Fandango!

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Fandango!
Studio album by ZZ Top

Publication
(s)

April 18, 1975

Label (s) London Records

Genre (s)

Blues rock

Title (number)

9

running time

31min 52s

occupation

production

Bill Ham

chronology
Tres Hombres
1973 		Fandango! Tejas
1977
Single release
1975 Tush
Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
Fandango!
  UK 60 07/12/1975 (1 week)
  US 10 05/17/1975 (47 weeks)
Singles
Tush
  US 20th 07/19/1975 (9 weeks)

Fandango! is the fourth album by the American blues rock band ZZ Top . It was released on London Records in April 1975 and Warner released the album in North America . The A-side of the album consists of live recordings, while the B-side contains six newly written songs. In the United States, it received gold status in June 1975 for 500,000 units sold.

background

ZZ Top were on a tour of the southern states with The Allman Brothers Band and were supposed to play at the Warehouse Club in New Orleans . The show took place later than planned due to a hurricane that had covered the roof of the club. A vehicle with stage equipment had been parked in the club to protect against the storm, and when the technicians had made the necessary repairs, the sound engineer asked if they could run a tape during the performance. From this recording, the pieces for the A-side were selected. In addition to their own pieces, a cover version of " Jailhouse Rock ", originally sung by Elvis Presley , and an interpretation of "Mellow Down Easy", a song by blues musician Willie Dixon , can be heard.

The track "Heard it on the X" is about Mexican radio stations that were located directly across the border and whose nickname always began with "X". Since these transmitters were not subject to power restrictions, they had transmission powers of more than 500,000 watts and could be received in many parts of the USA. This made them an alternative to the weak local stations for American radio listeners. The lead single "Tush" called Gibbons as one of the few exceptions to the rule that the band only bluesy wanted to write plays. The song was created while rehearsing for a performance at a rodeo in Muscle Shoals , Alabama . The word tush has two meanings. Literally translated it means bum , figuratively translated it is used as a synonym for luxurious. According to Dusty Hill , the meaning arises from the context , the song is only about someone who wants to return to Texas from New York .

The album title refers to the Spanish dance fandango . In 1985 the album was reworked for the CD version, but since 2006 the original recordings have also been available in a remastered version on CD.

Track list

A side
  1. Thunderbird (Beard, Gibbons, Hill) - 4:08
  2. Jailhouse Rock ( Leiber / Stoller ) - 1:57
  3. Backdoor medley
    • Backdoor Love Affair (Gibbons, Ham) - 1:10
    • Mellow Down Easy ( Willie Dixon ) - 3:39
    • Backdoor Love Affair No. 2 (Gibbons) - 2:05
    • Long Distance Boogie (Beard, Gibbons, Hill) - 2:32
B side
  1. Nasty Dogs and Funky Kings (Beard, Gibbons, Hill) - 2:42
  2. Blue Jean Blues (Beard, Gibbons, Hill) - 4:43
  3. Balinese (Beard, Gibbons, Hill) - 2:39
  4. Mexican Blackbird (Beard, Gibbons, Hill) - 3:07
  5. Heard it on the X (Beard, Gibbons, Hill) - 2:24
  6. Tush (Beard, Gibbons, Hill) - 2:15
Remastered Edition (2006)
  1. Thunderbird - 4:10
  2. Jailhouse Rock - 1:56
  3. Backdoor Medley - 9:51
  4. Nasty Dogs and Funky Kings - 2:42
  5. Blue Jean Blues - 4:42
  6. Balinese - 2:36
  7. Mexican Blackbird - 3:05
  8. Heard it on the X - 2:24
  9. Tush - 2:16
Bonus tracks
  2. Heard it on the X (live) - 2:36
  3. Jailhouse Rock (live) - 1:52
  4. Tush (live) - 3:42

reception

Jim Miller of the music magazine Rolling Stone summed up the music of ZZ Top as follows: “Take a blues lick like BB King , increase your tempo and distort it, add rough vocals and garnish it with a touch of maracas , tambourine or Handclaps ". Stephen Thomas Erlewine from Allmusic described the division of the album into a live part and a studio part as sensible because ZZ Top are an excellent live band. On the other hand, he sees the A-side as a missed opportunity, because the studio recordings turned out to be a worthy successor to the outstanding predecessor “ Tres Hombres ”. In his opinion, a full studio album with hits like “Tush” or “Heard it on the X” would probably have been the best album the band has ever recorded. Jürgen Bauerochse from the online magazine Rocktimes , on the other hand, praises the “brilliant” live recordings. In the studio recordings he also particularly emphasizes the go-ahead boogie “Heard it on the X” and the hit “Tush”, which was part of the band's permanent live repertoire in the following years, but mentions the “Blue Jean Blues” as the best track on the album ", Which he describes as" slow blues in the truest sense of the word ".

swell

  1. ↑ a b Sources chart placements: UK / US
  2. ↑ Certifications: ZZ Top - Fandango! RIAA, accessed March 16, 2010 .
  3. ↑ Billy F. Gibbons, Tom Vickers: Billy F Gibbons: Rock + Roll Gearhead . MBI Publishing Company, 2005, ISBN 978-0-7603-2269-7 , pp. 37 f .
  4. ↑ Glenn O'Brien : Life at the Top . In: Spin Magazine . February 1986, p. 43 .
  5. ↑ Steven Rosen: ZZ Top: From A to ZZ. (No longer available online.) Guitar World, October 22, 2009, archived from the original on January 9, 2010 ; accessed on March 16, 2010 (English).
  6. ↑ Glenn O'Brien: Life at the Top . In: Spin Magazine . February 1986, p. 72 .
  7. ↑ Jürgen Bauerochse: CD Review / ZZ Top - Tres Hombres & Fandango. rocktimes.de, March 7, 2006, accessed on March 17, 2010 .

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