It Sure Got POLLED After The Rain Fell: ILM Artist Poll #110 – ZZ Top

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/qjmQvd_Ay8vi_x8BAOfjuj1mrSO5UFab04qUJZRXBbSEm46Qb9AxRA9RO4-HjmVV7lZBF_XrUAaZNLvXT9ZsbyBbYK_utYB4bZSfSeAVikOiyCZcUi0SIARo8xyZPvBLgsB4TzGqlA

Fuel Up Yr Hot Rod, Practice Those Hand Gestures, And Get Those Models From MTV On The Phone For This Most Sharp-Dressed Poll In Honor Of That Little Ol’ Band From Texas…ZZ TOP!

MAIN POLL:

• 20 Track Ballots, all tracks issued as ZZ Top eligible. Scoring as usual: 1:40, 2:36, 3:33, 4:30, 5:28, 6:26, 7:25, 8:24, 9:23, 10:22, 11:21, 12:20, 13:19, 14:18, 15:17, 16:16, 17:15, 18:14, 19:13, 20:12.

NOTE: “Waiting For The Bus” & “Jesus Just Left Chicago” will be counted as a single track, as Radio, God, and Terry Manning intended.

SIDE POLLS:

• Best Album: Ranked Ballot of 5

• Side Projects, Pre-History & Guest Shots: Ranked Ballot of 5.

Use This Format:

1. “Reclipse” (Moving Sidewalks) etc.

• Music Videos: Ranked Ballot of 5

Send those ballots to ilxZZTopPoll @ gmail.com. Please include your ILM/ILX user name in the subject line.

DEADLINE IS 12:00 AM (CST) ON SEPTEMBER 8th

Yessss

they gotta lotta nice POLLs-ah

gonna have to find a slot for rough boy. the video and the track
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_4ULKpkLNc

idk if i'm gonna vote for their version of 25 lighters, but i'm sorely tempted

yah that video is pretty cool too for old man rock

The "I Gotta Get Paid" video is a cool update of the Eliminator vids.

This one's pretty hard to find now: "She's Just Killing Me" with Clooney & Hayek

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x12bfy

i don't think i've ever heard the first album before. "shaking your tree" is fun, and the literal shaker that comes in at the end cracked me up

Brown Sugar is their best song

idk if i'm gonna vote for their version of 25 lighters, but i'm sorely tempted

― grove street (party) direction (voodoo chili), Tuesday, August 24, 2021

I'll vote for it early and often. a scorcher and a statement from an act well into its victory lap years that could have been expected to coast.

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

Definitely considering 25 Lighters for my ballot. Any other gems in the post-Afterburner era? Not really familiar with those records at all

note: ballots will be weighted according to voters beard length & fullness

it’s been said many times, but the fact that they had a drummer named frank beard who didn’t have a beard is probably the best practical joke in rock music history

"Any other gems in the post-Afterburner era?"

ZZ Top has a couple of really fine mutant slow blues tunes in the late period.

Vincent Price Blues
Made Into A Movie

There are some others...
My Head's In Mississipi
Punk Ass Boyfriend
Tramp (Irma Thomas cover)
What's Up With That
My Mind is Gone
Girl in a T-Shirt

Really can't go wrong with checking out Rhythmeen or Mescalaero. Especially the latter has some of the most damaged dirty sounding guitar sounds you will find.

JSBX eat your heart out.

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

thanks, looking forward to checking these out!

The only latter day record I've heard in full is Rhythmeen, which Martin Popoff called the best "metal" record of the 90s. I liked "Loaded", sung by Dusty Hill; he still seemed to be enjoying himself. The rest of the record is a slog (unless you're sufficiently entertained by guitar tone).

I’m not gonna vote for it, but one of their RCA albums has a song built around an Autechre sample.

My ballot will be heavy on tracks from Tres Hombres, Tejas and Deguello, plus the big Eliminator hits.

For Your Consideration: "I Wanna Drive You Home" from El Loco, their slinkiest blues.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWvZBpVz2co

yesss so good

rough boy will def be in my top 10

I don't find Rhythmeen a slog at all, other than the CD being overlong as many from the 90s are. The title track in particular really hits my monkey nerve. (And as noted above, "Vincent Price" is a great "mutant slow blues."

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

ah damn, i should really get a ballot together.

rio grande mud is pretty good, it turns out! gibbons' harmonica on "just got paid" is nearly as nasty as his guitar tone

The contemporary Rolling Stone review of Rio Grande Mud says that the band "sounds more like a British blues outfit than an American group", comparing their tightness and aggression to early Fleetwood Mac and John Mayall.
Who would be the US blues groups that they DIDN'T sound like? Looser, sloppier, like Canned Heat?

