ZZ Top - Rancho Texicano: The Very Best of ZZ Top
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Free Music Notes for Rancho Texicano: The Very Best of ZZ Top
Free Music Review: Where to begin?
Hit: 5 Stars
I first took notice of ZZ Top just a couple years ago. A country music fan for sixteen years (all my life, up to that point), I jumped at a new album that came out: SHARP DRESSED MEN, a tribute to a band called ZZ Top. I bought the album, enjoyed the songs...bought ZZ Top's GREATEST HITS...and became a fan.I'm from Central Illinois. Every now and then, I get a little notice of the music that goes on in Texas. Now, I can't begin to touch the entire iceberg (let's face it, I'm from a rural farming county), or even get ahold of it's tip. I know I'm not a thirty-five year ZZ Top fan. But that doesn't mean I don't like these guys, or respect the awesome talent they have.
RANCHO TEXICANO collects some incredible tunes (what I'm guessing is ZZ Top's best). From the haunting blues (evident throughout the album, really) of "Brown Sugar" and "Just Got Paid" and "Blue Jean Blues," to the sexually charged "La Grange," "I Thank You," "Tush," "Legs" (oh, what a classic that one is!), and "Tube Snake Boogie," these songs are classic rock n rollers with a mix of everything else. You want trend-setting rockers? How about "Francene," "Heard It on the X," "Cheap Sunglasses," "Gimme All Your Lovin," and "Velcro Fly" (this last one got immortalized in Stephen King's epic novel, "The Wastelands").
Well, let's face it: you know who ZZ Top is. Maybe you aren't as familiar with their music as you want to be (or should be), but you know the name and you know the look. They're icons--and that's a lot to be said for three guys who just play their simple rock/blues songs. Whether you like rock, punk, pop, country, or blues, ZZ Top has something for you--probably because they started the damned thing! Buy RANCHO TEXICANO, give it a listen, and then look me in the eye and say that ZZ Top isn't one of the best bands out there. If you can do it, I'll personally refund your expenses.
Free Music Review: Four Flat Tires on A Muddy Road
Hit: 5 Stars
Ladies and Gentlemen,I am just a simple rancher from South Texas,who was raised
on Padre Island...Bob Hall Pier and Mustang Island, down
around Corpus Christi,Texas.I was a high school student at
Mary Carroll High School during the late 1970's...1978 was
my graduating year.Music was so different back then,what War,Heart,Led Zeppelin,Lynard Skynard,Eric Clapton,George Harr-
ison,Little Feat,Santana,The Allman Brothers,The Doobie Brothers
,Pink Floyd,The Eagles,and besides ZZ Top,my other favorite
Band...Steely Dan.....we certainly had no shortage of great
talent....and there were many,many more great acts touring back
then.
Now,the meat and potatoes of my short essay on The ZZ Top...
It's very simple folks....in 1969,3 young Texas guys met in a
small studio,and all of our lives were changed forever.Thirty
Five years of recording and performing,and nary a complaint
from this Texas Trio.Billy Gibbons on Guitar,Dusty Hill on Bass
,and Drummer Frank Beard have just finished 35 years on the
road baby.Not until there 2003 tour,did they not have the same
three guys...Frank had surgery,and missed 2 weeks;however,his
drum technician was waiting in the wings,and they never missed
a beat.My title reference refers to a question concerning the
tone that ZZ Top was going for during the Tejas and Deguello
sessions..."4 flat tires on a muddy road " was the answer Billy
Gibbons gave.I recommend that you buy Rancho Texicano this
morning,and if you're smart,you'll buy a backup package...the
same way you buy insurance...Do you want to Blow your Top?
