New Wax Wednesday

If I blow my top, will you let it go to your head? Put a pin in your answer for now, please, and let’s instead focus on the, er, explosive related box set announcement at hand. Getting a jump on the holiday weekend, ZZ Top have just confirmed that From The Top: 1979–1990, a limited-edition 5LP collection from Rhino High Fidelity (a.k.a. Rhino Hi-Fi), will be released just two days from now on July 4, 2025.

From The Top: 1979–1990 includes five albums from the pivotal mainstream-success era of that little ol’ band from Texas — namely, November 1979’s Degüello, July 1981’s El Loco, March 1983’s Eliminator, October 1985’s Afterburner, and October 1990’s Recycler. More importantly to us here at AP, the lacquers for each of these five ZZ Top albums were AAA cut from the original stereo master tapes by Kevin Gray and pressed on 180g heavyweight vinyl at Optimal. Further, the albums are housed in a faux-leather slipcase — just as the five albums that comprised this set’s most excellent predecessor, From The Top: 1971–1976, were.

This new collection (released by Rhino, but spine- and label-credited to Warner Records) is limited to 3,000 individually numbered copies, and it comes with an SRP of $199.98. From The Top: 1979–1990 can be pre-ordered exclusively at the official Rhino Store right here (and, we’re told, it will also be available via select WMG stores worldwide).

I reviewed the aforementioned From The Top: 1971–1976 box set exactly 11 months ago here on AP on August 2, 2024, and gave it a collective Sound rating of 9 — so I have similar high expectations for the balance of the 1979–1990 collection.

Incidentally, when I asked ZZ Top guitarist/vocalist Billy F Gibbons about the instructions he may have had for any of the engineers tasked with cutting ZZ Top vinyl in our interview that posted here on AP back on August 4, 2022, BFG (as he’s also known) had quite the telling reply, which I’m reproducing in full below.

Gibbons: We simply said, “Take it back to a period when there was nothing else but vinyl.” And that was met with open arms. They — “they” being the guys in today’s mastering labs — have a real challenge to understand, across the board, that they’re having to deal with sonic forms that previously didn’t exist, when it was only vinyl. But, nonetheless, they seem to get it! I’m not gonna short-change ’em — they’ve got a big job to do, but they’re doing it, and they enjoy it.

What follows is a brief summary about each ZZ Top LP in the 1979–1990 collection via notes shared in the official press release, along with a few of my own comments thrown in along the way for clarification and/or good measure.

After a brief hiatus following their 98-show Worldwide Texas Tour that concluded in 1977, ZZ Top returned in 1979 with Degüello, their first release on the Warner Bros. label. It was also a looser record built around funkier grooves like “Cheap Sunglasses” (Side Two, Track 4), with its staccato backbeat and crescendo of “oh yeahs.” Their version of Sam and Dave’s “I Thank You” (Side One, Track 1) became a fan favorite — and, as Gibbons says in the album’s new liner notes penned by James Austin, “Our cover emerged unabashedly with a one-take stab onto the tape machine, and the tale was told and remains a recurrent requested number on stage and over radio stations everywhere.”

My personal favorite track on Degüello is the super-greasy “Manic Mechanic” (Side One, Track 5), featuring Gibbons’ uber-processed vocals (“That’s right!”) and an interesting meter and guitar break bordering on, yes, King Crimson territory.

Next up, ZZ Top scored a Top 20 hit in 1981 with El Loco, which introduced classics like “Tube Snake Boogie” (Side One, Track 1) and “Pearl Necklace” (Side Two, Track 2). The trio kept one foot in the blues while experimenting with new sounds, telegraphing their next move with synths on “Groovy Little Hippie Pad” (Side Two, Track 3) and processed drums on “Party on the Patio” (Side Two, Track 5).

Sandwiched between those latter two tracks is my own El Loco favorite, “Heaven, Hell Or Houston” (Side Two, Track 4), a sinister ballad of sorts with another altered Gibbons vocal (“Yes, it’s me again. . .”) and a downright funky middle break.

Released in 1983, Eliminator marked a seismic shift for ZZ Top, blending their blues-rock foundation with driving tempos, synthesizers, and airtight songwriting. The album became a phenomenon — Diamond-certified (as in, over 10 million copies sold), and spending over two years on the charts — and it delivered a trio of massive, massive hits: “Gimme All Your Lovin’” (Side One, Track 1), “Sharp Dressed Man” (Side One, Track 3), and “Legs” (Side Two, Track 1). Backed by a striking run of somewhat interconnected MTV videos, the band reached a new generation of fans and became unexpected pop culture icons. (Ah yes, thoughts now of seeing that sleek, red, vintage Eliminator, purring along the road to its next destination with a familiar crew onboard. . .)