Yeah, through the lens of the time Canned Heat would be one, and perhaps also the James Gang and Johnny Winter. From note one ZZ Top had a tightness and bond between the players absent from a lot of power trios and domestic White Blues bands of the day.

FWIW, I've been told that the waning late '69-early '70 Moving Sidewalks played "Rattlesnake Shake" live, and Gibbons himself has said he came up with "Just Got Paid" while trying to learn "Oh Well".

Gibbons himself has said he came up with "Just Got Paid" while trying to learn "Oh Well".

― Precious, Grace, Hill & Beard LTD. (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, September 2, 2021

omg it never crossed my mind but i can totally hear it now

xp to me - was thinking of the harmonica on "mushmouth shoutin'", there isn't any on "just got paid."

both good songs tho!

Coming around on Rio Grande Mud after revisiting it last night, thought it was their weakest 70s record but I definitely underrated some of these tracks

There's something very even about it, for better or worse; it may be their most conventional blues album?

love the first five tracks and the last three

xp yeah, the sharp, specific lyrical bent and funky song structures hadn't quite arrived yet. still a very good texas blues album plus the usual gibbons brilliance.

^^^ exactly. They're good blues rock records, but they really don't prepare you for the ferocious onslaught of greatness that is Tres Hombres.

https://www.guitarplayer.com/players/billy-gibbons-tell-the-story-behind-his-1959-les-paul-pearly-gates

Knew I had read before that Clapton playing a Les Paul on the cover of the Blues Breakers record is why Billy Gibbons went looking for one and found the article online.

Finally found this:
https://apnews.com/article/6f4c28b330d88b957b52ef13e28a5190

Thought I’d check out the “Six Pack” mixes, though I haven’t been able to find much. The mix of “It’s Only Love” is kind of cracking me up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neYyK4ETa3g

woof. picked up that 6 pack on the super cheap when I worked in a mall cd store in 1997. it was p dope to hear the real versions later though.

iirc they weirdly left out Deguello?

yep

and El Loco

oh duh yeah. I was always operating under the assumption it was everything pre-Eliminator except Deguello. but that actually makes some sense as El Loco was “80s”

yep totally

this is the first one of these artist polls in a while that I am actually voting in

man I never actually vote but I absolutely Love to read the threads. I think I got really invested in the Van Halen one

El Loco was on Six Pack, Deguello was indeed skipped

What a weird product

Kind of insane that those were the only CD versions of those albums for ~20 years

I wish I could find that Terry Manning thread from some engineering message board that's been posted here a few times (those links 404 now). He a great story about the Six Pack which I'll paraphrase:

Warner's calls him up at Ardent Studios and asks if he'll oversee a ZZ Top CD reissue project (this is the mid-'80s btw). He's quite proud of his work on those LPs, but is horrified by what they want him to do: Eliminator was such a commercial breakthrough that the label feels that new fans won't be able to get their heads around the old records that don't sound like Eliminator, so they wanted him to work his magic and turn them into carbon copies of the hit album.

Manning tentatively goes along with them on the phone, hoping he can talk some sense into them, perhaps letting him just oversee a straight remaster, but that goes out the window when he learns--because the label wants this under every ZZ Top fan's Xmas tree--he has like a week to remix the albums.

He rightfully tells them where to go, hangs up and thinks that's the end of it. Except then Warner's turns around and calls a junior engineer at a Ardent, who feels this is the project he'll make his name on, so he agrees, takes the tapes into a digital workstation, where he creates a handful of echo, reverb, and re-amping f/x that he then applies liberally to the first five albums and makes the deadline.

Thought I found a functional link, but it won't load. It was a real treasure trove, kind of a proto-AMA where Manning goes deep on those 70s records and Eliminator.

Like how one of guitar parts on "El Diablo" from Tejas was Gibbons and Manning playing the same guitar AT THE SAME TIME: Manning stood behind Billy and reached around to the strings.

El Loco was on Six Pack, Deguello was indeed skipped

― intheblanks

thanks for clarifying, maybe what I'm thinking of is that El Loco wasn't remixed at all?

Ballot sent!

how do we feel about mixed ballots?

"Mixed" as in what?

part ranked, part unranked

If you really want to do that, I'll find a way to plug it in.

I generally prefer normal rankings so I just popped them in the spreadsheet.

RN, I have four ballots (haven't done mine yet). Originally I was going to close on Wednesday or Thursday, but I'll keep this going through the weekend if y'all need the time.

that would be great

Voted!

voted!

a how how how

if you can keep it going through the weekend, I should be able to rank the whole ballot and save a headache!

