what do you guys think about this group, blues, or just classic rock?
whats your fav album and why?

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

I like them. Growing up I did not pay much attention to the guitar work, just listened to the tunes. I learned a few of their licks. Now I find myself revisiting some of their songs to learn them. That really gives me an appreciation for them.

Just started "Jesus just left Chicago". I like to really take my time and learn multiple ways to play a song, as well as, study the structure and read about or discover things about it. Play it electric and see if I would change anything for acoustic. Needless to say, I don't learn a lot fast but this is how I enjoy it.

The first time I heard Tres Hombres I went out and bought that and their first album.Billy Gibbons' playing was so unique as nobody had ever used pinch harmonics with the precision that Billy did and that in itself got me hooked.I thought La Grange was the raunchiest,rockinest,bluesiest song. I'd ever heard. One of the best bands I was ever in-Ace Demolition- used to start off every night with Tush,we had an old wind up army siren that we'd start up in pitch darkness and start the beginning riff-still in the dark- and then hit the cop lights on top of each PA column then hit the stage lights-what a way to start a gig.Thanks to ZZ Top we had a great start to every gig we played. Jimi Hendrix was so impressed witha 15 year old Gibbons' playing that he gave Billy a pink Strat that Billy keeps under lock and key-naturally.After all these years ZZ Top's music still sounds fresh aand never sounds dated Billy can also play the most melodious slow blues too like in I'm a Rough Boy,his playing in that song gives me goosebumps to this day-it's just magnificent.I think that their music can't really be catagorized other than blues/rock/raunch/soul that's the closest I can come to giving it a title.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

I like the Eliminator album the most. ZZ is really good, but I'll take Canned Heat over ZZ any time for that sound.

I'd agree with guitslinger.

Reverend Billy and the boys provided a desperately-needed respite from the then-developing disco craze of the early '70s and put the red-meat Tex-Mex sound permanently on the map. I favor the earlier albums like Rio Grande Mud, Deguello, and Fandango for the edgier less-polished power trio vibe. As for their traditional blues performances, I don't think there's a more soulful track than "Blue Jean Blues" or anything rawer than "Jesus Just Left Chicago". Conversely, "Francine" and "Move Me On Down The Line" showed the band at their rocking non-homogenized best.

JMO

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

My favorite albums by ZZ Top?
All of 'em except Afterburner (and it had it's moments). LOL

Seriously, though; Rio Grande Mud (1972) and Rhythmeen (1996) are my favorites, but I like them all.

Warning--if you are thinking about a "Best of" compilation, get the "Chrome, Smoke & BBQ" (2003) box set or at least "Rancho Texicano" (2005) the greatest hits package. They have the older songs (pre-Eliminator) mastered the way they were on vinyl. The CD versions of "First Album" (1971), "Rio Grande Mud" (1972), "Tejas" (1977) and "El Loco" (1981) are not mastered the way the vinyl albums sounded.

I have about a dozen live bootlegs from different eras (shh! don't tell anyone!), and they have an inherent coolness and vibe that so many bands are missing today.

Note: many people dismiss their RCA recordings (1994-2003), but don't do that. The only thing wrong with those albums was the fact that they weren't a retread of either "Tres Hombres" or "Eliminator", their two more popular albums. The Boyzz grew artistically while staying rooted in what made them great. "Rhythmeen" is, in particular, a great disc.

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Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

+1 for Tres Hombres

Billy Gibbons is a beast!

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Blues with a feeling.

GUILD GUITARS: MADE TO BE PLAYED!

Man no mater haw you slice it.. The little band from Texas is the TopS...

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Hey, Boy Blue is back!

blues rock maybe? my dads obsessed with them

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riley

Fandango!

And for you intellectual property lawyers, a tidbit from Wiki -

'Thunderbird' was originally written and performed by the Nightcaps, a band formed in the 1950s when the members were teenagers. The Nightcaps performed the song and distributed it on their album "Wine, Wine, Wine" but never applied for copyright.

ZZ Top began performing its version of the song in 1975, and has conceded that its version is lyrically and musically identical to the Nightcaps' song. The Nightcaps sued ZZ Top for, among other things, copyright infringement, but their claims were dismissed because, in part, ZZ Top had registered a copyright on the song in 1975.'

