ZZ TOP

Formed: 1970, Houston, Texas

Members: William F. Gibbons, guitar, vocals (born Houston, Texas, 12 December 1949); Joe Michael (Dusty) Hill, bass, vocals (born, Dallas, Texas, 15 May 1949); Frank Beard, percussion (born Frankston, Texas, 11 June 1949).

Genre: Rock, Blues

Best-selling album since 1990: Rhythmeen (1996)

The trio ZZ Top is a little band with a big sound. With the same members since the band's inception in 1970, ZZ Top remains a constant in an industry fraught with change. They have broken concert attendance records, sold millions of albums, and played a presidential inaugural ball; yet the blues-rocking ZZ Top remains today what it has always been: a Texas good-time band with a sense of humor.

Texas Roots

ZZ Top formed in Houston, Texas, after guitarist and vocalist Billy Gibbons, bassist Dusty Hill, and drummer Frank Beard—all refugees from other Texas bands—decided to meet for a jam session in February 1970. The trio's first session together was a tremendous success, and they began to tour Texas, building a loyal following and gaining a reputation as a spirited boogie band that, on the strength of Gibbon's solid guitar work, could also play some serious blues.

After ZZ Top had gained some national exposure with "Francine," from their second album, Rio Grande Mud (1972), the Rolling Stones asked them to open for them on their 1972 tour. ZZ Top followed that successful tour with the release of Tres Hombres (1973), which contained their first hit, "La Grange." Based on a trademark blues riff sometimes credited to John Lee Hooker's "Boogie Chillen" but also found in a variety of blues standards, "La Grange" is arguably ZZ Top's most identifiable song.

Wherever they played, the trio seemed to embody the image of a rowdy Texas bar band. By the time they released their next album, the half-studio, half-live Fandango (1975), ZZ Top was filling sports stadiums and other large concert venues with adoring fans who could not get enough of their raucous shows. In 1976 they shared the stage with long-horned steers, bison, coyotes, and rattlesnakes as they embellished their concerts with a stronger sense of Texas. That tour, which promoted their new release, Tejas (1976), broke concert attendance records previously held by the Beatles.

ZZ Top scored another hit with the droll "Tush," from Fandango, yet another in a long stream of riffed-up basic blues. "Tush" also remains one of the band's signature songs. Its primary message, "I ain't askin' for much . . . just looking for some tush," is emblematic of the playful lyrics found in much of their music. Many of their song messages are expressed simply by their impetuous titles: "She's Got Legs," "Cheap Sunglasses," "Tube Steak Boogie," and "Jesus Just Left Chicago."

Although there has always been a glut of southern boogie bands, ZZ Top manages to rise above the pack. One of the reasons for their success is that accompanying the "don't take us too seriously" message is a rhythmically strong bottom beat and the thick, dirty guitar funk of Gibbons, one of the world's top blues guitarists. Every song contains an opportunity for him to solo, and he finds remarkable variety within the sameness of the blues structure that ZZ Top's music generally employs.

ZZ Top's success stems not only from talent but also from some clever marketing. Recognizing the potential in the growing MTV video marketplace of the early 1980s, ZZ Top used music videos to brand themselves as fun-loving, pleasure-seeking hipster icons. Each member of the band went public with a look of exceptionally long beards, Stetson hats, crisp suits, and black sunglasses. Their MTV videos were replete with over-the-top gorgeous women whose limited acting duties were focused on their lavish attentions to the band. However, unlike other rock or rap videos, the content of ZZ Top's videos seemed to convey a nonthreatening attitude toward their female subjects. They left the impression that the band simply enjoyed the girls' company and sent them off with a peck on the cheek.

Adding emphasis to ZZ Top's laissez-faire attitude was the manner in which they approached the performance of their music, seemingly playing their instruments with bemused nonchalance. This further enhanced an image of cool and helped endear them to millions of fans worldwide. ZZ Top concerts continued to fill arenas and break financial records into the new millennium.

Returning to Roots

The band entered the 1990s in a quandary. Portrayed in popular videos throughout the 1980s as a lovable cartoon of a rock band, they had begun questing for a more serious image by sporadically experimenting with various electronics such as drum machines, Moog synthesizers, and sequencers. The release of Recycler (1990) marked a firm return to the music of ZZ Top's boogie rock/blues beginnings. It is where they have remained. One song, from Recycler, "My Head's in Mississippi," pays homage to blues legend Muddy Waters. This tribute was part of a continuing effort by ZZ Top to keep Waters's music alive and to acquaint a wider audience with the roots of blues. The previous year they had visited the Mississippi childhood home of the great blues legend and obtained a plank of wood from the cabin in which Waters once lived. Gibbons arranged for it to be fashioned into a guitar that was later displayed in various cities across the country. The proceeds of that traveling exhibit were distributed to the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, Mississippi.

Throughout the 1990s ZZ Top remained a huge concert draw; their albums Antenna (1994) and Rhythmeen (1996) sold well. In 1998 they were inducted into the Music Hall of Fame. ZZ Top celebrated their thirtieth anniversary with the much-anticipated release of XXX (1999). The album is an honest return to their early work and, like Fandango, is part live, part studio. One of the four live songs is a bluesy version of Elvis Presley's "Teddy Bear," a tribute to the king of rock and roll, who influenced the lives of all three ZZ Top members. Of the eight studio songs, only "Fearless Boogie" was released as a single for radio play. The album's tour was canceled midstream in the summer of 2000 after the discovery that the band's bassist was suffering from Hepatitis C and needed to rest. The band took a hiatus until Hill recovered, and then they began a series of short tours. One of those was a European tour to fulfill a commitment to fans and promoters after the XXX tour had been canceled. In late 2002 ZZ Top was recording a soon-to-be-released album through RCA Records and planning the album's promotion with a world tour starting sometime in 2003.

ZZ Top is a remarkably consistent group whose straightforward music and lighthearted attitude have exemplified good-time rock and roll for more than thirty years. While they have managed to stay popular through innovative marketing strategies, their musicianship should not be undervalued. ZZ Top is a top-notch and well-respected blues band.

SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:

First Album (London, 1970); Rio Grande Mud (London, 1972); Tres Hombres (London, 1973); Fandango (London, 1975); Tejas (London, 1976); The Best of ZZ Top (London, 1979); Deguello (Warner Bros., 1979); El Loco (Warner Bros., 1981); Eliminator (Warner Bros., 1983); Afterburner (Warner Bros., 1985); Recycler (Warner Bros., 1990); Antenna (RCA, 1994); One Foot in the Blues (RCA, 1994); Rhythmeen (RCA, 1996); XXX (RCA, 1999).

donald lowe