SHE LIKES COCAAAAAAINE: The ZZ Top Eliminator poll

man this is tough...got me under pressue, i got the six, and thug are underrated....

All good, but I would have said "Legs" then and that hasn't changed.

Listened to the album twice through last night while driving to and back from Orlando. Concluded that the back half is stronger than people realize (though the front half is monumental).

Sharp Dressed Man because... because it's totally true.
I don't get the hype over TV Dinners, something about it is sort of weak compared to the band's other material.

at a (very) local carnival in the 80s, i won a mirror with this album cover on it + a zz top key chain

love this album front to back. voting GMUP.

^btw it's the riff during the chorus that won my vote

YES! That little pick and slide thing Billy plays is GOLD.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

VOTE

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

i always wanted to do a poll of just the 3 iconic video hits...funny that none of them won this.

I read somewhere that Mark Knopfler's guitar sound on "Money For Nothing" was his approximation of the ZZ Top guitar sound. He asked them how they did it and they said, "We'd tell you, but then we'd have to kill you." Knopfler said, "Ha ha! No, really, how do you get that sound?" Top: "No, really, we would have to kill you." (Knopfler backs away slowly)

I'm willing to believe that's absolutely true.

no votes for thug is a shame. didn't see this tho!

Which album is Rough Boy on?

Afterburner (the one after this one).

Is that also the one w Pearl Necklace on it? Kept wanting to vote for that.

imo ZZ Top in the 70s is tremendously underrated, but iin the 80s they seem to be respondible for that synthetic bluesy sound that I think is awful--Dire Straits is a good example, but so is Fabulous Thunderbirds, and Eric Clapton ca. Journeyman, along with a lot of Don Henley stuff...that stuff drives me up a wall.

ZZ Top got away with it for the most part, though hipster me loathes "Legs"

Pearl Necklace is on El Loco, the one before.

I read somewhere that Mark Knopfler's guitar sound on "Money For Nothing" was his approximation of the ZZ Top guitar sound. He asked them how they did it and they said, "We'd tell you, but then we'd have to kill you." Knopfler said, "Ha ha! No, really, how do you get that sound?" Top: "No, really, we would have to kill you." (Knopfler backs away slowly)

― Tarfumes The Escape Goat, Thursday, March 17, 2011 9:42 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

that's an awesome story, which also reminds of both a) how Knopfler offered to play guitar on Weird Al's "Money For Nothing" parody just so they'd get the guitar tone right and b) how Sonic Youth gave "Eliminator Jr." its title as a nod to the main riff supposedly originating as an attempt to play a ZZ Top riff (although my best guess about which song is "La Grange" rather than any song off Eliminator

I read somewhere that Mark Knopfler's guitar sound on "Money For Nothing" was his approximation of the ZZ Top guitar sound. He asked them how they did it and they said, "We'd tell you, but then we'd have to kill you." Knopfler said, "Ha ha! No, really, how do you get that sound?" Top: "No, really, we would have to kill you." (Knopfler backs away slowly)

Eliminator was around the time that Gibbons said he used a Mexican peso coin as a guitar pick. Could be complete BS (Brian May then said that he used an six pence as a pick), but I'm willing to believe it as you would need something to cut through that processed sound that everyone liked in the 80s.

I also recall reading that that Gibbons and Bill Ham spent hours working on just the right sound for that one second guitar shot after "I got to have a shot" in "Sharp Dressed Man." Point being, if you want that sound you just have to be Billy Gibbons.

Yeah I've read about Billy's peso-picking in the past; but if it's true, I've never heard any sonic traces of that sound at all. Using a metallic pick should produce all kinds of Sonny Sharrock screech-harmonics, shouldn't it? (Need Gorge or somebody to confirm or deny this.)

35 years young on this very day.

I don't think they've ever acknowledged the influence, but man, "Got Me Under Pressure" and "Sharp Dressed Man" are so Prince through a boogie filter.

thanks for this thread title. i haven't thought about "Got Me Under Pressure" in a while.

remembering the days when i only had like 10 CDs -- this was one of them!

been listening a bit to el loco lately, which is not as good but sort of the proto eliminator/afterburner sound they perfected.

I'm having some albums mastered (I started a small label) and someone told me half-jokingly that everything we release should be mastered to be as hot as Eliminator. A variant on the whole "test your speakers with Steely Dan" thing, I guess...

Another not exactly acknowledged influence rearing its head on El Loco is the B-52's, particularly on "Party On The Patio" and "Groovy Little Hippie Pad". I wonder if there was some A&R guy suggesting to Gibbons & Co. that they cock an ear towards their hip labelmates?

