ZZ Top Tres Hombres	ZZ Top Fandango!

Back in the very early ‘70s, when 3 men from Texas formed a trio of rockin’ blues and boogie, little did they know that they would soon hold royal court with songs that worked overtime on radio.  Their third album, Tres Hombres, released in 1973, climbed to the Top 10 on the strength of their breakthrough hit, “La Grange,” which sounded, interestingly, like Leon Redbone shucking the solo act and seeking his fortune in another way; of course, it isn’t Redbone on the vocals, but rather, guitar ace Billy Gibbons.  The song is about a popular house of ill repute, made more famous by this song and the Broadway hit and subsequent film, The Best LittleWhorehouse in Texas.  No matter the content, the song’s spoken beginning and the “dive into the music” boogie lifted the band from obscurity and into the consciousness of a public that lasted for decades and which preceded many more upcoming hits.

Tres Hombres, with its storytelling tunes and ZZ Top’s jamming boogie, helped to augment the blossoming Southern Rock phase that was gaining popularity past the incredible work of The Allman Brothers Band, now schooling up and comers like The Marshall Tucker Band, Charlie Daniels, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Firefall, and The Outlaws, amongst others.  The album begins with heavy boogie song, “Waitin’ For the Bus,” moves into the bluesy “Jesus Just Left Chicago,” which showed the band had strong musical chops that extended beyond the standard Southern Rock boogies that typified many of the bands of that ilk.  In fact, the song is, hands down, the most important of the album, erasing any thoughts that ZZ Top could only unleash southern styled flame.  And before they expanded to include electronic adds to their music found on later albums, Tres Hombres lets you in on their rawest, most seriously true to roots, album of their career.

However, from Texas they were; they were hellraisers, beer drinkers, and womanizers and they weren’t shying away from that image.  Their “Beer Drinkers/Hell Raisers” solidifies that image in a mix of great guitar rock that went head to head with anything that emerged from that same period.  Their live performances were stunning replications of their albums largely because their albums played from the heart to begin with.  Their experiences were shared via their lyrics and their music carried it forward with muscle.  For a hot and fiery song about such experiences, you need go no further than the album’s “Precious and Grace”, a song about two girls who led the band on a wild ride, too wild to not recount in a song.

This reissue of Tres Hombre brings several elements to this new re-release.  The first, generally a core necessity to repurchases if done well (although this is a contentious discussion with fans who monitor the potential brightness of new remasters or hot remasters, in tech-speak), is the remastering of the album.  On this new remaster, the sound is much improved having been handled by guru, Bob Ludwig.  The second element is expansion, of which there is a bit here.  Tres Hombres offers three bonus cuts with live performances of “Waitin’ For The Bus”, “Jesus Just Left Chicago”, and the popular “La Grange.”  Their inclusion here beefs up a singular release and adds spice to the album a la their Fandango! album, which offered live songs as part of the original release as well as  a handful of studio work.  The new booklet offers an essay by the band’s long-standing publicist, Bob Merlis (over 3 decades), which provides great insight into the songs and their stories, the band, and their ways and times.  Also included in the booklet are credits and some photos.

Fandango!, the band’s 1975 album, was, as stated earlier, an album that mixed live performances with new studio material.  Again, live, the band rocked as hard as anybody.  But it is the studio cuts that strengthen this album, which includes the band’s next single, after “La Grange”, the male pastime of ‘…looking’ for some “Tush”.

The “back in the day” album LP issue began Side One with all live music that included “Jailhouse Rock”, and “Backdoor Love Affair” from their first album.  The live set is rounded out by a few other tunes, some covers, others original ZZ Top songs, but all uniquely ZZ Topped.  As in Tres Hombres and their other two previous efforts, ZZ Top turned stories into songs.  On Side Two of their multi-platform release, they have several FM staples as well as the previously mentioned Top40 hit, “Tush”.  The studio side begins with the relentless “Nasty Dogs and Funky Kings” but begins to hit a stride with “Blue Jeans Blues,” the story of which is recounted in the disc’s accompanying booklet and found in the essay written by Tom Vickers (A&R consultant and overall fan of the band).  “Mexican Blackbird” is a strong tune with a bluesy slide that will drop your jaw.  Yes, ZZ Top for those that only knew their 45s singles market, had very sharp teeth in their choppers.  The album ends with the very familiar guitar riffs of “Tush.”

The expanded edition adds three fiery live cuts including their tribute to border radio, “Heard It On The X”, also found as a studio song on this album, as well as that good ole Elvis staple, “Jailhouse Rock”, and crowd favourite, “Tush”.  There is a nice assortment of photos found in the set (booklet and tray) as well as credits.  The album remastering was handled by Bob Ludwig and really shines, particularly in the studio cuts.

Although I’m a huge fan of singular expansive albums with complete demos, rehearsals and alternate takes with a session outtake or two, to blend with the remastered and updated booklets and packaging, you’ll have to get your dose of this from the band’s recently released box set, Chrome, Smoke & BBQ: The ZZ Top Box.  Of course, that’s not to say that these titles won’t be revisited in some years to come with definitive discs that end the search for a better release of their titles.