ZZ Top's First Album

ZZ Top

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Original Release Date: 1970
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Warner Bros / Wea
• ASIN: B000002KJM
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #18,596 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

88 of 91 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars 1980's botched remaster of a unbridled classic, January 30, 2001

By	Stephanie Sandlin (Spokane, Wa) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you've not heard about the "remaster" that was done on this release consider this your heads up.

At sometime in the 1980s/90's they remixed this album with way too much echo and fake drum machines. Gone is the beautiful rawness and classic mix that defined this album. What you now get is a sound that resembles a bad soundcheck in a tin room. I can see why this was done, it was an attempt to get the Elminator/Afterburner fans to buy the early discs. One review on the "Best of ZZ Top" early greatist hits package, said he felt these remasters have destroyed the whole original vibe of the music making it almost unlistenable. I gotta agree with him. Why can't an import at the very least be issued of the original mix? I would gladly cough up 20 to 25 bucks to have this and the other early albums in the way they were meant to sound.

So be wary of this CD. This release is not the album you remember.

43 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Garbage Remix With 80's Gimmickry, March 6, 2006

By	razzorjet2 (York, PA) - See all my reviews

As part of an attempt to capitalize on the success of their Eliminator sound, ZZ Top decided to go back into the studio and remix and also re-record parts of their first 6 albums thinking it would make them more money and entice fans of their newer sound to go back and buy their earlier records. Well guess what, in the process their older fans who were used to the original versions on the old cassettes and albums were shocked when they listened to any of these first generation CD releases. They heard bogus reverbed drums, and entire sections of both music and vocals re-recorded. Talk about tarnishing the legacy of a great band's output. Well someone finally wised up and now at least Tres Hombres and Fandango are now available in original mix, remastered form. So stay away from this trash and wait for the entire back catalog to be released in it's original mix, remastered form on CD.

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Wait for the Rhino release, or dust off your turntable and find an LP, September 8, 2006

By	J. Bobeck - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is in regard to the 1980's recomposed/remastered version of ZZ Top's First Album. Ditto all of the comments about the awfulness of the reverb and fake drums. What's really sad is what was printed on the back of the vinyl LP jacket in 1970:

"In this day of homogenized rock, synthesized music, retakes, overdubbing, multi, multi-tracking, an honest recording by accomplished musicians is a rewarding pleasure. Z Z TOP'S FIRST ALBUM is just such a recording. This is the way blues-rock is meant to be played: openly, honestly, and spontaneously. It takes an experienced sensitive group such as Z Z TOP to capture the abstract blues from within and combine it with the ability to feel and play good hard rock without losing their communication."

17 years later, they trashed their own philosophy. Tres Hombres, and Fandango by Rhino, are the first honest digital transfers of the original first 5 ZZ Top albums.