ZZ Top: C/D

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.

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.)

i never saw them live & i’m so sad about it

aw fuck, RIP

RIP Dusty
Saw them in 2019, too. 't Was a proper party

rip, what an amazing band

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.

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…

said this before upthread, but it is impossible to find footage of them playing before they committed to the look…

there’s some good early stuff in the netflix doc iirc

i just assumed these guys were immortal :(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeYILvDkJAY

No! i saw them in 2019 too - whole audience was going batshit from start to finish.

also felt they were immortal.

:(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eSKairBKzc

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/zz-top-dusty-hill-stomach-shot/

Hill acquired his bullet wound on Dec. 16, 1984, in an embarrassing mishap that started when his girlfriend went to pull off his boot and his derringer dropped out, discharging in the fall and hitting him in the abdomen.

...

"My first reaction was: ‘Shit!’ And then ‘Ouch.’ I couldn’t believe I’d done something so stupid. To this day, I don’t know how I could do it," he shrugged. "But I didn’t really feel anything at the time. All I knew was that I had to get myself to a hospital straight away, so I got in the car and drove there. It was only when I arrived at the hospital that the seriousness of what I’d done hit me, and I went into shock."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V9m_sEDzJw

that shit is amazing, Steveolende! thank you mucho!

feel like pure shit, got this on repeat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGW4qMUysAQ

Aw man, RIP. I'll admit that it took me a long time to come around on these guys. Being ages 7 and 8 during the omnipresent Eliminator and MTV years meant first exposed to a version that I never really "got" and dismissed as a "flashy video" band. Wasn't until I finally heard Tres Hombres many years later that their particular brand of genius clicked.

I got that box set thing for Xmas about 10 years ago. Pretty great. Wanted to check out the early stuff after hearing them cited by Both Black Flag and Rapeman so took me rather too long to get around to it.
BUt yeah fine band

Chrome Smoke & BBQ box playing loud in my home office right now

sending em up to Dusty

RIP to a great bassist, what a great band, great rhythm section, everything about ZZ Top is an absolute inspiration. Those 70s records are as good as rock music gets.

amen

He was one of those "secondary vocalists" who always provide a lift when they take over the mic.

Adding as well that the fact Billy has publicly raved about Depeche and OMD helping them connect with the 80s and beyond, well there ya go. https://t.co/y8XxgeqXuA

— Ned Raggett (@NedRaggett) July 28, 2021

In addition to being early adopters of label-mates Prince and the B-52's.

I also recall somewhere Gibbons mentioned how OMD introduced them to the Fairlight when they were both booked on a TV show.

Loved Devo, too — they were definitely pretty wide open to a lot of different stuff, which is commendable.

More from OMD

Very sad news. Very different musical genre but we have such fond memories of our first Old Grey Whistle Test with them and they told us that we influenced their guitar moves in the 80’s electro boogie videos.

RIP Dusty https://t.co/RY7yTO1CE8

— Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (@OfficialOMD) July 28, 2021

Oh wow, their first domestic network TV performance on Carson from '86, with
the still-alive Doc Severinsen and Tonight Show horn section sitting in!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eibFiNSZEC8

my first memory of the top came during their super bowl halftime performance, when they drove out onto the field in their eliminator car with their beards and performed with james brown (and, ahem, the blues brothers). how could you forget that?

oh shit

I completely forgot that came as late as 1997. If you'd have asked me this morning I would have sworn that was 1992 at the latest.

their first domestic network TV performance on Carson from '86

that is wild!!

(86 being their first but also Doc’s beard lol)

Their manager Bill Ham kept tight reigns on them to preserve the 'mystique'. They didn't do proper TV until their first European tours in '79-'80.

On The Test in '80:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPzYwp8DNuU

RIP Dusty Hill of ZZ Top.
You’ll be remembered best for pulling pranks on your cousin Hank. pic.twitter.com/Yemn692FyG

— ORANGE CRUSH (@orangecrushart) July 28, 2021

Crazy to think that he was probably a better singer than Gibbons. The three of them really were about as perfectly matched a trio as there's ever been.

Their manager Bill Ham kept tight reigns on them to preserve the 'mystique'. They didn't do proper TV until their first European tours in '79-'80.

More 1980 goodness, this time in Germany. Come for the "Fool For Your Stockings" and stay for Billy's sermonizing & a roughhousing of "Nasty Dogs and Funky Kings".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wT3Kh-GgMbU

Goddamnit fucking all to hell, RIP. My dad taught me about obsessive music fandom through his love for ZZ Top, they were a staple of so many road trips, bar trips, and conversation.

My kneejerk reaction track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBphGUNRZx8

I can’t find a clip but during the mid-80s I recall a short MTV news segment showing ZZ playing at some outdoor or rooftop event & covering “Mr. Tambourine Man” with Dusty on lead. Could be faulty memory but decades later I still recall how startlingly great it was - especially with Dusty/Billy harmonies.

Lovely story, hope it’s set to public

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10159368670241136&id=545041135&_rdr#!/story.php?story_fbid=10158888724166208&id=584631207

I once had the most perfect exchange with ZZ Top’ Dusty Hill on the @CMT Awards/Nashville red carpet.
And I mean…perfect. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/ldjukcodo5

— Suzanne Durham (@jeezusmaryandjo) July 28, 2021

Great stories.

blasting Fandango and really appreciating all these posts, thanks everyone

feeling this rn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3OWtGybPlo

dude: she’s probably thinking about other men

me: I just don’t get how ZZ Top wrote such a sexy song about frozen food

— Cat Jones (@catjonessoda) December 23, 2020

lmao

That version of Cheap Sunglasses on the Old Grey Whistle test vid posted above is straight fire