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Rating: Many consider "Tejas" (1977) as the best album by the Texans ZZ Top. I think that, even if it isn’t, it’s pretty close.
Gibbons, Hill, and Beard, during these recordings, must have been particularly inspired and very, very prepared. An album so well thought out and full of ideas, for those entering the studio for the fifth time, must have been the result of meetings, conversations, rehearsals, discussions, and a certain atmosphere. Also the weather, which was reportedly making life impossible for the people in those latitudes at that time. They must have taken the bull on the cover by the horns, calmed it down, and involved it in the preparatory debate on how to find new inspiration to tell about their land, this time their entire land, always through anecdotes about characters and stories of what was the old west, but this time with a slightly more research-oriented musical proposal. "Tejas" thus becomes an album that crosses the boundaries of ranches, motels, and bars, expanding the view to canyons and a cunning wildlife that is only apparently drowsy. A return to the nature of Rio Grande Mud that goes beyond the desire of Fandango.
On these premises, we witness a slight but intense change in style that adds more depth to the tracks offered by the beards. Blues, boogie, and southern rock are always present, but the tone of voice becomes more sophisticated, experimental and less disruptive, showing a fierce desire to explore and open new paths. But let's go back to the artwork for a moment. A watercolor illustration that seems to capture the moment the day is born, as a bull chews among the bushes and the moon starts to lose its dominion over the sky. All in a valley with mountains eroded over the centuries. Bucolics in spicy sauce, one might think. But certainly the best context and the perfect time to listen to this album. Even though some episodes are not missing, this is no longer daytime indoor music. This is nighttime outdoor music that can accompany cowboys around the fire during a cattle drive.
The calm and irresistibly assured riff that opens "It’s Only Love" seems to inaugurate the season of desert rock and consolidates Gibbons's position among the greatest (by inspiration) guitarists of the stars and stripes. The solos throughout the album are worth buying the original record. Hill & Beard are the awarded company that, even after a gargantuan feast, would be capable of creating rhythm for hours and hours. After the guitar-driven blues with a title that makes me laugh heartily, "Arrested For Driving While Blind", there's "El Diablo". The track is a phenomenal tale about the boogeyman, let's say, for cowboys in a circle who fend off the nocturnal temperature dips by warming their bodies in front of a bonfire and their souls with a story to pass down to their children. The storytelling atmosphere that opens the track becomes more and more rarefied, mysterious, and dreamlike, with a fine job of smoothed and slightly distorted guitar, while Beard finds a way to provide counterpoint by ominously pounding on the drums. One of the best songs in ZZ Top's career.
The trio also seeks points of contact with other rock styles of the time by blending blues and country sounds with hard bases evolved for the era and very technical, achieving great results with "Snappy Kakkie" and "Enjoy And Get It On". Especially the latter alternates Hendrix-like phases with typical double Z tunes. "Ten Dollar Man" is a fiery and at times hypnotic rock, battered by the drums. Upon reaching the sixth track, it will be easy to reflect on the six different types of voices with which Gibbons has stimulated his vocal cords. Vocals like these are hard to find in this type of band. With "Pan Am Highway Blues" the blues puts a wedding ring on hard rock, accompanied by Hawaiian strumming. The closing trio is very particular. "Avalon Hideaway" and "She’s A Heartbreaker" continue to mark the happy union of blues and country with hard rock. But it is with "Asleep In The Desert", the instrumental close of this album, that ZZ Top pays homage to the Hispanic sounds already abundantly penetrated into the social fabric of the southern states. It is an intimate and desert-like country tango, continuing in the vein of El Diablo.
I like this "Tejas", perhaps the most personal album of a band to which I am strongly attached.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Arrested for Driving While Blind (03:08)
(Gibbons, Hill, Beard) 3:05
When you're driving down the highway at night
And you're feelin' that wild turkey's bite
Don't give Johnny Walker a ride
Cause Jack Black is right by your side
You might get taken to the jailhouse and find
You've been arrested for driving while blind
Now just the other night with nothin' to do
We broke a case of proof 102
And started itchin' for that wonderful feel
Of rollin' in an automobile
You could say we was out of our mind
And let me tell you we were flyin' while blind
Then they had us up against the wall
Hey it's only blood grain alcohol
And there ain't no cause for alarm
We ain't out to do nobody no harm
How could anyone be so unkind
To arrest a man for drivin' while blind
03 El Diablo (04:21)
(Gibbons, Hill, Beard) 4:20
Did you ever hear the story
That happened not long ago
'bout the man with a tan:
El diablo de Mexico?
