ZZ Top

I know, I know, when I say “ZZ Top,” you’re thinking about dudes in matching suits and beards and sunglasses, you’re thinking about cheesy video clips with fast cars and loose women, you’re thinking “Gimme All Your Lovin’” and “Legs” and “Viva Las Vegas” and maybe “Tush”... But before the commercial success of their radio friendly hard rock, ZZ Top were accomplished Texas blues rockers, in league with fellow Southerners Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Marshal Trucker Band. If you like your blues hard with a Spanish tinge, their first three albums are sure worth your money.

I only recently became aware I’m actually quite partial to Rio Grande Mud (1972) and Tres Hombres (1973). They may not be Southern blues jammers like The Allman Brothers Band, but then who is? “Just Got Back from Baby’s” and “Backdoor Love Affair” are hard rockin’ Southern blues tunes from their First Album (1971). “Francine” could almost have been a lick by the Stones of the Mick Taylor era. In my book, “Just Got Paid” and “Waitin’ for the Bus” are the kind of rockin’ stomps that earn ZZ Top a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, with great slide guitar and blues harp respectively. “Jesus Just Left Chicago” is a true tribute to the electric blues of Muddy Waters. Even by the time of Degüello (1979) they could still come up with gems like “A Fool for Your Stockings,” with its hard thumbing bass line and razor sharp licks. Let’s not forget “La Grange,” of course, the one-chord “How howhow how” blues tune ripped straight off John Lee Hooker’s “Boogie Chillen.” And then there’s the rowdy “Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers,” which Motörhead covered so well early in their career. Check ‘em out!