ZZ Top: Tres Hombres
Ok, wipe that smirk off your face: you know you like “LaGrange.” If you don’t recognize that title, click here to refresh your memory (Windows Media sample). I’ve been wanting to hear the whole album for a while, since I read an interview with some famous guitarist, can’t remember who, in which he described it as a “treasure chest of [lead guitar] tones.” A local thrift store obliged me with a well-used LP, and maybe that’s a good way to hear it. The overall sound is so thick and skuzzy that the pops, clicks, and sizzle of the LP only give it more atmosphere. The gatefold photo—and remember, this is an LP, so it’s roughly 12×24 inches—is of a big sloppy Mexican meal with piles of tortillas, several heavy cheese-covered enchiladas etc. literally hanging off the plate, guacamole, peppers, beer, and limes. And it’s a good image for the music. This is not something I’d want as a steady diet, but as an occasional indulgence it’s very tasty: straight-up spicey blues-rock that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Yes, it’s full of great guitar playing, with a big, thick, scuffed-up, noisy tone (according to that interview, guitarist Billy Gibbons uses a quarter for a pick). I’m a little disappointed in the songs, though. To my taste only about half of the eleven songs get past the hurry-up-and-get-to-the-solo class, “La Grange” being one, and undoubtedly one of the top one-riff, two-chords, two-changes songs ever written. (The riff is said to have been swiped from John Lee Hooker’s “Boogie Chillun,” but I haven’t heard a version of the latter that’s exactly the same. Gibbons’s singing is a more direct imitation.) Other favorites: “Waitin’ for the Bus,” “Hot, Blue and Righteous” (not what you think—it’s about an encounter with an angel, apparently), and “Jesus Just Left Chicago.” The latter might seem irreverent, but you can’t really argue with this:
You don’t have to worry
Because taking care of business is His name
Pre-TypePad
Light On Dark Water 
Leave a comment