Tubes

"The person who discovered The Tubes was me. I took them to A&M Records, who signed them, and I was very fond of them." --Rick Wakeman

"We never made any money on records at all. And live, we spent all the money on these massive productions. We'd go out with 35 people and all these dancers and bombs and props and backdrops and sets. Every tour, we had to top the previous one, be bigger and wackier and weirder. We'd go out and make $10 million on tour and spend 12. We'd come home in the red. The Tubes never made any money."--Fee Waybill

Signed with A&M Records in October 1974. In his autobiography Backstage Passess and Backstabbing Bastards, producer Al Kooper recounts calling Dorene Lauer at A&M and learning the label had not found a producer for The Tubes. Al contacted A&M's A&M director and asked for the job. The album took two months to record and was intentionally made to sound like a Broadway show. Kooper called it the "best album I have ever produced." One thing that did not go as planned was Herb Alpert chose not to add his trumpet to "Malaguena."

A&M had a 16-minute 16mm concert film of The Tubes made in late 1975. 

Now was printed in four different color versions.

OFFICIAL PROMOTION BY A&M RECORDS

The Tubes New Music On A&M Records 
Young and Rich New Music On A&M Records 
Now New Music On A&M Records 
What Do You Want From Live New Music On A&M Records 
20th Century Masters press release