This sturdy American blues-rock trio from Texas consists of Billy Gibbons (guitar), Dusty Hill (bass), and Frank Beard (drums). They were formed in 1970 in and around Houston from rival bands the Moving Sidewalks (Gibbons) and American Blues (Hill an.
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A sturdy American blues-rock trio from Texas, ZZ Top specialized in down-and-dirty blues-rock during the '70s, then scored colorful MTV hits during the 1980s. Formed in Houston in 1970 by Billy Gibbons (guitar), Dusty Hill (bass), and Frank Beard (drums), the trio came from a pair of rival bands the Moving Sidewalks (Gibbons) and American Blues (Hill and Beard). Their first two albums reflected the strong blues roots and Texas humor of the band. Their third album (Tres Hombres) gained them national attention with the hit 'La Grange,' a signature riff tune to this day, based on John Lee Hooker's 'Boogie Chillen.' Their success continued unabated throughout the '70s, culminating with the year-and-a-half-long Worldwide Texas Tour.
Exhausted from the overwhelming workload, they took a three-year break, then switched labels and returned to form with Deguello and El Loco, both harbingers of what was to come. By their next album, Eliminator, and its worldwide smash follow-up, Afterburner, they had successfully harnessed the potential of synthesizers to their patented grungy blues groove, giving their material a more contemporary edge while retaining their patented Texas style. Now sporting long beards, golf hats, and boiler suits, they met the emerging video age head-on, reducing their 'message' to simple iconography. Becoming even more popular in the long run, they moved with the times while simultaneously bucking every trend that crossed their path. As genuine roots musicians, they have few peers; Gibbons is one of America's finest blues guitarists working in the arena rock idiom -- both influenced by the originators of the form and British blues-rock guitarists like Peter Green -- while Hill and Beard provide the ultimate rhythm section support.
One of the few rock & roll groups with its original members still aboard after four decades, ZZ Top play music that is always instantly recognizable, eminently powerful, profoundly soulful, and 100 percent American in derivation. They have continued to support the blues through various means, perhaps most visibly when they were given a piece of wood from Muddy Waters' shack in Clarksdale, Mississippi. The group members had it made into a guitar, dubbed the 'Muddywood,' then sent it out on tour to raise money for the Delta Blues Museum. ZZ Top's support of and link to the blues remain as rock-solid as the music they play. The concert CD/DVD Live from Texas, recorded in Dallas in 2007 and featuring a still vital band, was released in 2008. The Rick Rubin and Gibbons-produced La Futura, the band's 15th studio album, and the group's first new studio outing since 2003's Mescalero, appeared in 2012. With the trio still a firm fixture on the worldwide touring circuit, ZZ Top released the Live: Greatest Hits from Around the World collection in 2016. ~ Cub Koda
Exhausted from the overwhelming workload, they took a three-year break, then switched labels and returned to form with Deguello and El Loco, both harbingers of what was to come. By their next album, Eliminator, and its worldwide smash follow-up, Afterburner, they had successfully harnessed the potential of synthesizers to their patented grungy blues groove, giving their material a more contemporary edge while retaining their patented Texas style. Now sporting long beards, golf hats, and boiler suits, they met the emerging video age head-on, reducing their 'message' to simple iconography. Becoming even more popular in the long run, they moved with the times while simultaneously bucking every trend that crossed their path. As genuine roots musicians, they have few peers; Gibbons is one of America's finest blues guitarists working in the arena rock idiom -- both influenced by the originators of the form and British blues-rock guitarists like Peter Green -- while Hill and Beard provide the ultimate rhythm section support.
