Zz group. ZZ Top - those who are especially rich beards

This famous American blues-hard rock band is notable primarily for the fact that for almost 50 years it has not only never changed its line-up, but has remained true to its style, unlike those of yours. Metallica.

Young 20-year-old guitarist and vocalist Billy Gibbons was an avid fan of Elvis Presley. He tried to adopt the King's charismatic walk, behavior and style. No wonder the dude started the band very quickly Moving Sidewalks, which played rather specific music reminiscent of psychedelic rock. The group was widely known in extremely narrow circles and, perhaps, could become even more popular if the Vietnam War had not suddenly appeared and almost all of its members had not been taken to fight. Billy found the same ones left after the call of Dusty Hill and Frank Beard. They didn't part again. The guys came up with the name of the new group - ZZ Top. Where did it come from? There is an opinion that it was inspired by the name of the American blues singer Z. Z. Hill or that this is a symbiosis of the names of two famous brands manufacturers of Zig-Zag and Top rolling papers. But this is just a legend.

The band did not miss the opportunity to perform anywhere, because someday you will be lucky anyway, right? So why not take advantage of all the options that life presents us with? And luck smiled at the guys: they were offered to record the first album. It received the unpretentious name "ZZ Top's First Album". The group's attitude to the blues was very frivolous, so their style was even called "Alternative Blues". The disc, although it was noted by many positive feedback, but did not bring the group popularity. The second disc, "Rio Grande Mud", corrected the situation and brought fame to the bearded men. After the guys decided to participate in the promo tour Rolling Stones 1972.


But the third album, along with the chic composition "La Grange" with cool guitar riffs, made the group popular immediately and quickly. The album went platinum, and the trio, charismatic and confident on stage in their strange biker outfits, instantly became very recognizable. Deciding to consolidate their fame, the guys in 1974 organized an event at the stadium of the University of Texas, called "Texas-Size Rompin' Stompin' Barndance and Bar-B-Q". About 85 thousand people came to the concert. After that, the university administration decided never to hold any concerts in their lives. The ban was lifted only twenty years later.

The promo tour for the third album was very, very epic. The guys promised to bring a piece of Texas with them - the guys kept their promise. The scenery consisted of cacti (where without them), typical Texas ranch corners, barns and local animals. Once, a herd of cattle and a live buffalo were even driven onto the stage. And then one of the band members brought a real rattlesnake onto the stage. In terms of money, the tour was more than just very successful: the guys earned a record $11.5 million.

And in 1979, dudes who met to record a new album, Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill, were surprised to find that they both let go of a long, powerful beard without even saying a word. The third member of the group, Frank Beard (his last name, by the way, translates as "beard") did not follow their example - probably because he was already teased with a beard.

The 1983 album "Eliminator" did not appeal to the loyal fans of the blues part of the group, they unanimously said "fu" when they heard the synth, fashionable at that time, in the songs. But the general public liked the electronic motives very much. The group suddenly became terribly popular, their album sold over 10 million copies, and the whole world started talking about bearded men. In the same year, the famous bright red Ford roadster of 1933 appeared in the band's videos, which, along with beards, became their hallmark.

The dudes made their first film appearance in 1989's Back to the Future 3. After that, bearded men often flashed in different shows, and references to their group still flash in popular books, movies and series.

In 2004, the guys received a cushy place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Since 2008, the guys promise us new album, but it doesn’t exist, it doesn’t exist, although last year information about its release appeared on the official website. Let's wait.

Of course, the bearded guys have done a lot of good for music in general and for rock and roll, blues, metal and psychedelics in particular. These dudes are young at heart, and when we look at the cheerful performance of these resilient eternal old men who have never parted for 50 years, we believe in the beautiful, kind and bright. And they also suit these strange beards.

