 |
| ZZ Top in the pre-"Sharp Dressed Man" days |
During my 14th summer, my parents made the wise choice to ship this precocious Greek/Italian lad off to the podunk town of Lincoln, California. The gig was to go wash dishes at a restaurant owned by some Greek friends. Being from the sticks myself, I quickly acquainted myself with Main Street. Not much there to do or see. Lots of pick-ups being driven with one arm crooked at a sun-baked 90 degree angle out the window.
It was on one such ride, with the son of the couple who owned the restaurant, that I became acquainted with ZZ Top. At the time, the band had been together for almost a dozen years.Currently, they are the longest touring group with the same line-up, followed by Golden Earring and Rush. This summer will be their 44th together as a trio.
Back in the early 80's, rock radio actually rocked and Sacramento's KZAP was a great example of that. Naturally, it was just out of range in Tracy, where I had originally embarked on this Greyhound journey. Or at least it wouldn't come through on my dad's radio dial, which was always stuck on sports talk. Anyways, here I was, riding in this root beer brown Chevy step-side and suddenly "Party on the patio" comes blaring out of the speakers and cracks me across the head with it's guitar and whips hook. I had never heard anything quite like it.
The basic premise of the song was that these locals would find a vacant house with a hot tub, proceed to have an impromptu party where anyone was welcome-as long as they brought booze or a bikini, and raise hell.The only standing rule was to jump the fence and run for it if the cops showed up. The song blazes with infectious bearded boogie- vocalist/guitarist Billy Gibbons vocals an urgent staccato cadence. The whole thing races by in under 3 minutes. But what a ride!
I had to find out more for myself about this Texas barroom band and immediately immersed myself in the album from which the song had come- El Loco. A little while later, I was introduced to it's predecessor Deguello, on my friend Frosty's Hi-Fi. I was immediately smitten and it remains a top ten favorite to this day.
Those of you familiar with El Loco, know it contains such lascivious gems as "Tube Snake Boogie" and "Pearl Necklace," both considered modern day double-entendre standards. Overall, it's a solid record with some fine bluesy gems like "I wanna drive you home" and the synth experimentation on the trippy stomper "Groovy little hippy pad" is kinda cool too. However, the defining moment of utter weirdness on this record is "Ten foot pole." The song starts off with a shuffling, mumbling scat of a vocal, then the breakdown section switches gears to a bluesy vocal rasp and a guitar part that is kind of a jagged blues meltdown. Great song. Someday I'll figure out what the hell they are singing about on that one.
Deguello, on the other hand, is the nadir,* or high point of the band's career. Prior to the making of the album, the band had been on a damn fine roll with early albums that were rooted in the dirty blues like Rio Grande Mud and Tres Hombres. Those records had spawned gems like "Francine," "Waiting at the bus stop/Jesus just left Chicago" and "La Grange." But the group went on a three year hiatus due to the after effects of their Worldwide Texas Tour that had followed.This excursion had featured live animals onstage-including a longhorn steer, a buffalo, rattlesnakes and two vultures. Also traveling with the band were a saguaro and prickly pear cactus or two. This two year undertaking had driven them to the point of exhaustion and insanity. The buffalo needed a rest as well. They took three years off before going back to the studio.
When the group gathered in the studio again, recharged and full of life, they kicked-off Deguello with the beautiful "I thank you," a soul classic that Isaac Hayes had penned for Sam and Dave in the late 60's. In fact, Deguello teeters wonderously between blues power and freak power like no one ever has heard before or since.There's a cover of bluesman Elmore James' "Dust my broom" and "leopard skin tights" and a call and response in "Lowdown in the street." There's the great funky soloing on "Cheap sunglasses," one of the band's most identifiable tracks, that demonstrates a fuller sound for the groovin' thump of bassist Dusty Hill and drummer Frank Beard.
But the powerhouse of this record is the back to back pairing of "I'm bad, I'm nationwide" and "Fool for your stockings." The former summarizes the ZZ Top philosophy: Hot rods, hot broads and bad-ass attitude.Gibbons plays a wicked guitar on the track as his phalanges effortlessly slide up and down the neck, dripping with emotive finger grease.
On "Fool for your stockings," a slow, steamy number, Gibson makes his intentions clear, in a subtle way. The jazzy blues licks that propel the solo on this song, are some of the finest he's put on record. In fact, the whole record is tracked almost perfectly, moving seamlessly blending between sounds from different eras that are all fused together by a vision to make a great rockin' record that pushes the boundaries of blues and strange, funky weirdness.
 |
| Rocking out on the World Wide Texas Tour |
This summer ZZ Top will be opening for Kid Rock. I could stop there but I won't.
I continue to be mystified by Kid Rock's appeal. I just can't find anything all that interesting or worthy in the guy's music.His biggest hit is a straight-up rip-off of two extremely recognizable songs with a few words changed?
But then that horror was topped when I saw the concert flyer for the show, and Uncle Kracker, the third band on the bill, was given nearly the same font size as the second seeded bearded bunch.Uncle Kracker?! It's amazing what passes for southern-fried groove with suburban white folk and other light beer drinkers these days. Rodney Dangerfield rolls in his grave at the lack of respect.
So for now, when the weather is heating up and the feeling is just right, the Beet Seeking Missile will open a beer, put on his sunglasses and some ZZ Top on the hi-fi will more than likely get his mojo correct.
"And the choice is up to you 'cause they come in two classes/Rhinestone shades or cheap sunglasses."
Cheap Sunglasses
*Example of the Beet Seeking Missile going a little haywire with the thesaurus.
No comments:
Post a Comment