One of the few rock & roll groups with its original members still aboard after four decades, ZZ Top play music that is always instantly recognizable, eminently powerful, profoundly soulful, and 100 percent American in derivation. They have continued to support the blues through various means, perhaps most visibly when they were given a piece of wood from Muddy Waters' shack in Clarksdale, Mississippi. The group members had it made into a guitar, dubbed the 'Muddywood,' then sent it out on tour to raise money for the Delta Blues Museum. ZZ Top's support of and link to the blues remain as rock-solid as the music they play. The concert CD/DVD Live from Texas, recorded in Dallas in 2007 and featuring a still vital band, was released in 2008. The Rick Rubin and Gibbons-produced La Futura, the band's 15th studio album, and the group's first new studio outing since 2003's Mescalero, appeared in 2012. With the trio still a firm fixture on the worldwide touring circuit, ZZ Top released the Live: Greatest Hits from Around the World collection in 2016. ~ Cub Koda
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About ZZ Top
In the more than thirty years that they have been together, ZZ Top have mutated from a hard rocking boogie band into pop culture icons. Some might say, that they are also forward thinking musical geniuses whose appropriation of MTV and melding of Hard Rock to Dance rhythms put them so far ahead of the curve that -- for a while in the mid-1980s -- they seemed poised to take over the world. The band started out in 1970 when singer-guitarist Billy Gibbons got together with drummer Frank Beard and bassist Dusty Hill. Gibbons, only in his early twenties, was already a veteran musician whose previous band The Moving Sidewalks had had regional hit records and had opened for Jimi Hendrix. The band started out playing hard edged, deeply blues based Boogie Rock that cruised on the power of the Hill-Beard rhythm section and Gibbons' powerful vocals and even more powerful guitar. The band toured relentlessly, guided by svengali-like manager Bill Ham, a disciple of Elvis' Colonel Tom Parker. He helped them score a major record deal and created a certain band mythos (access to the band was severly limited; personal biographical information was closely guarded) that lingers to this day. Their third album, Tres Hombres broke things wide open with the smash hit 'La Grange,' a song driven by an insistent John Lee Hooker boogie riff and Gibbons' squealing guitar solos. They became increasingly popular on the live circuit, breaking attendance records set by The Beatles by 1976. Returning after a three year hiatus in 1979, they emerged with their now-trademark hirsute look and the hard-hitting record Deguello, which included the hit 'Cheap Sunglasses.' Gibbons' longtime fascination with all sorts of Dance music came into play with Eliminator (1981), which coincided with the rise of the music video as a promotional tool and took the band to new commercial heights. That record was propelled by a sound that wedded Texas Blues guitar heroics to banks of churning synthesizers and sequenced rhythms. It was the sound of money being minted as the singles 'Sharp Dressed Man,' 'Gimme All Your Lovin',' and 'Legs' shot up the charts. That the accompanying music videos included hot rod cars, leggy models, and the band doing oddly choreographed dance moves that rendered them at once hip and cartoonishly funny probably helped their album sales. Eliminator and its follow-up Afterburner sold gazillions of records and the band was, for a time, as popular as a band can be. In the 1990s the group's popularity waned some, and they moved away from the sequencers and synthesizers. They went back in the direction of their earlier work. They nonetheless continue to make vital music that draws deeply from the blues and R&B tradition, while always trying to bring something new to it.Bebop Digital
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In the more than thirty years that they have been together, ZZ Top have mutated from a hard rocking boogie band into pop culture icons. Some might say, that they are also forward thinking musical geniuses whose appropriation of MTV and melding of Hard Rock to Dance rhythms put them so far ahead of the curve that -- for a while in the mid-1980s -- they seemed poised to take over the world. The band started out in 1970 when singer-guitarist Billy Gibbons got together with drummer Frank Beard and bassist Dusty Hill. Gibbons, only in his early twenties, was already a veteran musician whose previous band The Moving Sidewalks had had regional hit records and had opened for Jimi Hendrix. The band started out playing hard edged, deeply blues based Boogie Rock that cruised on the power of the Hill-Beard rhythm section and Gibbons' powerful vocals and even more powerful guitar. The band toured relentlessly, guided by svengali-like manager Bill Ham, a disciple of Elvis' Colonel Tom Parker. He helped them score a major record deal and created a certain band mythos (access to the band was severly limited; personal biographical information was closely guarded) that lingers to this day. Their third album, Tres Hombres broke things wide open with the smash hit 'La Grange,' a song driven by an insistent John Lee Hooker boogie riff and Gibbons' squealing guitar solos. They became increasingly popular on the live circuit, breaking attendance records set by The Beatles by 1976. Returning after a three year hiatus in 1979, they emerged with their now-trademark hirsute look and the hard-hitting record Deguello, which included the hit 'Cheap Sunglasses.' Gibbons' longtime fascination with all sorts of Dance music came into play with Eliminator (1981), which coincided with the rise of the music video as a promotional tool and took the band to new commercial heights. That record was propelled by a sound that wedded Texas Blues guitar heroics to banks of churning synthesizers and sequenced rhythms. It was the sound of money being minted as the singles 'Sharp Dressed Man,' 'Gimme All Your Lovin',' and 'Legs' shot up the charts. That the accompanying music videos included hot rod cars, leggy models, and the band doing oddly choreographed dance moves that rendered them at once hip and cartoonishly funny probably helped their album sales. Eliminator and its follow-up Afterburner sold gazillions of records and the band was, for a time, as popular as a band can be. In the 1990s the group's popularity waned some, and they moved away from the sequencers and synthesizers. They went back in the direction of their earlier work. They nonetheless continue to make vital music that draws deeply from the blues and R&B tradition, while always trying to bring something new to it.
