So, what have you been listening to lately?

[Dave W]

[Ken]

[uwe]

Hey, that's really live! Lovely version, danke.

[westen44]

Duane Allman's guitar playing on this version is particularly good. 

[Pilgrim]

Hey, I get to hear them play next month!

[Dave W]

Hey, I get to hear them play next month!

But without David Clayton-Thomas, right? Or has he rejoined? Regardless, I hope it turns out to be a great show.

[TBird1958]

What about their Europe-wide televised Rockpalast live gig on 19 April 1980? That established them in Germany and it was when they were still playing real trio music without backing tapes and drum machine enhancement. (Oh, I just saw that Rob made the same point. OTOH a filmed live gig is not the same thing as a live performance in a TV studio environment, those can go horribly wrong as they obviously did here.)



For me, ZZ Top peaked with Degüello (released 1979). I thought their 1980ies era gimmicky.

And btw: Trapeze want their 1974 riff back and played at the proper speed (at 00:18):





As for the Carson clip, the horn section was obviously under-rehearsed and missed a bar or two, not knowing where it was. Shit happens. The band was surprised and on TV not confident enough to actually wait a bar or two out to have everything in sync. The horn arrangement as such wasn't so bad, just in an alternative universe. Not sure whether backing tapes were used (by that time they employed them abundantly), Beard has earphones, but he might be listening to just a click. Of course, if a backing tape was running, that meant they couldn't sit a bar or two out to help the horn section catch up. Everything comes at a price.

This will probably get me bashed, but I think ZZ Top are one of the most overrated bands ever. I find very little trio ingenuity in them, give me Cream, Police, Robin Trower, UK, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, ELP, Rory Gallagher or Rush any day, they have all stretched the format. Much like the Ramones, ZZ Top have this cartoonish image that made them an international brand (mostly via their videos), but the music? There is nothing in it that REQUIRES them to be a trio (certainly not improvisational ambition or going off on tangents), it's just an image thing, like Sabbath or Ozzy operating without a visible keyboarder. I've seen ZZ Top live together with Status Quo. In terms of energy, Quo wiped the floor with them and they didn't use tapes to augment their sound either.

I also have issues with calling a band 'rootsy' that uses tapes as much as they do. If Muse feel they have to do it, ok (not that I like them, but their music is orchestral). With ZZ Top, I always wondered why. Sure, it would sound sparser live and they would have to decide more often what part to play and what to leave out, but that is the charm and the challenge of a trio.

I hadn't really thought about them much, or considered them as critically as you have Uwe, but O find myself agreeing with you, maybe in part because I never really connected with them in the way I did with say, Rush or Slade even. As far a live goes I'd respect them more if they just had a second guitarist/keyboard player to fill them out, either that or really just be a trio.

[westen44]

Unlike a band such as Golden Earring, ZZ Top just kept doing the same kind of stuff over and over through the years.  Maybe it's because I'm such a fan, but I'm amazed, for instance, Golden Earring was able to make an album as good as "Tits 'n Ass" even up to the end.  ZZ Top never came close to doing that.  However, trying to market an album with a title like that isn't going to get you too far in the U.S., something Barry Hay and company didn't understand or just didn't care to understand.  Still, it's a good album. 

Based on what I've read and heard Billy Gibbons say, I think he is humble about ZZ Top, especially when it comes to the simplicity and repetitiveness of their music.  But since as @Dave W indicated some people are still interested in them, I can't blame ZZ Top for continuing.  Also, despite any flaws they may have, ZZ Top remains a unique band, IMO.  It's just too bad Dusty Hill didn't survive with the rest of them. 

[Pilgrim]

But without David Clayton-Thomas, right? Or has he rejoined? Regardless, I hope it turns out to be a great show.

I understand that he is part of the group now.

[Dave W]

I understand that he is part of the group now.

That's good. Hard to imagine another vocalist.

[Pilgrim]

Nicely done...

[morrow]

[uwe]

I understand that he is part of the group now.

Unless that is incredibly recent news, I'd say better prepare for someone else! Their official website makes no mention of it (as it certainly would had he joined them for even a little tour or a single gig):

https://bloodsweatandtears.com/

DCT left BS&T in 2004 (when he moved from New York back to Canada), never to return so far. He still plays BS&T music under his own name.



And he remains connected to the group because he and former drummer-turned-producer Bobby Colomby own the rights to the name (DCT might have relinquished them by now, but Colomby still owns the name), touring BS&T is today basically a franchise with alumni such as Steve Katz sometimes joining them for a few gigs. That is not to say that the current line up (not a single original member among them, but that is not saying much with BS&T who have - according to their own website - seen something like 175 (!) individuals go through their ranks over the decades!) are a bunch of slouches, they are not:



I saw BS&T a couple of years ago in Germany at two summer gigs, one of them opening for Chicago, the other a few weeks later as headliners and even at those two gigs they had two different lead vocalists, one of them more "loungy", the other one younger and more "rocky" (he had been a vocal trainer of Vince Neil). Both were fine singers, but neither could get that idiosyncratic mix of  "lounge & rock" right that is/was DCT's trademark.

BST's history is unlikely + convoluted to say the least:



Good read here:

https://variety.com/2023/film/reviews/what-the-hell-happened-to-blood-sweat-and-tears-review-david-clayton-thomas-1235565562/

And while I agree with Dave that DCT's stage presence was key for early BS&T's success, his successor Jerry Fisher (before DCT returned to the fold in 1974/75) was a great singer too (with three more than respectable BS&T albums under his belt), wonderful pipes, but a much more demure front man (that's Jerry LaCroix from Edgar Winter's White Trash playing the harp and sax btw, he also sang lead on some songs in that particular line up):





There's people who actually prefer Jerry Fisher to DCT because the latter's pronounced guttural delivery is not to everyone's liking all the time (Al Kooper, whose brainchild the band was before he was ousted after the debut album by Colomby and other band members, could certainly contain himself about DCT's delivery style!  ). In traditional rock singer terms, it is probably fair to say that Fisher's pure blues/soul voice offered less cheese ingredient than Thomas' vocals (but what's wrong with a little cheese, especially in a BS&T context?).



That's not to say that DCT's early influences - James Brown anyone?! - were any less black than Fisher's:



Anyway, please report about the gig here, Most Honorable Brother Al, as the resident BS&T nerd here, I'm really curious. I'd love to see them again, their European appearances have become unfortunately rare.

[Pilgrim]

Will do, and thanks for the info!

I still remember seeing them when I was an undergrad (about 1969) at world-famous Washington State University; Clayton-Thomas was a big guy who looked like a fullback and sang with both power and presence.

Regardless of the lineup, it should be a fun evening in a botanic garden on a Colorado evening, probably around 78-80 degrees at show time.

And BTW, last night JoAnn and I went to Denver's Paramount theater to see John Lodge of the Moody Blues with his touring band. Their first set was a ramble through some of his better-known work both in and outside the Moodys, and a few deep cuts of his.  The second set was his band's version of the Days of Future Passed album (holy cow, 56 years since it came out!). 

At 80 Lodge still plays well, but his energy level is down. Not surprising. He is still playing his familiar Fender J bass. The keyboard player Alan Hewitt evidently has been with the Moodys for 15+ years and he's phenomenal. Covers the famous flute parts as well as the keyboard.  They have a cello player (Jason Charbonneau) who occasionally passes the music phrasing back and forth with the keyboards.  Having the cello adds a nice touch of the orchestral feel that Lodge and the Moodys have been famed for. Fortunately, today's keyboard emulations remove the need for a Mellotron on stage.

Some photos...

[Dave W]

Latest upload to the Jack Bruce YT channel.