Crass, commercial, and utterly catchy, it’s the only one of those three songs that made the Top 10. The third in ZZ Top’s Eliminator singles trilogy goes all the way in its embrace of shimmering synths and radio-friendly hooks - compared with the grit and verve of “Sharp Dressed Man” and “Gimme All Your Lovin’,” it could almost be Huey Lewis. Maybe it’s just because we got out of town on time.” The original recording was Gibbons solo with co-writer Linden Hudson playing bass on a synth (and, yeah, that’s a drum machine), but when ZZ Top played it live, Gibbons and Hill would trade lyrics, making the tableau described in the song a sort of twisted ménage à trois that would confound even Freud. “And if not, whose was it? Well, fortunately that kind of pressure we’re not under. “Everybody asks if ‘Under Pressure’ was about a girlfriend of mine,” Gibbons told Spin in 1985. By the time he’s ready for a break, in the song’s bridge, he expects her to beat him up and leave him in a ditch when he tells her it’s over, but hey, such was the imaginary life of ZZ Top in 1983. All he’s capable of is trying to keep up with her predilections for French food, art museums, and having sex in cars while wearing London Fog slickers. “Got Me Under Pressure” (1983)īilly Gibbons never explains how he hooked up with a hoity-toity dominatrix cokehead in the Eliminator hit “Got Me Under Pressure,” because she got him so stressed out. You can be sharp or not sharp in any mode. If you’re a punk rocker, you can get sharp that way.
“If you’re on a motorcycle, really sharp leathers is great. “Sharp dressed depends on who you are,” Hill told Spin in 1986. Along with its high-fashion video, the song was peak Eighties, even if the band members themselves chose to don dusters and fedoras instead of blazers and scarves. While Billy Gibbons’ guitars remained fuzzy and raw, a synth doubled Dusty Hill’s bass track (or all but provided it, depending on who you ask) on “Sharp Dressed Man,” infusing the peacocking anthem with a pulsing rhythm.
ZZ Top and producer Bill Ham gave a big ol’ Texas bear hug to the synthesizer on the trio’s monster 1983 LP, Eliminator. A four-minute blast of Eighties synthesizers and fiery riffs that emits pure adrenaline, the song became a classic-rock radio staple, and inspired a video - directed by Randy Newman’s brother, Tim, and showcasing the band’s red 1930s Ford Coupe seen on the Eliminator cover - that defined ZZ Top’s signature iconography of cars, guitars, and women for all times. This was one of the first tracks that started unfolding,” Billy Gibbons told Rolling Stone of the band’s state-of-the-art Eighties makeover, which began in earnest with this lead single from Eliminator. “We had dabbled with the synthesizer, and then all this gear was showing up from manufacturers. Before the MTV era kicked in, it was an early testament to the group’s knack for making roadhouse blues riffs feel bracingly modern.
According to Hill, ZZ Top’s travels led them to many a roadside stop, and, as he told Spin, “Every gas station in the world had a cardboard display of the cheapest and ugliest sunglasses you could imagine.” Starting with its gnarly riff, and extending to Hill’s rock-steady bass line, “Cheap Sunglasses” wasn’t just advice for anyone with a hangover. Who says the drudgery of touring can’t be inspiring? One of the highlights of 1979’s Degüello (along with “I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide”) was this ode to low-cost eyewear, which came to the band on tour. If the guy’s got good wine, it’s OK.” The way the song seamlessly segued into Hombres’ bar rocker “Jesus Just Left Chicago” as if nothing happened made for one of the best one-two punches in the history of road rock. The thing about a bus is who you have to sit beside.
“You can meet some very unique people on a bus and in a bus station,” Hill told Spin in 1985. The Homeric track that opened their iconic Tres Hombres album starts with a thin, precise bluesy guitar lick and a tight, sighing drum line that foreshadows the band’s electro-blues era, setting up Gibbons and Hill to plead for compassion in concert: “Have mercy!” Gibbons goes on to explain they’ve been waiting for the bus all day, with a bottle of booze and some leftover scratch, but, horror of horrors, when the bus arrives, it’s “packed up tight.” Blues harp virtuoso James Harman takes a solo, and by the time the song finishes up, the ZZ guys are dreaming of getting a Cadillac someday (fast forward to Eliminator ). Poor ZZ Top, they just wanted to get home.
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