“Blue Jean Blues” was on their fourth album Fandango that was released in 1975. The song itself is another double entendre that has nothing at all to do with surfing but is captivating from Beard’s opening drums to the addition of Hill driving home the beat until Gibbons sings “I got a girl she lives cross town…” and bursts into a guitar solo. “Tube Snake Boogie” is from 1981’s El Loco and the title is a slang term that was used for a surf board. The most famous disc jockey to come out of the golden age time period of its influence was Wolfman Jack. “Heard It On the X” is another Fandango cut and is about Mexican radio stations like XERB, 1590 on the AM dial back when AM was king. It’s another double entendre that refers to both the southern term for the best and street slang for derriere. “Tush” is from 1975’s Fandango and according to Gibbons it was inspired by Roy Head’s 1967 song titled “Tush Hog.” The song itself was written in a couple of minutes during soundcheck at a rodeo concert during the 1970s in Alabama. The meaning of the song itself is comedic in nature and uses a sexually loaded double entendre which has often been associated with the blues from the early days of the twentieth century.
The song “Pearl Necklace is from their seventh album El Loco released in 1981. The actual subject matter was as simple as it sounds since the song was inspired by gas station display racks of “Cheap Sunglasses.” By this time the cut loose attitude that had been propagated by the punk rock genre signaled to ZZ Top that it might do the same. “Cheap Sunglasses” is from the trio’s sixth album Deguello released in 1979. This time when they appeared and gave the keys to Billy’s 1933 cherry red 1933 Ford hot rod to the protagonist couple it resulted in the vehicle’s death, burial, and resurrection like the mythological Pheonix rising from its ashes. The lyrics sing about sleeping “beside the pharaohs in the shifting sand.” It was the first single released from the album and once again the video featured the same three female goddesses. “Sleeping Bag” is the radio hit from Afterburner and was inspired by an actual sleeping bag. The song itself is about simply pointing out that “every girl crazy ‘bout a sharp dressed man.” This time he’s a valet at a ritzy night club where he’s being disrespected and the band is playing. Once again, the protagonist is transformed Cinderella style by three hot chicks that drive up in Billy Gibbons’ cherry red 1933 Ford Hot Rod. “Sharp Dressed Man” is from 1983’s Eliminator and was a continuation of the story of the gas station attendant in their “Gimme All Your Lovin’”video. It was their most commercially successful album and they won multiple awards for their music videos and were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2004. They only released three albums during the 1980s but Eliminator which was released in 1983 had five hit singles with MTV videos that increased ZZ Top’s popularity worldwide exponentially as the album went “Diamond” in the USA and sold ten million copies.
ZZ Top’s manager/producer/image maker Bill Ham was instrumental in the creation and production of their albums until his death in 2016. The 1980s began with the potential for an entirely new audience with MTV and their 24 hour a day music video programming. By the end of the 1970s, the trio had released a half dozen albums coupled with relentless touring that catapulted them to arena sized concerts after Tres Hombres produced the national hit “La Grange” in 1973. The rhythm section was comprised of Dusty Hill on bass and drummer Frank Beard that both came from “American Blues” and Billy Gibbons from the “Moving Sidewalks.” The trio released ZZ Top’s First Album in 1971 and their sound was established as a combination of blues, rock and boogie. ZZ Top evolved from the Texas psychedelic rock scene during the 1960s in Houston.
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