ZZ Top: C/D

The box set is up for pre-order on Amazon for $42.

Box set in my hands, getting ready to dive in.

think i need to get that...
in other zz news, this is depressing
http://zumic.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/kid-rock-2013-tour-poster.jpg

yes. yes it is.

though i have to hand it kid, $20 is a good deal as long as I can arrive after uncle kracker and leave before kid rock.

in Dallas there is an almost $10 service charge. Ticketmaster getting their piece of the action.

also, all that's left is lawn tickets. Yes, I checked.

But you know Billy will guest on Kid's set, and shred all over "Cowboy".

I would have been tempted if not for Uncle Cracker and the Kid Rock fans. I bet a ZZ Top & Kid Rock show would actually be pretty fun.

$20 is a good deal, ZZ is $54.50 in Minneapolis before "convenience fees."

oof.

Listening to ZZ Top's First Album right now and it sounds pretty damn good.

Has anybody got the box yet? Amazon tells me mine comes next week.

Box set in my hands, getting ready to dive in.

― EZ Snappin, Wednesday, June 12, 2013 4:56 PM (34 minutes ago)

I'm a bit surprised they didn't use the existing remastered Tres Hombres and Fandango! discs. They might have used the same master -- eventually I'll dig out Tres Hombres and check -- but the bonus tracks appended to those 2006 releases are not on the box set discs.

Not a big deal, I just find it interesting. The Judas Priest Complete Albums Box used the previously released remasters where they could, thus including the bonus tracks.

xpost I must have skimmed past your post. How's the packaging?

Skimpy. Cheap cardboard sleeves, and the two gatefolds feel tragically flimsy. Exterior box is strong. No book, no liner notes, just tiny reprints of the LP sleeves that border on illegibility.

Saying all that, I'm halfway through Rio Grande Mud and it's glorious. Absolute no brainer at the price.

kinda a bummer there's no liner notes, Billy seems like a pretty good storyteller

I agree. But a minor quibble, all things considered.

Sounds like the Joni Mitchell set. Those were all gatefolds, with For The Roses & Mingus also having little inserts as well. The Smiths box went above and beyond the call of duty, packaging-wise (detailed down to the original stickers on the covers).

kinda a bummer there's no liner notes, Billy seems like a pretty good storyteller

― Bathory Tub Blues (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, June 12, 2013 6:40 PM (48 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Billy's book is alot of fun, if not a very detailed narrative. Lots of anecdotes, shout-outs to peers, influences, and venues, nice pix of cars, gear, girls etc.

I pre-ordered the box from Amazon, but opted for free shipping, so I should be getting it next week (along with the Van Halen first-six-albums box).

Jon Glaser - My Dead Dad Was in ZZ Top

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbUOm2Ewip4

interesting as the drummer who does not have a beard is named beard.

and billy gibbons doesn't even own a monkey

lol!

Box on sale for the next 23 hours. $34.98, free shipping, no excuses.

http://www.popmarket.com/details/28725009?feature_id=28724986

I answer my own question from 10 months ago: the song I was seeking is "What It Is Kid" from Mescalero.

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

Just saw this on FB--A still from the TV expose aired roughly 40 years ago today that shut down a certain little shack outside La Grange...

https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/971368_10151639324949342_824693440_n.jpg

http://music.yahoo.com/blogs/stop-the-presses/zz-top-legs-women-own-them-210417325.html

pretty boss
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLbdQHHZ1aE

The live-in-1980 DVD that comes from is fucking fantastic. It's available on CD too.

awesome clip. wtf @ the reversed headstocks on that double gtr

Yep, that Rockpalast concert DVD is great. It appears that it is now only available in a double-pack with a 2008 concert DVD. A little more expensive perhaps than it used to be.

The wonderful thing about that live DVD is that it reminds me how great Dusty's bass playing is.

Ev'ry girl crazy 'bout CCR:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NLgD_do1ngQ
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfIlDk-FoCQ

d'oh
http://youtu.be/WfIlDk-FoCQ

awesome

My friend was at the show. It's even better than he told me.

