ZZ Top: C/D

Lovely story, hope it’s set to public

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10159368670241136&id=545041135&_rdr#!/story.php?story_fbid=10158888724166208&id=584631207

I once had the most perfect exchange with ZZ Top’ Dusty Hill on the @CMT Awards/Nashville red carpet.
And I mean…perfect. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/ldjukcodo5

— Suzanne Durham (@jeezusmaryandjo) July 28, 2021

Great stories.

blasting Fandango and really appreciating all these posts, thanks everyone

feeling this rn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3OWtGybPlo

dude: she’s probably thinking about other men

me: I just don’t get how ZZ Top wrote such a sexy song about frozen food

— Cat Jones (@catjonessoda) December 23, 2020

lmao

That version of Cheap Sunglasses on the Old Grey Whistle test vid posted above is straight fire

RIP Dusty. Another one from that 1980 Rockpalast set:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c7d8BYJy8I

Saw him outside a bar in New Orleans during Mardi Gras sometime in the mid-80's. My friends thought he was Billy Gibbons. "Well, NO, but I've been told I look like a friend of his." He was extremely gracious and accommodating to a bunch of drunken college dudes.

speaking of getting paid, their cover of dj dmd's "i gotsta get paid" is prob my favorite late-career moment of theirs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaIZWjItReI

https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/music/2021-07-29/let-dusty-sing-one-zz-tops-dusty-hill-1949-2021-and-the-pursuit-of-the-perfect-note/

“In the beginning, we were playing a show,” Beard chuckled. “I think it was at the Cotton Bowl. It was 50,000 people there or whatever, but you could hear this one voice crying out from the crowd: ’LET DUSTY SING ONE!’

“It was his mom!” he laughed. “She was about 60 years old at the time! So, we’ve always got to think about that one: ’Let Dusty sing one!’

He smiled, taking another puff on his cigarette. “I like the ones Dusty sings.”

“That’s true, yes!” Hill roared via telephone two days later. “The thing is, my mom, bless her heart, she was my biggest fan all my life. Every band I was in before this one, I did all the singing. So, she wasn’t quite used to the shared responsibility!” he laughed. “A good Texas mother. But not everybody’s mother would yell that in front of everybody.”

haha that is great

Tejas is such a cool/weird sounding record

I swear a lot of the guitar sounds like it was done DI right into the board

on many days, it's my fav record by them.

the closing instrumental is lovely

yes! it's basically Calexico

On wiki Billy says: "It's fair to say that this is a transitional record, although I'm not really sure what we were transitioning from and what we were becoming. (laughs) It may be representative of how rapidly things were changing in the studio.

The equipment was becoming more modernized, and the way that music was being recorded was different – things were moving faster. It was still pre-digital, but there was better gear that was more readily available. We made use of it all."

When I did a deep dive into their discography a couple years ago this album was a total surprise to me, as it wasn't really part of their more straight-ahead blues rock past, and nothing on it made it to classic rock radio afaik.

yeah it's a bit lower-key in general, an especially noticeable change of vibe after the rip-roaring fandango. the dusty-sang "ten dollar man" goes about as hard as anything they've done, tho.

Tejas is seriously underrated. Like their first two, it was really hurt by being only available in the CD era in the Six Pack mixes for so long. I notice it's not up any more, but STE's AMG review of it was awful. The production and songwriting are terrific, with interesting left turns like the Poppy Country Rock of "It's Only Love", the straight-up Country of "She's A Heartbreaker", the tightly-wound Funk* of "Snappy Kakkie", and the aforementioned proto-Calexico "Asleep In The Desert".

*Despite reportedly being f'd up on heroin at the time, this album might be Beard's finest hour.

btw, speaking of ZZ Top, I've never been able to figure out the source of the rhythm guitar when Billy is soloing (like in the above Cheap Sunglasses clip). Guy off stage?

Sounds like an electric piano to me. Definitely some off-stage keyboards.