In the late 1960s, Texas guitarist Billy Gibbons formed the Moving Sidewalks blues team. The group released an album and several singles, and even Jimi Hendrix himself, imbued with her work, invited the musicians to participate with him in a TV show, where he called Gibbons one of the best young performers in America. In 1970, Billy opened new project called "ZZ Top". In this case, he was helped by fellow "Moving Sidewalks" keyboardist Lanier Grieg and drummer Dan Mitchell. This configuration managed to release only one single, after which Billy's colleagues went to Vietnam, and he had to look for new associates.

New composition"ZZ Top" cemented on long years, was as follows: Billy Gibbons (vocals, guitar), Joe "Dusty" Hill (vocals, bass), Frank Beard (drums). The fourth freelance member of the team was producer Bill Ham. It was he who advised to focus on hard rock. But the team also could not refuse their southern blues roots, as a result of which they chose the direction that provided "ZZ Top" with fame on for a long time. At the beginning of their activity, the trio toured mainly in the southern states, but after the release of the second disc, they gained all-American fame.

Then, in 1972, their single "Francene" broke into the top hundred. For some reason, "Rio Grande Mud" itself did not hit the charts, although the songs from the album sounded on the air of radio stations. Commercial success came with the release of "Tres Hombres", which contained such an action movie as "La Grange". Thanks to this composition, the album landed straight into the Top 10. The next, half-studio, half-live, work, "Fandango", was also present in the top ten. This disc, which received platinum, spent total on the charts for 83 weeks. The World Wide Texas tour that followed was truly legendary for ZZ Top. The fact is that the stage during the tour was decorated in the appropriate Texas style - with cacti, snakes and other southern "charms".

After 1976, there was a significant break in the studio activities of the trio, during which the group mostly indulged in touring. Gibbons and Hill grew themselves long beards, providing "ZZ Top" with a signature stage image (Bird did not need a beard, because his last name was "bearded"). In the period from 1979 to 1985, the group released four albums with an equal interval of two years. And if "El Loco" turned out to be rather weak compared to its predecessors, then on "Eliminator" the trio regained the lost positions, issuing a number of militants "Sharp dressed man", "Legs", "Gimme all your lovin"".

All these songs were played on TV, while the record sold in incredible numbers, and the army of ZZ Top fans grew steadily. Although "Eliminator" rose "only" to number nine on the Billboard, it spent over a year in the Top 20. After the also commercially successful "Afterburner", the band took a break for five years, returning only in 1990 with the album "Recycler". This disc was the end of a long-term collaboration between "ZZ Top" and "Warner Bros". In 1994, the bearded men moved to RCA, where they started with the release of Antenna. The album, as always, contained a series of hits, and one of them, "She's just killing me", sounded on the soundtrack to the cult Tarantino film "From dusk till dawn".

ZZ Top celebrated its thirtieth anniversary with the release of a new studio work with the appropriate title - "XXX", after which they rolled into a global world tour. Unfortunately, after touring, Dusty Hill was diagnosed with hepatitis C and had to spend some time recuperating. As a result, the team returned to full-fledged activity only in 2003, when the album "Mescalero" was released.

ZZ Top(Zizi Top) - american rock group founded in 1969 in Houston, Texas.

The line-up of the band has remained virtually unchanged since its founding: Billy Gibbons (guitar, vocals), Dusty Hill (bass guitar, vocals, keys), Frank Beard - drums, percussion. The producer until September 2006 was also unchanged - Bill Ham.

Style ZZ Top can be defined as blues-rock with elements of boogie-woogie and hard rock, and their slow compositions are often just blues. The lyrics are overwhelmingly frivolous, riddled with humor and sexual innuendo, full of slang, but they fit the music perfectly.

Story

The beginning of the path

Founder ZZ Top is Billy Gibbons (William "Billy" Frederick Gibbons). Before joining the group, Billy Gibbons played in the Texas psychedelic band The Moving Sidewalks, which he founded, which recorded a number of singles and one full-length album, and even performed with Jimi Hendrix.

The group broke up in 1969, and in late 1969 Billy founded new group called ZZ Top.

The group included fellow members of The Moving Sidewalks, keyboardist Lanier Grieg and drummer Dan Mitchell, but after the release of one single, the colleagues were called up for service in Vietnam.