About ZZ Top
In the more than thirty years that they have been together, ZZ Top have mutated from a hard rocking boogie band into pop culture icons. Some might say, that they are also forward thinking musical geniuses whose appropriation of MTV and melding of Hard Rock to Dance rhythms put them so far ahead of the curve that -- for a while in the mid-1980s -- they seemed poised to take over the world. The band started out in 1970 when singer-guitarist Billy Gibbons got together with drummer Frank Beard and bassist Dusty Hill. Gibbons, only in his early twenties, was already a veteran musician whose previous band The Moving Sidewalks had had regional hit records and had opened for Jimi Hendrix. The band started out playing hard edged, deeply blues based Boogie Rock that cruised on the power of the Hill-Beard rhythm section and Gibbons' powerful vocals and even more powerful guitar. The band toured relentlessly, guided by svengali-like manager Bill Ham, a disciple of Elvis' Colonel Tom Parker. He helped them score a major record deal and created a certain band mythos (access to the band was severly limited; personal biographical information was closely guarded) that lingers to this day. Their third album, Tres Hombres broke things wide open with the smash hit 'La Grange,' a song driven by an insistent John Lee Hooker boogie riff and Gibbons' squealing guitar solos. They became increasingly popular on the live circuit, breaking attendance records set by The Beatles by 1976. Returning after a three year hiatus in 1979, they emerged with their now-trademark hirsute look and the hard-hitting record Deguello, which included the hit 'Cheap Sunglasses.' Gibbons' longtime fascination with all sorts of Dance music came into play with Eliminator (1981), which coincided with the rise of the music video as a promotional tool and took the band to new commercial heights. That record was propelled by a sound that wedded Texas Blues guitar heroics to banks of churning synthesizers and sequenced rhythms. It was the sound of money being minted as the singles 'Sharp Dressed Man,' 'Gimme All Your Lovin',' and 'Legs' shot up the charts. That the accompanying music videos included hot rod cars, leggy models, and the band doing oddly choreographed dance moves that rendered them at once hip and cartoonishly funny probably helped their album sales. Eliminator and its follow-up Afterburner sold gazillions of records and the band was, for a time, as popular as a band can be. In the 1990s the group's popularity waned some, and they moved away from the sequencers and synthesizers. They went back in the direction of their earlier work. They nonetheless continue to make vital music that draws deeply from the blues and R&B tradition, while always trying to bring something new to it.
Similar Artists
Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Heart, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Robin Trower, Santana, The Groundhogs
and 50 other albums
About ZZ Top
In the more than thirty years that they have been together, ZZ Top have mutated from a hard rocking boogie band into pop culture icons. Some might say, that they are also forward thinking musical geniuses whose appropriation of MTV and melding of Hard Rock to Dance rhythms put them so far ahead of the curve that -- for a while in the mid-1980s -- they seemed poised to take over the world. The band started out in 1970 when singer-guitarist Billy Gibbons got together with drummer Frank Beard and bassist Dusty Hill. Gibbons, only in his early twenties, was already a veteran musician whose previous band The Moving Sidewalks had had regional hit records and had opened for Jimi Hendrix. The band started out playing hard edged, deeply blues based Boogie Rock that cruised on the power of the Hill-Beard rhythm section and Gibbons' powerful vocals and even more powerful guitar. The band toured relentlessly, guided by svengali-like manager Bill Ham, a disciple of Elvis' Colonel Tom Parker. He helped them score a major record deal and created a certain band mythos (access to the band was severly limited; personal biographical information was closely guarded) that lingers to this day. Their third album, Tres Hombres broke things wide open with the smash hit 'La Grange,' a song driven by an insistent John Lee Hooker boogie riff and Gibbons' squealing guitar solos. They became increasingly popular on the live circuit, breaking attendance records set by The Beatles by 1976. Returning after a three year hiatus in 1979, they emerged with their now-trademark hirsute look and the hard-hitting record Deguello, which included the hit 'Cheap Sunglasses.' Gibbons' longtime fascination with all sorts of Dance music came into play with Eliminator (1981), which coincided with the rise of the music video as a promotional tool and took the band to new commercial heights. That record was propelled by a sound that wedded Texas Blues guitar heroics to banks of churning synthesizers and sequenced rhythms. It was the sound of money being minted as the singles 'Sharp Dressed Man,' 'Gimme All Your Lovin',' and 'Legs' shot up the charts. That the accompanying music videos included hot rod cars, leggy models, and the band doing oddly choreographed dance moves that rendered them at once hip and cartoonishly funny probably helped their album sales. Eliminator and its follow-up Afterburner sold gazillions of records and the band was, for a time, as popular as a band can be. In the 1990s the group's popularity waned some, and they moved away from the sequencers and synthesizers. They went back in the direction of their earlier work. They nonetheless continue to make vital music that draws deeply from the blues and R&B tradition, while always trying to bring something new to it.Bebop Digital
Similar Artists
Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Heart, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Robin Trower, Santana, The Groundhogs
and 49 other albums
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