ZZ TOP – Eliminator In The Recycler
May 9, 2008, 16 years ago
The reissue of ZZ TOP’s mega-selling Eliminator album has been delayed until the summer, but in the meantime, there’s a new DVD Live In Texas to keep y’all occupied. See issue #111 of BW&BK; for more on Live In Texas as well as news on a new ZZ Top studio album, to be produced by Rick Rubin.
Offering a few memories about the time leading up to the release of Eliminator in 1983, Billy told BW&BK; that, “There was some uncertainty, But the success and maintaining good timing and the song composition, they were well thought-out at the time. Which has proven to be the case, because we still play those songs today and they are quite enjoyable (laughs). It’s 25 years ago, if you can believe that. Yeah, good tonality, and of course that was Terry Manning who got most of the credit. We were working with Terry, Joe Hardy, John Hampton… that was still part of the Memphis scene, working out of Memphis, Tennessee at Ardent Recordings.”
What are some of your favourite tracks on that and why?
“Well, you named the very favourite, ‘Got Me Under Pressure’. Coming out of the chute, that one really gets it going.”Did your approach to soloing change at all, given that high-tech sound? What type of soloing did you put on that record?
“As I mentioned, the tonality was pretty much up in your face, a little greasier, a little more raw-edged - the distortion quality was bumped way up. There was not a lot of clean, crystalline guitar tones in that particular release. It was heavy. Dark. We had been off the road awhile since the previous release, and we had the opportunity to really dial in and to hear what was going on on radio. That was the main conduit that brought us into refocusing on how to go about making a ZZ Top record but offering something fresh, something different.”See www.zztop.com for more.
