SEAL,ZALEPENA
A1 Smoke (La Vie En Fumér)
Written-By – Spooner*, Cotten*, Welnick*
4:50
A2 Hit Parade
Written-By – Spooner*, Welnick*
3:35
A3 Strung Out On Strings
Written-By – Spooner*, Evans*, Steen*
4:10
A4 Golden Boy
Harmonica [Uncredited] – Harry Duncan Written-By – Spooner*, Evans*
4:00
A5 My Head Is My Only House Unless It Rains
Written-By – Van Vliet*
4:30
B1 God-Bird-Change
Written-By – Lewis*
3:18
B2 I'm Just A Mess
Written-By – Spooner*, Steen*
3:10
B3 Cathy's Clone
Soprano Saxophone [Uncredited] – Don Van Vliet Written-By – Dornacker*
3:30
B4 This Town
Written-By – Hazlewood*
3:15
B5 Pound Of Flesh
Written-By – Nagle*, Matthews*
3:00
B6 You're No Fun
Written-By – Cotten*, Tubes, The, Welnick*
4:51
Art Direction – Roland Young (3)
Artwork, Design [Design Tech] – Chuck Beeson
Bass – Rick Anderson
Design – M. Cotten*, P. Prince*
Drums – Prairie Prince
Illustration [Front Cover] – P. Prince*
Keyboards – Vince Welnick
Lead Guitar, Vocals – Roger Steen
Lead Guitar, Vocals, Supervised By [Le Gran Fromage] – Bill Spooner
Lead Vocals – Fee Waybill
Management [Bog O' Bucks] – Gary Peterson (5), Mort Moriarty
Mastered By – Bernie Grundman
Percussion – Mingo Lewis
Photography By [Back Cover] – Gerald Kudo, Peter Ogilvie
Photography By [Liner Photos] – Alvin Meyerowitz, Mort Moriarty
Producer – John Anthony
Synthesizer – Michael Cotten
Vocals – Re Styles (2)
Vinyl contained in top-opening (black & white half-tone) varnish-printed liner, with band photos & credits on both sides.
Recorded at His Masters Wheels, San Francisco, The Record Plant, Los Angeles, The Record Plant, Sausalito, and Funky Features, San Francisco.
Mixed at The Record Plant, Los Angeles.
"Special thanks to: Captain Beefheart, Bernie Krause, Rick Bright and his Sounds Of Delight Orchestra, Rob Lawrence and Harry Duncan".
==================================================================
I play my underrated card
Folks: you're missing out on a brilliant album. This is a total gem, just like their debut The Tubes.
Now is sad, maybe a little weary, no fun/sex/shock appeal here, which according to majority opinion is the Tubes' trademark quality. And that is just folly.
Their true quality is music. Honest and direct music that is VERY well performed: the compositions are creative and understated, Waybill's singing is absolutely outstanding and the playing is so subtly rhythmic and tight, it hurts. It's got loads of pretty extra instruments and the vocal harmony is beautiful. Entertaining from A to Z, no weakspots.
They really didn't need Todd. But after Now, as final stroke of genius they made Remote Control with him. And then their well was dry and they turned into a mediocre rock company releasing shallow pop songs.
Their live shows of the day were purported to be quite something. Too bad I never witnessed that. I'll have to do with their "What do you want from live" document, which is nice and funny. And with recordings from thetubesproject.com which are just amazing.
==============================================
If I could give this an extra quarter star I would because it's a tiny fraction better than the insipid Young and Rich but not by much . Exactly the same faults as that album.. it's has to many filler numbers and even the impact numbers are ... lacking big impact.. It's not even funny most of the time just safe. The one exception is memorable in a seedy funny way and is the standout track on another mediocre album.
==============================================================-==
Funny story-my older brother and I had this thing when we were kids. He always bought the live album first by any band that he got hip to (it was the era of "Frampton Comes Alive", "Kiss Alive!", and Ted Nugent's "Double-Live Gonzo", after all). Once we validated the merits of the said live album, it became my unwritten responsibilty to seek out all the studio albums by that artist. We already had "What Do You Want From Live?" in our household, so when I saw the 8-Track(!) of NOW in some department store bargain basement for $2.99, I gladly fulfilled my brotherly duty.
I wasn't disappointed. NOW is a good record, but not great. I haven't listened to it in years (as I never replaced my 8-track), but as I went through the song titles again, I realized how much I enjoyed tracks like "Strung-Out On Strings" (always a Bill Spooner fan) and "This Town", along with Tubes standards like "Smoke" & "God-Bird Change". And I can't ever forget that it was through the Tubes' rendition of "My Head Is My Only House (Unless It Rains)" that I discovered Captain Beefheart. Pretty decent for a roly-poly pre-pubescent teen trying to plot out his mission of becoming a rock star upon his high school graduation.
The Tubes were such a great, tight band that when they were on the mark, were up there with the best of them. It's disappointing that so few people even know who they were (with the exception of "White Punks"), but I guess thats part of what makes them so special. NOW may not be their best, but it's very enjoyable in places.
Anybody know if or when their stuff will be re-released, remastered, re-packaged someday?