Zz Top - Rancho Texicano Very Best of Zz Top (38 tracks) +Album Reviews

Great cross section of ZZ Top's music

Joseph M. Siegler | Garland, TX USA | 06/15/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Been a ZZ Top fan for a long time, and I'm one of the people who likes both their early stuff, and the stuff in the Eliminator / Afterburner period (it seems most ZZ Top fans don't like both, just one era or the other). Anyway, if you don't own ZZ Top at all, this is the one to get, as you get all the big hits, and a few others you might not know of.As usual with a Greatest Hits package, there's always stuff that's missing, and this is no exception. Despite being put out in 2004, it has nothing from the albums Antenna, Mescalero, XXX, & Rhythmeen. Rhythmeen is one of my favs by ZZ Top, so I was kind of disappointed that nothing was there from that. I understand that with Greatest Hits albums, that will always happen - someone's personal preference left off. I could accept that. But this colletion has THREE songs on there TWICE EACH! Cheap Sunglasses, Legs, & Velcro Fly are on here in live or alternate mixes. BORING! That's three spaces that could have been better allotted to songs from the albums not covered. That's the reason I gave this four stars - it would have been 5, and I would have given it 4.5 stars if I could.But that I admit is my own personal gripe. What is here is most excellent, and as I said, if you don't have any ZZ Top at all, this is the one to get. This essentially replaces the most excellent 1992 "Greatest Hits" albums, with only two tracks that were on that one not here, but neither of them are a big loss at all. Check it out!Edit a week later: I found out why the four most recent albums aren't represented here. They're on a different label, that's why they're not here. Still would have been nice to have seen the entire career represented. After having listened to it for a couple of weeks now, it's a fabulous collection, and is a great pickup if you don't own all their albums already."

First rate sampler of Texas' biggest & baddest export: ZZ T

R. Gorham | 05/11/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"THE BAND: Billy Gibbons (guitars, vocals, hermonica, fiddle, baritone sax, keyboards), Dusty Hill (bass, vocals, tenor sax, keyboards), Frank Beard (drums, percussion, vocals, alto sax). Bill Ham (manager, producer, inspiration).

THE DISCS: (2004) 38 tracks on two discs clocking in at approximately 154 minutes (78+ on Disc-1, 75+ on Disc-2). Included with the discs is an 18-page booklet containing a 12 pages of history and retrospective on the band, song titles/credits and chart success, assorted pictures, what songs came from which albums; 14 album covers pictured on 1 page, and thank you's. Digitally remastered sound. Label - Warner Bros.

ALBUM REPRESENTATION: ZZ Top's First Album (3), Rio Grande Mud (3), Tres Hombres (4), Fandango! (5), Tejas (2), Deguello (4), El Loco (2), Eliminator (4), Afterburner (5), Recycler (2), Greatest Hits (1), Promo Singles (3).

COMMENTS: 30+ years and still chugging along. ZZ Top has proven it's ability to rock & roll over the years. Complete with their trademark Texas-blues fused rock, overly long beards, (probably not cheap) sunglasses, love of fast hot rods, and seemingly countless videos on MTV. The liner notes are extensive in regards to the birth of the band - touching on family, teenage garage bands (The Moving Sidewalks & The Warlocks), running into producer Bill Ham (backstage at a Doors concert), first gig (1970), opening shows for Jimi Hendrix, etc. Outside of the 4-disc box set that's overly priced - as of 2004 this is now the best ZZ Top compilation available. The two other most notable 'best of' pacakges are now expendable. 9 of 10 songs are here on "Rancho Texicano" from ZZ Top's first 'Best Of' compilation (1977)... only song missing is "No Back Door Love Affair". 15 of the 18 songs off ZZ Top's "Greatest Hits (1992) are here as well (missing are "Gun Love", "Give It Up" and "Planet Of Women"). All of the omissions are OK in my book. The only songs I would have removed from "Rancho" would be "Mexican Blackbird" and "Woke Up With Wood"... and replaced them with the strangely absent "TV Dinners" and/or "Concrete And Steel". Overall though, the 38 songs are simply dead on accurate. All songs are the original studio versions except the last 2 dance remixes of "Legs" and "Velcro Fly" (you do however get the original versions of these 2 songs earlier on the disc), and 2 live songs ("Cheap Sunglasses" and "Thunderbird"). Anyone else find it interesting when reading the liner notes, that Billy, Frank, and Dusty all play the saxophone? Every rock & roll collection needs some ZZ TOP and this is the ideal place to start. Great set of discs (5 stars).

"

Better Purchase Than The Box?

