Music

This Week’s Heavy Rotation #30

You could dance all night if you felt all right

“Proof that global warming is real; all the cool people are leaving.” ~Message from my friend sharing news of Dusty Hill’s death.

For a group that refers to themselves as “That Little Ol’ Band From Texas,” ZZ Top sure has endured. The world has changed a lot in the 50+ years since they first took to the stage. And so it was somewhat fitting that even my learning of Dusty Hill’s passing had a foot planted in both the old and new. I first heard it from a friend (old), but he posted it on Instagram (new).

ZZ Top’s brand of rock and blues is not something you listen quietly. Nor in the small hours of the night (unless the party’s still going). It’s not melancholy; it’s celebratory. You don’t listen in a Prius- that’s a square peg in a round hole.

It feels like it only works in something with a V8. Their kind of music is not something you play to get over a breakup- it’s the soundtrack to adventure.

It’s the sound of being out on the water with friends. In this universe, it’s always sunny and usually in Texas or points south- hell, even Jesus left Chicago.

Always just a little randy and always dependable. he dirty jokes always come with a wink and smile.

Kinda like the dude on your block who’s always working on something in his garage. He might be a little sketchy, but you know he’d be the first one over the table to defend you in a bar fight.

That’s a long way of saying that in my mind, Hill’s death closes the book on ZZ Top. To be clear, I hope people listen as much as always have- and if people are newly turned on to the music from news of his passing, that’s all the better.

I’m talking about replacing Hill with another musician. Lead singer/guitarist Billy Gibbons has mentioned that they’ll continue to play, but I hope that was in the same shallow vein as promising you’ll keep in touch with a friend on the last day of summer camp. A nice sentiment/nice thing to say, but you both know it’ll never happen. ZZ Top is Gibbons/Hill/Beard. Period. That’s an evergreen lineup from the land of scrub & mesquite. Preserving it as is might be the best tribute to Hill there is.

Q. What can you do that nobody else can?

A. I don’t know. You’d have to ask other people. I like to believe that I play bass like Dusty Hill, and that’s something nobody else can do as well as me. I’m the best Dusty Hill I know.

But this list isn’t about me or even my thoughts on his passing. It’s always about the music. And as I was going back through my lists, it turned out that I’d been listening to a LOT of the band this week. With that as a backdrop, I thought I’d share my top 10 favorites.

Gimme All Your Lovin’ (Eliminator)

My entry into the band. Wasn’t it just about everyone's?

Heard It On The X- (Fandango!)

ZZ Top has never been known for fast songs, but this is one of the few. Played in double time, it feels like it’s barely staying in bounds. When Kathy Gerstorff recently wrote about escaping shady characters in LA, this is the song I like to think was playing as she sped off.

I GotSta Get Paid- (La Futura)

The full-length album the band put together and tracks like this showed they hadn’t lost a step. Writing for AllMusic, critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine writes:

ZZ Top cleverly reference past glories without succumbing to recycling: “I Gotsta Get Paid” could have wallowed in the Rio Grande Mud, “Chartreuse” boogies as relentlessly as “Tush,” “Have a Little Mercy” winks at “Waitin’ for the Bus,” and they revive the arena rock of the ’80s with “Flyin’ High.” What makes these songs really cook is how ZZ Top are celebrating everything that they’ve taken for granted for decades — they’re embracing the sleazy boogie, the dirty jokes, the locomotive riffs, the saturated blues, the persistent lecherous leer, and by doing so they finally sound like themselves again.

Got Me Under Pressure (Eliminator)

Pressure might only be the 4th most famous song off of their best-selling album, but it holds its own. In the shadow of “Legs,” “Sharp Dressed Man,” and “Gimme All Your Lovin’” is a song about a woman with expensive tastes and a wild look in her eye. Gibbons wailing “she likes cocainnnnnne” might also be the most 80s lyric ever.

Move Me On Down The Line (Tres Hombres)

Not the first time this song has made one of these lists, and likely not the last either. It’s one of my favorites by the band. I’ve always taken the lyrics to be in the vein of “you can’t change the waves, but you can learn to surf,” and with Hill’s death, only more so.

I tell you, boy, every time

The feelin’ sure is fine.

Just move me on down the line,

Just move me on down the line.

May you all have sunny skies, a straight road, and a lead foot.

What’re your favorite ZZ Top tracks? What else have you been listening to this week? Let mew know in the comments!

If you’re new here, be sure to check out the works of Sarah Paris, Jessica Lee McMillan, Terry Barr, Rob Janicke, David Acaster, Alex Markham, Paul Combs, Kathryn Dillon, Reuben Salsa, Kathy Gerstorff, Keith R. Higgons, Steven Hale, MDSHall, Frank Mastropolo, Pierce McIntyre, and so so many more!

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Last week’s list: