If the album starts with wishing for the company of a lustful woman, the next song, “Got Me Under Pressure” is a textbook case of “be careful what you wish for.” A painting of the coupe was featured on the cover of ZZ Top's multiplatinum 1983 album Eliminator, and the real car was immortalized on the small screen in four music videos that were run in heavy rotation on MTV.

The CD, by comparison, sounds concealed and lifeless, as if a blanket has been thrown over the speakers. This is particularly noticeable when comparing it to the lossless 24-bit/48kHz ALAC Apple Digital Master edition streamed via Apple Music. The stream is effortless in its delivery ensuring that you’ll not only hear every aspect of the recording but will get the fullness of sound that this album demands. It is not an insult to call Eliminator formulaic. If the formula works, what’s bad about it? Coca-Cola and AC/DC are both formula-driven products, and everybody’s fine with ‘em. The problem – and it’s a very slight one, granted – is that Flag is a little too formulaic for its own good. Like most of the album, it’s got ‘The People’s Tempo’ (120 bpm, incidentally), the slithery synthesized guitar sounds, the cardboard drums, and the girls-and-cars-are-interchangeable lyrics. It’s all there, but there’s nothing special about it. It’s a little too on the nose. No one’s gonna turn Flag off, but it’s probably not anybody’s favourite, either. Gibbons had to learn how to play with it on the fly which suited him fine.“The intrigue of these new-found contraptions was by then just starting to catch on, but we didn’t have a teacher or guide, we didn’t even have an instruction manual. I was just pushing buttons and found something that sounded kind of trashy,” he told Louder in 2013. Fairlight advertisement (Image: WordPress) Coinciding with the Gimme All Your Lovin’ video debuting on MTV, ZZ Top opened their Eliminator tour in Lake Charles, Louisiana on 7 May. It would stretch out for nine months and cover the US and Europe. It also set the band the painstaking challenge of replicating their multi-layered new sound on stage.

ZZ Top formed after Gibbons' previous band, Moving Sidewalks, disbanded in 1969. Within a year, they signed with London Records and released ZZ Top's First Album in 1971. Subsequent releases, such as Tres Hombres (1973) and Fandango! (1975), and the singles " La Grange" and " Tush", gained extensive radio airplay. By the mid-1970s, ZZ Top had become renowned in North America for their live act, including the Worldwide Texas Tour (1976–1977), which was a critical and commercial success. WWF Raw Is War – Episode dated 20 July 2009". Internet Movie Database. 2009 . Retrieved July 28, 2014. a b c Sinclair, David (1986). Tres Hombres – The Story of ZZ Top. London: Virgin. pp.40, 59. ISBN 0-86369-167-6. And for all the monkey spanking and wanting her nine in the album’s lyrics, the video vixens are helpful visitors (like ’70s Incredible Hulk with skimpier outfits). They aren’t there to get with the band. They’re there to give makeovers coated in pastels.

It wasn’t the first time they’d explored it, but with the release of Eliminator 40 years ago today, ZZ Top learned to stop worrying and love the synthesizer. ZZ Top Raw live album and new tour announced | Louder". Loudersound.com. March 8, 2022 . Retrieved August 2, 2022. Dimery, Robert (2005). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die (1sted.). London: Cassell Publishing. p.511. ISBN 978-1844037353. And if you guessed that live animals provided the tour with some Spinal Tap moments you would be correct. Take one 1976 night in Richmond, Virginia. As Gibbons told Louder in 2014: “This one rather sizeable turkey buzzard decided to take flight. He was making circles around the dome of the arena. And [animal trainer] Ralph Fisher came out. He had trained this buzzard to look for a white hat and land on his head. But in our audience at the time there were a lot of white hats. And this buzzard was swooping and circling. He didn’t know which white hat to land on. Finally we had to stop playing, and Ralph came out in the spotlight and whistled to the bird to land on his head. It made the rest of the evening rather challenging. How do you outdo a bird that knows how to land on a guy’s hat?” The synthesizers were used to both augment sounds (such as their ability to play lower than a bass) and to enforce a certain rhythm, as a drum machine was used. Indeed, some of the album was put together without Hill and Beard. ZZ Top Eliminator, Warner Bros. Records 1983Forum – ARIA Charts: Special Occasion Charts – 1984". Australian-charts.com. Hung Medien . Retrieved March 3, 2017. The protagonist in the boogie woogie “If I Could Only Flag Her Down” has seen some legs and would like to be given some lovin’, but he can’t get her attention. Top Selling Albums of 1984 — The Official New Zealand Music Chart". Recorded Music New Zealand . Retrieved February 2, 2022. In July 2021, Hill was forced to leave a tour after a hip injury. ZZ Top performed without him at the Village Commons in New Lenox, Illinois, with Hill's guitar tech Elwood Francis on bass. [54] Five days later, on July 28, ZZ Top announced that Hill had died at his home in Houston at the age of 72. [55] His wife later reported that he had suffered from chronic bursitis. [56] Per Hill's wishes, ZZ Top continued with Francis on bass. [54] Hill had already recorded bass and vocals for ZZ Top's upcoming album. [57] Gibbons' Eliminator gave rodding immeasurable exposure and spurred the interest of an MTV gener­ation of teenagers who hadn't before seen a real hot rod in motion.

There’s a knowing sense of humor in lines like “Twenty year old turkey/In a thirty year old tin/I can’t wait until tomorrow/And thaw one out again.” Or, as Gibbons puts it: “[On Eliminator] Frank and Dusty assigned me to the task of threading it all together. A sense of importance was placed on timing and tuning. And we spent a lot of productive hours making the most of keeping that record on a good tempo.”

Hudson collaborated on the album tempo with Gibbons, and he co-wrote several songs. The band's longtime stage manager, David Blayney, wrote about the collaboration in 1994 in his book, Sharp Dressed Men. [11] The demo version of the album that was prepared for Memphis was largely the product of Gibbons and Hudson. [4] On "I Got the Six", Hudson helped write the lyrics, and on "Dirty Dog" he originated the shouted phrase, "Hey! Get that dog outta my yard!", which was exactly duplicated and replaced in Memphis. He added special effects to "Dirty Dog" and "TV Dinners", and the pulsing synthesizer effect on "Legs" was his invention. He helped compose and arrange "Got Me Under Pressure", including playing the synth bass line and programming the drum machine. [11] [26]

a b Myers, Marc (April 4, 2022). "ZZ Top's 'Rio Grande Mud' at 50". The Wall Street Journal . Retrieved May 3, 2022. La Futura by ZZ Top". MP396. September 13, 2012. Archived from the original on December 28, 2013 . Retrieved July 28, 2014. From there, the action moved to Beard’s new house on the outskirts of Houston. According to the drummer, for the next several weeks Gibbons and Hill would arrive at his home for one pm and they would then go down in his basement studio to drill the raw materials into shape. Larkin, Colin (2007). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5thed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0857125958. French album certifications – ZZ Top – Eliminator" (in French). Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique.

On June 4, 2014, ZZ Top opened the CMT Awards ceremony, performing "La Grange" with Luke Bryan and Florida Georgia Line.