Mission Statement: to do very little, for very few, for not very long. Disappointing the easily pleased since 1819. Not as good as it used to be from Day One. History is Bunk - PT Barnum. Artificially Intelligent before it was fashionable. Fat camp for the mind! Nothing lasts, but nothing is lost. The Shock of the Old! Often bettered, never imitated.
Big if true....A haw, haw, haw, haw, a haw.
ReplyDeleteCute lil' hound doggies.
ReplyDeleteD in California
I would have thought Texans pronounced it "Zee" as normal, unlike the rest of us colonials who still pronounce it "Zed"! - would have been a hell of a prom night. (Another U.S. institution that baffles the rest of the world)
ReplyDeleteAccording to my highly-paid research team, this is legit!
ReplyDeleteBrilliant! Any idea when this pic was taken?
ReplyDeleteWhen was Keith Haring a member of the band?
ReplyDeletePhoto most likely taken in May 1970 according to Billy Gibbons who was interviewed by Texas Monthly magazine recently about the photo. Gibbons said he and Frank Beatd formed the band in December 1969 and Hill joined shortly after that. He said the Zee Zee was a mistake made by the high school yearbook where the photo was published- he said is was always ZZ with no periods. Gibbons dates the photo by saying proms are.typically held in May and the amp in the photo was only made for a short time around 1970.
ReplyDeleteIt is s very.cool photo from a high school in Orange, Texas - right on the Louisiana border.
Nobody knows guitar tech better than Gibbons.
DeleteWhen I was growing up that slice of Texas--Orange, Beaumont, Port Arthur--were called Lapland--it was where Louisiana lapped over into Texas. That stretch from Lake Charles over to the "Golden Triangle" is semi-terrifying and I marvel now that I hitched back and forth from Austin and Baton Rouge through there casually, nbd. Stoopid. Then and now.
DeleteAh yes. Hitch-hiking, sleeping rough. Lucky to get through that period of my life alive.
DeleteI remember in 1983 our local radio station had a ‘rock show’, the presenter announced “Here's a great track by Eliminator from their album ZZ Top, Gimme All Your Lovin”. Hard to believe they were relatively unknown in the UK in 1983.
ReplyDeleteMy mates and me were into th' Top at Tres Hombres, the album with the big radio hit La Grange. That would be in, ooh - '73. A fantastic year.
DeleteYour entree into ZZ Top was the same as mine - "Tres Hombres". 'La Grange" (they might have borrowed a John Lee Hooker riff or two) references the Chicken Ranch brothel in La Grange, Texas, which was also the subject of the movie (Burt Reynolds and Dolly Parton) and Broadway musical - "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. La Grange is sandwiched between Houston and Austin, Texas. Even with the explosive growth of Austin in the last 15 years - La Grange is still a relatively small country town today.
DeleteI agree with you 1000% about 1973 being an outstanding year for new music releases. Some of my favorites then and now:
Allman Brothers Band – "Brothers and Sisters"
Alice Cooper Band – "Billion Dollar Babies"
Jim Croce – "Life and Times" and "I Got a Name"
The Doobie Brothers – "The Captain and Me"
Emerson, Lake, and Palmer – "Brain Salad Surgery"
Grateful Dead – "Wake of the Flood"
Hall & Oates – "Abandoned Luncheonette"
George Harrison – "Living in the Material World"
Billy Joel – "Piano Man"
Elton John – "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road"
Led Zeppelin – "Houses of the Holy"
Lynyrd Skynyrd – "Pronounced ‘lĕh-‘nérd ‘skin-‘nérd"
Paul McCartney & Wings – "Band on the Run"
Pink Floyd – "Dark Side of the Moon "
Paul Simon – "There Goes Rhymin’ Simon"
Bruce Springsteen – "Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ" and "The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle"
Joe Walsh – "The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get"
The Who – "Quadrophenia"
Stevie Wonder – "Innervisions"
And kids today? KIDS TODAY?? DON'T GET ME STARTED! HAVE YOU HEARD ANY- oh, here's me buz. Nice talking! Tara a bit now!
DeleteI've boosted this piece out of the BAYMI Dept. because interest has been shown. I'll upload one of my favorite psych albums, The Moving Sidewalk's Flash, later. That would be just prior to this photo.
ReplyDeleteThankee
DeleteThanks FT3. I would be interested in hearing Moving Sidewalks. In the interview I referenced above, Billy Gibbons said ZZ Top got off to a good start because of the preexisting audience for Moving Sidewalks and that Beard and Hill had an audience from their Dallas band American Blues. He said Hill was able to seamlessly join the Top because he was so used to playing with Beard. The sound those guys got from 2 guitars and drums was just incredible.
ReplyDeleteThe American Blues album is extremely ho-hum.
DeleteThey were one of my first concerts, right after Rio Grande Mud came out. Tickets were $3, 4 & 5!
ReplyDeleteHere's today's deliverable in excellence:
ReplyDeletehttps://workupload.com/file/SUmY2qn3DWa
The Moving Sidewalks Complete Collection (the tracks which constitute Flash have been separated and tagged with the great album cover, so a "two disc" set)
"The Pre-ZZ Top Houston Roots" - excellent quality gray market 21 track comp which probably includes another slightly different version of Flash, which can only be a good thing).
Sometimes I think that 99th Floor is my most favoritest song ever!!
DOWNLOAD INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE ELDERLY: OH FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE YOU'VE LOST A SLIPPER HONESTLY I CAN'T LEAVE YOU ALONE FOR A MINUTE
This caught me off guard at how great it is - I had never heard any Moving Sidewalks - so this deliverable was a real treat. Still working my way through it. Thanks!!
Delete99th Floor is a total blast, and the Flash album is textbook rock psychedelia (if there is a such a thing). I prefer it to Manuel And His Music Of The Mountains. And a whole lot of other albums.
DeleteIt's hard to hear much ZZ in this stuff, but times & tastes were changing rapidly; sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. Thanx for the trip down memory lane!
ReplyDeleteupdate---Found a few ZZ clues in a few "unreleased" tracks...
ReplyDeleteSaw Gibbons at the Polo Open in Buenos Aires not long ago invited by a famous local crook.
ReplyDeleteA long way from that picture with a teenage Santa Claus in high heels and Liberace morning shirt.
Bat
"Teenage Santa Claus in high heels and Liberace morning shirt ..." and if that ain't the best ever line from a ZZ Top song I don't know what is.
Delete