Track Listing

1. She's a Beauty
2. No Not Again
3. Out of the Business
4. Monkey Time
5. Glass House
6. Wild Women of Wongo
7. Tip of My Tongue
8. Fantastic Delusion
9. Drums
10. Theme Park
11. Outside Lookin' Inside

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #40483 in Music
• Released on: 1993-05-10
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Import, Original recording remastered

Album Description
Reissue of 1983 Capitol release from San Francisco pop rock act. Featuring guest appearances from Patti Austin & Martha Davis (Motels). 11 tracks including the hits 'She's A Beauty' & 'The Monkey Time'. Remastered from original masters. Additional sleevenotes. Faithfully restored artwork. Standard jewel case.

Customer Reviews

I LOVE this record
I'm a brand new Tubes fan, strangely. I just 'discovered' them maybe 3 months ago. I started out liking some of their stuff, got hooked on the live version of "white punks" which got me to listen a little harder to their other material. I was doing a kitchen project in our house and had "Outside Inside" running the entire time - like 3 nights in a row. I started out barely familiar with the songs, and each pass of this record pulled me in more and still continues to surprise me. It's a incredible pop record. People accuse it of being overly radio friendly but I actually find this to be a pretty risky - or at least challenging - album. I've been into Theme Park lately. That middle section with that amazing vocal processing (whoooOOOAAAAaahhhh, etc) - it's kind of spooky, and I still can't figure out how they did it. A lot of wonderful ear-candy throughout; it makes me miss the days when labels would support such a huge expenditure of money and time for non-single tracks ("Wongo" is a production tour de force that never had any hope of charting). So today I looked up some of the credits and see names like Massenburg (mixing), Martha Davis (!! - never would've guessed that was her), Jerry Hey (horn arrangements), and I thought, "Ah, no wonder". This record was created by the best of the best, and it's really immediately evident that it cost a fortune. It's a gorgeous sounding album but never sounds slick or gimmicky - there is no formula here. It sounds fun, confident, and right. It reminds me of Thomas Dolby's "Aliens ate my Buick" in that respect. Listening to this from beginning to end is like going on a really great, wild ride.

"Outside Inside" might be the title for a reason
When the predecessor of this album, "The Completion Backwards Principle" was released, I heard two reactions from my friends. From those who had never heard the Tubes before, their comments were along these lines: "Hey - there's a new band called the Tubes and they're great!" From those who had been long time fans of the group, their reactions were negative and they expressed disappointment that the Tubes had "sold out." I was alone in my reaction, for I had been a fan for a long time, and yet felt that they had delivered an excellent, albeit more commercial offering for the public to suck up (and for which the Tubes might actually make some well-deserved money, for a change!)

When I heard the cut, "Tip Of My Tongue" on San Francisco's "KSAN The Jive 95," I rushed to the music store to get my copy of "Outside Inside." I was so impressed with "Tip Of My Tongue," that even if it had been the only good tune on the tape, I would have counted it worth the cost.

This is why I'm so shocked to read other amazon reviewers writing that the only good tune is the first track, "She's A Beauty." I'm sorry, but that is just a false statement. I know people all have their own tastes, etc., but it's just untrue to say that all of the other tunes are just "filler."

My tastes in music have never been what anyone would call mainstream. There are no best of the 70s or best of the 80s or best of the 90s compilations out there that have even ONE tune on them that represents what I like. Therefore, I think I'm qualified to make the following statement: The Tubes DID present a more commercial type of music on "The Completion Backwards Principle," and "Outside Inside." However, just because it is more comercial doesn't mean it's not good. Those two albums are excellent - the songs show talent in all areas: Writing, singing, musicianship and recording technique.

Could it be that the reason they titled this album "Outside Inside" is because for YEARS they were thoroughly OUTside the mainstream in their approach to music, and then they put together two albums which were closer to being INside the mainstream? It's a thought. Even if this is true, there's STILL enough of the Tubes' own individualism and signature to keep these two albums very interesting. (You gotta love it when Martha sings, "You better keep that thing on a chain!" on "Monkey Time.")

If you are an 80s music fan, these two albums are mandatory to your collection.

just not very good
I haven't listened to this in a long time, but came across it again and decided to give it a whirl.
The first song everyone "knows" and is decent. The rest, just not very good.
I rarely remove things from my iTunes library, but everything but the first song was deleted here.