Topper Headon was a junkie too
― Saxophone Of Futility (Michael B), Monday, 9 March 2020 17:54 (four years ago) link
It is kind of fascinating. There have been plenty of junkies in rock and jazz, but weirdly it doesn't seem to significantly impair performance the way, say, alcohol does.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 9 March 2020 18:07 (four years ago) link
as long as you practice high, you can play high.
― ooga booga-ing for the bourgeoisie (voodoo chili), Monday, 9 March 2020 18:15 (four years ago) link
ah so it's about continuity of condition
― justice 4 CCR (Sparkle Motion), Monday, 9 March 2020 18:20 (four years ago) link
"You know why so many drunk drivers get in wrecks? Because they don't *learn* to drive drunk!”
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 9 March 2020 18:27 (four years ago) link
the stakes are slightly higher in that situation
― ooga booga-ing for the bourgeoisie (voodoo chili), Monday, 9 March 2020 18:30 (four years ago) link
forgive the pun
yeah I’ve always wondered about being a functioning junkie at that level, like Frank or Topper. the muscle-memory thing never occurred to me
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 9 March 2020 18:57 (four years ago) link
did they go into how much on Eliminator and Afterburner *is* Frank Beard and how much is drum machines?
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 9 March 2020 19:16 (four years ago) link
I don't think they even say the words "drum machine."
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 9 March 2020 19:17 (four years ago) link
they don't!
― Οὖτις, Monday, 9 March 2020 19:18 (four years ago) link
hmmm
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 9 March 2020 19:35 (four years ago) link
did they talk about how funny it is that the guy named beard is the one who doesn't have one?
― ooga booga-ing for the bourgeoisie (voodoo chili), Monday, 9 March 2020 19:40 (four years ago) link
Yes!
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 9 March 2020 19:40 (four years ago) link
they discuss it at some length
― Οὖτις, Monday, 9 March 2020 19:43 (four years ago) link
It is weird how some people keep functioning so well (musically, anyway) on smack, Bird being one of the most notorious examples, although he did eventually have that studio breakdown, during "The Lover Man" sessions, "The Gypsy" ("I want to believe the gypsy") etc---then he came back, commemorating (though not remaining faithful to) his rehab, in "Relaxin' At Camarilo."
Sturgill's latest has some ZZ appeal---my Rolling Country 2019/Nashville Scene ballot comments:i'm a sucker for gleaming pop-country, sez a fellow Marenite. Wal now, have you heard Sturgill's Sound and Fury yet? I just did, and right off, seems like this ZZ Rex electro-pop-boogie, sometimes also reminding me of Neil and the Trans Band (more the show tapes than studio album), might suit you too. It's much less soapbox ranty than I feared---and the non-pedantic retro detailing, commercial inclusiveness x righteous fencepost grievances x deserty-hot-cold broodiness, also that voice, keep it all country or countryoid. Also 'ppreciate how he keeps twisting the dial into another track at just the right moment, or close enough. It's another hard candy Christmas alright.
― dow, Monday, 9 March 2020 19:44 (four years ago) link
xp i figured they would!
― ooga booga-ing for the bourgeoisie (voodoo chili), Monday, 9 March 2020 19:48 (four years ago) link
I've always wondered how much (if any) of the switch to drum machines/synths/triggers was driven by Beard's drum problem & if there were any reliability issues, cuz he may have cleaned up but he's clearly not the drummer he was in the 70s by the time the 80s come around, but also something obv happens and it is more like Billy's solo project then a band by then
I saw them this past summer and it was a lot of fun and there were still moments of greatness, Dusty basically holds the whole thing together playing & singing wise, though if you told me there was loads of offstage triggers and synths helping it along I would not have been surprised.
― chr1sb3singer, Monday, 9 March 2020 20:55 (four years ago) link
"drug" problem not drum problem
no drum problems here lol
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 9 March 2020 20:57 (four years ago) link
idk drums are still tight as hell on Deguello and Tejas imo
xps
― Οὖτις, Monday, 9 March 2020 21:00 (four years ago) link
Those are late 70s though!
