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Rating: Third and most important album of the trio with the long beards. In 33 minutes and 35 masterful seconds, Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill, and Frank Beard deliver 10 tracks that define the sound and spirit of the group.
Joys and pains, this album: "La Grange" the best track on the album, the first of the group to enter the charts, costs the bearded trio a lawsuit from a John Lee Hooker record executive for "a certain similarity" with "Boogie Chillen." Although they win the case, the trio comes out a bit bruised on the image front. But what a track, folks! A brief almost spoken introduction, then off with a typically blues sound in the sequence of the three chords and the bass line leading to a tight solo. The record opens effectively with the riff "Waiting For The Bus", a simple and direct bluesy tune with a nice harmonica passage that turns into a guitar solo with Gibbons' quite distinctive timbre. There's no time to catch your breath: a nice change of pace and voilà, the track becomes "Jesus Just Left Chicago" as in a sort of medley. "Jesus has left Chicago and is headed towards New Orleans/ He dived into the Mississippi, and its murky waters turned into wine." A slight change of course leads to the southern rock of "Beer Drinker & Hell Risers", a track with a title that says it all. Voices call and respond over a solid rhythm with a recognizable timbre. If half of the track is made of "call and response," the other half features Gibbons' effective and direct solos, just so you don't get lost. Next comes "Master of Sparks", with a sound that anticipates a bit, solos aside, that "El Diablo" which will be the gem of the next album "Tejas". The track, although excellent, seems to fade a bit after the previous "Beer Drinker & Hell Risers". Time for a ballad: "Hot Blue And Righteous" leaves much more room for the vocals than for the guitars. Solo as per tradition, again vocals, then it's up to "Move Me On Down The Line" to pick up the album's pace, which through the peculiar sound of "Precious And Grace", heads towards the gem... "La Grange": "Rumors are spreading all over Texas/ They talk about a little house out there/ La Grange/ You know what I’m talking about/ Tell me you want to go to that house in the vast countryside/ There are lots of people and beautiful women." The theme is clear and typically blues. The calmer "Sheik" and "Have you Heard" close with cleaner-sounding guitars than usual. If Lynyrds are the part of southern rock closer to rock, ZZ Top are more towards blues and demonstrate that you don't need to be black to create great blues. Many are the fans of ZZ Top, who, while maintaining their primitive love for blues-rock, in more recent years have shifted a bit towards electronic.
I still consider "Tres Hombres" their most successful album.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Waitin' for the Bus (03:03)
Have mercy, been waitin' for the bus all day.
Have mercy, been waitin' for the bus all day.
I got my brown paper bag and my take-home pay.
Have mercy, old bus be packed up tight.
Have mercy, old bus be packed up tight.
Well, I'm glad just to get on and home tonight.
Right on, that bus done got me back.
Right on, that bus done got me back.
Well, I'll be ridin' on the bus till I Cadillac.
02 Jesus Just Left Chicago (03:33)
Jesus just left Chicago and he's bound for New Orleans.
Well now, Jesus just left Chicago and he's bound for New Orleans.
Yeah, yeah.
Workin' from one end to the other and all points in between.
Took a jump through Mississippi, well, muddy water turned to wine.
Took a jump through Mississippi, muddy water turned to wine.
Yeah, yeah.
Then out to California through the forests and the pines.
Ah, take me with you, Jesus.
You might not see him in person but he'll see you just the same.
You might not see him in person but he'll see you just the same.
Yeah, yeah.
You don't have to worry 'cause takin' care of business is his name.
03 Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers (03:28)
If you see me walkin' down the line
With my fav'rite honky tonk in mind,
Well, I'll be here around suppertime
With my can of dinner and a bunch of fine.
Beer drinkers and hell raisers, yeah.
Uh-huh-huh, baby, don't you wanna come with me?
The crowd gets loud when the band gets right,
Steel guitar cryin' through the night.
Yeah, try'n to cover up the corner fight
But ev'rything's cool 'cause they's just tight.
Beer drinkers and hell raisers, yeah.
Huh, baby, don't you wanna come with me?
Ah, play it boy.
The joint was jumpin' like a cat on hot tin.
Lord, I thought the floor was gonna give in.
Soundin' a lot like a House Congressional
'Cause we're experimental and professional.
Beer drinkers, hell raisers, yeah.
Well, baby, don't you wanna come with me?
04 Master of Sparks (03:36)
High class Slim came floatin' in
down from the county line.
Just gettin' right on Saturday night,
ridin' with some friends of mine.
They invited me just to come and see
just what was on their minds
and then I took my first long look
at the Master of Sparks on high.
In the back of Jimmy's Mack
stood a round steel cage
welded into shape by Slim,
made out of sucker gauge.
How fine, they cried, now with you inside,
strapped in there safe and sound.
I thought, my-o-my, how the sparks will fly
if that thing ever hit the ground.
Slim was so pleased when I had eased
into his trap of death.
He had slammed the door but I said no more
and I thought I'd breathed my last breath.
We was out in the sticks down Highway Six
and the crowd was just about right.
The speed was too, so out I flew
like a stick of rollin' dynamite.
When I hit the ground you could hear the sound
and see the sparks a country mile.
End over end I began to spin
but the ball started runnin' wild.
But it was too late as I met my fate
and the ball started gettin' hot.
But through the sparks and the flame I knew that the claim
of the Master of Sparks was gone.
07 Precious and Grace (03:14)
Ridin' top the floodway on a Friday night,
the landscape's a fine and nat'ral sight.
Just cruisin' slow through the dark of night.
With Precious and Grace ev'rything's all right.
Good God Almighty, we was goin' down slow,
yeah, if we knew just where we had to go.
Cryin', just a flyin' down a put out road
with Precious and Grace in my flathead Ford.
So if you're out rollin' late some night,
yeah, and you need that supernatural delight, I'm talkin' to you, brother,
I know somebody's, they's just out of sight.
Get with Precious and Grace, they gonna treat you right.
08 La Grange (03:55)
Rumour spreadin' around
In that Texas town
About that shack outside La Grange
And you know what I'm talkin' about.
Just let me know if you wanna go
To that home out on the range.
They gotta lotta nice girls.
Have mercy.
A haw, haw, haw, haw, a haw.
A haw, haw, haw.
Well, I hear it's fine if you got the time
And the ten to get yourself in.
A hmm, hmm.
And I hear it's tight most every night,
But now I might be mistaken.
hmm, hmm, hmm.
Ah have mercy.
- Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill & Frank Beard
09 Shiek (04:10)
I met a shiek from Mozambique
who led me to the Congo.
He dreamed to go to Mexico
and sample a burrito.
My tempature had risen again,
it must have been a hundred and ten.
Under the oaks I was telling some jokes
and thinkin' I had it made-
Gettin' on with the folks, havin' some Coke
and coolin' off in the shade.
My tempature had risen again,
and it must have been a hundred and ten.
I took a boat that couldn't float
to Rio de Janeiro.
So with my scuba I swam to Cuba
but I'll be gone tomorrow.
My tempature had risen again,
it must have been a hundred and ten.
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