Billy Gibbons brought in drummer Frank Lee Beard, whose band American Blues had also disbanded. Frank Beard, in turn, invited Dusty Hill (Joe Michael "Dusty" Hill), his partner in the groups "American Blues", "The Warlocks", and "The Cellar Dwellers" to participate in the group and in February 1970 the group in The new line-up went on a tour of Texas. Their producer Bill Ham (William Mack Ham) became a freelance member of the group.

The origin of the band's name, according to Billy Gibbons, is connected with B.B. King. The group was originally going to be called Z.Z. King, however, Gibbons found this too similar to BB King, and so - since BB King had already become a "top" figure in his own right - the band's name became ZZ Top.

However, there are clear allusions of a different nature. Thus, the name of the group is a compilation of the names of two well-known companies for the production of paper for cigarette rolls Zig-Zag and Top; there is also a connection with the pseudonym of the famous American blues singer Z. Z. Hill

The band was able to sign a two-album deal with London Records. subsidiary Warner Music Group.

First album

The first album, without frills called ZZ Top "s First Album, was recorded at Robin Hood Studios in Tyler, Texas at the end of 1970 and was released on January 16, 1971. The single from this album "(Somebody Else Been) Shaking Your Tree" reached 50 No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, but the band remained little known and continued to work in the southern states of the U.S. The band labeled the album's style as "Abstract Blues".

The band's second album, Rio Grande Mud, was released on April 4, 1972, was recorded there and released by the same record company. The album came out with a slightly heavier sound than the previous one and brought the band success, it gained some notoriety outside the southern states. In January 1973, the band even opened for the Rolling Stones on their Hawaii tour.

The band began working with acclaimed engineer and producer Terry Manning at his Memphis studio. The result was the release of the third album Tres Hombres on July 26, 1973, which brought the group real success. The release contained one of famous hits group "La Grange". The album climbed to number 8 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart, selling the album in excess of one million copies. ZZ Top concerts are beginning to attract tens of thousands of spectators.

On April 18, 1975, the fourth album of Fandango! was released, one of the sides of the disc contained material recorded in the studio, and the second was a recording concert performance groups. The disc went platinum and took 10th place on the Billboard Pop Albums chart. After that, the group went on a world tour "World Wide Texas", which lasted a year and a half.

The new album, Tejas, was released only on February 9, 1977 and, in general, did not leave anything remarkable in history, although it reached the 17th place. A month later, The Best of ZZ Top compilation was released and there was no place on the compilation for any of the songs from the new album.

In 1977, the band took a break from intense touring and recording. During this time, the group's producer/manager/image maker Bill Ham settled all business with London Records and the group moved under the wing of more big company Warner Bros. records.

When the group got together to record a new album (Deguello, August 27, 1979), it turned out that Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill, without saying a word, let go of themselves considerable beards, which became the band's trademark. Frank Beard did not follow their example (his last name "Beard" in translation is "beard"). The band's music was supplemented by the use of a saxophone, but in general, it remained the same, recognizable blues-rock.

The next album, El Loco, was released on November 30, 1981 and was the first on which instrument parts were recorded separately from each other, in different rooms and the first where the band started using synthesizers. In principle, the album left the group at about the same level.

World fame

But the next album, Eliminator (March 23, 1983) brought the group the most big success throughout history and gave the group already world status. Using synthesizers and sequencers in the recording, a lot of other special equipment, the group achieved a certain smoothness and evenness of the sound, which, combined with the hard rock energy inherent in the band's music, blues moves and indispensable humor, allowed to attract many fans around the world. The music has become more modern, has acquired a somewhat dance character. Critics accused the band of playing " primitive hard rock", However, the audience likes clear rhythms and surround sound. This album can be said to have opened new era blues rock, which previously had a large but still limited following, and ZZ Top demonstrated that blues rock was also accessible to a relatively general public. With the release of this album, ZZ Top began to shoot video clips, which also brought them even more popularity.

