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ZZ Top

Greatest Hits 7½
Gimme All Your Lovin / Sharp Dressed Man / Rough Boy / Tush / My Head's In Mississipi / Pearl Necklace / I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide / Viva Las Vegas / Doubleback / Gun Love / Got Me Under Pressure / Give It Up / Cheap Sunglasses / Sleeping Bag / Planet Of Woman / LeGrange / Tube Snake Boogie / Legs

I just delight in reviewing a ZZ Top album the same day I reviewed a Prodidy album, and giving ZZ Top a higher rating! I'm like that, you see, not always so nice. I have a dark side, ha ha! Anyways, as this review rambles on you'll find that I actually quite like the boogie rock shuffle of ZZ Top. I'll say right now that I like their beards, ZZ Top? You guys rock! I'm not entirely being serious here, of course. Having said that, 'Gimme All Your Loving' and 'Sharp Dressed Man' contain very little to complain about, the latter has a pretty decent solo, too. 'Legs' may well include the worse lyric of all-time "she's got legs, she knows how to use them" but we forgive them. It made us smile, just a little. 'Rough Boy' is a horrible eighties soft rock ballad, though? What's with that? On the otherhand, any song called 'Tush' has my immediate respect, a trip into Seventies ZZ Top territory, and you know what? It's not half bad at all. Lots of fun guitar riffs throughout this collection, lots of decent melodies. Nothing is challenging, and ZZ Top certainly weren't groundbreaking, just good time Rock n Roll, and there is a place for that. Any image you have in your mind, any rememberances of their Eighties MTV video's, forget that! And besides, how cool do modern day Rolling Stones look, but they still get respect! Not that for one second i'm comparing ZZ Top to The Rolling Stones, that would just be silly. But, just because these guys are uncool, have huge beards, look silly, and wrote 'Legs' doesn't mean they didn't do some good stuff through the years! 'My Heads In Mississipi' has loads of cool guitar, for example.

As the Eighties wore on ZZ Top produce the horrible likes of 'Viva Las Vegas' but again, go back into the Seventies and we have 'Got Me Under Pressure', lots of insistent riffs, good Rock vocals, typical rock lyrics. You like AC/DC? This isn't at all a world removed. I may be getting all my dates wrong, actually. If this review is laughably full of factual errors, I don't care. 'Got Me Under Pressure' sounds very Seventies. It doesn't matter, i'm trying to make a stand here! ZZ Top did some good songs.

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Readers Comments Brendan Tnahpellee@yahoo.com Don't listen to the bullshit, these guys are great rock musicians who make fun music. And whats wrong with an 80's ballad? Rough Boy has one of the most touching melodies I've ever heard. These guys make great ballads when they very occasionally make them. Other than that they rock the blues with passion. Matt krej@adelphia.net A fairly comprehensive overview of ZZ Top's career, but where the hell is Stages? That's like, one of their best ever, dammit! Besides that, however, no complaints. Completely eliminates (pun intended) the need to buy Eliminator.