#398 - ZZ Top - Eliminator (1983)
MUSIC HISTORY WRITTEN BY HEAD WRITER DJ MORTY COYLE:
Released on March 23rd of 1983 on Warner Brothers Records and produced by Bill Ham with Terry Manning engineering this is the eighth studio album by Houston, Texas, Blues, Hard Rock, and on this album, sorta Synth Pop band.
Houston native Billy Gibbons grew up with a dad in show business and got to see Elvis Presley and B.B. King play live before he was even 8 years old. His musicality started with training in percussion before getting his first electric guitar at age 13.
After coming to Hollywood to attend Warner Brothers art school and playing in a few bands out here he moved back to Houston in the mid-‘60s at 18 and inspired by his friend Roky Erickson’s band the 13th Floor Elevators formed the Psychedelic Blues Rock band the Moving Sidewalks. They had been gaining popularity with a few regionally charting singles and opened for The Animals, The Doors and Jimi Hendrix until half the band got drafted.
In 1969 Billy, who was intrigued by iconic initialed Blues names like B.B. King and Z.Z. Hill, started ZZ Top with the Moving Sidewalks drummer and a few other musicians before becoming a power trio with drummer Frank Beard and bassist Dusty Hill who previously played together in the Dallas band, American Blues.
A bit earlier they met Bill Ham who would become not just their longtime manager but also their producer, co-writer, and image consultant.
They signed with the London Record label and released 5 albums during their first decade together which included the hits “La Grange” and “Tush.”
After reaching national success and critical acclaim and basically seven years on the road the band needed some time off to re-energize themselves and their sound.
They took a 90 day break which grew to two years.
Those two years not only revitalized their sound but reinvented the band’s image into a new decade.
Billy and Dusty independently decided to grow their beards out long ironically leaving Frank Beard as the only beardless member.
They signed a new deal with Warner Brothers Records and released two more hit albums.
The band was adapting with the modernization of gear and recording techniques and evolving with the music scene around them while still honing their signature sound and keeping their sense of humor.
After hooking up with songwriter, engineer, and pre-producer Linden Hudson while working on their seventh album, 1981’s “El Loco” they had started experimenting with more contemporary sounds and ideas and added synthesizers.
That continued on with the writing and recording of this album which also reflected the New Wave and Punk Rock that was around.
Billy and Linden basically made rough demos of the whole album before going into the studio.
On most of the songs Dusty and Frank didn’t play as their parts were already put on by Billy and Linden with synthesizers and sequencers however all songs credited the band playing.
And besides adapting to new sounds they also took advantage of the new MTV phenomenon by making three male fantasy videos that played in endless rotation helping the album sell over fifteen million albums.
It was a hit and the band were worldwide stars.
They went on to make seven more albums, sell out world tours, appear in movies and on T.V., sell 50 million records, and besides being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004 the Texas House of Representatives named them "Official Heroes for the State of Texas.”
Not bad for a little ol’ band from Texas that just celebrated their 50th anniversary and still has all their original members.