Billy Gibbons is 64 today! Happy birthday!

also the new complete ZZ Top albums box set is up on spotify (the new one with good remasters not that old shitty one)....

let's all listen to ZZ Top today!

hell yes

AHOWHOHOWHOW

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eSKairBKzc
happy birthday, gibbons! dude really is an amazing guitar player, kind of incapable of doing anything less than extremely cool and in-the-pocket. in this video he literally checks his watch in the middle of the solo to see if the new year has arrived yet.

never heard ZZ Top's first album before...it's pretty good!

"Bedroom Thang" smokes, wow...

they arrived pretty fully formed though

though it would be years until Eliminator which was obviously them trying remake blues rock into a really modern, sequenced new form...even from the first there's something about them that feels more modern than a lot of 70s heavy blues rock bands...they sort of intuitively strip down everything to the bare essence, there's a not a lot of wasted movement and the groove rules everything they do....they, with exceptions, generally don't feel the need to cop "songwriting" moves, they just settle on a riff and a groove and run through all its permutations

When I bought that box, the album that really leapt out for me was Tejas - I'd never really paid much attention to it before, and they went in a very interesting sort of stoner-country-rock direction that could have been another band's whole career but was for them just a momentary exploration.

that's actually one i haven't heard hopefully should get to them all today

I love that they didn't bother to remaster Afterburner for the box. Sounds just as shitty as it did in 1985. Eleiminator is the remaster they made a few years ago, as are Tres Hombres and Fandango. Neither Deguello nor El Loco has been touched, but they weren't ruined in the six pack fiasco.

Tejas is incredible and you may be a little surprised by it imo

frank beard is just incredible

re: The first album--"Texas Music" magazine did a piece on Robin Hood Brians, the owner & house engineer of the studio in Tyler, Texas where the band cut their first two lps (and parts of the next two) (not to mention a big bunch of classic Texas garage stuff from Mouse & The Traps, Southwest F.O.B. and others in the '60s). He has a great story about how when the band went in the first time, Bill Ham was obsessed with the album being all live in the studio, with no overdubs whatsoever. They laid down all the numbers this way, but upon playback, Brians and the band found the performances lacking some dynamics due to Ham's orders. Brians devised a plan to get Ham out of the studio so they do some repair work: He had him pick up their dinner one night, at a particular great BBQ joint conveniently way out in the sticks from Tyler (which, if you know Tyler, is really out in the sticks). To buy more time, Brians called the restaurant and made sure they knew Ham was coming and that they had to keep him there waiting for the food as long as possible. Ham goes and Brians & the band quickly get down to overdubbing missing rhythm parts, better solos, double-tracked vocals etc...interrupted only from calls from Ham at the BBQ place telling them this better be damn good food he's waiting so long for.

Ham finally gets back like three hours later and Brians had a mix of the new version of the album ready, and after a listen Ham wasn't as big on everything being so 'live' after that.

I had been waiting for years for that box set and have listened to pretty much every album at least 10 times this year. I think ZZ Tops 70s catalog is really thick with great music.

I'd have to say it was pretty freaking short sided by both the band, it's management and Warners to let those crappy ass mixes define the group for twenty years. I think in the end, it kind of short changed how ZZ Top was perhaps thought about in the public consciousness, as the records were just not available to be even played in any easy way (unless you had the vinyl) and some of those album tracks are pretty genius. How much it cost them catalog sales in the last couple of decades when actually selling media meant something, I don't know but I bet in the end it cost the band quite a bit of bread and probably some fans and respect they might further have.

Tejas is the record that had the kick ass tunes that I had never heard - Ten Dollar Man, El Diablo, Enjoy and Get it On...yikes those tunes just freaking groove at the speed of sound. ZZ Top can just get into some filthy tight repetitive grooves that would get the boys in Dusseldorf nodding their heads at the mechanical drive.

otm re: Dusseldorf. Just got into ZZ Top this year and was struck by how the drum parts and overall grooves on their songs songs have a certain drive that is reminiscent of the motorik stuff. Probably how they were able to adapt to the synth era so well with Eliminator.

Just seeing sh@kedown making a very similar post above