Eliminator --- ZZ Top --- 1983 (Warner)
The enduring memory of one of the surprise hits of 1983 is of girls in short, tight-fitting leather skirts, three guys in shades and a super-cool classic car. These were the elements that helped make this album, ZZ Top's eighth, their most successful ever, selling over ten million copies. The marketing campaign was spot-on, and worked like a dream, as who otherwise would have wanted to hear songs sung by a Texas blues band? But those videos! Oh yes, they got the attention without question. And when we had all calmed down and had a cold shower, though the videos stayed in our heads so did the music. And it is of course the music that we're concerned with.
I'm as guilty as anyone of knowing no ZZ material prior to --- or even after --- “Eliminator”. I had heard of them, but only vaguely, mostly while leafing through the record bin in my local record shops and seeing the dusty cover of “Tejas” and “Tres hombres”, and moving right on. But this album marked a huge shift in ZZ's musical direction. Whereas previous albums had been low-key, blues and rock efforts that garnered little interest outside of their own fanbase, the one prior to this, “El loco”, had introduced the use of synthesisers and was a lot “poppier” and more accessible than past efforts, rewarding the band with decent sales (about half a million worldwide). So when they came to record “Eliminator”, it was commercial, catchy songs all the way, and it was a formula that absolutely worked.
Kicking off with the super-hit “Gimme all your lovin'”, you can't really listen to this without seeing the video in your mind's eye, but even apart from that it's a great song, with great guitar from Billy Gibbons, thumping drums courtesy of Frank Beard (the only one
without a beard, incidentally!) and the chugging bass of Dusty Hill. It's toe-tapping, instantly catchy and spelled HIT all over. Which it was. “Got me under pressure” is faster, with some great guitar and the feel of a very tight band who know exactly what the others are doing, and want. “Sharp-dressed man” is another hit single, that familiar drumbeat carrying the song, and an excellent guitar solo from Gibbons at the end.
It's not till we get to the first slow track that we see ZZ Top in their natural element, with “I need you tonight” a blues masterpiece, squealing guitar and chugging bass under Billy Gibbons' growling voice as he sings
”It's three o'clock in the morning/ And the rain begin to fall/ I know what I'm needing/ But I don't have it at all.” A blues booty-call, the song is dirty, grinding and terrific. Some of Gibbons' best guitar work on the album is in evidence here, and it's a pity in a way that a song like this sort of got overlooked by the more upbeat singles that people always remember this album for, as it's a real
piece de resistance. Too long to be a single (over six minutes) and to have cut it down would have been a crime, but even so, the standout track on the album in my view.
Sometimes it's hard to review an album that's so well known. You've heard all the hits. You know that “Gimme all your lovin'” is a rock classic. You don't need me to tell you that “Legs” is ZZ at their most electronic, but there are other good tracks on this album, some almost as good as those which got selected to be released as singles. “I got the six” is pure heads-down boogie rock, with its cheeky and irreverent
”I got the six/ Gimme your nine!”., while “If I could only flag her down” is just a rockin' good time. In between, there's the somewhat neglected “TV dinners”, (even though it was a single, it's not one people remember, in my experience) with its grinding, dirty guitars and truckfuls of innuendos.
Man, you feel like having a shower when it's all over! Or a smoke...
“Dirty dog” is galloping rock at its best, with no points scored with the feminist movement, with lines like
”You're just a dog/ A scummy dog!” The drumming on this track is excellent, and another fine Billy Gibbons solo too. Apart from “I need you tonight” and “TV dinners”, this album is a heads-down, nonstop charge to the finish, and sure you'd expect nothing less from an album whose cover features one mean-lookin' classic souped-up Ford Coupe comin' at ya like the Devil himself is at the wheel!
“Eliminator” will forever be known for those three singles, and ZZ will always be, for the majority, those three guys in beards and shades (despite Frank not having a beard: how the human brain can fill in these details to suit itself!), with twirling Ibanez guitars and that mega-cool car. But though it's fair enough that this should be the case --- the singles
were fantastic, and did open up ZZ's music to a whole new audience, if only temporarily --- the album is so much more, and deserves more than just to be the vehicle (ahem!) that carries the three hit singles. Go on, give it another chance, you know you want to! Here's the key, climb on in, and beware of brunettes in leather miniskirts.
Or not...
TRACKLISTING
1. Gimme all your lovin'
2. Got me under pressure
3. Sharp dressed man
4. I need you tonight
5. I got the six
6. Legs
7. Thug
8. TV dinners
9. Dirty dog
10. If I could only flag her down
11. Bad girl
Suggested further listening: ZZ's music prior to “Eliminator” was MUCH different to what you would expect, listening to that album, but I believe “Afterburner” followed a little in its steps. Other than that, I don't know as I haven't heard any previous ZZ albums.