"Fandango!" by ZZ TOP – May 1975 Album on London Records with First Side Being Live (Without Overdubs) and the Second Side Being Studio Tracks - featuring Billy F. Gibbons, Dusty Hill and Frank Beard (February 2006 UK Warner Brothers Remastered And Expanded CD Reissue with Three Bonus Tracks) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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CAPT. FANTASTIC - 1975

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"...Downtown Tush..."

The fantastically named ZZ TOP had been building up a serious head of steam since their January 1971 US debut "ZZ Top's First Album" on London Records - a natural home for a Texas Blues Rock band. 

But things really started to boil on platters number 2 and 3 - "Rio Grande Mud" released April 1972 and especially "Tres Hombres" from August 1973. The stunning Blues Boogie riffage of "La Grange' from "Rio Grande Mud" had gotten everyone's attention (especially American FM Radio) – so the Tops needed a big fat juicy follow-up winner – a 45-juggernaut - and "Tush" from 1975's "Fandango!" nailed it like Anthony Hopkins anywhere near an Oscar performance.

Which brings us to this – the 'Newly Remastered And Expanded' CD Edition of "Fandango!" from late 2006 – over 30 years after the main event first appeared. Time for details, so to the girls turning up at gigs with a new boyfriend and your old jeans that went missing just before she left (eek)...

UK released 28 February 2006 - "Fandango!" by ZZ TOP on Warner Bothers 8122-78965-2 (Barcode 081227896522) is a Newly Remastered And Expanded CD Reissue of their Fourth Album from 1975 with Three Bonus Tracks that plays out as follows (42:04 minutes):

1. Thunderbird [Side 1]

2. Jailhouse Rock

3. Backdoor Medley: Backdoor Love Affair/Mellow Down Easy/Backdoor Love Affair No.2/Long Distance Boogie

4. Nasty Dogs And Funky Kings [Side 2]

5. Blue Jean Blues 

6. Balinese 

7. Mexican Blackbird 

8. Heard It On The X

9. Tush

Tracks 1 to 9 are their fourth LP "Fandango!" – released May 1975 in the USA on London PS 656 and June 1975 in the UK on London SH-U 8482. The three 'live' cuts of Side 1 were recorded without overdubs at the Warehouse venue in the Waterfront District of New Orleans - while Side 2 sports five new Studio Tracks. Produced by BILL HAM – the LP peaked at No. 10 in the USA and No. 60 in the UK. 

BONUS TRACKS: 

10. Heard It On The X (Live) 

11. Jailhouse Rock (Live)  

12. Tush (Live) 

All three Bonus Tracks recorded live in 1979 and are PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED 

Some history - sporadic tracks from "Fandango!" have cropped up in remastered form on the 2003 "Chrome, Smoke & BBQ" 4CD Retro Box Set - whilst there is also a Remastered version of the whole album minus the bonuses (33:51 minutes) in repro card sleeve form in the June 2013 Box Set "The Complete Studio Albums 1970-1990" on Warner Brothers 8122796519 – a 10CD mini clamshell whopper of a box set that goes all the way from 1971's debut up to their "Recycler" album from October 1990. 

Here we get a 12-page booklet with hugely entertaining and informative liner notes from TOM VICKERS - a friend and admirer of the band since the Seventies. The front and rear artwork of the single sleeve original LP is here (nudie suits and ten-gallon hats ahoy) as are some period photos of the 'Little Trio From Texas' including an overhead shot of 80,000 arena friends in 1974 (see photos provided). The band was (still is) BILLY F GIBBONS on Lead Guitar, Lead Vocals and Harmonica with DUSTY HILL on Bass and Vocals and FRANK BEARD on Drums (the only one who ironically did not sport a beard as a part of their recognisable look for decades to come). 

But the big news is of course a BOB LUDWIG Remaster done from original master tapes at his Gateway Mastering Studios, and as you can imagine, this rowdy little sucker is not shy in any way as it exits your slightly shell-shocked speakers. It sounds 'great'. To the tunes and those complimentary extras... 

