Z.Z. Top - All About All

ZZ Top (Redirected from Z.Z. Top)

ZZ Top is a rock band, most prominent in the 1970s and 1980s, from Houston, Texas. The band members are Billy Gibbons (vocals and guitar, of Moving Sidewalks), Dusty Hill (bass, of The American Blues) and Frank Beard (drums, of The Cellar Dwellers, The Hustlers, and The American Blues).

As well as a distinctive guitar sound and hard-driving, innuendo-laced lyrics (many of which are about places and events in their home state of Texas), the band is probably best known for its distinctive look. Gibbons and Hill are always pictured wearing sunglasses, trenchcoats and their trademark waist-length beards. (Frank Beard, ironically, does not wear a beard.) In 1984, the Gillette company offered Gibbons and Hill $1 million apiece to shave their beards for a commercial, but they declined. The name comes from two Z-shaped barn-door handles Gibbons once saw at a farm, and decided it would be a good idea to start a band name with. The first ideas were "ZZ Gibbons" and "ZZ Hill", but were later rejected in favor of "ZZ Top".

The band first gained wide attention with their "Tres Hombres" album, which contained the classic song "La Grange", referencing the bordello that is the subject of the musical The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. They reached new heights of popularity with the 1983 album Eliminator, boosted to prominence by music videos for the tracks "Gimme All Your Lovin'", "Legs" and "Sharp Dressed Man" each of which featured a small bright red vintage coupe called The Eliminator (http://www.lowpft.com/FIVE.GIF) and a mysterious trio of beautiful women who travel around helping various people in the videos. The album also featured a distinctive synthesizer-laced sound, a rarity in the blues genre which added a modern edge to the music, and also helped the album to be as successful as it is.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted ZZ Top in on March 15, 2004.

Billy Gibbons will appear on Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell's solo album Two Sides Of If.

The band is also working on an album of new material, due out sometime in 2006.

Discography

• ZZ Top's First Album (1970)
• Rio Grande Mud (1972)
• Tres Hombres (1973)
• Fandango! (1975)
• Tejas (1976)
• The Best of ZZ Top (1977)
• Degüello (1979)
• El Loco (1981)
• Eliminator (1983)
• Afterburner (1985)
• Recycler (1990)
• ZZ Top's Greatest Hits (1992)
• Antenna (1994)
• One Foot in the Blues (1994)
• Rhythmeen (1996)
• XXX (1999)
• Mescalero (2003)
• Chrome, Smoke & BBQ (2003)
• Rancho Texicano (2004)

Singles

• "Cheap Sunglasses"
• "La Grange"
• "Nationwide"
• "Tush"
• "Velcro Fly"
• also, the songs listed under "Music Videos" below

Music Videos

• "Pincushion"
• "Breakaway"
• "World of Swirl"

DVDs

• "ZZ Top's Greatest's Hits" (2004)
• "Eric Clapton Crossroads Guitar Festival" (Nov. 9, 2004) - ZZ Top plays on this DVD.

Books

• "ZZ Top: Bad and Worldwide" (1985)
• "ZZ Top" by Mitchell Craven (July 1, 1985)
• "ZZ Top" by Philip Kamin (March 3, 1986)
• "ZZ Top" by Robert Draper (July 1, 1989)
• "Elimination: The ZZ Top Story" (December 1, 1991)
• "Sharp-Dressed Men: Zz Top Behind the Scenes from Blues to Boogie to Beards" (May 1, 1994)
• "ZZ Top: Elimination" (June 1, 1998)
• "ZZ Top Greatest Hits" (July 1, 1999)
• "The New Best of Zz Top for Guitar (Easy Tab Deluxe)" (July 1, 1999)
• "ZZ Top / XXX (Authentic Guitar-Tab)" (March 1, 2000)
• "ZZ Top - Guitar Anthology" (February 1, 2003)
• "Essential ZZ Top" (April 2003)
• "The Very Best of ZZ Top" (April 1, 2003)
• "The Best of Zz Top: A Step-By-Step Breakdown of the Guitar Styles and Techniques of Billy Gibbons" (September 1, 2003)
• "Billy F. Gibbons: Rock+Roll Gearhead" (October 15, 2005).

NOTE: Publishing dates were acquired from Amazon.com.

Interesting trivia

• Billy Gibbons has often been referred to as The Reverend Willy G. In 2002, he made that title official and was ordained so he could perform a Dallas wedding.
• In December 1984, Dusty Hill accidentally set off a derringer he kept in his boot and shot himself in the stomach. He fully recovered.
• "La Grange" is a song about a brothel. The real name of the brothel is "Gracie's Chicken Farm". This brothel is also the subject of the film The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas starring Dolly Parton and Burt Reynolds.
• The band appeared in the film Back to the Future Part III playing period (i.e. 1885) equivalents of their instruments.
• ZZ Top is a sponsor of the Delta Blues Museum.
• In a 1984 episode of Saturday Night Live, Father Guido Sarducci "nominated" ZZ Top for the Democratic presidential primary. In a national phone-in poll conducted during the broadcast, the band won by a significant margin.
• Frank Beard is the only band member who doesn't have a beard.
• ZZ Top is the only known rock band to have the same 3 band members for a little over 35 years.
• Marilyn Manson talks of how when he befriended Dave Navarro he had to try to keep him from giving him a blow job, and that he and former bassist Twiggy Ramirez bought hookers and had sex with them to the songs of ZZ Top's album Eliminator.

See also

• Best selling music artists

External links

• The Official ZZ Top Website (http://www.zztop.com)
• The Little ol' Web Page from Texas (http://lowpft.com) - Peter Zurich's fan site
• ZZ Top Lyrics (http://www.lyricsdownload.com/zz-top-lyrics.html) - ZZ Top Lyrics
• Live Concert Archive & Library (http://www.zzlive.com) - Gregory K. Deeter's fan site
• A guide to ZZ Top (http://zztop.hippy.jp/) - Japanese fan site
• ZZ Top - Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (http://rockhall.com/hof/inductee.asp?id=2183) - Direct link