― A perfect transcript of a routine post (Dan Peterson), Monday, 9 March 2020 21:04 (four years ago) link
I saw them in a small club a while back, and even up close I couldn't quite tell how three people were putting out all that sound, so prolly at least a little hamburger helper, if you follow.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 9 March 2020 21:06 (four years ago) link
right, according to the doc Beard cleaned up in '76, after the worldwide texas tour
― Οὖτις, Monday, 9 March 2020 21:06 (four years ago) link
I saw them last summer (chris were you at MN State Fair too?) and I'm real sure there were drum triggers and samples.
― A perfect transcript of a routine post (Dan Peterson), Monday, 9 March 2020 21:08 (four years ago) link
This is a clip from their DVD Live From Texas, which was recorded in 2007. I saw them at the Beacon Theater in NYC on this same tour. He might be using triggers to give the kit an extra whoomp, but he's definitely playing, and not to a click track. Frank Beard can swing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sxE-jS9LP4
― but also fuck you (unperson), Monday, 9 March 2020 21:08 (four years ago) link
Honestly, I'm more curious how Gibbons gets his sound, since there are no pedals visible onstage. Who's dialing him in, and from where?
― but also fuck you (unperson), Monday, 9 March 2020 21:10 (four years ago) link
I saw them last summer (chris were you at MN State Fair too?) and I'm real sure there were drum triggers and samples.― A perfect transcript of a routine post (Dan Peterson), Monday, 9 March 2020 21:08 (five minutes ago) link
Yup, and I would have probably assumed that anyway, but it was especially clear after Cheap Trick who were very clearly not using any triggers or samples and whose extra musicians were all out front onstage
― chr1sb3singer, Monday, 9 March 2020 21:18 (four years ago) link
As of 2015 (there are some rig rundowns on YT from earlier tours) it looks like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1x_kg6pOvGU
― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 9 March 2020 21:20 (four years ago) link
So this is coming to my town soon.
https://i.imgur.com/b8Xt0hr.jpg
― pplains, Monday, 9 March 2020 21:37 (four years ago) link
xpost This might be in there, but I thought Gibbons famously went through some tiny old amp, and the big amps were for show.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 9 March 2020 21:58 (four years ago) link
I recently watched the doc directed by that credulous Canadian dweeb behind the Metal doc series that was constantly on VH1 Classic re: the lil ole band… and it made me realize that I had never seen footage of the band before Billy and Dusty committed to the look…I could not find any last night…has anybody ever seen footage of the band as such?
it really is quite something that those guys have never wavered w/r/t to the look one bit… like, Dusty was always gonna end up looking like a tree stump no matter what, but Billy was quite strikingly handsome in the Moving Sidewalks era going into the early Top time, all the way up to growing a modest beard and wearing those tailored cowboy outfits… have those guys had any children, like acknowledged children, that anyone knows about?
― veronica moser, Sunday, 12 April 2020 22:00 (four years ago) link
I been up, I been down.Take my word, my way around.I ain't askin' for much.I said, Lord, take me downtown,I'm just lookin' for some tush.I been bad, I been good,Dallas, Texas, Hollywood.I ain't askin' for much.I said, Lord, take me downtown,I'm just lookin' for some tush.Take me back way back home,not by myself, not alone.I ain't askin' for much.I said, Lord, take me downtown,I'm just lookin' for some tush.- Frank Beard, Bill Gibbons & Dusty Hill― Keith Connelly, Saturday, March 6, 2004 11:36 PM (sixteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink
Take me back way back home,not by myself, not alone.I ain't askin' for much.I said, Lord, take me downtown,I'm just lookin' for some tush.
