Who would have thought in 1970 that a little blues band from
\nTexas would become superstars in the mid-’80s?<\/p>\n
Certainly not ZZ Top, the band who would use MTV to its maximum
\npotential to make themselves known. But in 1970, Dusty Hill, Billy
\nGibbons and Frank Beard were just young men looking at cranking out
\nsome modern blues tinged with rock. Their first effort,
\nZZ Top’s First Album<\/i>, has a few decent moments, but displays
\nnone of the sheer genius they’d use to take their careers to the
\ntop.<\/p>\n
Originally released on London Records, Warner Brothers remixed
\nall the band’s old albums just over a decade ago. (My version is on
\nthe specially marketed
\nZZ Top Six Pack<\/i>, a three-CD set I was lucky enough to snag
\nfor $25 new. Don’t ask…) But in one sense, this is the first sign
\nof trouble for this disc; I would much rather have heard the gritty
\nsound that the band was cranking out in 1970 than a
\nstudio-polished, digitally-doctored one today. This is one of the
\nrare instances I wish I had an old vinyl copy somewhere in the
\nPierce Memorial Archives.<\/p>\n
ZZ Top was still a band in its infancy back then, and the
\nsongwriting is much more simple than the numbers we’re used to
\ntoday. Cuts like “Brown Sugar” try to inject a little more than
\njust 12-bar blues, and they are enjoyable numbers. Likewise, “Goin’
\nDown To Mexico” is a shuffling piece that just rolls off the disc
\nand into the listener’s brain, refusing to move once it’s there. No
\ndoubt about it, there are some decent numbers on
\nZZ Top’s First Album<\/i> – and let’s not forget about their
\nfirst minor hit, “Backdoor Love Affair”.<\/p>\n
But the majority of the music on
\nZZ Top’s First Album<\/i> is mediocre, at best – okay for an
\noccasional listen, but not much substance to make you want to
\nreturn to this disc often. Tracks like “Neighbor, Neighbor,”
\n“Bedroom Thang” and “(Somebody Else Been) Shaking Your Tree” are
\nnothing special, and seem to be disposable – not necessarily the
\nfirst effect you want to have on people.<\/p>\n
One could argue that ZZ Top was trying too hard; I would argue
\nthe opposite way, and say that they weren’t trying hard enough. The
\noverall feel of this disc conveys a rather lazy, casual air in the
\nrecordings – and though I don’t want to accuse them of not putting
\ntheir all into this record, there’s just not a sense of urgency in
\nthe music that gives it any type of an edge. Even on their followup
\neffort
\nRio Grande Mud<\/i>, there’s more of that edge that sharpens the
\nmusic and performances… but that’s another review for another
\nday.<\/p>\n
\nZZ Top’s First Album<\/i> is not a required buy, unless you’re a
\ndiehard fan of the band who has to own everything they’ve ever
\ndone. For the rest of us, just pick up
\nThe Best Of ZZ Top<\/i> – the version that
\n
\nwasn’t<\/i>
\n<\/b> remastered, if you can find it – and enjoy “Backdoor Love
\nAffair” off that one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24745,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5723],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-35949","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-zz-top","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35949"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35949"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}