Hard, Heavy and a Classic 1973
ZZ Top Tres Hombres 1973 (London)
Boogie Blues-Hard Rock
We was out in the sticks down highway six.
The Album
ZZ Top were one of the great touring bands of their era, with their characteristic blend of boogie blues, hard rock and southern rock, which were all presented by this lush Texan trio. Their live shows were certainly incendiary and even the late Jimi Hendrix had been a fan of the guitar playing of Billy Gibbons! But on the basis of their first two albums, they had failed to put out a studio release to match their live prowess as a band, a characteristic that certainly afflicted a number of great live blues rock acts at the time! Their second album
Rio Grande Mud had pointed them in the right direction, but it was still a loose assemblage of ideas and it would take their third release
Tres Hombres to finally announce the arrival of this boogie trio on the big stage. They handed producer Bill Ham their best collection of songs to date and what made these songs different from their previous two releases, was the more cohesive feel of these songs against a much heavier and potent backdrop, than heard on the previous two recordings. It seemed that the band had finally got their act together and gave us an album’s worth of great tunes.
Most of the tracks on
Tres Hombres are infused with a sleazy-sounding boogie blues, which is propelled along by Billy Gibbons infectious guitar and his cool strangled-sounding vocal delivery, which is all ably backed up by the rhythm section of Dusty Hill and Frank Beard. This is most evident on some of the slower and heavier trudging tracks like the groovy “Jesus Just Left Chicago” and the superb harangue of “Master of Sparks” possibly the best on the album and then there is “Hot, Blue and Righteous” which sounds like a song that Prince could’ve chopped bits from to record the future “Purple Rain”. The slower tracks give way to some equally up-tempo ones like “Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers” and “Move Me on Down the Line” or just mixing it up on “Precious and Grace” and the groovy sounding “Sheik” and finally there is the best known track from the album, the slushy and infectious sounding “la Grange”. What made this album great, was its simplicity of sound and the feel of its songs, which today sound as fresh as when they first came out.
Tres Hombres laid down a blueprint for the future ZZ Top discography, but Gibbons and company never quite sounded this tight again and
Tres Hombres probably stands as their peak achievement. It has to be said though, that I’m a big fan of the synth driven
Eliminator album recorded a decade later.
Billy Gibbons- Guitar/Vocals
Dusty Hill- Bass
Frank Beard- Drums
Production- Bill Ham