I don't hear a fourth player. I figure the little sci-fi laser sounds are probably triggered by Frank, but everything else is Gibbons stepping on different pedals.

i thought hill was the guy who played the keyboards? at least on record

Man, another reason to hate Amazon. I've actually had the 10xCD Complete Studio Albums in a wish list for months now, waiting for a slow week to pick it up. It had been $30 for months, including yesterday morning. Now it's $50. I mean, still a bargain, but god it feels ghoulish to spike like that for this reason.

Yeah, Dusty played keys on Tejas. On the OGWT clip Frank is just hitting a syndrum type thing for the "pew! pew!" sounds. But there's no pedals on the stage in front of Billy. (Something I also noticed when I saw them in 2019, stage was spartan.) There's some techno trickery going on in those keyboard sounds, but I'm not quite sure what.

I watched this rig rundown video (featuring Elwood Francis, who's going to be playing bass on the upcoming tour dates) a few years ago; it's from 2015:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1x_kg6pOvGU

On that "Cheap Sunglasses" there's def. something playing some ... passing chords? I don't know the right terminology, something beneath Billy's solo. You can hear it around 4:55 or so. At least with Frank you can def. see him hit the Synare.

It's awesome that Elwood Francis has a beard. Or at least he does here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6kDtG8Q5kk

ZZ Top on the Mt. Rushmore of bands to listen to while shooting pool.

who else you got?

Thin Lizzy and two of Stones/Faces/Tom Petty.

70’s Bob Seger

or Skynyrd (pre crash obv do i even need to say it)

<3

yah nice choices. id prob go zz / acdc / little feat / allman bros

ok hmm yeah i need to lay it out

zz top / thin lizzy / stones / skynyrd

sorry bob, ya got bumped
faces & allman brothers are good calls tho

As shared by Elvis Telecom elsewhere, from a few years back. Amazing tales:

https://www.loudersound.com/features/fly-on-the-wall-29-may-1976-zz-top-take-texas-on-the-road

Let's not forget ZZ Top are Buttrock royalty

Grand Funk Railroad v. Foghat: Taking Sides in the Buttrock Smackdown

OK that wasn't the thread I meant to spotlight. Here it is:

The most buttrockin' song on Buddy Blue's list of the top 50 Butt Rock Anthems (search term: buttrock)

Aw man, RIP. I'll admit that it took me a long time to come around on these guys. Being ages 7 and 8 during the omnipresent Eliminator and MTV years meant first exposed to a version that I never really "got" and dismissed as a "flashy video" band. Wasn't until I finally heard _Tres Hombres_ many years later that their particular brand of genius clicked.

in honor of Dusty Hill, I wrote a tribute to how ZZ Top conquered MTV with their Eliminator trilogy, what they meant to New Wave misfit kids, music video as drag, the band's glitter roots, and how Dusty Hill had a photo of Klaus Nomi on his luggage case. https://t.co/e6en8YBfFJ

— rob sheffield (@robsheff) July 29, 2021

Yeah, that was pretty good.

Sheffield is a machine.

re: Tejas

yeah, I love it. the last 90 seconds of "El Diablo" are incredible tranced-out bliss

it's kind of amazing that the label didn't drop them after the singles (It's Only Love" and then "Arrested While Driving While Blind") hit #44 and #91 respectively. I guess the mammoth record-breaking tour didn't hurt.

The album still sold, but the next year's hits set wrapped up their deal with London, and they took their masters with them when they went to Warner's.

ahh that context makes sense, thanks, it's an IDGAF contract-ender record in that context

No, it's too experimental for that, with the violin and whatnot. They were definitely trying something, and when the public didn't respond the label was probably like, "Uh, guys..." and Bill Ham said, "Here's a greatest hits album, see ya later." And then they stayed on the road for two and a half years (Tejas was 1976, Degüello didn't come out until 1979).

even better context, thanks

They took most of that time off so Beard could clean up.

Or maybe not entirely. I see on the Worldwide Texas Tour wiki that it went to New Year's Day '78. And then they took the time off before reconvening sometime in '79 (Deguello was released at the end of the year).