ZZ Top-Fandango

This is a perfect album. I post this so I can illustrate what I feel to be a perfect 10. The record should not have a single throwaway track. It should also have a sense of continuity that makes you want to listen from start to finish every time. The record should also possess a timeless quality that will not just serve as a period piece but will sound cool from the time it was made onward through the ages. For example, ZZ Top's crowning achievement, "Fandango"
Side One is all the way live, demonstrating ZZ Top's outstanding stage show. ZZ Top are just as tight as Lynyrd Skynyrd or other "southern rock" contemporaries but stripped down to a trio. After the hard rockin', hard drinkin' opener "Thunderbird", an incredibley gritty version of "Jailhouse Rock" manages to rise above the assosciation that song has with the ridiculous Elvis Presley version (in a brief unrelated note, I often joke that Elvis' "Jailhouse Rock" movie is the inspiration for those choregraphed dance numbers in Fillipino prisons). Side one closes with the outstanding "Backdoor Medley". This is where the party REALLY gets started. Frank Beard lays down a relentless shuffle on the drums that supports a series of bombastic guitar solos, lightspeed mumbling vocals and some outstanding dialouge. Example: He thinks he's real bad. He thinks he's badder than Shaft, Superfly, James Bond and Kung Fu put together. But I've got news for him. They don't call me the Texas heartbreaker and homewrecker for nothin'! I see now that it doesn't look as good in print as it sounds on wax but it's truly some of the finest stage banter you'll ever hear on a live record.
Side Two is all studio tracks and each and every one of them rank as some of the very best in ZZ Top's repertoire. "Nasty Dogs and Funky Kings" kicks it off proper with one of Billy Gibbons' tastiest licks. How tastey? Well the Melvins decided to cover this song if that's any indication. The next track "Blue Jean Blues" is one that I grew to love over time. It's the only slow number on the record and I used to think it felt out of place but it actually serves as a delightful pause. It's a moody, dreary, druggy blues number that relaxes you a bit and then BAM! "Balinese"! This is a party song. The song is literally about partying. A tale of men and women coming together to drink whiskey and dance all night, that's set to one of Beards funkiest beats and the superb guitar tones that are found all over this record. If you've ever seen the movie Dazed & Confused, this song was brilliantly used in the scene when everyone arrives at the kegger. The next track is "Mexican Blackbird", a laid back, swaggering rocker about cruising down to Mexico to pick up a hooker. Grab one of them brews and drive that old Chrysler down to Mexico boy! "I Heard it on the X" is a tribute to the music they grew up on and influenced their sound, mainly country, blues, rockabilly. All influence are found here in a very original marriage that's amped up and very unique. The record closes with the classic cut and the hit song from the record "Tush". No sense in going in to this one, it speaks for itself.
So there you have it. A top notch record from a top notch band. One of the best qualities in a band and I think one of the highest compliments you can pay a band is that they don't sound like anyone else. Nobody sounds quite like ZZ Top and when I get the urge to hear them, I can accept no substitutes.

RATING: 10/10

P.S. I have love in my heart for many types of music but unlike you, I never got over rock.