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

I honestly find em very hit and miss. A lot of people state the Eliminator album as being the cut off point, however I disagree. I think that when their on form, their indomitable, absolutely unstoppable.
However when their bad their never really off form, just forgettable bar room rock n roll.

A coin of two sides.

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No no and no

The reverend Billy Gibbons was considered by Jimi Hendrix as one of the best guitar players he had ever heard. ZZ Top is awesome. Especially any album before "Eliminator." The Tex-Mex spread pictured in the gatefold of "Tres Hombres" just depicts the Texas sound they are able to achieve, and it makes me hungry.

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I hear it, I heard it , I heard it on the "X".

Jimi Hendrix was reported to be very helpful to young struggling guitarists and knew what it was like to be one.Not to take anything away from Gibbons,but Jimi's remarks didn't launch his career,Billy had to make it on his own,opening for such acts as Ike and Tina Turner and the Allman Brothers when ZZ was getting started.

When you start diggng deep into the album tracks, be prepared to be surprised. You will find some strange things that would fit on a Frank Zappa album (Manic Mechanic; Heaven, Hell or Houston; Ten Foot Pole; Dreadmonboogaloo, etc.).

You will also find some tracks that would fit right along on a Lindsay Buckingham-era Fleetwood Mac album (It's So Hard; Esther Be the One).

There's even some country and western (Enjoy & Get It On, She's a Heartbreaker, Chevrolet, Mexican Blackbird)

...and even a catgut acoustic guitar number--"Asleep In The Desert"

This is besides the obvious killer boogie/blues/rock stuff you expect.

For one of the most achingly beautiful slow blues songs ever written, listen to the non-"Six Pack" version of "Sure Got Cold After The Rain Fell"

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Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

In my last post, I mentioned getting the non-"Six Pack" version of a song; a lot of people don't know the story behind the ZZ Top "Six Pack" collection. Here it is:

Six Pack was released in 1987 (which was probably the height of their commercial success), and has become a little hard to find lately; it has been out of print since around 2001, but you can still find it if you look around. Try Ebay, if all else fails.

Here's the bad news; when Warner Brothers released "Six Pack", somebody (the band, the label, or Bill Ham--nobody's fessin' up) remastered all the old albums. The way the "Six Pack" booklet reads, they did this in order to make the recordings suitable for digital medium. In actuality, what they did was make all the old albums sound like "Afterburner" (1985). They added a LOT of digital reverb to the vocals and drums, and significantly changed the guitar tones as well. Some of the lyrics were changed from the original albums, too. The whole project made the albums sound like they had been recorded in the early to mid-eighties.

From a marketing standpoint, it made sense to do this, because the boyzz had developed a huge group of new fans that thought the band had begun with the release of "Eliminator" (1983); most of these new fans weren't aware of the band's history in the preceding 13 years. From an artistic standpoint, the results are mixed. The songs sound ok to pretty good; compared to the original mastering, the mixes aren't entirely crappy, just different. It's kind of like when you go to your favorite mom-and-pop restaurant and find out that mom has died; the recipes might be the same, but it just ain't "right".

The result of all this is that the albums "ZZ Top's First Album" (1971), "Rio Grande Mud" (1972), "Tejas" (1976) and "El Loco" (1981) can only be attained on CD with the "Six Pack" re-mastering treatment. The 1992 "ZZ Top's Greatest Hits" and 1994 "One Foot In the Blues" Warner Brothers compilations uses only the "Six Pack"-treated versions of those songs as well.

"Deguello" (1979) escaped this fate due to a legal problem with the estate of Elmore James; in 1985, his estate had put out an injunction that removed any recording of any Elmore James song from distribution. On Deguello, the boyzz had recorded a version of "Dust My Broom". Therefore, when they did the dirty deed to the "Six Pack", Deguello was not included, and you can get it on CD with original-style mastering.

You can get SOME of the songs (but not all) on CD with original mastering by buying "Chrome, Smoke and Bar-B-Q" (2003), "Rancho Texicano" (2004) or the old "Best of ZZ Top" (1977), as well as the CD remasters of “Tres Hombres” and “Fandango!” from 2005. My hope is that they will, one day in the near future, release the last four "Six Pack'd" albums on CD in the same fashion.

All and all, the Six Pack is a pretty cool thing to have, if you're a collector and a fan. The little booklet is a pretty good time capsule of the band in 1987, and it has some cool artwork, stories, and pictures.

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Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals