ZZ TOP “Eliminator” /LP/

Remastered re-release of the third full-length studio album by legendary American Blues/Southern Rock band.
"Tres Hombres" is the record that brought ZZ Top their first Top Ten record, making them stars in the process. It couldn't have happened to a better record. ZZ Top finally got their low-down, cheerfully sleazy Blooze-n-Boogie right on this, their third album.
As their sound gelled, producer Bill Ham discovered how to record the trio so simply that they sound indestructible, and the band brought the best set of songs they'd ever have to the table. On the surface, there's nothing really special about the record, since it's just a driving Blues Rock album from a Texas bar band, but that's what's special about it. It has a filthy groove and an infectious feel, thanks to Billy Gibbons' growling guitars and the steady propulsion of Dusty Hill and Frank Beard's rhythm section. They get the blend of Bluesy shuffles, gut-bucket Rocking, and off-beat humor just right.
ZZ Top's very identity comes from this earthy sound and songs as utterly infectious as "Waitin' for the Bus", "Jesus Just Left Chicago", "Move Me on Down the Line", and the John Lee Hooker Boogie "La Grange".
In a sense, they kept trying to remake this record from this point on (what is "Eliminator" if not "Tres Hombres" with sequencers and synthesizers?), but they never got it better than they did here!
"Tres Hombres" was a successful combination as the release was the band's commercial breakthrough. In the US, the album entered the top ten while the single "La Grange" reached number 41 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles charts. Meanwhile, "La Grange" debuted number 33 on the American Top 40 broadcast on June 29, 1974. In 2003, the album was ranked number 498 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. In 2012, the album ranked at number 490 on a revised list. The album peaked at number 8 on the Billboard 200.
Re-edition included three previously unreleased tracks.
Warner Records Inc., 1973/2006 (081227896621). Made in Germany.


Tracklist:
1. Waitin' For The Bus 2:59
2. Jesus Just Left Chicago 3:29
3. Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers 3:23
4. Master Of Sparks 3:33
5. Hot, Blue And Righteous 3:14
6. Move Me On Down The Line 2:30
7. Precious And Grace 3:09
8. La Grange 3:51
9. Shiek 4:04
10. Have You Heard? 3:14
Bonus Tracks:
11. Waitin' For The Bus (Live) 2:41
12. Jesus Just Left Chicago (Live) 4:03
13. La Grange (Live) 4:44
Total playing time: 44:54 min.

The 30th Anniversary remastered re-release of the eighth full-length studio album by legendary American Blues/New Wave/Synth-Rock/Hard Rock band.
A Diamond certified album, "Eliminator" is ZZ Top's most commercially successful release, with sales of over 10 million copies in the United States alone.
ZZ Top had reached the top of the charts before, but that didn't make their sudden popularity in 1983 any more predictable. It wasn't that they were just popular - they were hip, for God's sake, since they were one of the only AOR favorites to figure out to harness the stylish, synthesized grooves of New Wave, and then figure out how to sell it on MTV. Of course, it helped that they had songs that deserved to be hits. With "Gimme All Your Lovin'", "Sharp Dressed Man" and "Legs", they had their greatest set of singles since the heady days of "Tres Hombres". The songs alone would have made "Eliminator" one of ZZ Top's three greatest albums, but their embrace of synths and sequencers made it a blockbuster hit, since it was the sound of the times.
It's still an excellent ZZ Top album, one of their best, yet it sounds like a mechanized ZZ Top thanks to the unflaggingly accurate grooves. Then again, that's part of the album's charm - this is New Wave Blues Rock, glossed up for the video, looking as good as the omnipresent convertible on the cover and sounding irresistible. Not the sort the old-school fans or Blues Rock purists will love, but ZZ Top never sounded as much like a band of its time as they did here!
Three of "Eliminator"'s five Singles appeared in the top 10 on the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. "Gimme All Your Lovin'", released in April 1983, went to the number two position.
Often considered ZZ Top's most popular release, the record was ranked at number 398 in Rolling Stone Magazine's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and was listed at number 39 in The 100 Greatest Albums of the 80s. In 2005, "Eliminator" was listed in Rock Hard Magazine's book of The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time.
Warner Records Inc, a Warner Music Group Company, 1983/2008 (R2 238204 / 081227997519). Made in Germany. 


Tracklist:

X1 (CD)
1. Gimme All Your Lovin 4:04  
2. Got Me Under Pressure 4:03  
3. Sharp Dressed Man 4:18  
4. I Need You Tonight 6:19  
5. I Got The Six 2:54  
6. Legs (Original Album Version) 4:34  
7. Thug 4:19  
8. TV Dinners 3:51  
9. Dirty Dog 4:07  
10. If I Could Only Flag Her Down 3:40  
11. Bad Girl 3:22
Bonus Tracks
12. Legs (Single Version) 3:35
13. Gimme All Your Lovin (Live)* 4:46
14. Sharp Dressed Man (Live)* 5:15
15. I Got The Six (Live)* 3:06
16. TV Dinners (Live)* 4:14
17. Got Me Under Pressure (Live)* 4:07
18. Legs (Dance Mix) 7:51
Total playing time: 78:25 min.
* Previously Unissued

X2 (DVD)  
The Videos
1. Gimme All Your Lovin 4:39
2. Sharp Dressed Man 4:15
3. Legs 3:56
4. TV Dinners 4:16
Live On The Tube (11/17/83)  
5. Got Me Under Pressure 4:00
6. Gimme All Your Lovin 4:22
7. Sharp Dressed Man 4:21
8. Tube Snake Boogie 3:20

Re-release of the eighth full-length studio album by legendary American Blues/New Wave/Synth-Rock/Hard Rock band.
A Diamond certified album, "Eliminator" is ZZ Top's most commercially successful release, with sales of over 10 million copies in the United States alone.
ZZ Top had reached the top of the charts before, but that didn't make their sudden popularity in 1983 any more predictable. It wasn't that they were just popular - they were hip, for God's sake, since they were one of the only AOR favorites to figure out to harness the stylish, synthesized grooves of New Wave, and then figure out how to sell it on MTV. Of course, it helped that they had songs that deserved to be hits. With "Gimme All Your Lovin'", "Sharp Dressed Man" and "Legs", they had their greatest set of singles since the heady days of "Tres Hombres". The songs alone would have made "Eliminator" one of ZZ Top's three greatest albums, but their embrace of synths and sequencers made it a blockbuster hit, since it was the sound of the times.
It's still an excellent ZZ Top album, one of their best, yet it sounds like a mechanized ZZ Top thanks to the unflaggingly accurate grooves. Then again, that's part of the album's charm - this is New Wave Blues Rock, glossed up for the video, looking as good as the omnipresent convertible on the cover and sounding irresistible. Not the sort the old-school fans or Blues Rock purists will love, but ZZ Top never sounded as much like a band of its time as they did here!
Three of "Eliminator"'s five Singles appeared in the top 10 on the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. "Gimme All Your Lovin'", released in April 1983, went to the number two position.
Often considered ZZ Top's most popular release, the record was ranked at number 398 in Rolling Stone Magazine's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and was listed at number 39 in The 100 Greatest Albums of the 80s. In 2005, "Eliminator" was listed in Rock Hard Magazine's book of The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time.
Warner Records Inc., 1983 (075992377423). Made in Germany. 


Tracklist:
1. Gimme All Your Lovin 4:04
2. Got Me Under Pressure 4:03
3. Sharp Dressed Man 4:18
4. I Need You Tonight 6:19
5. I Got The Six 2:54
6. Legs (Original Album Version) 4:34
7. Thug 4:19
8. TV Dinners 3:51
9. Dirty Dog 4:07
10. If I Could Only Flag Her Down 3:40
11. Bad Girl 3:22
Total playing time: 45:17 min.

The first European release of the sixth full-length studio album by legendary American Blues/Boogie/Hard Rock band.
The first ZZ Top release on Warner Bros. Records and eventually went Platinum.
Returning from a two-year hiatus, the band began to showcase the influence they have collected during the time away; Gibbons' time in Europe introduced him to Punk music, the influences of which seeped into the creation of the album. The band also consciously tried experimenting with technology: Gibbons saw an episode of The Phil Donahue Show where a person's identity was protected using silhouette and a pitch shifter; liking the sound, he asked engineer Manning to call the show and find out what the effects unit was. Manning eventually convinced a reluctant show producer to reveal it, and the effect was used for both vocals and guitars on songs like "Manic Mechanic".
The album also marked the first time that ZZ Top featured cover versions on a studio album: "I Thank You" by Isaac Hayes/David Porter and "Dust My Broom", credited on early editions to Elmore James but subsequently credited to Robert Johnson, who recorded it in 1936. Elmore James had adapted and popularized the song in 1951.
Lone Wolf Productions/Warner Records Inc., a Warner Music Group Company, 1979/2020 (7599-27400-2). Made in Germany. Re-press.