In 1984, Gillette offered Gibbons and Hill $1 million each if they shaved their beards in front of the cameras, but they refused, saying "We're too awful without them."

With the release of the new album Afterburner (October 28, 1985), critics revived again, calling the album "the second part of the Eliminator album." The public again ignored the opinion of critics, the album reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 200. Indeed, the album continued the line found on the previous album, except that some songs from the album turned out with a clear inclination towards hard rock.

After two albums that achieved phenomenal success, the band did not record for 5 years. During this time, in 1987, Warner Bros. released a collection (Six Pack), consisting of all, excluding Degüello, the group's albums.

However, before the release of the collection, all of the band's recordings underwent significant processing in order to bring the band's sound closer to that of the successful last two releases. Some songs were shortened, drums were digitally processed; moreover, some texts have been changed.

The next album, Recycler, was released on March 23, 1990. On this album ZZ Top tried to return to their blues roots, using less synths and not trying to polish the sound too much. The album also achieved quite high positions, but not as high as the previous two albums. It can be assumed that rather high sales were due to the return famous group after a long break because musical material the album was somewhat questionable. So, the Russian magazine "Trakh", which was released in the early 90s in two issues, described the album as "Eliminator", listened to at a slow speed.

In 1990, the group starred in the film Back to the Future 3 and in the TV movie Mother Goose Rock "n" Rhyme.

April 14, 1992 Warner Bros. released the compilation ZZ Top Greatest Hits, and the musicians parted ways with this record company.

The Antenna album was already released on RCA on January 18, 1994 and sold over a million copies, and this album turned out to be last album having quite a lot of success.

Warner Bros. On November 22, 1994, she issued a release in the form of a collection of blues recorded by the group while working with the company (One Foot In The Blues).

On September 17, 1996, the group released the album Rhythmeen, September 28, 1999 - XXX (the name of the album emphasizes the 30th anniversary of the group), April 15, 2003 - Mescalero. Between 1999 and 2003, the break was forced: Billy Gibbons was diagnosed with hepatitis C and was undergoing treatment.

Since 2003 studio albums never released by the band, although it was announced in 2006 that the band had recorded a new album. But it was not released, the band left RCA, parted ways with their longtime producer Bill Ham and signed with Sanctuary Records in December 2006. However, the band has not yet released a studio album.

But Warners Bros. released two releases. One - 4-disc Chrome, Smoke & BBQ (October 14, 2003) was a compilation of A and B sides of singles, rare live and radio recordings, and dance remixes. The second, the two-disc Rancho Texicano: The Very Best of ZZ Top (June 8, 2004), contained a surprisingly re-digitized compilation the best records ZZ Top, but already reduced to their original of the 70s - various effects, echoes have been eliminated. Looking ahead, I must say that in 2006 the same albums Tres Hombres and Fandango! were released, and in 2008 Eliminator.

ZZ Top was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 14, 2004 by Keith Richards.

Despite the lack of studio albums, the band is actively touring, using old material. On June 24, 2008, the first official DVD, Live from Texas, was released containing a recording of a concert that took place on November 1, 2007 at the Nokia Theater in Grand Prairie, Texas.

In July 2008, the recording of a new album was announced, but the release has not yet taken place.

Contribution to world rock music

ZZ Top made a significant contribution to world rock music. The group was able to combine traditional blues, boogie-woogie, rock and roll with elements of hard rock and disco in their music, which connected music fans of the 50s and 60s with the younger generation of the 70s and 80s. .

The band's music can attract everyone: fans heavy music revere the band for irrepressible energy, heavy riffs and a dense rhythm section, blues fans for emotional guitar solos, sensual swing, and everyone else can just dance and enjoy the texts and videos full of humor.

Genre: Blues rock, boogie rock, hard rock, southern rock, rock and roll

A country: USA

Years of activity 1969 - present.

