# ZZ Top: Serve Up Your Favorite Dozen!



## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

My (ZZ) Top 12 Tunes:

A Fool For Your Stockings
I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide
Hot, Blue And Righteous
I Thank You
Beer Drinker & Hell Raisers
Arrested For Driving While Blind
Asleep In The Desert
Sure Got Cold After The Rain Fell
Just Got Paid
Jesus Just Left Chicago
La Grange 
Sharp Dressed Man

My favorite albums are DeGuello, Tres Hombres, Tejas, and Rio Grande Mud

Please feel free to discuss anything else about the band.


----------



## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

While I liked the idea of this band, i.e. power Texas Blues trio, and I liked every song I happened to hear, I never bought their records or actively listened to their music.

Sad loss, though. I liked being aware of them and dipping my toe into their pond every now and then.


----------



## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

While all their hits were great, there's a lot more good stuff on the albums. The Studio box set is the best way to go and gives you the original album mix of the first five albums without all the horrible reverb that was added to the 1990 CD reissues.


----------



## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I'm only semi-qualified as I have heard next to nothing post-_Afterburner_, but had I done so I still suspect this list wouldn't have changed much...

_Waitin' for the Bus_
_Jesus Just Left Chicago_
_Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers_
_La Grange_
_Mexican Blackbird_
_Tush_
_Arrested for Driving While Blind_
_El Diablo_
_I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide_
_Cheap Sunglasses_
_Tube Snake Boogie_
_Sharp Dressed Man_

The decision to sanction the crappy 80s remixes is as bamboozling now as it was then - it was obvious that few were going to like the results and it immediately took away all the timeless raunch of the early music by making it sound dated in that vile, glassy, overblown 80s way. They eventually did good by _Tres Hombres_ and _Fandango!_ and re-released them separately, but why not the others?

Question to Starthrower - is the sound on the original (i.e pre-box set) CD releases of _Deguello_ and _El Loco_ faithful to the original vinyl albums or do they suffer as well?


----------



## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

Saw them a few times over the years. My list wouldnt be remarkably dissimilar to yours ST but I wouldnt include anything post Deguello. I disliked Eliminator and pretty much most stuff after it with the absolute pits being Afterburner and XXX for me. And yes I suffered at the hands of those terrible 1980s remixed albums. I threw my 80s cd copy of Tres Hombres in the bin years back (luckily I replaced it with box set which sounds great and how i remember it on vinyl). Tbh, i was never a massive ZZ Top fan. I much preferred Skynyrd, Allman Bros, Grinderswitch, MTB, BOA, etc.:tiphat:


----------



## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

elgars ghost said:


> Question to Starthrower - is the sound on the original (i.e pre-box set) CD releases of _Deguello_ and _El Loco_ faithful to the original vinyl albums or do they suffer as well?


I've never listened to the vinyl for those two. I love the sound of the DeGuello CD. It wasn't part of the old Six Pack box of remixes of the first five, plus El Loco. I rarely listen to El Loco so I can't really say whether the CD sounds any good. But I've read a lot of good comments on the Hoffman Forum about the Complete Studio box set.


----------



## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

> Mexican Blackbird


I listened to that one last night. I love the twangy country feel and Texas drawl!


----------



## Bwv 1080 (Dec 31, 2018)

Deguello is still my favorite album

This was a good later song






FWIW I drove out and got my COVID shot in LaGrange, first time I had actually been in the town, rather than driving by it on 71 on the way to Austin


----------



## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

From the 80s onwards I thought Frank Beard had one of the most unnecessarily large drum kits in rock. I mean, just how many drums and cymbals are you really going to need for the average ZZ Top song? And in the 80s he was playing along to a click track most of the time anyway. :lol:


----------



## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Click track blues! I'm glad they had their big success in the 80s but I rarely listen to any of their material beyond DeGuello. They played a free show here at our state fair a couple years back. I probably should have gone just to see them in person one time but I loathe big crowds and traffic so I stayed home.


----------



## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

starthrower said:


> Click track blues! I'm glad they had their big success in the 80s but I rarely listen to any of their material beyond DeGuello. They played a free show here at our state fair a couple years back. I probably should have gone just to see them in person one time but I loathe big crowds and traffic so I stayed home.


I see where you're coming from - I saw them at the Monsters of Rock Festival at Donnington Park in 1985 but had to endure the usual all-day event drawbacks - i.e. not liking anyone else on the bill, idiots throwing things at each other (someone near me was a direct hit for a bag of flour), a hell of a long walk to the khazi and back etc. - just to see them when I was on the verge of falling asleep on my feet. Loved to have seen them in the early days at a sweaty club, but I was born too late and in the wrong part of the world.


----------



## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I have their first album playing now which is pretty cool. I'd like to get that box set so I can listen to the original mix. This 1990 CD is too bright and reverb drenched. And some of the others are even worse. The drums sound like they are in a huge reverb chamber.


----------



## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

Their first three albums are white hot. It's really too bad they became a weird parodic pop cultural icon with the beards and stuff - Rio Grande Mud and Tres Hombres are about as exciting as white blues-rock can get.


----------



## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

> Their first three albums are white hot.


Those three, and DeGuello keep me satisfied. Plus a few tunes from Fandango, and Tejas.

I like this photo from the pre long beard days.


----------



## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Another old one, courtesy of the Houston Chronicle...


----------

