ZZ Top - Fandango! (1975)

(U.S 1969-Present)

ZZ Top is an American rock band formed in Houston, Texas, in 1969. For 51 years, it consisted of the vocalist-guitarist Billy Gibbons, the drummer Frank Beard and the bassist-vocalist Dusty Hill, until Hill's death in 2021. ZZ Top developed a signature sound based on Gibbons' blues style and Hill and Beard's rhythm section. They are known for their live performances, sly and humorous lyrics, and the matching appearances of Gibbons and Hill, who wore sunglasses, hats and long beards.

ZZ Top formed after Gibbons' band, Moving Sidewalks, disbanded in 1969. Within a year, they signed with London Records and released ZZ Top's First Album in 1971.

Fandango! is the fourth album by the American blues rock band ZZ Top, recorded April 12, 1974 (tracks 1–3) December 30, 1974 – March 23, 1975 and released April 18, 1975. The album's first side consists of selections from live shows, with the second side being new studio recordings.

Billy F Gibbons, Dusty Hill and Frank Beard were starting to ride the crest of fame that would catapult them to international stardom when they recorded Fandango in 1975. In hindsight, it seems as if all roads were leading to a convergence of sound, style, and notoriety that brought ZZ Top from local favourites to national (and later worldwide) attention.

That little ole band from Texas

A lot of this had to do with the nonstop touring schedule the Toppers had been following for the previous five years. Starting out of their regional base of Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, they had expanded to a brutal touring schedule that spread their live show all across America by the time Fandango was cut in 1975. From a touring perspective, Fandango falls between the cracks of their stripped-down stage show and what was to become the glorious excess of The Worldwide Texas Tour of 1976. This extravaganza made them the band to see as well as hear featuring a 35,000-square-foot Texas stage set complete with a longhorn steer, a buffalo, a glass dome containing rattlesnakes, and a buzzard perched stagefront.

While the tour was exhausting, somehow the fellas found time to sneak into the studio. Following on the successful heels of Tres Hombres, Fandango was ZZ Top's fourth album and became their second platinum release in a row. While Tres Hombres contained their first bona fide radio hit with "La Grange", Fandango served two purposes. The live tracks gave fans a dose of how potent this power trio was onstage, while the studio recordings rocked iust as hard, especially the incomparable two minutes

and change of Texas boogie called "Tush." This crowd-pleaser also became their second pop radio hit, reaching #20 on Billboardt Hot l00, but also getting huge airplay at FM rock stations around the U.S.

As Gibbons remembers, "We took a booking in Florence, Alabama, in 1974 or '75, in a dirt-floor arena. We were just warming up for sound check. I had been turned on to the flip side of a Roy Head single, which was an instrumental called 'Tush Hog.' I threw down this guitar rift, and it took all of three minutes for the three of us to create it right there." But back to Fandango, and the rather interesting concept of a half-live/ half-studio album. ZZ Top is a pretty unique band, and they were always looking for a different approach. No one had ever done a half-live/half-studio album before, and for ZZ Top that was the signal to give it a try.

So with some new material, a couple of covers, as well as live versions of an earlier studio favorite ("Backdoor Love Affair" from ZZ Top's First Album), the decision was made to record the live material at New Orleans' famed Warehouse. Why the Warehouse? "It was all wood and all good,' Billy laughs. The sound resonated as thick as the Gulf Coast air and gave the place a rich, deep sound. Between that and the fans, we knew that it was the perfect spot to do the live sides. lt was our favorite venue for recharging the batteries and refueling the blues."

A former cotton storage warehouse, the Warehouse was located on the corner of Tchoupitoulas Street and Felicity in the Waterfront district. As artist (Ant Farm member behind the famed Cadillac Ranch in Texas), New Orleans native, and musical historian Hudson Marquez remembers, 'There was no real rock'n' roll clubs in New Orleans, except in the French Quarter or the suburbs. Most of those joints featured frat-style bands. When the Warehouse first opened in late '69/early 1970 it was the ONLY place for touring bands to play.'

With the growth of AOR radio came venues in each maior market that supported the bands being pumped on the 'free-form' FM statiorn. And with New Orleans only a four-hour car ride from Houston, it quickly became ZZ Top's home away from home, with the Warehouse serving as musical headquarters.

"It seemed like the Allman Brothers or ZZ Top were playing there everymonth," Marquez recalls. 'Most of the buildings down there were constructed of wood and bricks made by slaves in the early 1800s. There was NO air-conditioning, and you can imagine how hot and sweaty it would get in the crowd. I can't imagine how the band performed some nights between the heat humidity, and the lights. . . it must have been at least 110 degrees onstage.'

ZZ Top on their Fandango Tour

You can tell it's gonna be a hot night when Fandango kicks off with a very excitable introduction of the band. And when they kick into "Thunderbird" with the opening lines 'Get high, everybody, get high,' you can tell the crowd needed little encouragement!'The front cover shows Billy and Dusty in their Nudie-suit-and-ten-gallon-hat phase . . .before the beards and the cheap sunglasses. Though the look may seem retro, the sound is definitely not. The power of Gibbons' stinging leads, Dusty's bass-thumping, and Frank's churning rhythms captured the excitement the band brought to the stage and spread the ZZ gospel to places that had yet to experience them firsthand.

The live sides also contain a rockin' version of "Jailhouse Rock." Elvis had always been Dusty's idol from back in the days when he was eight years old singing Elvis songs in a local coffee shop for nickels. Another live standout is a version of Little Walter's "Mellow Down Easy" sandwiched between "Backdoor Love Affair." "We always felt this was a great song," Gibbons says. "We loved Walter's original as well as Paul Butterfield's later version. We wanted to add some harp to it, but it's pretty difficult to play blues harp and guitar simultaneously, especially live!"

Once Fandango was released, the music press finally began paying attention to the group. lnstead of being dismissed as a typical Southern boogie band, ZZ Top was now being embraced by the rock cognoscenti. The results were a triangulation of events in the mid-'70s similar to what happened later in the 1980s. Instead of hot rods and MTV videos though, the first breakthrough for Billy, Frank, and Dusty came the old-school way of radio play coupled with tour, tour, and then tour some more.

While the live side of Fandango embraced ZZ's roots in New Orleans, the studio side was recorded at the other low-down and dirty musical mecca . . . Memphis, Tennessee. The band had started recording at the famed Ardent Studios in Memphis, and aside from the great barbeque, fine women, and bluesy nightlife, the whole vibe of Memphis melded perfectly with the band's musical intentions.

And if you're in Memphis, you can't talk about the town without a mention of its most famous citizen. One night Billy and Dusty were being driven back from a late-night session at Ardent. Cruising the streets near Five Way and McLean on the way to their hotel, their driver mentioned they should check out the car next to them at a stoplight. "Man, we looked over", Billy recollects in a hushed tone, "and there was a long, low black Lincoln with Elvis sitting there on the passenger side. He gave us a nod and then floored it through the red light. We waited for the light to change and then met up with him stopped at the next set of lights a couple of blocks up. He rolled down the window and said,'We're all goin' to jail, ya know.' Dusty and I were speechless, but I blurted out, 'Yeah, but we're gonna rock.' With that he floored it back into the Memphis night, and that was our one and only encounter with Elvis."

Dusty, Billy and Frank 1975

Their hotel home in Memphis was usually the Linden Hotel, where they would request to be booked on the back side of the joint, giving them a bird's-eye view of Beale Street the home of the blues. Nights would be spent toiling on tracks at Ardent but there was always a need for a food-and-beer break, and Billy, Frank, and Dusty became familiar faces at such Memphis eateries as Charles Vergos' rib joint, Giovanni's, Lupe and Bea's Texican, or Molly's La Casita'

The studio side contains a number of ZZ crowd-pleasers, most notably "Heard lt On The X" their tribute to the border radio stations from Mexico beaming blues, soul, and gospel all over the Southwest; and "Blue Jean Blues", a true-story song about Frank's girlfriend making off with his jeans and then showing up at a ZZ gig wearing them and a new boyfriend!

Though Fandango was released 50 years ago (18th April, 1975), it remains an incredible listening experience. For those of you who cherish the memories of seeing Billy, Frank, and Dusty light up a stage, this audio document will refresh those happy memories. And for those new to the ZZ gestalt, this album shows the culmination of hard roadwork, studio expertise, and incredible playing and songwriting that has become the calling card of that little ol' band from Texas! Play it loud!  [Extracts from CD Liner Notes]

This post consists of FLACs ripped from CD and includes full album artwork along with label scans. I was tempted to rip my treasured vinyl (my first ZZ Top record by the way) but because it had been played at one too many 'drunken parties', its sound resonance wasn't really up to scratch (literally).    

My favourite track on the album is Blue Jeans with Tush coming in a close 2nd.  The only thing missing on this album was a live rendition of   "La Grange" and I always thought it strange that they didn't include it on the live side. The single was HUGE in Australia.  I have decided to keep this album true to its original song listing (and not include bonus tracks) because some things shouldn't be tampered with. Hope you enjoy this offering from 'this little ol band from Texas' folks.

Track Listing:

[Live]

A1 Thunderbird 2:49

A2 Jailhouse Rock 1:56

A3a Backdoor Love Affair 1:09

A3b Mellow Down Easy 3:39

A3c Backdoor Love Affair No. 2 2:04

A3d Long Distance Boogie 2:31

[Studio]

B1 Nasty Dogs And Funky Kings 2:42

B2 Blue Jean Blues 4:42

B3 Balinese 2:37

B4 Mexican Blackbird 3:06

B5 Heard It On The X 2:23

B6 Tush 2:24

ZZ Top were:

Billy Gibbons - Lead Guitar, Slide Guitar, Harmonica, Vocals

Dusty Hill - Bass and Vocals

Frank Beard - Drums

Fandango! Link (225Mb)