La futura --- ZZ Top --- 2012 (American Recordings)
To most people there are two ZZ Tops. Well, that's not exactly accurate. Let's start again. To most people, there is the ZZ Top who wrote such hits as “Legs” and “Gimme all your lovin'”, and pretty much faded away after the initial buzz had faded and the hipsters moved on to the next big thing. They will forever be (I'm sure to their considerable delight) linked with videos of sexy girls in short skirts, which was, let's be honest, their window to mainstream success in the early eighties. I mean, these are great songs, but you ask any man (I specify man, not woman) in the street what they remember about them, and nine out of ten are going to grin and mention the women. Some will remember the tunes, yes, but all will remember the girls. I know I do. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but once a band establishes a pattern for their videos, people expect it, and if they don't get it then the next single may not do as well, or even chart. Madness were known for their comedic videos, and when they stopped doing them and tried to be taken more seriously --- that ship had already sailed --- people just weren't as interested.
I'm reminded of Bart Simpson in the episode where he finds fame as the “I didn't do it boy”. Tired of milking the one phrase and desperate to be taken seriously, he goes on a talk show and tries to talk about the rainforests, but all they want to hear is the phrase. The public want what the public gets, as Paul Weller once caustically wrote. Or to put it another way, who would you rather see: the terrifying, all-powerful Oz, or the diminutive, somewhat scatterbrained old man behind the curtain? Often, it's the spectacle we crave, not what lies beneath. Style over substance.
None of which is ZZ's fault. They got great mileage (geddit?) out of those videos, but predictably their next album, though successful, was not the monster that “Eliminator” was. Ask anyone who's not a fan to name a ZZ track, I guarantee you next month's wages (I'm not working, but that's beside the point!) that they'll reel off one, two or three of those hit singles and not know one other. I'm no huge fan, but I can point to “Tush”, “Cheap sunglasses”, “Rough boy” and others. That doesn't qualify me as being more into ZZ Top than the chart-buying public, but I do know some things about the band that they don't.
Of course, real fans will talk about “Tres hombres”, “Deguello” and “Rio Grande mud”, perhaps even their album prior to this, “Mescalero”. I don't claim to know these albums, though I did come across a few of them when looking through record bins. I always put them back, thinking they looked boring. Hey, I was young once you know! But it's been twenty-nine years since “Eliminator”, and even nine years since “Mescalero”, and you have to wonder, are the tres hombres still relevant? Does it matter? More to the point, is this a good album?
Well, first let me disabuse you of any notions of an almost-thirtieth-anniversary “Eliminator”, because this album is nothing like their most famous one. If anything, it would seem to be a return to the blues rock of albums like “Tejas” and “Fandango!”, or that's what I think. You won't get any big commercial pop hits here: there are no drum machines, no synthesisers (though Billy does play piano) and no dancefloor fillers. What there is, is that old style Texas blues and southern rock they were once famous for. No real attempts to bust open the charts again; they've been there, done that. This is ZZ playing how they want to, and if the world don't like it they can just spin on this middle finger.
They set their stall out from the off with “Gotsta get paid”, a big growling guitar from Billy and heavy drumming from Frank Beard, Billy's gruff and instantly recognisable vocals cutting through the music like a Texas longhorn. Squealing guitar and thumping bass are the order of the day, and not a sexy model in sight! Well, okay, there are, but they're not driving the song, and they're only featured sporadically in the video. As for the music, hombre? It's downhome, it's dirty, it's raw, it's ZZ as they used to be, and it certainly makes an impression. Apparently it's, at least in part, a cover of a rap song called “25 lighters”? Fraid ya got me there, but so spake Wiki. “Chartreuse” hits right in as the opener cuts off abruptly, and we're into a big striding boogie rocker, with a lovely walking bassline from Dusty Hill, and almost on the very same melody “Consumption” piles in, boogeyin' on down the road. It's actually quite scary how similar these two songs are; they could almost be two parts of a suite. If ZZ did suites. Which they don't. Unless they're in the Rio Grande Hilton, I guess.