Just voted, thanks!

ZZ Tops 70s albums are just ridiculously good.

otm

RN, I have four ballots (haven't done mine yet). Originally I was going to close on Wednesday or Thursday, but I'll keep this going through the weekend if y'all need the time.

― Precious, Grace, Hill & Beard LTD. (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, September 7, 2021

well i opened this thread to apologize for not getting a ballot in, but if the weekend's open i might make it. somewhat dependent on an irl situation, but at least i have a shot.

yes plz keep it going til tomorrow if u can

just submitted!

yes plz keep it going til tomorrow if u can

― sleeve, Friday, September 10, 2021 8:35 AM (twenty-seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

he said he's going through the weekend so i take that as Sunday 11:59 pm?

I'll keep it open through at least Monday, so I'd encourage everyone interested to make it a ZZ Top Weekend!

10 ballots so far, 11 if you count my own impending one.

Fire Up The DeLorean!

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/yzXiiSGB1TGgNyAX8gUzBsmoLsTh_mDQ6_Dxa0JNATRdrXhTG9jQPlVKibssgu9td92dTm-rLvg0PwMVtITrkPD-wUJGUqlcW5N2p7CnyWN8WLRb6Fqty0NN8JrxYwGMzMv5PPYF8w

MAMA WEER ALL FANDANGO NOW

Still sitting at 11 Ballots. Seeing as I'm dealing with both TS Nicholas and (depending on how that turns out) some work stuff later this week, POLLS WILL BE OPEN UNTIL FRIDAY (Or Next Monday)!

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/AngryFancyHarpseal-size_restricted.gif

Gotta say that the more I listen, the more impressed I am by the production on their 70s work (tres hombres and side 2 of fandango in particular). So clear and punchy! My ears are very nonprofessional but I can't believe how good those records sound.

Trying out Mescalero for the first time, and am reminded of the now-forgotten controversy surrounding its release: RCA, seriously regretting the $$$ they threw at the band in the early '90s for one Platinum LP (out of three shots), rejected the album, and strongly suggested they follow Santana's example & bring in a bunch of young stars for duets/new songs. Obviously this didn't happen, temporarily sparing us the Kid Rock and Nickleback collabs.

Wow at lol (self?)censorship on "What Would You Do?"

Still sitting at 11 ballots. Please make it a ZZ Top Weekend, y'all!

duly noted, thanks

Still planning on it

sentttt

12 Ballots...Need To Wind This Down...If You Haven't Done It Yet...Do It Soon

sent, thanks for grace period

More like a "Precious and Grace" period, amirite?

I started and scrapped a ballot several times, feeling like I’m such a newcomer to Top fandom, but I just sent my entry.

lol dammit I forgot to vote for Hi Fi Mama

^^Just shot you an email about that!

I've got 14 ballots now. I'll start counting the votes this weekend, but I'll keep polls open until Monday for any one else who'd like to vote...BUT THIS IS IT.

calling all beer drinkers & hellraisers

i heard it on the ilx

well dang i might just get this thing in

"Goin' Down to (roger) Mexico (to receive a ballot)"

"Roger That Old Chrysler Down To Mexico, Boy..."

point of information: are we counting "waiting for the bus" and "jesus just left chicago" as separate tracks?

damn autocorrect lol

no we are not, they are considered as one track

(this worked out well for me because I had forgotten to vote for Hi Fi Mama, which surely deserves your attention)

ty - just caught that on re-read. feel so much better now :D

ballot in. there are def tracks where i'm basing my ranking on guitar tone alone \m/

fair imo

it’s been a long time since I’ve listened to “sleeping bag” and I’ve been dying for like 36 hours trying to connect the dots on where he copped the chorus part…

…it’s “back in black” innit?

POLLS ARE CLOSED

I need to arrange the tracks in order, but we will be having a "Top 40" tracks rollout.

I'll be sending belated confirmations out as I handle the side polls later this evening or tomorrow.

Thanks For Taking Part!

ladies & gents, the poll officially has legs…

Before this thing takes off running (legs, see what I did there?) I would like to publicly state that I did my votes in extreme haste, thinking I was up against the deadline. Thus my list is heavy on the canon and light on deep cuts (much like the live set I saw a few years ago.) Given time to research I probably would have changed a few things. I also neglected the side poll and video poll, due to unfamiliarity. I might have given those more time as well. That said, let's enjoy and get it on!

I POLLed It On The ILX! - ILM Artist Poll #110 - ZZ Top - Results Thread