- Frank Beard, Bill Gibbons & Dusty Hill
― Keith Connelly, Saturday, March 6, 2004 11:36 PM (sixteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink
Keith Connelly 16 years ago tom
when I was a miserable 19 y.o. goth I happened to get a KTEL compilation somehow amongst my record collection and one wasted morning I listened to it and had this huge pop revelation which consisted of how fuckin bomb 1) this song was and 2) robert palmer's "bad case of loving you" was
― she carries a torch. two torches, actually (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Sunday, 12 April 2020 22:09 (four years ago) link
Dusty Hill's cousin Hank Hill is known.
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/kingofthehill/images/a/a2/Koththth.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/340?cb=20101220025650
― earlnash, Sunday, 12 April 2020 22:11 (four years ago) link
I don't know if there's any early footage of. Part of Bill Ham's mystique-building was they wouldn't do TV, so there isn't, you know, any clips of them on Midnight Special or Don Kirshner. This was only broken once they finally played Europe during the Deguello tour, when they appeared on The Whistle Test and Beat Club/Musikladen (which is where they great Live Europe release came from).
I also imagine any fan-shot footage is pretty thin on the ground. That Moving Sidewalks footage in the film was dope tho.
― "...And the Gods Socially Distanced" (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 12 April 2020 22:11 (four years ago) link
"I don't know if there's any early footage of the Hem out there." Even.
― "...And the Gods Socially Distanced" (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 12 April 2020 22:12 (four years ago) link
Stupid phone.
― "...And the Gods Socially Distanced" (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 12 April 2020 22:13 (four years ago) link
"We are saddened by the news today that our Compadre, Dusty Hill, has passed away in his sleep at home in Houston, TX. We, along with legions of ZZ Top fans around the world, will miss your steadfast presence, your good nature and enduring commitment to providing that monumental bottom to the ‘Top'. We will forever be connected to that "Blues Shuffle in C.”
You will be missed greatly, amigo.
Frank & Billy
― mark e, Wednesday, 28 July 2021 18:36 (two years ago) link
aw man. RIP Dusty <3
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 28 July 2021 18:44 (two years ago) link
Went to Austin for the weekend. Pausing on the way home in La Grange, I took the time to play the song there.
https://societyofrock.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/maxresdefault-8-735x413.jpg
― “Heroin” (ft. Bobby Gillespie) (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 28 July 2021 18:53 (two years ago) link
So glad I got to see these guys live. Their catalog is so ridiculously strong; I'm even willing to give the RCA albums another shot at this point.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Wednesday, 28 July 2021 18:57 (two years ago) link
If anyone would have told punk rock me in 1980 that they'd be one of my favorite bands forty years later I wouldn't have believed it. Something made me feel it was urgent and key to go see them play my state fair in 2019, I'm so glad now that I did. RIP.
(And I love Antenna and Rhythmeen, guitar tones are insane.)
― Three Rings for the Elven Bishop (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 28 July 2021 18:59 (two years ago) link
i never saw them live & i’m so sad about it
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 28 July 2021 19:03 (two years ago) link
aw fuck, RIP
― sleeve, Wednesday, 28 July 2021 19:04 (two years ago) link
RIP DustySaw them in 2019, too. 't Was a proper party
― willem, Wednesday, 28 July 2021 19:07 (two years ago) link
rip, what an amazing band
― bezos did the dub (voodoo chili), Wednesday, 28 July 2021 19:19 (two years ago) link
Told this story before, but my parents saw them in '71, as the opening act for Smith (of "Baby It's You" fame), and picked up ZZ Top's First Album on vinyl at the merch stand.
― “Heroin” (ft. Bobby Gillespie) (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 28 July 2021 19:19 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISveIzgq_kQ
never saw 'em either! fuck! I love that they trade off verses on the above, as well as his monstrous, mammoth cave-deep tone…
So now U2 is the major act that has gone the longest with no lineup changes…
― veronica moser, Wednesday, 28 July 2021 19:20 (two years ago) link
said this before upthread, but it is impossible to find footage of them playing before they committed to the look…
― veronica moser, Wednesday, 28 July 2021 19:23 (two years ago) link
there’s some good early stuff in the netflix doc iirc
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 28 July 2021 19:24 (two years ago) link