And this man played his hand
And he lived by the luck of the draw;
Now and then and again,
Found him steppin' outside of the law
Hey, hey!
And his fortune he had made
let him live high on the hog
Til the day of the raid
When they hunted him like a dog.
He was out on the run,
Knowing he could get by,
'Cause the men killed in sin
were not there to testify.
Hey, hey!
He was caught, he was bound
In La Casa de Calaboose.
He was tried; he was found
And readied for the noose.
But the break he would make,
It didn't turn out so well.
And the hombre called "Diablo"
Bid his last farewell.
04 Snappy Kakkie (02:58)
(Gibbons, Hill, Beard) 2:56
I say Hey! Snappy Kakkie!
Do you wanna play?
I say Hey! Snappy Kakkie!
I said whatcha' say!
The water she is nice we can steal away
They'll never know we're gone 'til the break 'o day
Come on! Come on!
I say Hey Snappy Kakkie
Did they talk to you today?
I say Hey Snappy Kakkie
Did you see it their way?
The moon she is high, we must leave tonite
We must get away, we will join the fight
Come on! Come on!
I say Hey Snappy Kakkie!
Did our brothers stay
I say Hey Snappy Kakkie
Will our sisters pay
Does it really matter of the friends we lost
It doesn't really matter cause their souls were lost
Come on! Come on!
I say Hey! Snappy Kakkie!
Do you wanna play?
I say Hey! Snappy Kakkie!
I say Hey! watcha' say!
The water she is nice we can steal away
They'll never know we're gone til the break 'o day
So come on!
05 Enjoy and Get It On (03:26)
(Gibbons, Hill, Beard) 3:23
Oh I'm makin' my way back home
Least that's what I told her on the phone
Been a while since I made her smile
And I know she gonna dig my style
Could you enjoy baby
Really enjoy gettin' it on
Could I get some pie ala mode
When I come in off the road
Do she still have her fightin' gear
Just one look is gonna make it clear
If she would enjoy baby
Really enjoyed gettin' it on
How does it feel holdin' me again
She's holdin' on like it gonna never end
Well I'm home thinkin' I should stay
While I'm here just let me hear you say
Say you enjoyed baby
Really enjoyed gettin' it on
08 Avalon Hideaway (03:07)
(Gibbons, Hill, Beard) 3:07
Somebody breathin' down my neck
While I'm tryin' to roll the bones
I don't care I'll just float a check
Cause I'm feelin' my gamblin' Jones
Here come seven, gimme eleven come again
Love to hideout where I am my own best friend
There's crazy little Linda Lou
With the long and lanky legs
Nobody do it like Linda do
At these backwoods lone star dregs
Like I told you, head out FM 92
Roll in slowly, you'll be safer if you do
If you don't know what I'm talkin' about
Let me ease your worried mind
It's the place to go without a doubt
But it's a little bit hard to find
Back in the timber, once you're there
You'll wanna stay
Get loose and limber anytime night or day
Just remember, ask for the Avalon hideaway
09 She's a Heartbreaker (03:01)
She used to drive a beat up pickup
Down around san antone
Stealin' the heart of every guy in town
Includin' the one I own
But this sweet young thing of seventeen
Would sting you with the lovesick blues
Just a blonde haired blue eyed picture of sin
Lookin' for someone to use
She's a lover 'n fighter, she's a wild bull rider
And I'm wonderin' why she left me such a long time ago
She's a heartbreaker, she's a love taker
She can break a heart and take all the love she needs
Well I heard she got down in beaumont
And she wound up in el paso
She was tuff as a boot and thin as a rail
And she could step to the cotton eyed joe
If you run across this flagrant fuzzy
Slip in and get her while you can
Cause before too long she'll be good as gone
And runnin' with another man
She's a lover 'n fighter, she's a wild bull rider
And I'm wonderin' why she left me such a long time ago
She's a heartbreaker, she's a love taker
She can break a heart and take all the love she needs
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