pamphlet. The Tubes built an entire album around it. Slogans, uniforms, everything boiled down to the idea that rock and roll could pretend to be a corporate product and still be good. It was satire, but it was also radio-friendly.

The album produced the band’s biggest hit to date, Don’t Want to Wait Anymore, and gave them a new touring identity built around that corporate feel. The band reinvented itself by streamlining its songs.

Toto’s Steve Lukather lent a hand on this song by playing guitar and bass. That guy was everywhere in the 1980s, playing on practically every hit you heard. Yes, I exaggerated, but not by much (over 1500 different records). Their keyboard player is known to Grateful Dead fans. Vince Welnick played with The Tubes from 1973 to 1989 and then joined the Dead in 1990.

The album peaked at #36 on the Billboard album charts, #26 in Canada, and #4 in New Zealand in 1981. This song peaked at #7 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Charts.

Talk To You Later

As I mentioned near the close of the last recordThis record you are now playingIs another example of the completion backward principleIf you can possibly manage the timePlease play both sides at one meeting

I met her on the stripIt was another lost weekendThe band was too slickAnd the people were twisted

So I asked her for a dateShe reluctantly agreedThen we went to my placeAnd she never did leave

She won’t even miss me when she’s goneBut that’s OK with me, I’ll cry later on

It’s been six monthsShe hasn’t shut up onceI’ve tried to explainShe’s driving me insane

She won’t even miss me when she’s goneBut that’s OK with me, I’ll cry later on

Talk to ya laterDon’t wanna hear it again tonightI’ll talk to ya laterJust save it for another guyOh, talk to ya laterDon’t wanna hear it again tonightI’ll just see you around

Get outI’m telling you nowDo you catch my drift?What could be plainer than this?

Nothing more to be saidWrite me a letter insteadI don’t mean to be cruelBut I’m finished with you

She won’t even miss me when she’s goneBut that’s OK with me, I’ll cry later on

I’ll talk to ya laterDon’t wanna hear it again tonightI’ll talk to ya laterJust save it for another guyI’ll talk to ya laterDon’t wanna hear it again tonightI’ll just see you around

I’ll talk to ya laterDon’t wanna hear it again tonightI’ll talk to ya laterJust save it for another guyI’ll talk to ya laterDon’t wanna hear it again tonightI’ll just see you around

I’ll talk to ya laterDon’t wanna hear it again tonightI’ll talk to ya laterJust save it, save it for another guy

…

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

26 thoughts on “Tubes – Talk To Ya Later”

  3. Pingback: Tubes – Talk To Ya Later – MobsterTiger

  4. Loved it, had the single as well as ‘Don’t want to wait anymore’. Definitely a more commercial, polished sound for them but to me, that was a plus (which isn’t always the case). This was also a highlight of a fun SCTV appearance! They got to go out with the Fishin’ Musician too.

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  5. Great band and song. Had somehow never heard it live before until now, Max…thanks for that share! Steve Lukather is a big fave of mine from his work with Boz Scaggs during Boz’s non-Bluesy era (an era I actually like more than his Blues work…but I am surely in the minority on that one). Love Steve’s work.

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  11. The one song I remember by The Tubes is “White Punks On Dope” – I mean, you can’t beat that title. The song is kind kind of cool as well.

    There’s also a feisty German version by German punk legend Nina Hagen: TV-Glotzer (TV watcher):😆

    My dear longtime music buddy and bandmate at the time dragged me along to a concert by The Tubes in Bonn. This must have been around 1987. Sadly, I don’t have any meaningful recollection.

    “Talk to You Later” doesn’t sound bad either. Weirdly catchy!

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    1. Dude…I picked between White Punks on Dope and this one…the reason I picked this one is because of the story of the album…but yea…I love White Punks on Dope!
      Nina sounds good!!! I like that although I don’t understand it…doesn’t matter…good power there.
      I remember The Tubes because of She’s a Beauty!

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  12. In a bit of corporate irony to go with that album, I saw them at an Apple Computer company picnic. Weirder yet, one of the engineering groups wore matching t-shirts that said “Our future’s so bright we gotta wear shades”. I wanted to ask them if they had any idea what that song was actually about. I decided not to.

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