I never get tired of the pulsating groove and snarling lead riffing in “Legs,” but I also favor the pair of tracks that immediately follow it in the running order — the wavery, wide-panned percussive twang and multiple bass-line breaks in “Thug” (Side Two, Track 2) and the primordial, creepy ooze of “TV Dinners” (Side Two, Track 3) “. . .if the sauce is not too blue,” that is.

Afterburner followed in 1985, pushing the band’s synth-driven sound even further. Tracks like “Sleeping Bag” (Side One, Track 1), “Velcro Fly” (Side Two, Track 4), and “Rough Boy” (Side One, Track 4) kept them on heavy radio rotation, while the album climbed to No. 4 on the charts and was certified 5x platinum in the U.S. alone. “So many wacky gadgets suddenly seemed to appear in the studio,” Gibbons recalls in the liners. “The temptation of experimentation took us all in. . . and some satisfying mayhem unfolded. And that’s defiantly rock ’n’ roll.”

“Sleeping Bag” is definitely of-era with its miasma of keyboard pulses and swooshes, but Gibbons’ middle-break sustainiac solo, and his playful riff stabs throughout the last minute, are hard to beat. I do also dig the propulsive album-ender “Delirious” (Side Two, Track 5), which is sung by bassist Dusty Hill (RIP) and essentially carried home by more marvelous Gibbons guitar work. (But am I fan of the repetitive, synthy sample of the title word, though? I’ll plead the fifth on that.) I also tip my hat to the beardless drummer Frank Beard, who gamely adjusted his playing style in the wake of all those electronic-oriented production additions.

Recycler arrived in 1990, opening a new decade with a Top 10, platinum-certified exclamation point. Tracks like “My Head’s in Mississippi” (Side One, Track 5) and “2000 Blues” (Side Two, Track 3) leaned into their blues roots, while “Doubleback” (Side Two, Track 5) — featured in 1990’s Back to the Future Part III — gave the Top another high-profile hit. According to the press release, quote, “It was the final album in a remarkable trilogy that defined ZZ Top’s sound — and look — for years to come.”

To be honest, Recycler is probably my least favorite LP in the ZZ Top canon, but I will give kudos to the above-noted “My Head’s in Mississippi” — especially given the way Gibbons recast it even deeper into his growlier, hard-blues territory in the band’s live set over the ensuing years.

And with that, here’s hoping a third From the Top multi-LP gathering is on the books for sometime next year, seeing how ZZ Top released a number of cool, and mostly underrated, albums following their decade-plus stint under the Warner umbrella (Mescalero, anyone?) — though I suppose another parent label may have to pick up the licensing/reissue slack in order to do so. You look like who you say you are / So scoot over, and let me drive your car. . .

ZZ TOP
FROM THE TOP (1979–1990)
180g 5LP (Warner Records)

Degüello (1979)

Side One
1. I Thank You
2. She Loves My Automobile
3. I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide
4. A Fool For Your Stockings
5. Manic Mechanic

Side Two
1. Dust My Broom
2. Lowdown On The Street
3. Hi Fi Mama
4. Cheap Sunglasses
5. Esther Be The One

El Loco (1981)

Side One
1. Tube Snake Boogie
2. I Wanna Drive You Home
3. Ten Foot Pole
4. Leila
5. Don’t Tease Me

Side Two
1. It’s So Hard
2. Pearl Necklace
3. Groovy Little Hippie Pad
4. Heaven, Hell Or Houston
5. Party On The Patio

Eliminator (1983)

Side One
1. Gimme All Your Lovin’
2. Got Me Under Pressure
3. Sharp Dressed Man
4. I Need You Tonight
5. I Got The Six

Side Two
1. Legs
2. Thug
3. TV Dinners
4. Dirty Dog
5. If I Could Only Flag Her Down
6. Bad Girl

Afterburner (1985)

Side One
1. Sleeping Bag
2. Stages
3. Woke Up With Wood
4. Rough Boy
5. Can’t Stop Rockin’

Side Two
1. Planet Of Women
2. I Got The Message
3. Velcro Fly
4. Dipping Low (In The Lap Of Luxury)
5. Delirious

Recycler (1990)

Side One
1. Concrete And Steel
2. Lovething
3. Penthouse Eyes
4. Tell It
5. My Head’s In Mississippi

Side Two
1. Decision Or Collision
2. Give It Up
3. 2000 Blues
4. Burger Man
5. Doubleback