Tracklist:
1. I Thank You 3:23
2. She Loves My Automobile 2:22    
3. I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide 4:45
4. A Fool For Your Stockings 4:15    
5. Manic Mechanic 2:36    
6. Dust My Broom 3:06
7. Lowdown In The Street 2:49
8. Hi Fi Mama 2:22
9. Cheap Sunglasses 4:46
10. Esther Be The One 3:30
Total playing time: 34:16 min.



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Re-release of the ninth full-length studio album by legendary American Blues/New Wave/Synth-Rock/Hard Rock band.
"Afterburner" is a follow-up to their blockbuster "Eliminator". No matter how much you dress ZZ Top up, they're still ZZ Top. Sometimes they can trick you into thinking they're a little flashier than usual, but they're still a Blues band from Texas, kicking out Blues Rockers. And Blues Rock just doesn't kick when it's synthesized, even if ZZ Top's grooves always bordered on robotic. So, "Afterburner", their most synthetic album, will not please most ZZ Top fans, even if it did go Platinum several times over and reached number four. That's all just a sign of the times, when even Hard Rock bands had to sound as slick as Synth Pop, complete with clanging DX-7s and cavernous drums.
As an artifact of that time, "Afterburner" is pretty good. All this means that "Afterburner" is merely a product of its time - the only record ZZ Top could have made at the time.
Although critics' response to the album was lukewarm, "Afterburner" was a commercial success, eventually going Platinum five times and launching one hit Single, "Sleeping Bag", which peaked at No. 1 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks and at No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100, equalling the peak of their previous Single, "Legs". The album yielded three other Top 40 Singles in the United States: "Stages" (no. 21), "Rough Boy" (no. 22), and "Velcro Fly" (no. 35).
The album was the band's first to hit number 1, topping the charts in New Zealand. It peaked at number 4 on the Billboard 200, at number 2 on the UK Albums Chart, and at number 6 on the Australian albums chart. In the UK, it was the band's second album to be certified by the British Phonographic Industry, attaining Gold (100 000 units) in 1985. In 1990, it was certified Platinum (300 000 units).
Warner Records Inc., 1985/2019 (25342-2 / 075992534222). Made in Germany.


Tracklist:
1. Sleeping Bag 4:02
2. Stages 3:32
3. Woke Up With Wood 3:45
4. Rough Boy 4:50
5. Can't Stop Rockin' 3:01
6. Planet Of Women 4:04
7. I Got The Message 3:27
8. Velcro Fly 3:29
9. Dipping Low (In The Lap Of Luxury) 3:11
10. Delirious 3:41
Total playing time: 37:02 min.

The fifteenth full-length studio album by legendary American Blues/Hard Rock band.
The band's first album in nine years, following "Mescalero", and their last studio album released in bassist Dusty Hill's lifetime.
ZZ Top have long been a prime candidate for a Rick Rubin-led comeback, having long ago settled into an insular digital rut that paid back increasingly small dividends. "La Futura" is that long-awaited ZZ Top record, their first full-length in nearly a decade and, more remarkably, their first-ever album to bear a production credit by somebody who is neither Billy Gibbons nor long-time manager Bill Ham, who left the organization in 2006. Gibbons sits at the mixing board with Rubin, and together they revive the Top's dirty '70s Boogie, never quite forgetting the coolly propulsive stylized Rock of "Eliminator".
Certainly, "La Futura" is the best album from ZZ Top since that '80s landmark, but it flips "Eliminator" on its head, using synthesized elements as accents, not as a skeleton. Rubin returns real drums to ZZ Top but doesn't entirely strip away drum machines, giving "La Futura" just enough of a futuristic shimmer to live up to its name, just enough of the present to make it feel of the moment. And there's no mistaking - ZZ Top 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!
"La Futura" peaked at number 5 on the Billboard "Top Rock Albums" chart.
American Recordings/Universal Republic Records, A Division Of UMG Recordings, Inc., 2012 (0602537141135). Made in the EU. First press.


Tracklist:
1. I Gotsta Get Paid 4:03
2. Chartreuse 2:57
3. Consumption 3:49
4. Over You 4:30
5. Heartache In Blue 4:09
6. I Don't Wanna Lose, Lose, You 4:22
7. Flyin' High 4:18
8. It's Too Easy Mañana 4:48
9. Big Shiny Nine 3:11
10. Have A Little Mercy 3:19
Total playing time: 39:26 min.