Yeah, Billy namechecks the Bs and Devo as influences on that record. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-lists/billy-gibbons-my-life-in-15-songs-151784/

She might get out a nightstick / and hurt me real, real bad / by the roadside, in a ditch

One of the more remarkable images in '80s pop, this. As a kid, I was traumatized by the idea of avuncular Billy G being savagely beaten by a woman in a tight-fitting dress.

neat RS article. a depeche mode nod too!

imho every record they put out through Eliminator is worth owning if you can find ‘em used and in decent condition. kinda weird that Deguello isn’t on Spotify?? that’s probably my dark horse favorite. someone pieced it together in playlist (https://open.spotify.com/user/1267025019/playlist/6604t0vfMqwijLqOpEjTvo?si=C-WdIdHfTsyKMQ1j98a6Ow)

these dudes always had pretty dope sounding records, even when the material might not have been up to snuff or kinda tired retreads. despite thinking they were the coolest old dudes when I was a kid absorbing their big Eliminator rebrand, I def wasn’t paying attention by the time I was working in a mall CD shop and Rhythymeen came out. I remember being pleased and a little surprised that the promo copy that we played in store didn’t outright suck. and more recently the “25 Lighters” reworking is fun as hell.

One of the more remarkable images in '80s pop, this. As a kid, I was traumatized by the idea of avuncular Billy G being savagely beaten by a woman in a tight-fitting dress.

I always heard it as "By the road side in the desert", which was just so chilling and final.

XP Deguello was up until recently, as was the Complete Warner Album box.

Rhythmeen is awesome. ZZ Top is a band I’ve really come to love recently, and those 90s/early 2000s RCA records were a big discovery for me.

yeah! “didn’t outright suck” came out much more dismissive than I meant.

I always heard it as "By the road side in the desert", which was just so chilling and final.

Me too! But I'm forever mishearing lyrics, so I looked it up. But let's go with "desert", 'cause as you say, it really adds a touch of the grand guignol to the boogie.

Loaded on Rhythmeen features a call out to Brigitte Bardot, kind of touching in 1996.

kinda interesting: the much maligned “6-pack” comp skips right over Deguello, too.

It was out of print on CD in the US for years, too. The first time I bought it on CD it was an Australian import.

Afterburner defines New Jersey.

lol yes

so “Stages” from that one was definitely featured in a movie around the time right?
Or was it just the 3rd single?

(which is a p good song imo)

had so much fun watching the eliminator videos at work today

"Got Me Under Pressure" and "Sharp Dressed Man" are so Prince through a boogie filter.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2016/04/22/defying-description-zz-tops-billy-gibbons-on-prince-the-sensational-guitarist/

It was following the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th anniversary celebration (in 2009). They had a two night grand hurrah at Madison Square Garden and I was invited to perform with Jeff Beck. And following that appearance, I found myself back at the hotel and I wandered off in search of some late-night grub and my favorite 24-hour joint was shut down for unknown reasons. I tiptoed across the street to the Tiger Bar. I was just standing at the front and I was approached by a rather large gentleman and he said, 'You're wanted at the corner table.' And there was Prince sitting all by his lonesome. And I gave him a brief tip of the hat and sat down and said, 'Hey man, it's so good to see you.' He said, 'It's so good to see you. Let's talk about guitar playing.' I said, 'Why not?' And in the next two hours we really dove into the depth of his intent, interest and focus toward technique and tone. I left that evening even more mesmerized than I'd previously been, just knowing the sincerity that Prince kept toward his playing, his performing and his all-around showmanship.

Man, I love all these stories about other famous musicians meeting Prince. To have been within earshot of that discussion!

growing up in the UK and always listening from a background of listening to punk/indie rock, i would pretty much just think 'haha silly men with beards' and file them away somewhere in my brain with Dire Straits and The Eagles as "shit your dad likes"....

so a very pleasant surprise to listen to the whole discog recently and find a new favourite band and to realise how much of their sound goes alongside people I have always really liked - Creedence and Meat Puppets being the most obvious. co-sign on the person repping for Deguello above - that rips.

I love their chorus line moves in the “sharp dressed man” video so much, I want to be them.

there are many many aspects of the below that make me feel real real bsd that I never saw 'em… 1.) Dusty and billy trading verses, 2.) the weird burrrrr of Billy's voice, like he's got a rat pedal inside his throat 3.) the fact that this tune and I think every other on eliminator has no Frank or Dusty on b and d, but it never sounded like that to me until I read up on the record few years ago 4.) would frank have played that deliriously dopey static fill right before the bridge if he cut the track, instead of the Linn drum or whatever they used? possibly…

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

A while back Jason Isbell posted some track about jamming with ZZ Top, or watching from the stage or something up close, and some naysayers in the comments claimed the band used a bunch of pre-recorded guitar tracks, and Isbell was basically, no, man, that's just Billy.

I’d wager to say you have not seen what I have seen https://t.co/nLBIFiwkH9

— Jason IsBOO (@JasonIsbell) September 11, 2020

I saw that tour (the one from veronica's YT clip) in New York. It's actually kind of amazing how much each one of them is playing; the songs seem simple enough, but if you watch closely Dusty Hill is very much a Geezer Butler-esque bassist in that he's got a whole lot going on, really exploring the music, but somehow brings it back around on time every time.

so dope

https://youtu.be/FgKQv715aJg

“got me under pressure” all the way... ask me again in three years though

It’s gotta be sharp dressed man. A nice subtle, understated guitar solo in the middle to go along with a clean shirt and new shoes, after which we open up into something a bit more glamorous and in your face to match the top coat and top hat.