ZZ Top's "6 pack"

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I was just introduced to the first 6 albums by ZZ Top, released on a 3 cd boxed set called "6 Pack". Not only is it so much better than their later MTV stuff, it is cooler than most blues stuff, in my opinion. I feel pretty damn odd about I love ZZ Top because I know there are people out there like me, who immediately think of "Legs" and "Sharp Dressed Man". Texas music does have a really cool sound. When we go out to Texas for new years, I'm gonna get me some chicken fried steak.

― Nude Spock, Sunday, 25 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I've got that collection myself, pretty damn sweet. I'll give them credit for being one of the few bands that managed the 70s/80s transition, but the cost was high...

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 25 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I like me some ZZ Top as well. One thing you might want to know though, if you're ever in a ZZ Top purist state of mind, is that a lot of the songs in the Six Pack box have rerecorded drum tracks, altered from the original albums. I think there's a few drum machines in there to bring the albums up to speed with the late 80's.

That's only something I've read. My copies are on used bin vinyl so I haven't heard the supposely altered tracks myself. But, there you go...

― Oliver Kneale, Sunday, 25 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Only problem with 'Six Pack' is that it doesn't include their best album, 'Deguello'. How can you live without "Cheap Sunglasses" or "I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide"?

― dave q, Monday, 26 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

if you had 3 foxes smoking lucky strikes & wearing nylons in your car would YOU fumble around w/a box set??

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 26 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Dave, you can't be serious - Deguello? Want a Coor's LITE to go with that?

Bad & Nationwide is great, but the rest is pop.

Tres Hombres (though a bit too funky at times) & side 2 of Fandango: that's where the action is.

― fritz, Tuesday, 27 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Um...I like 'Rio Grande Mud' too. Can I have my Cuervo back?

― dave q, Thursday, 29 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

ok ok... just make sure you pick up Fandango if you see it used.

― fritz, Thursday, 29 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

nine years pass...

The short version of how the remastering for the Six Pack box set was thoroughly bolloxed up

To keep a long sordid story as short as possible, I was asked in about 1985 to come in to "REMIX FOR DIGITAL RELEASE" five of the "old" ZZ albums. They had booked two days, with part of a third on hold "just in case."
The idea was to remix FIVE ALBUMS IN TWO DAYS, and release those along with "Eliminator" (that one was deemed "new enough" to be "ready for digital."
I explained that:
A) One could not properly mix three albums in two days, no matter what.
B) All mixes from the original albums were great as they were, and to be "digital ready," only had to be properly transferred to the proper Masterium.
Management however were seduced by the term "digital," and wanted to be able to advertise this new "Six Pack" as "Remixed For Digital/CD."
American Marketing at its finest.
They insisted that I go ahead.
I refused.
The remixes were carried through by someone else who had no regard for the sonic problems at hand.
A single snare and a single bass drum sample were triggered from a Wendel Jr. unit, and pasted all over everything, slathered in Quantec digital reverb.
Five classic, sonically georgeous albums were remixed in slightly over two days, wantonly "processed for digital."
The mixer(s) did not even perform some of the edits that had become part of the lexicon, and those were recreated as best he could with wrong parts on hand by Bob Ludwig in Mastering (Bob had called me in tears when he got it all, asking what had gone wrong, and wanting to find any way to salvage this debacle...he had discovered wrong fades, missed edits, wrong track choices, etc., not to mention the samples and reverb).
The Six Pack was released.
The band then quickly dropped at least halfway down the Totem Pole of Rock, as real fans of their music, and purveyors of sonic quality, were aghast.
The Brand was almost irreparably damaged.
Only in the past few years have the REAL versions started to reappear, albeit at times with "Over-Mastering" qualities.
Still they are at least the correct mixes.
The true intent of the entire production team can only be heard on the original vinyls.
I don't want to talk about it.

― Stockhausen's Ekranoplan Quartet (Elvis Telecom), Monday, 27 June 2011 22:53 (thirteen years ago)

That sucks. I really love early ZZ Top, just got into them proper in the last year or so.

― Spottie_Ottie_Dope, Monday, 27 June 2011 23:16 (thirteen years ago)

I mentioned this on another Top thread: I vividly remember when the Six Pack came out, and it was a pretty big deal (bands just didn't put out 3-CD archival sets in 1985). The FM DJ excitedly broke the news about this release, and played "La Grange." After the end of the song, he sounded absolutely defeated, and essentially apologized for playing it. After that, the station reverted back to the original mix.

― shake it, shake it, sugary pee (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Monday, 27 June 2011 23:29 (thirteen years ago)

i picked up that 6-pack super-cheap in the used bin & w/ an employee discount when i worked at shitty mall CD store back in the day. it is a colossal POS.

― je suis marxiste - tendence Groucho (will), Monday, 27 June 2011 23:32 (thirteen years ago)

i mean just depressing.

― je suis marxiste - tendence Groucho (will), Monday, 27 June 2011 23:33 (thirteen years ago)

I really wish the powers that be would pull their thumb out and reissue the other 70s albums with the O.G. mixes and artwork. The Deguello cd cover actually has a tiny bit of the otherwise unused original back cover on it.

― Mucho! Macho! Honcho!: Turn Off The Dark (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, 27 June 2011 23:41 (thirteen years ago)

The post on Eliminator is kind of an eye-opener; apparently, Billy Gibbons was the only Top on the record:
http://recforums.prosoundweb.com/index.php/mv/msg/3849/0/32/0/

― shake it, shake it, sugary pee (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, 28 June 2011 00:00 (thirteen years ago)

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