This one features a superb twelve-bar blues on the guitar from Billy, though I have to say so far I ain't heard nuttin' from that there pianner! Never mind, here comes the ballad. It's a lovely, slow, swaying piece driven by a soulful guitar line with Billy finally tickling those ivories, and it's impressive how he can be roaring and growling about booze and women one moment, and the next so sensitive and vulnerable, like a broken man crying into his whiskey. Kind of sounds like Tom Waits singing a ballad: although it somehow doesn't seem right, it somehow does. Great emotional guitar solo, while Frank and Dusty hold the line like comrades that have Billy's back, always. A song about realising it's finally over, and getting on with your life, it's a sobering piece of work and just really bookends the heavier, rockier tracks well.
Speaking of those, “Heartache in blue” gets back to the grind, more dirty guitar and although it's slower than what's gone before it's not a ballad, with some fine harmonica from James Harman which really adds to the rough, raw Chicago blues feel of the song, with some pained backing vocals from Dusty. Brilliant duet between the harmonica and guitar near the end, then the oddly-titled “I don't wanna lose, lose, you” is another hard rocker, with breakout guitar from Gibbons, and a real flavour of toolin' down the road on a hog, after which they take off on “Flyin' high”, upping the tempo a little, though there's nothing breakneck about this album. It's all hard, tough but grounded southern rock/blues, swaggering rather than running, reaching the same destination by a different route.
I have to say, the cover of the album is odd: the guys (two of them, anyway) look more like Jewish rabbis than bearded Texans! Course, we're used to the bearded image of ZZ, but that particular silhouette? Nah, doesn't do it for me. Still, it's not what's on the cover that's important, and if you're a ZZ fan you're gonna buy the album no matter what's on the sleeve. Big heavy grinder as the boys fall back to earth with a bump for “It's too easy manana”, which I think is a cover of a bluegrass song by David Rawlings and Gillian Welch, who popped up somewhere ... where was it? Oh yeah: my review of Mark Knopfler's “Sailing to Philadelphia”. More great guitar work from Billy G, and it's a powerful, intense song delivered with real conviction, almost a Lynyrd Skynyrd feel about it.
ZZ has always been Billy's band. He was the founder, and he writes most if not all of the songs, plays the guitar, sings and, as mentioned, at least here plays piano too. As if that wasn't enough, he also produces the album. But that's not to say that Frank and Dusty are just along for the ride, far from it. However, as with many big bands, there's one big personality that stands proud to the foreground, and here that's Mister Billy Gibbons. “Big shiny nine” is one of those, I think, risque songs that ZZ love to throw in on their albums just to either confuse or piss people off, and we close then on “Have a little mercy”, a slow grinder that showcases Billy's rough, gruff vocals to the limit, the most “Eliminator”-esque track on the album. If I had to compare it to anything off “Eliminator” it would be “TV dinners”, with a slow growling guitar and lazily laconic vocal, with a brilliant twelve-bar blues ending.
TRACKLISTING
1. Gotsta get paid
2. Chartreuse
3. Consumption
4. Over you
5. Heartache in blue
6. Don't wanna lose, lose, you
7. Flyin' high
8. It's too easy manana
9. Big shiny nine
10. Have a little mercy
Anyone who comes at this album expecting to hear the chattering drum machine from “Legs”, or hear synthesisers warble away is going to be most disappointed. They would also be pretty damn stupid, unless they've just woken from a coma and the first thing they want to do is buy the new ZZ Top album. “Eliminator” was almost three decades ago, and ZZ Top, who have by now been in business for over forty years, are carving their own musical path, as they have always done, down the years.
“Legs”. “Sharp-dressed man”. “Gimme all your lovin'”. Great songs, great videos. Great times. But they're all in the past now, where they belong. ZZ ain't livin' in the past, they're lookin' to the future.
And from where I'm sittin', la futura es muy luminosa!