Raised On Radio: ZZ Top

 It seems appropriate to write about the death of Dusty Hill of ZZ Top. A bit unexpected as I classify them with Van Halen as some of my most favorite of the truly mainstream bands.

Eliminator of course was huge and as I have said before, it fits with VHs 1984, Synchronicity, Born in the USA and Heartbeat City as albums I alternately love and am completely sick of.

I can’t help but think of ZZ Top in that same category of artists and how Warner Bros, Columbia Records and others would (when they had a big hit) sell their older albums at a reduced cost. It’s funny of course, because as a young fan, these records felt like off brand cereal. 40 years later, I realize the diamonds in the proverbial rough. (As an aside I absolutely love that the new John Mayer album has the “Nice Price” sticker. )

Now, Eliminator was the perfect 80s album. Throw it in a Rock or Pop or even dance mix and it holds. The band would be chasing that sound for another ten years, but even those ensuing singles were pretty good.

From there, of course, through FM Radio or wherever, one hears Tush, La Grange Waitin for the Bus, Cheap Sunglasses and a good helping of other older hits.

They are infectious and quite timeless. Although these songs were from the 1970s- ostensibly music from parents and older siblings- yet these songs seem to exist in a period of their own. Indeed, Sharp Dressed Man which has had multiple lives, less a product of a time where it shared the charts with Men At Work, Culture Club and the Jane Fonda Workout, and more of some timeless record that exists outside such things.

Like many bands, that initial euphoria levels off when you realize that unless you go back to the first caveman, nothing is original, and at some point, you realize that ZZ Top owes a debt to John Lee Hooker, Slim Harpo and Elmore James among other blues men.

That said, over time, it is easy to forgive bands who appreciated the music and brought it to the mainstream. ZZ Top certainly forged a path all their own and they are plenty of fun to listen to.