"The Woj" | Downers Grove, IL | 10/08/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I own both this 2 cd collection and the "Chrome, Smoke & BBQ" 4 cd box. If you are a casual ZZ Top fan or want to add a ZZ Top album to your collection, this 2 cd set is the way to go. The sound is suberb and track selection excellent. "Rancho Texicano" flat out smokes any previous ZZ Top "greatest/best of" package of 2 cds or less. Plus, I praise the "Gods" of boogie for not including ZZ Top's worst song ever, "Heaven, Hell Or Houston", here. If you are more than a casual ZZ Top fan, bordering on or crossing into die-hard territory (like me) skip this set and drop the extra cash on the box set. The Moving Sidewalks tracks are a must. And, even though disc four of the box is a little weaker than the previous three, it is still essential ZZ Top. Finally, if you have the extra cash around, buy both!

"Rancho Texicano" is much more user friendly for the car."

Halfway to greatness

Charles A Galupi | Euless, Texas | 06/28/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Disc ONE of Rancho Texicano is the ZZ Top collection I have been waiting to materialize for years. FINALY, a truly definitive gathering of the essential ZZ Top from the Warner Brothers years when Billy Gibbons played good raunchy blues guitar straight up... no synths, no drum machines, no distortion pedals. And while there remain arguments over content ["Manic Mechanic" over "Thunderbird" for one, no "Heaven, Hell or Houston"], it touches on ZZ Top as they were: a dirty, gritty blues band with a great sense of humor, long before they became cartoon characters with long beards passing out the keys that magically turned boys into chick magnets. From the chug of "Brown Sugar" [not in any way, shape or form the Stones song], to the stinging blues of "Just Got Back from Baby's", [blues guitar extraordinare that one Eric Clapton could only dream of these days] to the great riffing on "Just Got Paid", with itss Johhny Winter inspired slide work [and its sped up cousin "Heard It on the X"] to the Stones meets Johhny Winter of "Francene" to the twin kill of "Waitin for the Bus/ Jesus Just Left Chicago" to the slow Peter Green/ Fleetwood Mac inspired minor key blues [think "Love That Burns" and "Looking for Somebody"] "Blue Jean Blues" to the back beat driven, tongue in cheek of "Im Bad, Im Nationwide" and "A Fool for Your Stockings" and the funky cool of Isaac Hayes and David Porter's "I Thank You" to the crowning song of the great Deguello, "Cheap Sunglasses", it?s 75 minutes of almost totally essential ZZ Top.

Disc two however is a collection of after the fall ZZ Top. The over the Top innuendo of "Tube Snake Boogie" and "Pearl Necklace" leading into the mega-platinum MTV success years of Eliminator and Afterburner. Taken on its own, ELIMINATOR remains an album of great songs, though every song here [and from AFTERBURNER, except the ballad "Rough Boy"] is driven by a four-on-the-floor dance beat: thump-thump-thump-thump and guitars with enough distortion to make one think he is listening to a Ratt record. Not the natural distortion of a guitar and a Marshall stack turned up to ten, but the unnatural big fuzz of 80s hair bands? which in effect ZZ Top was except their hair was hanging down from their chins. The two tracks from RECYCLER, "Double Back" [which did double duty in one of the Back to the Future films too, I think] and "My Heads in Mississippi" are better, leaning back but not returning to their roots, but the inclusion of the terrible "Viva Las Vegas" and a 12" mix of 'Velcro Fly' leave me scratching my head. NOTHING else deserved to be on this collection, like "Dirty Dog", "TV Dinners" or "Bad Girl" from ELIMINATOR? We're not talking about a criminal offense here for NOT including these; not like X leaving the 12" of "Wild Thing" off their BEYOND AND BACK collection. The inclusion of the promo only live take of "Cheap Sunglasses" takes me further back to the days of real radio, Q102 in Dallas played it a lot, back when there was real Album Oriented Radio [AOR]. [Ask your parents if you don?t remember.]

Overall? Four and a half for Disc One, a GENEROUS Three and a Half for Disc Two, FOUR Les Pauls!"

The way ZZ Top is supposed to sound

Grunt Hog | Vancouver, Canada | 11/06/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It would be easy to roll your eyes at this CD and say, "God, not another ZZ Top Best-Of collection. Why bother?" That was pretty much what I thought, until I heard this album.

Hearing Disc 1 is like hearing ZZ Top anew. This was the first time I had ever heard the ORIGINAL mixes of their pre-Eliminator material, and what a difference it makes. The soulless 80's drum machines and re-recorded guitar and vocal parts that they released in the 80's are gone, leaving the original gritty blues-rock sensibilities that are at the core of this band's best music. These songs leave you feeling dirty and smelling of motor oil, cattle and cigarette smoke. (Conversely, the Six-Pack remixes felt more like someone's slick penthouse cocaine party.) It's the way the songs were meant to sound, and it's a pleasure to rediscover classic tracks that I had only previously heard in their inferior 6-Pack remixed form.

I have less to say about Disc 2. It covers their career from Eliminator onwards, and the post-Eliminator material (about half the disc) doesn't stand up too well to what came before it. The real reason to pick up this album is for the original mixes on Disc 1, and those are well worth the purchase price."

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