Free Music Review: same thing as chrome, smoke and bbq
Hit: 3 Stars
unless rhino is going to put out the zz top catalog in the near future remastered with original mixes unlike the six pack collection, this set was a waste of time. everything that's on here is on the box set. most die hard fans have already bought the box set and it's four disc so more for your money. i guess if you didn't buy the box set yet this would be the way to go but, most people do have it.Free Music Review: Halfway to greatness
Hit: 4 Stars
Disc ONE of Rancho Texicano is the ZZ Top collection I have been waiting to materialize for years. FINALY, a truly definitive gathering of the essential ZZ Top from the Warner Brothers years when Billy Gibbons played good raunchy blues guitar straight up... no synths, no drum machines, no distortion pedals. And while there remain arguments over content ["Manic Mechanic" over "Thunderbird" for one, no "Heaven, Hell or Houston"], it touches on ZZ Top as they were: a dirty, gritty blues band with a great sense of humor, long before they became cartoon characters with long beards passing out the keys that magically turned boys into chick magnets. From the chug of "Brown Sugar" [not in any way, shape or form the Stones song], to the stinging blues of "Just Got Back from Baby's", [blues guitar extraordinare that one Eric Clapton could only dream of these days] to the great riffing on "Just Got Paid", with itss Johhny Winter inspired slide work [and its sped up cousin "Heard It on the X"] to the Stones meets Johhny Winter of "Francene" to the twin kill of "Waitin for the Bus/ Jesus Just Left Chicago" to the slow Peter Green/ Fleetwood Mac inspired minor key blues [think "Love That Burns" and "Looking for Somebody"] "Blue Jean Blues" to the back beat driven, tongue in cheek of "Im Bad, Im Nationwide" and "A Fool for Your Stockings" and the funky cool of Isaac Hayes and David Porter's "I Thank You" to the crowning song of the great Deguello, "Cheap Sunglasses", it?s 75 minutes of almost totally essential ZZ Top.
Disc two however is a collection of after the fall ZZ Top. The over the Top innuendo of "Tube Snake Boogie" and "Pearl Necklace" leading into the mega-platinum MTV success years of Eliminator and Afterburner. Taken on its own, ELIMINATOR remains an album of great songs, though every song here [and from AFTERBURNER, except the ballad "Rough Boy"] is driven by a four-on-the-floor dance beat: thump-thump-thump-thump and guitars with enough distortion to make one think he is listening to a Ratt record. Not the natural distortion of a guitar and a Marshall stack turned up to ten, but the unnatural big fuzz of 80s hair bands? which in effect ZZ Top was except their hair was hanging down from their chins. The two tracks from RECYCLER, "Double Back" [which did double duty in one of the Back to the Future films too, I think] and "My Heads in Mississippi" are better, leaning back but not returning to their roots, but the inclusion of the terrible "Viva Las Vegas" and a 12" mix of 'Velcro Fly' leave me scratching my head. NOTHING else deserved to be on this collection, like "Dirty Dog", "TV Dinners" or "Bad Girl" from ELIMINATOR? We're not talking about a criminal offense here for NOT including these; not like X leaving the 12" of "Wild Thing" off their BEYOND AND BACK collection. The inclusion of the promo only live take of "Cheap Sunglasses" takes me further back to the days of real radio, Q102 in Dallas played it a lot, back when there was real Album Oriented Radio [AOR]. [Ask your parents if you don?t remember.]
Overall? Four and a half for Disc One, a GENEROUS Three and a Half for Disc Two, FOUR Les Pauls!
Free Music Review: This is "ZZ's Top's".
Hit: 4 Stars
Well if the "Best Of" and "Greatest Hits" weren't enough for you, here's the 2-disc "Very Best Of". 38 tracks including most everything you could want from these three Texans. Sure there's a few missing still, but this does include "La Grange", "Tush", "Gimme All Your Lovin'", and "Legs". As far as I can tell, all the big hits are present, making the casual fan happy, if not the fanatic. Actually I think this is a bit much for alot of people, and some others probably have most of this anyway. So, I guess you just have to decide what you want, the hits, or the best? Of course I'd take either one over a "Pearl Necklace".