zz top's greatest hits rocks!!I think that ZZ Top are a very good band and they remain one of my favorite bands of all-time. this is one great collection and they made great blues music in the 1970s and the 1980s. here are my comments about most of the songs. GIMME ALL YOUR LOVING this is a really great song and is my 2nd favorite song on the entire cd. SHARP DRESSED MAN this is pretty great too, but probably my 5th favorite. ROUGH BOY is a ballad that is too slow and too sad for me. TUSH is an excellent blues rocker remains one of my 5 favorites on this album. MY HEAD'S IN MISSISSPII is a blues rocker one of my favorites, PEARL NECKLACE not my fave, IM BAD IM NATHIONWIDE this is pretty good although remains as a 10th favorite or something. I AINT CRAZY ABOUT VIVA LAS VEGAS, DOUBLEBACK is a pretty good hard blues rocking song possibly remains as a 6th favorite. CHEAP SUNGLASSES what kind of song is that? i don't like the title and the music and lyrics are pure $$$. SLEEPING BAG is great although maybe a 5th on the album as a favorite. LA GRANGE is the best! It is my favorite song on the cd and almost an instrumental song with great blues solos and great opening lyrics. Anyway that's all i feel about commenting it.
A Good but Not Great Collection ZZ Top, Mr Beard and the two with the beards were at first a gritty Texas rock band and in their latter days a pop rock chart success. This compilation features both and is a solid if not quite stunning collection.
The main highlights are Sharp Dressed Man, Legs and Tush but a whole host of other songs are excellent such as Viva Las Vegas, Gimme all your Loving and Rough Boy are also excellent.
Despite some great guitar work and grizzly and VERY sexist lyrics, the songwriting is not quite strong enough, but a very good collection none the less.
From greatness to declineThere's no doubt that from day one ZZ Top were a class act. Billy Gibbons had already shown his teeth as a guitarist in the late 1960s before helping found this formidable trio. Perhaps, though, they just became fed up with blowing bands off every stage in Texas and earning a reputation. With the "Eliminator" album they went for the commercial jugular, a mission that this collection represents.
The first few bars of "La Grange" offer a glimpse of the style that earned their initial reputation, earthy blues with the devil looking on. What little 1970s material is on show here however seems to have been buffed up so as not to make it sound too incongruous. More typical is the cover of "Viva Las Vegas", the title of which aptly describes their new-found gloss. In short, they decided to cash in. There's nothing wrong with courting the chart scene, of course. Tracks like "Sharp Dressed Man" and "Got Me Under Pressure" are irresistible chunks of hard driving boogie. But when ZZ Top don't hit the bullseye with this stuff they tend to be way off target.
"Legs" is a fine track, but the programmed rhythms are ominous. After this recording came tracks like "Sunglasses" and "Planet of Women", which are killed stone dead by that awful flat, synthetic 1980s influence. They should have steered well clear of it. "Eliminator" contains all you need of this kind of approach and is a better purchase, as are ZZ Top's early albums.
ClasZZic cuts from those mavens of style and flairI actually remember when we thought ZZ Top was going to be a one hit wonder. They had "La Grange" and then that seemed like it was going to be the end of the road as the Seventies fizzled out. Then 1983's "Eliminator" came out with "Gimme All Your Lovin'" and suddenly ZZ Top exploded as a rockin' blues based power trio. When it comes to putting your pedal to the metal and having a driving beat nobody beats ZZ Top. In fact, in one of Stephen King's "Dark Tower" books one of Roland's crew recognizes the bass line from a ZZ Top song coming from an evil city. See? Even in fictional dimensions the servants of the Dark Man know the value of ZZ Top. Some people say they cannot tell the difference between "Sharp Dressed Man" and "Legs," but that is their headache; people like that probably cannot tell who has the longer beard, Billy Gibbons or Dusty Hill (ironically its not Frank Beard, LOL). ZZ Top has been keeping me awake at night grading student papers for almost two decades and if I am not mistaken, a vehicle that looks a lot like their snaZZy red vehicle was car of the year or something like that. Even if you are not inclined to have their entire oeuvre on your shelf, then you have to at least have this "Greatest Hits" collection. Remember: "they've got a lot of nice girls out there."
Almost 5 starPut this on while eating your TV Dinner (which is actually not on this album)
You should buy this album to supplement the original ZZ Top albums as they are all classics.
But this is nice addition that is great at full volume in the car.
Hide Reviews
Searching... Please Wait 
Shopping Blog
DVDs
Music
Books
Games
Mall
