Record of the Day: ZZ Top, “Rancho Texicano”
ZZ Top
“Rancho Texicano” (2 CD Warner Bros. 812278908-2)
Seen on the cover, the members of ZZ Top seem to have come straight out of a film like “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” by Sergio Leone; gallows faces and a very unreassuring air, it is not difficult to imagine them dressed as cowboys intent on shooting at everything that moves.
Even geographically, these musicians come from the hottest area of Texas, the one on the border with Mexico, where a western film could easily be set; their music is decidedly hot and reveals influences coming from Delta Blues (one of their first hits, “La Grange”, is copied entirely from “Boogie Chillin'” by John Lee Hooker) to which Tres Hombres add a robust dose of rock’n’roll unleashed particularly effective in concert.
Lovers of motorcycles, beers and long-legged women, Billy Gibbons (vocals and guitar), Frank Beard (drums) and Dusty Hill
(bass) continued undaunted to prepare their very spicy boogie mixture always enriched with lyrics
rascals, with salacious implications of a sexually explicit background.
If their first albums had mainly met with the approval of rock-blues fans thanks to energetic songs such as “Cheap Sunglassess”, “Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers” and “Tush”, the Eighties saw them become popular in the international charts through the gigantic success of the album “Eliminator” which saw the introduction of keyboards, synthesizers, sampled sounds and electronic drums, to the horror of purists (many early fans abandoned them after this album) and enthusiasm of teenagers, achieved thanks also to a series of spicy videos made for the then nascent MTV, which shot irresistible songs like “Gimme All Your Lovin'” and “Sharp Dressed Man” into the charts like bullets.
Certainly starting from this album ZZ Top have moved in a decidedly more commercial direction (also confirmed by hits like “Sleeping Bag” and “Velcro Fly”) but their music has not undergone a particular decrease in quality; after all, underneath always beats the old Texan heart accustomed to simple riffs, high-temperature solos and harmonic turns linked to the stainless twelve bars played with enthusiasm and sweat, mixing the smell of cigar with the aroma of barbecue.
Carlo Boccadoro, composer and conductor, was born in Macerata in 1963. He lives and works in Milan. He collaborates with soloists and orchestras in different parts of the world. He is the author of numerous books on musical topics.
This text is taken from “Lunario della musica: A record for every day of the year” published by Einaudi, courtesy of the author and the publisher.
