ZZ Top - Fandango (1975)

Fandango, the fourth album by Texas blues-rockers ZZ Top, is as is their career – one of two halves. Side 1 showcases four tracks from their live shows whilst side 2 features new studio recordings . . . as to their career, part 1 featured driving southern-tinged blues rock whilst part 2 featured electronic sequencer-based drivel that whilst propelling them to global superstardom through the Eliminator album, completely lost all essence of what made them such a great band back in the 70s. However, that said Fandango really packs a punch and encapsulates the sound of the band who were really at the top of their game in 1975 (artistically albeit not commercially).

The album opens with Thunderbird, the opening number from their live set at that time and recorded, as with all of ’side 1′ of the album, at The Warehouse, New Orleans. Thunderbird is a fast-paced boogie shuffle lyrically extolling “get high everybody, get high” interspersed with blistering bouts of guitar from Billy Gibbons: if you aren’t motivated to at least tap your foot along to Thunderbird I’d be amazed! Interestingly, the track is a cover of an ucopyrighted track – the writers of which deciding they should have copyrighted it when ZZ Top made it a staple track of their set only to lose out in court to ZZ.

Another staple cover for bands is up next with the Elvis classic Jailhouse Rock which has been covered by a plethora of the great, good and not so good over the years. However, where most bands take the speed up a notch, ZZ Top play it cool and hold back the tempo tendency and add a southern twist to the track which works really well and once again, the urge to get up and dance tends to sweep over the listener.

Jailhouse Rock drifts into the four-track min-opus Backdoor Medley which spans the tracks Backdoor Love Affair, Mellow Down Easy (a Willie Dixon cover), Backdoor Love Affair No. 2 and Long Distance Boogie. Mellow Down Easy is largely a highly repetitious drum pattern with Hill and Gibbons repeating the title as a mantra for several minutes and is definitely the low-point of the live side of the album. Fortunately, as the medley progresses there are some great passages of driving guitar soloing from Billy Gibbons.

The studio side of the album opens with the straight 4/4 mid-tempo Nasty Dogs And Funky Kings which veers more towards hard rock than much of the material on Fandango but that is in no way a criticism as it’s an excellent track with an extended guitar break mid-way through and riff that wouldn’t be out of place on the album of many a classic 70s hard rock band and has just a whiff of Oh Well, the Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac classic to boot!

Blue Jeans Blues takes the mood right down to slow blues . . . and boy have they got the blues here: after the break-up of a relationship, all he’s got left is his old blue jeans! This is textbook slow blues with some great soloing from Gibbons with, as it should be , a simplistic backing track from Beard and Hill.

Balinese takes the mood back up to Sweet Home Alabama territory and it sounds like Frank Beard has dropped the actual snare from his snare drum and cranked-up the skin tension which is probably of no interest to anyone other than a drummer . . . but I am one so thought it worth a mention!

Mexican Blackbird once again drops the tempo to a drawling southern blues with slide guitar and a tale of a mixed-race woman of questionable morality but ultimately of good nature. Plenty of slide soloing, one of Gibbons’ fortes, abounds throughout and lyrically it is replete with double entendre and harmonica too for good measure.

Heard It On The X sets off at a furious pace and pays tribute to Mexican radio stations that could be picked-up across the border in Texas and to which the band used to listen.

For me, the real standout classic from Fandango – and the track which would be a live staple to this day, is Tush. A mid-tempo boogie shuffle with two great slide breaks from Gibbons and played with such bounce that it makes you want to get out of your chair (presuming you’re seated when listening that is, of course). The track has been heavily covered and always proves a live favourite by whoever performs it – I particularly remember the Redbeards From Texas cutting a particularly good live version in their shows in the mid-1980s – a great way to close the album.

As was said at the outset, ZZ Top went on to really lose their roots during the 1980s which coincided with their commercial peak but I would definitely argue that Fandango, and their other early-mid 70s releases, really capture the band at their best and that those of you put off by gimmicky beards, spinning guitars and the whole hutzpah of Legs and Gimme Some Lovin’ etc from Eliminator and Afterburner should put those prejudices to one side and give one of the finest proponents of powerful southern blues rock a listen. To make matters better, the 2006 re-issue features the original mix of the album as heard on the vinyl release along with three more live tracks (including Tush) which is another reason to now give the album a spin!

• Dusty Hill – Bass/Vocals
• Billy Gibbons – Guitar/Vocals
• Frank Beard – Drums