Biography:

ZZ Top - Music band from the USA, working in the blues-rock genre. The lyrics of the songs are often comic, filled with humor and slang. The ZZ Top team was founded in 1969 after another group, also created by B. Gibbons, The Moving Sidewalks, broke up. D. Hill and drummer F. Bird became members of the new team, B. Ham was also considered a member of the team, who until 2006 was the permanent producer of the group. Debut album the musicians recorded already in 1970, but it did not enjoy great success, although it entered the Top 100 in the United States. The next album became more popular and was released in 1972. The third album, which was released in 1973, brought real fame to the musicians. The recording took place with the participation of producer T. Manning in Memphis. The album was able to climb into the top ten of the US Billboard chart, and the number of copies sold reached one million copies. The team's next CD was called Fandango! also marked in the top ten of the top 100 and went platinum. worldwide fame came to the team after the release of the Eliminator album in 1983, after which ZZ Top began to shoot videos for their compositions.

In the late 1960s, Texas guitarist Billy Gibbons formed the Moving Sidewalks blues team. The group released an album and several singles, and even Jimi Hendrix himself, imbued with her work, invited the musicians to participate with him in a TV show, where he called Gibbons one of the best young performers in America. In 1970, Billy opened a new project called "ZZ Top". In this case, he was helped by fellow "Moving Sidewalks" keyboardist Lanier Grieg and drummer Dan Mitchell. This configuration managed to release only one single, after which Billy's colleagues went to Vietnam, and he had to look for other associates. The new line-up of "ZZ Top", cemented for many years, looked like this: Billy Gibbons (guitar), Joe "Dusty" Hill (vocals, bass), Frank Beard (drums). The fourth freelance member of the team was producer Bill Ham, who advised to focus on hard rock.

However, the team also could not give up their southern blues roots, as a result of which a direction was chosen that provided "ZZ Top" with fame for a long time. At the beginning of their activity, the trio toured mainly in the southern states, but after the release of the second disc, they gained all-American fame. Then, in 1972, their single "Francene" broke into the top hundred. For some reason, "Rio Grande Mud" itself did not hit the charts, although the songs from the album sounded on the air of many radio stations.

Commercial success came with the release of "Tres Hombres", which contained such an action movie as "La Grange". Thanks to this composition, the album landed straight into the Top 10. The next, half-studio, half-live, work, "Fandango", was also present in the top ten. The platinum-certified disc spent a total of 83 weeks on the charts. The World Wide Texas tour that followed was truly legendary for ZZ Top. The fact is that the stage during the tour was decorated in the appropriate Texas style - with cacti, snakes and other southern "charms". After 1976, there was a significant break in the studio activities of the trio, during which the group mostly indulged in touring. Gibbons and Hill both grew long beards, giving "ZZ Top" their signature stage image (Bird didn't need a beard as his last name was "bearded").

In the period from 1979 to 1985, the group released four albums with an equal interval of two years. And if "El Loco" turned out to be rather weak compared to its predecessors, then on "Eliminator" the trio regained lost ground, giving out a number of action films: "Sharp Dressed Man", "Legs", "Gimme All Your Lovin". "All these songs were spinning on television, while the record sold in incredible numbers, and the army of fans "ZZ Top" has grown steadily.

Although "Eliminator" rose "only" to number nine on the Billboard, it spent over a year in the Top 20. After the commercially successful "Afterburner" the band took a break for five years, returning only in 1990 with the album "Recycler". This disc was the end of a long-term collaboration between "ZZ Top" and "Warner Bros". In 1994, the "bearded men" moved to RCA, where they began with the release of the album "Antenna". The disc sold a million copies, but subsequent releases were sold more modestly. ZZ Top celebrated its thirtieth anniversary with the release of a studio work with the appropriate name "XXX", after which they rolled into a global world tour.

Unfortunately, at the end of the tour, Dusty Hill was diagnosed with hepatitis C, and he had to spend some time recovering his health. As a result, the team returned to full-fledged activity only in 2003, when the album "Mescalero" was released. Despite being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, the next few years were no different. vigorous activity. Only in 2008 the live album "Live From Texas" was released (released on DVD, and later on CD), and only after that the "bearded men" announced the preparation of a new studio album.