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| ZZ Top - Gimme All Your lovin (music video) |
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ZZ Top website Links
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BIO - ZZ Top
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| This sturdy American blues-rock trio from Texas consists
of Billy Gibbons (guitar), Dusty Hill (bass), and Frank
Beard (drums). They were formed in 1970 in and around
Houston from rival bands the Moving Sidewalks (Gibbons)
and the American Blues (Hill and Beard). Their first two
albums reflected the strong blues roots and Texas humor
of the band. Their third album (Tres Hombres) gained them
national attention with the hit "La Grange," a signature
riff tune to this day, based on John Lee Hooker's "Boogie
Chillen." Their success continued unabated throughout
the '70s, culminating with the year-and-a-half-long Worldwide
Texas Tour. Exhausted from the overwhelming work load,
they took a three-year break, then switched labels and
returned to form with Deguello and El Loco, both harbingers
of what was to come. By their next album, Eliminator,
and its worldwide smash follow-up, Afterburner, they had
successfully harnessed the potential of synthesizers to
their patented grungy blues-groove, giving their material
a more contemporary edge while retaining their patented
Texas style. Now sporting long beards, golf hats, and
boiler suits, they met the emerging video age head-on,
reducing their "message" to simple iconography. Becoming
even more popular in the long run, they moved with the
times while simultaneously bucking every trend that crossed
their path. Formed in Houston, Texas, USA, in 1970, ZZ
Top evolved out of the city's psychedelic scene and consist
of Billy Gibbons (b. 16 December 1949, Houston, Texas,
USA; guitar, vocals, ex-Moving Sidewalks), Dusty Hill
(b. Joe Hill, 19 May 1949, Dallas, Texas, USA; bass, vocals)
and Frank Beard (b. 11 June 1949, Frankston, Texas, USA;
drums), the last two both ex-American Blues. ZZ Top's
original line-up - Gibbons, Lanier Greig (bass) and Dan
Mitchell (drums) - was also the final version of the Moving
Sidewalks. This initial trio completed ZZ Top's debut
single, "Salt Lick", before Greig was fired. He was replaced
by Bill Ethridge. Mitchell was then replaced by Frank
Beard while Dusty Hill subsequently joined in place of
Ethridge. Initially ZZ Top joined a growing swell of southern
boogie bands and started a constant round of touring,
building up a strong following. Their debut album, while
betraying a healthy interest in blues, was firmly within
this genre, but Rio Grande Mud indicated a greater flexibility.
It included the rousing "Francene" which, although indebted
to the Rolling Stones, gave the trio their first hit and
introduced them to a much wider audience. Their third
album, Tres Hombres, was a powerful, exciting set that
drew from delta music and high-energy rock. It featured
the band's first national Top 50 hit with "La Grange'
and was their first platinum album. The trio's natural
ease was highly affecting and Gibbons" startling guitar
work was rarely bettered during these times. In 1974,
the band's first annual "Texas-Size Rompin' Stompin' Barndance
And Bar-B-Q" was held at the Memorial Stadium at the University
Of Texas. 85,000 people attended: the crowds were so large
that the University declined to hold any rock concerts,
and it was another 20 years before they resumed. However,
successive album releases failed to attain the same high
standard and ZZ Top took an extended vacation following
their expansive 1976/7 tour. After non-stop touring for
a number of years the band needed a rest. Other reasons,
however, were not solely artistic, as the trio now wished
to secure a more beneficial recording contract. |
| They resumed their career in 1979 with the superb Deguello,
by which time both Gibbons and Hill had grown lengthy
beards (without each other knowing!). Revitalized by their
break, the trio offered a series of pulsating original
songs on Deguello as well as inspired recreations of Sam
And Dave's "I Thank You" and Elmore James' "Dust My Broom".
The transitional El Loco followed in 1981 and although
it lacked the punch of its predecessor, preferring the
surreal to the celebratory, the set introduced the growing
love of technology that marked the trio's subsequent releases.
Eliminator deservedly became ZZ Top's bestselling album
(10 million copies in the USA by 1996). Fuelled by a series
of memorable, tongue-in-cheek videos, it provided several
international hit singles, including the million-selling
"Gimme All Your Lovin". "Sharp Dressed Man" and "Legs"
were also gloriously simple yet enormously infectious
songs. The trio skillfully wedded computer-age technology
to their barrelhouse R&B to create a truly memorable set
that established them as one of the world's leading live
attractions. The follow-up, Afterburner, was another strong
album, although it could not match the sales of the former.
It did feature some excellent individual moments in "Sleeping
Bag" and "Rough Boy", and the cleverly titled "Velcro
Fly'. ZZ Top undertook another lengthy break before returning
with the impressive Recycler. Other notable appearances
in 1990 included a cameo, playing themselves, in Back
To The Future III. In 1991 a greatest hits compilation
was issued and a new recording contract was signed the
following year, with BMG Records. The band's studio work
during this decade failed to match the commercial and
critical success of the 80s, although 1996's Rhythmeen
demonstrated a willingness to experiment with their trademark
sound. The trio celebrated three decades playing music
together on 1999"s XXX. The following year Hill was diagnosed
with hepatitis C, forcing the band to cancel a planned
tour. Over the years, one of ZZ Top's greatest strengths
has been their consistently high-standard live presentation
and performance on numerous record-breaking (financially)
tours in the USA. One of rock's maverick attractions,
Gibbons, Hill and Beard have retained their eccentric,
colorful image, dark glasses and Stetson hats, complete
with an almost casual musical dexterity that has won over
hardened cynics and carping critics. In addition to having
produced a fine (but sparse) canon of work, they will
also stay in the record books as having the longest beards
in musical history (although one member, the inappropriately
named Frank Beard, is clean-shaven). Whether by design
or chance, they are doomed to end every music encyclopedia.
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