Tres Hombres [Original recording remastered]

ZZ Top | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 28, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 1973
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Rhino
• ASIN: B000CCD0HQ
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (106 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,676 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Waitin' For The Bus

2. Jesus Just Left Chicago

3. Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers

4. Master Of Sparks

5. Hot, Blue And Righteous

6. Move Me On Down The Line

7. Precious And Grace

8. La Grange

9. Shiek

10. Have You Heard?

11. Waitin' For The Bus (Live)

12. Jesus Just Left Chicago (Live)

13. La Grange (Live)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording

Fandango! is the early Top classic. It's all killer, no filler, even if half of it is live. Any record with "Tush" and "Heard It on the X" deserves its classic rock status. Tres Hombres doesn't quite match its rep: "Jesus Just Left Chicago" is back porch blues made for the arena, "La Grange" kicks open the door of the whorehouse, and "Waitin' for the Bus" is the best James Gang impression by a band actually from Texas. But the rest doesn't have Fandango!'s nerve or El Loco's sophomoric wit, which is what every band needs when the gimmick starts to run dry. --Robert Wilonsky

Product Description

ZZ Top, Tres Hombres. One of the world's greatest rock 'n' roll bands ever to strut the 50 States, these sharp-dressed Texas titans--Billy F. Gibbons, Frank Beard, and Dusty Hill--are a righteously hell rain' power trio boasting a 30-plus year hit-making legacy, both in the studio and at concert arenas. With their revved up blues 'n' boogie, ZZ Top always make the most of their Texas birthright with with a distinctive sound that shakes up rock, blues, soul, garage-funk, Americana, and more. Nowhere is their force of nature musicianship better displayed than on these two album classics, revved up with red-hot bonus rarities. "You know what I'm talkin' about...an how how how how."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

103 of 107 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Original Mix Is Finally Restored, March 6, 2006

By 

razzorjet2 (York, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tres Hombres (Audio CD)

After years of only being able to get the bogus remixed and re-recorded versions of the first 6 ZZ records, Rhino has finally begun issuing the Top back catalog (Tres Hombres and Fandango so far) faithfully restoring the original mixes of these classic records. The fact that these fine records were altered to begin with is a complete travesty. I had to resort to burning the original vinyl as CDs because of the previous butchery and doctoring of these vintage 70's recordings. But now the original mixes are finally available and they sound incredible. Tres Hombres has one of the best mixes of a hard rock album from the early 70's anyway, and to hear it in remastered digital form is an almost religious experience. Fandango sounds just as good, with a little more top end to the recording. I hope Rhino doesn't delay releasing the other 4 albums along with Deguello in original mix, remastered form. I can't wait to hear them. So if you are considering buying any of the first 7 ZZ Top CD's, only buy the 2006 remastered, original mix version of Tres Hombres and Fandango, and wait until the others get released in the same format. You'll be glad you waited and saved your money, I can't emphasize enough how terrible the previous releases of these CD's sounded.

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Now even Hotter, Bluer and more Righteous, March 19, 2006

By 

FairiesWearBoots8272 (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tres Hombres (Audio CD)

ZZ Top's Tres Hombres is a classic rock album, perhaps one of the all-time best. I consider it ZZ Top's best album, being the finest representation of their sound and containing their highest-quality material as far as both performances and songwriting are concerned. Their second album, Rio Grande Mud is almost as good, however Tres Hombres gets an edge because the songs are more instantly memorable and are all high quality. There is not a single weak moment on Tres Hombres. Every cut is top notch. There's quite a bit of variety too, from the mid-tempo blues of Jesus Just Left Chicago to the hard rock of Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers to the Memphis soul of Hot, Blue and Righteous to the John Lee Hooker boogie of La Grange. Even lesser known album cuts like Precious and Grace, Shiek and Master of Sparks are excellent. Forget the compilations, if you're looking for the absolute best of the Little Old Band from Texas, look no further. Tres Hombres is it. It is an essential album than any fan of blues-oriented rock and roll needs to have.

Finally after many years, the original sound mix is available on CD. This new remastered edition eliminates the horrible 1980s remix which piled on echo and fake drums, completely ruining the raw, bluesy feel of the original album. Finally, that mistake has been corrected to the delight and relief of ZZ Top fans everywhere. It's just too bad that it took over a decade for it to happen. The new CD sounds great and includes very informative liner notes giving background information on the recording of the album, as well as three live bonus tracks.

Now, as for the bonus tracks. They're great and I'm very glad they were included, but as was the case with Fandango they simply left me wanting more. Any live ZZ Top material is much appreciated as this is one thing sadly lacking from the Top catalog. Until now, the live side of Fandango was the only live representation that the band had (except for a couple of live cuts on the XXX album from 1999). The live tracks on Tres Hombres are very good. They are obviously not from the era in which the album was recorded. They sound like they were recorded in the '90s or even 2000s perhaps. That's okay, though. It's still ZZ Top live. Waitin' on the Bus/Jesus Just Left Chicago and La Grange are solid staples of the band's live repertoire and it's great to hear them in concert setting. The only disappointing thing is that there are only three of them. I want much, much more. A whole album of ZZ Top live tracks would be awesome, particularly if it consisted of tracks recorded in the '70s. They're such a great live band, they truly deserve a live album. Hopefully, someday soon Warner will open up the archives and pull out some of those live recordings that are just sitting there gathering dust.

In summary, if you could own only one ZZ Top album, Tres Hombres should be the one. I would also recommend Rio Grande Mud, Fandango, Deguello and Rythmeen. If you're going to buy Tres Hombres make sure that you get the new remastered CD with the original mix restored. Avoid the old one at all costs. Or else just get it on vinyl.

43 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This release is a crime...!!!, November 10, 2001

By 

Jazz "Jazz" (North Bay, Ontario) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tres Hombres (Audio CD)

...charges should be laid against those responsible for talking a fantastic album of this calibre and "neutering" it to the point of making it into a "new and improved"??? better sounding album for the musically deprived!

I owned this on 8-track tape 25 years ago, and trust me, this is not the same album! I just purchased this cd and the first thing I noticed was the hollow, "tecno-pop" type sound of the drums on the entire album. I have proof that new tracks were laid down for the song "La Grange" because on ZZ Top's 2nd Greatest Hits compilation, it includes the new "remastered" version, and its different than the version from the 1st Greatest Hits album.

Well it appears to me that someone in their infinite wisdom said "hey, lets clean up the whole album"? Also, throughout the entire cd, you can hear blatant changes to the songs right down to the vocals which again were re-done in most instances. A perfect example of this comes from the opening of "Jesus Just Left Chicago". In the original version, Gibbons does not over-emphasize "Chicaaaaagggooo" in the 1st verse as he does here.

Add to this the softening of many of the original guitar licks and chords. In the "Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers" tune, it's bad enough that we have to contend with "tin pan- electro synth" type drum sounds, but the edge has been taken off of Gibbons
wailing guitar. Proof of this exists if you own the 1st Greatest Hits album and listen to the version included here compared with the new cd version.

I dare you to put the two of them on and play each song that is included here with the new and improved "La Grange"cd. It doesn't take a genious to hear the difference, and the drastic changes made to this once classic and superb sounding album is a crying shame.

Ohhhh if only I had kept my 8-track tapes.
As a previous reviewer states, find this one on vinyl if you can.