What Are You Listening To?

-Dang...  Did I just kill the thread??  I didn't think ZZ Top was that bad at all! 

-Anyway, I'll test those waters again with this one, especially since the missus had spent the last hour on line shopping...

Now Playing:

ZZ Top   Fandango

Blessed with their first full-fledged hit album, ZZ Top followed it up with Fandango!, a record split between a side of live tracks and a side of new studio cuts. In a way, this might have made sense, since they were a kick-ass live band, and they do sound good here, but it's hard not to see this as a bit of a wasted opportunity in retrospect. Why? Because the studio side is a worthy successor to the all-fine Tres Hombres, driven by "Tush" and "Heard It on the X," two of their greatest songs that build on that album by consolidating their sound and amplifying their humor. If they had sustained this energy and quality throughout a full studio album, it would have been their greatest, but instead the mood is broken by the live cuts. Now, these are really good live cuts — and "Backdoor Medley" and "Jailhouse Rock" were fine interpretations, making familiar songs sound utterly comfortable in their signature sound — and Fandango! remains one of their better albums, but it's hard not to think that it could have been even better.

-Never mind the reviewer, folks- The live stuff is so good, that you wish it wouldn't end, and the studio stuff is so good that you don't mind that the live stuff actually did end.  ZZ Top at their best in either medium on one album-  if you like them, get this one, simply put.

-Thanks, Guys!

-I'd thought that perhaps the gremlins/hackers might have been at it again...

Current Track:

ZZ Top  Blue Jean Blues (Fandango)

-The very recently departed Jeff Healy did a  very fine take on  this tune on his debut album...

-I actually own the Blind Faith Hyde Park concert, JD, but left it back home (by mistake).  Great footage, although Stevie Winwood drifts off key fairly often, especially at the beginning.  Bad stage monitoring, I expect-  It seemed like the boys couldn't really hear themselves, unfortunately.  But having said that, I consider the whole thing certainly worthwhile, and Clapton has some pretty tasty moments, as well, in spite of his quite conciously sticking to the background...