Two guys with beards, and a guy called Beard who doesn’t have a beard. Those 1980s videos. The car.
The keyring. The furry, twirling guitars from ..
. To many people those things are the essence of the self-styled Li’l Ole Band From Texas. But such memorable images are far from being the band’s only contribution to rock.
– , and Frank Beard – are certainly among America’s musical elite; a band who took blues rock, gave it a Texan tweak, and produced gutsy music that amuses, amazes and gets your body moving for more than 50 years. From their Houston beginnings in 1969 when guitarist Gibbons, then with The Moving Sidewalks, teamed up with bassist Hill and drummer Beard from The American Blues, ZZ have defied convention. They made such an impact with their first three albums – , and – that they were soon one of the biggest live attractions in the US.
In the mid-70s they proudly had a map of Texas as their stage flooring, and had . After 1976’s , the trio decided on a three-year break, returning in 1979 with the album, by which time both Gibbons and Hill had grown those trademark beards. In the UK, ZZ Top remained a cult phenomenon.
.. until 1983’s appeared from out of nowhere and rearranged the charts.
The logic was simple: easy-on-the-ear songs, a modern production, and MTV-friendly videos that had a potent mix of sex, laughs and hardware. Suddenly ZZ Top were everywhere. Like and would do later in the decade, ZZ had reinvented themselves.
And with staggering .
