ZZ Top - Tres Hombres

Released - July 1973

Genre - Blues Rock

Producer - Bill Ham

Selected Personnel - Billy Gibbons (Vocals/Guitar); Dusty Hill (Bass/Keyboards/Vocals); Frank Beard (Drums/Percussion)

Standout Track - La Grange

In perhaps early-to-mid 2009, High Voltage Festival was announced to be taking part in Victoria Park in summer 2010. It was a short-lived thing, only running for 2010 and 2011 before being discontinued (presumably because there were no more ageing rock bands that were still up for playing live). Essentially, it was a festival dedicated to classic rock, prog rock and metal. Needless to say, after spending the last two years or so deepening my love for all things classic rock, and having only recently discovered how much fun going to see music live was via Bad Company, Wishbone Ash and Jethro Tull gigs, all of which I went to see with my rock music spirit guide Jack, it felt like a no-brainer and tickets were booked for the both of us. The headliner on the Saturday night was ZZ Top, a band I'd been aware of partly for the odd song on a Classic Rock Anthems compilation album from when I was a teenager and partly for their legendary cartoonish imagery, being a band led by two old men with chest-length beards in sunglasses and cowboy hats. I liked the songs and I liked the tongue-in-cheek sense of humour their image obviously betrayed, but I'd never gotten round to actually giving them much of my time. The impending deadline of High Voltage seemed a good opportunity to give them more of a shot, and over the subsequent year they became, while far from an obsession (remember that this was the same time I was getting into Tom Waits and I'm unable to be wholeheartedly obsesse by more than one artist at a time), then certainly a regular feature of my listening habits.

Post-High Voltage (and the gig itself was a spectacular show of colourful excess and characteristically cartoonish showmanship) ZZ Top gradually fell out of rotation on my iPod, and these days it's only the odd classic track I listen to that often. Ultimately, they're an enormously fun band but a long way from being particularly exciting or innovative. That's something the band themselves are well aware of, of course - lead vocalist and guitarist Billy Gibbons opened the High Voltage show by declaring "That's right, it's the same three guys right here!" before indicating his guitar and following it up with "And the same three chords right here!", and they don't let their formulaic nature distract from their passion for writing simple, gutsy and memorable pop rock songs. But they never ignited an enormous passion in me after that first year or so. So this blog again provides a nice opportunity to dive back into the work of a band I've not listened to properly for a long time.

One of the most curious things to emerge from that High Voltage gig (which I'll stop going on about in a minute, but it was my first ever festival so it's lodged in my memory) was the revelation that ZZ Top had been championed by none other than Jimi Hendrix in their early days, an anecdote Gibbons recounted before introducing a cover of Hendrix's "Hey, Joe" that I can't remember much of other than that they released a lot of purple smoke for it. It seemed surprising to me and Jack that a band as formulaic and blues-by-numbers as ZZ Top could at one stage have been interesting enough to win the approval of a guitarist as innovative and legendary as Hendrix. ZZ Top are many things - catchy, fun, cool - but innovative is one thing they've never been. Weirdly, even listening to the band's very early records still doesn't display the spirit of quite what Hendrix could have seen in them - albums like 1972's Rio Grande Mud have a couple of good tunes but largely are just predictable, plodding blues rock. But perhaps Hendrix's own reputation for innovation gets in the way of the fact that what he really appreciated in music wasn't necessarily showy virtuoso talent but rather music that was committed and effectively simple.

Rio Grande Mud was followed by 1973's Tres Hombres, their breakthrough album that would become their first Top Ten and establish them as stars. Certainly, the band we see on Tres Hombres may not be the most jaw-droppingly inventive blues rock band of all time, but it's also a band that's willing to put more emphasis on the music itself, a far cry from the shades, cars and girls imagery and synthesiser-inflected dance pop of their 80s peak (even the trademark beards of Gibbons and Hill were absent at this stage). While I'm not familiar with their later 70s work, it's probable that by that time they'd exhausted what they could do with simple blues formulas and felt the need to reinvent themselves as something far more colourful. But on Tres Hombres there's a sense of back-to-roots simplicity, an earthiness and groundedness reminiscent of earlier roots rock bands like Creedence Clearwater Revival. It's not played completely straight, of course, because this is ZZ Top we're talking about - that absurd strangled drawl Gibbons affects on "La Grange" is classic ZZ Top tongue-in-cheek silliness, and the whole thing feels far more like a bunch of guys messing around and having fun than the genuine woes and tales of day-to-day struggle that informed the blues music of their idols. But that sense of fun is what makes ZZ Top so memorable, really.

Essentially, throughout Tres Hombres bassist Dusty Hill and Frank Beard (the only member of the band to not end up growing a chest-length beard) lock into a series of tight, rhythmic grooves, over which Gibbons unleashes a series of punchy blues riffs or sweeping solos. It's never any more inventive than that, but it's done with enough panache to just about get away with it. Gibbons's guitar tone is assuredly cool, a sort of petrol-fueled, chugging snarl, though it's one of my big disappointments with ZZ Top that his vocals are fairly bland and generic. Songs as cartoonish and fun as these would really benefit from a voice with the same amount as growl and snarl in it as Gibbons's guitar, but the vocals are rarely particularly exciting to listen to. Largely, the album succeeds due to the presence of their first hit single "La Grange," a blues-inflected boogie number with an unforgettable riff and one of Gibbons's most entertaining solos. But the album's opening trio of songs is well worthy of praise, too - "Waitin' For The Bus" is a clipped, staccato blues number that keeps things admirably restrained, while "Jesus Just Left Chicago" has a looser groove to it and allows Gibbons some more space to play round with things. "Beer Drinkers And Hell Raisers" picks up the pace once again, being a faster, more urgent song almost like a poor man's "La Grange." The other standout is album closer "Have You Heard?", a song that almost bears a few gospel hallmarks in its choral vocals and sing-along chorus. It feels like perhaps the most unaffected and least tongue-in-cheek song on the album, and one with some genuine feeling behind it, and also boasts some further cool guitar riffing from Gibbons.

There are weak points aplenty, though, sadly - much of the middle of the album either consists of fairly unremarkable blues numbers, or actively wearisome songs like the slow and drawn-out "Hot, Blue And Righteous." And the penultimate track, "Shiek," is a boringly tuneless thing. As you can no doubt tell, I can't bring myself to think of Tres Hombres with much more than a modicum of admiration. I feel like the reinvention of ZZ Top in the 80s, kitsch and stupid as it may have been, injected a lot more pizzazz and colour and fun into their music that is sometimes missing here on their earlier stuff. But there's no denying that when this album gets it right, most notably on "La Grange," it shows a band that have a real talent for simple, uncomplicated and fun hard rock, and it's an interesting insight into the humbler and simpler origins of a band that became famous for outrageous excess and silliness.

Tres Hombres would be followed by a series of albums of diminishing returns. 1975's semi-live album Fandango! features the brilliant "Tush" but is mostly mind-numbingly tedious, and I've never bothered listening to their even less popular late 70s albums. But the 80s, unlike its effect on so many other classic rock acts from the 70s, were kind to ZZ Top and gave them a new lease of life in the form of an audience that really gelled with their light-hearted sense of fun. As good as Tres Hombres is in places, the best was yet to come.

Track Listing:

1. Waitin' For The Bus (Billy Gibbons & Dusty Hill)

2. Jesus Just Left Chicago (Billy Gibbons; Dusty Hill & Frank Beard)

3. Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers (Billy Gibbons; Dusty Hill & Frank Beard)

4. Master Of Sparks (Billy Gibbons)

5. Hot, Blue And Righteous (Billy Gibbons)

6. Move Me On Down The Line (Billy Gibbons & Dusty Hill)

7. Precious And Grace (Billy Gibbons; Dusty Hill & Frank Beard)

8. La Grange (Billy Gibbons; Dusty Hill & Frank Beard)

9. Shiek (Billy Gibbons & Dusty Hill)

10. Have You Heard? (Billy Gibbons & Dusty Hill)