A Brief Story of ZZ Top

This year, all three members of ZZ Top turned 70 (the Reverend Willie G turning 70 just last week, Dusty Hill in May, and Frank Beard in June), as well as being their 50th anniversary. The band was known for its blues rock style and lyrics full of double entendres and innuendos.
ZZ Top on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury 2016 IMG 8527 (27374417884).jpg

They have a big history:

What became ZZ Top started out in Houston in 1969 as the Moving Sidewalks formed by Billy Gibbons and bass player/multi instrumentalist Greg Lainer. The band was short-lived and issued one single. By early 1970, the Gibbons split the Moving Sidewalks and recruited two members of American Blues fame, bass player Dusty Hill, and drummer Frank Beard.

Before I go on, it is interesting to say that Frank Beard, even today, is the ONLY member without a beard and with (reasonably) short hair. Take a look at the photo below.
Frank Beard 2014.jpg

Their 1971 debut, ZZ Top's First Album, issued on the US Branch of Decca Records, London Records, was highly unnoticed. Their follow-up reord was 1972's Rio Grande Mud with their frist chart-topping single, Brown Sugar (NOT A COVER OF THE STONES SONG)

Worldwide fame:

The 1973 record Tres Hombres (meaning "The three Friends" in English) spawned one of their signature songs, La Grange the song being about a then popular brothel in La Grange, Texas referred to as the Chicken Ranch. The album also features Waiting for the Bus/Jesus Just Left Chicago, and Just Got Paid. La Grange just brushed the top 40 in the US, but became one of their well-known hits.

This was followd by their fourth LP, Frandango! featinrg the Hill-sung Tush being a song with a misheard lyric. Another popular song from the album was Heard it on the X about a popular Mexican radio station that would come through late at night in the Houston area.

To digress a bit, "X" refers to the first letter of the station callsign. In the US, stations west of the Mississippi have calls of Kxx or Kxxx, whereas east of the river, Wxx/Wxxx is used. All Canadian stations start with C, and Mexican station start with X.

The band hit a peak in 1979 with Deguello, one of the best Top albums featuring more deeper hits like Cheap Sunglasses, their rendition of Isaac Hayes' I Thank You, and I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide.

By the way, what's that "woo-woo" sound on Cheap Sunglasses? It's the Reverend Willie G's Marshall Major amp having a blown-out tube. The 200-watt model played on the song is the next generation of the popular 100-watt model.

Into the 80s...

1981 saw the released of last Spanish-title album for a while, El Loco, but it also signified the launching of MTV in living rooms around the country. Our musical heroes, ZZ Top, took advantage of that with their next platinum record, 1983's Eiliminator. The record, being named after the populr car of the 30s, featured some of their best-known hits, Legs being another signature song of theirs. This was the first of several synth-rock albums they made. Other hits from the record were Gimme All Your Loving, Sharp-Dressed Man, and Got me Under Pressure. The next two albums, Afterburner (1985) and Recycler (1990) are considered to be the band's pinnacle.

Top continued to tour into the 90s and for their 30th anniversary released a studio/live album XXX and a boxed set, Rancho Texacano in 2004.

How did they get their name?

We can't leave this posting without addressing their ambigious name. The story is that at the time of formation in 1970, the band were sharing an apartment and had posters of famous blues artists in their living room. Gibbons had the working title of ZZ King - ode to the late, great, B.B. King, but thought it sounded too simillar. He was also a fan of Z.Z. Hill and came up with the name of ZZ Top being that the king is at the top of the hill.

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