Dusty Hill's demise a couple of months ago was another unexpected rock'n'roll death this year. I was curious to see whether the band would continue without him - ZZ Top were one of a few bands that remained consistently together, they haven't had any personnel changes for 50 years. As it turned out, the band didn't even pause, immediately replacing Hill with longtime associate Elwood Francis and going ahead with 2021 tour dates as planned. As far as I can tell, the same is happening with every other band that recently lost a founding member without whom they are difficult for us to imagine: The Stranglers also replaced keyboardist Dave Greenfield who died from COVID-19 early in the pandemic - Jean-Jacques Burnel is now the sole original member left. At least the new tour is called Final Full UK Tour, indicating they might retire soon (though the "UK" and "full" prefixes leave a lot open on that front). Charlie Watts' death did not seem to bother The Rolling Stones too much, their tour also going ahead as planned. I seem to remember Keith Richards very clearly stating: "Without Mick, Charlie or me there isn't any Rolling Stones", half-jokingly leaving Ron Wood out as he's the "new boy", having only been in the band for 45 years. To make myself clear... I wouldn't want bands to retire after losing a member. If you love the songs, you'll want to see them performed live even after the originators are gone. Hell, I was getting ready to go see Queen with Adam Lambert in Amsterdam - and then I saw the price of the ticket. Are you fucking kidding? not even if Freddy Mercury came back (well, maybe yes in that case, but not for any artist not supernaturally resurrected from the dead). But this haste to go out on tour seems to me somewhat indecent. Take some time to grieve folks, and let the fans also grieve. I guess it's the pandemic effect: 2 years without concerts were too much, and had everybody impatiently waiting for the doctors to allow big gatherings again. Still... ZZ Top could have waited a few months for Francis to grow a real beard in emulation to his predecessor, rather than wear a fake one in his first gig. What, did they hope no-one was going to notice?
Despite being rather uneven, Fandango! is one of my favorite ZZ Top records. I think the reason is "Blue Jean Blues". When I was young, in Greece the word "blues" did not denote a music genre: it just meant slow dancing, that dance where you wrap your arms around your partner's waist and hold her close to you, slowly swaying to the music. Consequently, a "blues song" was any song that could be slow-danced: Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse Of The Heart" was a blues, Muddy Waters' "Hoochie Coochie Man" wasn't. When I was 14 or 15, someone gave me a cassette with "blues" songs: it contained ballads by the Scorpions, Moody Blues etc. but also ZZ Top's "Blue Jean Blues". Sure, a couple could slow-dance to it, but the sadness of the music and expressiveness of the guitar solos put it on another plane altogether. It was my introduction to the real blues. Even if ZZ Top were never a pure blues band, they had incorporated the real thing into their music - even their name was inspired by legendary bluesman B.B. King. They then electrified it, and added some hard rock and country to create their own mix, doing for Texas what The Rolling Stones did for the UK - or, more correctly, for the world. 1975's Fandango! is a half-live half-studio affair, something that doesn't bode well for them. It says "I don't have enough songs for an LP but I've promised one to my record company, so I'll just record my set and use some of it to fill the album". Side 1 (the live one) opens with a couple of energetic rock'n'roll covers: The Nightcaps' "Thunderbird" and Elvis' "Jailhouse Rock". When the writers of the former song demanded a share of the profits, they found out they didn't own the rights to it: back in the 50's, the Nightcaps, who were still in their teens at the time, had neglected to copyright it, so ZZ Top filed the copyright under their own names. That's followed by "Backdoor Medley" consisting of their own "Backdoor Love Affair" mixed with a couple of blues numbers: Little Walters' "Mellow Down Easy" and John Lee Hooker's "Long Distance Boogie". It sounds like it could be an entertaining interlude in the context of a ZZ Top concert, but not so much on record. "Nasty Dogs And Funky Kings" and "Balinese" are a couple of typical Southern boogie rockers, pleasant but forgettable. "Heard It On The X" is a great hard rock boogie about Mexican radio, and "Mexican Blackbird" a slower one in praise of a Mexican hooker. The things rock bands sang about in those pre-politically correct days! Good slide guitar, though! Saving the best for last, they close with one of their most infectious, good-time Southern rock tunes, called "Tush". I have this album on CD, which I'm told is a different mix to the original one - at least regarding the studio side. You'd have to get the deluxe 2006 CD edition or the 180gr vinyl reissue to listen to the LP the way it sounded originally - or, of course, get the original vinyl second hand. Listening to this again, I think the song sequencing doesn't serve it well at all. Especially on CD, you have to sit through the mildly interesting side 1 and mediocre side 2 opener before you encounter the disc's first highlight "Blue Jean Blues", while the other two very strong tracks are tucked away at the very end of the album. Still, on the strength of those 3 veritable classics, the album still merits a 4* rating, and a position among the band's Top 3. Which are the other two? Stay tuned...
***** for Blue Jean Blues, Tush
**** for Heard It On The X
*** for Thunderbird, Jailhouse Rock, Nasty Dogs And Funky Kings, Balinese, Mexican Blackbird
** for Backdoor Medley (Backdoor Love Affair/Mellow Down Easy/Backdoor Love Affair No.2/Long Distance Boogie)
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