The smart move on their Texas Threesome part was to show both sides of the band – Side 1 of the LP live and undubbed – gritty, down and dirty as a bar stool in Little Joe’s Bourbon Bordello out on Highway 29. Those of us who bought the LP at the time will remember the wording on the rear sleeve - "Side One Live Recorded At The Warehouse, New Orleans Captured As It Came Down - Hot, Spontaneous - And Presented To You Honestly, Without The Assistance Of Studio Gimmicks". And that’s pretty much what you get. 

After the roar of the crowd, a drum roll and an excited compare asking the collective punters are they 'ready to rawk' (they were) - ZZ Top launch into a new song called "Thunderbird" where they sing about getting high, high, high. It's a storming opening and even though a new tune, feels like a friend you missed. Dusty's hero had always been Elvis Presley (they relay a story about stumbling on him in his limousine one day as they travelling to a Memphis gig) - so not surprisingly they tear through "Jailhouse Rock". A tune that's been overdone for sure, but ZZ give it some fantastic new Rock licks and suddenly those lyrics about "...wanna stick around and get my kicks..." have a new urgency. Side 1 ends with a nine and half minute tour-de-force medley. They mix in the Willie Dixon-penned Little Walter tune "Mellow Down Easy" into two of their own - "Backdoor Love Affair" and "Long Distance Boogie". As the drums pound and the rapid pace is maintained - Billy raps with the crowd between singing - let that boy Boogie Woogie way down in New Orleans. It's great fun and despite being only a three-piece, they make a huge sound as they romp on home.   

But then we get their greatness reaffirmed as the Studio Side 2 opens with the fantastically dirty riffage of "Nasty Dogs And Funky Kings" - the Remaster giving it some real power at last. There follows what has to be one of my favourite Blues lurches of theirs - the tale of "Blue Jean Blues". Frank Beard done ran into his baby and finally found his old blue jeans (he recognises them from the oil and gasoline) only she's wearing them for some other lowlife skank (stunning Blues playing throughout too). More tales of dodgy goings-on down at the "Balinese" and then a gal who works the cantina then dances and loves the boys in "Mexican Blackbird". The rapido riffage returns with "Heard It On The X" – tunes from their past whizzing through the air – listening to the radio as it lifted and enlightened. The Remaster brings up that so-cool guitar solo – top indeed. 

The album ends on a total winner. The seven-inch 45-single "Tush" was issued July 1975 in the USA on London 5N-220 in a picture sleeve and 11 July 1975 in England on London HLU 10495 in a label bag – both issues with the cool "Blue Jean Blues" on the flipside. This is my idea of a masterpiece 45-single – both sides impossibly great. The Blighty issue created interest in the album (didn't chart though), but it hit big in the USA, peaking at No. 20 – an improvement over the No. 40 placing of its American little brother "La Grange" in May 1974 (a minor blip for the booklet is not picturing the rare US cartoon sleeve). The short, sweet and to-the-point riffage of "Tush" has been used in countless movies since - "Armageddon", "Dazed And Confused" and "The Bucket List" to name but a few and in great TV series like "Breaking Bad". 

The three previously unreleased live choices recorded four years after the "Fandango!" album (no dates or venues are supplied) reflect tracks that were on the original 1975 LP. And it is clear that the years have helped because they are honed and crafted into mini aural beasts – stunning air and atmosphere around them – a fitting end to a very successful and pleasing reissue. 

Dusty F. Gibbons sees his third solo album "Hardware" issued in June 2021 with many advance orders and excited Stereo trigger-fingers waiting anxiously to get their grubby paws on it. But if you want to know why ZZ Top was so adored in the first place, this gritty little Balinese CD Remaster is the perfect place to go. 

Fifty years plus and that 'little 'ol band from Texas' still continue to cast a long shadow...and isn't that just the Blues Rock best...