Re-release of the tenth full-length studio album by legendary American Blues/Synth-Rock/Hard Rock band.
The last ZZ Top's album to utilize the band's synthesizer-driven production style, which began on "Eliminator" and marked a return to the band's Blues roots.
The band had a cameo in the 1990 film "Back to the Future Part III", playing an "old west" version of "Doubleback" along with some local musicians. The regular version of the song plays over the credits. The music video for "Doubleback" also had clips from the movie and was included on the DVD.
There were five hit Singles from the album: "Doubleback" (No. 1 on the Album Rock Tracks for five weeks), "Concrete and Steel" (No. 1 on the Album Rock Tracks for four weeks), "Burger Man", "Give It Up", and "My Head's in Mississippi" (No. 1 on the Album Rock Tracks for six weeks).
Music videos were also made for "My Head's in Mississippi", "Burger Man" and "Give It Up".
In the UK, it was the band's third album to be certified by the British Phonographic Industry, attaining Silver (60 000 units) in 1990.
The album peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard 200, at No. 8 on the UK Albums Chart and at No. 27 on the Australian Albums chart.
Lone Wolf Productions/Warner Records Inc., 1990 (075992626521). Made in Germany.


Tracklist:
1. Concrete And Steel 3:49
2. Lovething 3:25
3. Penthouse Eyes 3:47
4. Tell It 4:48
5. My Head's In Mississippi 4:25
6. Decision Or Collision 4:03
7. Give It Up 3:33
8. 2000 Blues 4:45
9. Burger Man 3:19
10. Doubleback 3:54
Total playing time: 39:48 min.

Expanded Edition remastered re-release of the fourth full-length studio album by legendary American Blues Rock band.
The first CD version to use Terry Manning's original 1975 mix.
The album's first side consists of selections from live shows, with the second side being new studio recordings. "The live capture wound up being in the can first. We had enough live material to make up one side of the disc, so we decided to go with the unusual move of making the album half live, half studio. It turned out to be a winning combination for us".
Fandango, from which the album gets its name, is a type of dance similar to flamenco.
The album's opening song, "Thunderbird", despite having ZZ Top writing credit, was originally written and performed by The Nightcaps, a band formed in the 1950s when its members were teenagers. The Nightcaps performed the song and distributed it on their album "Wine, Wine, Wine", but never applied for copyright. ZZ Top began performing the song as early as 1974, and has conceded that their version is lyrically and musically identical to the Nightcaps' song. The Nightcaps sued ZZ Top for copyright infringement, but their claims were dismissed, as ZZ Top had registered a copyright on the song in 1975.
The only Single released from the album was "Tush". The single peaked at #20 on the US Billboard Hot 100, making it the band's first top 40 single in the US. The song "Heard It on the X" also received heavy rotation on Classic Rock Radio.
In the late 1980s, the album was released on CD with the studio recordings being digitally remixed and the original 1975 mix version was discontinued. The remix version created controversy among fans because it significantly changed the sound of the instruments, especially the drums. The remix version was used on all early CD copies and was the only version available for over 20 years.
A remastered and expanded edition of this album was released on February 28, 2006, containing three bonus live tracks. The 2006 edition is the first CD version to use Terry Manning's original 1975 mix.
The album was re-released in 2009 on 180-gram vinyl using the original master tapes. It appears exactly the same except that it had a 180-gram vinyl LP sticker, by Back To Vinyl Records.
"Fandango!" remains one of ZZ Top better albums.
Transferred from the Original Masters and newly remastered, Expanded Edition re-release includes three live Bonus Tracks, never released before.
Warner Records Inc., 1975/1986 (R2 78965). Made in Germany for USA.


Tracklist:
1. Thunderbird (Live) 4:10
2. Jailhouse Rock (Live; Elvis Presley cover) 1:55
3. Backdoor Medley (Live) 9:51
    Backdoor Love Affair (1:09)
    Mellow Down Easy (3:39)
    Backdoor Love Affair No 2 (2:04)
    Long Distance Boogie (2:31)
4. Nasty Dogs And Funky Kings 2:44
5. Blue Jean Blues 4:44
6. Balinese 2:36
7. Mexican Blackbird 3:05
8. Heard On The X 2:25
9. Tush 2:17
Bonus Tracks:
10. Heard It On The X (Live) 2:36
11. Jailhouse Rock (Live) 1:52
12. Tush (Live) 3:43
Total playing time: 41:58 min.

Timings for music only.
Side One (live tracks): The Warehouse, New Orleans, captured as it came down – hot, spontaneous – and presented to you honestly, without the assistance of studio gimmicks.