Published on Jun 23, 1998
Who would have thought in 1970 that a little blues band from
Texas would become superstars in the mid-’80s?
Certainly not ZZ Top, the band who would use MTV to its maximum
potential to make themselves known. But in 1970, Dusty Hill, Billy
Gibbons and Frank Beard were just young men looking at cranking out
some modern blues tinged with rock. Their first effort,
ZZ Top’s First Album, has a few decent moments, but displays
none of the sheer genius they’d use to take their careers to the
top.
Originally released on London Records, Warner Brothers remixed
all the band’s old albums just over a decade ago. (My version is on
the specially marketed
ZZ Top Six Pack, a three-CD set I was lucky enough to snag
for $25 new. Don’t ask…) But in one sense, this is the first sign
of trouble for this disc; I would much rather have heard the gritty
sound that the band was cranking out in 1970 than a
studio-polished, digitally-doctored one today. This is one of the
rare instances I wish I had an old vinyl copy somewhere in the
Pierce Memorial Archives.
ZZ Top was still a band in its infancy back then, and the
songwriting is much more simple than the numbers we’re used to
today. Cuts like “Brown Sugar” try to inject a little more than
just 12-bar blues, and they are enjoyable numbers. Likewise, “Goin’
Down To Mexico” is a shuffling piece that just rolls off the disc
and into the listener’s brain, refusing to move once it’s there. No
doubt about it, there are some decent numbers on
ZZ Top’s First Album – and let’s not forget about their
first minor hit, “Backdoor Love Affair”.
But the majority of the music on
ZZ Top’s First Album is mediocre, at best – okay for an
occasional listen, but not much substance to make you want to
return to this disc often. Tracks like “Neighbor, Neighbor,”
“Bedroom Thang” and “(Somebody Else Been) Shaking Your Tree” are
nothing special, and seem to be disposable – not necessarily the
first effect you want to have on people.
One could argue that ZZ Top was trying too hard; I would argue
the opposite way, and say that they weren’t trying hard enough. The
overall feel of this disc conveys a rather lazy, casual air in the
recordings – and though I don’t want to accuse them of not putting
their all into this record, there’s just not a sense of urgency in
the music that gives it any type of an edge. Even on their followup
effort
Rio Grande Mud, there’s more of that edge that sharpens the
music and performances… but that’s another review for another
day.
ZZ Top’s First Album is not a required buy, unless you’re a
diehard fan of the band who has to own everything they’ve ever
done. For the rest of us, just pick up
The Best Of ZZ Top – the version that
wasn’t
remastered, if you can find it – and enjoy “Backdoor Love
Affair” off that one.