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ZZ Top - Rio Grande Mud Audio CD

A fair review of the ZZ Top "Rio Grande Mud" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all ZZ Top reviews here, or go back to the ZZ Top tabs.

ZZ Top Band: ZZ Top
Title: Rio Grande Mud
Rating:
Release Date: 1990-10-25
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Francine 2: Just Got Paid 3: Mushmouth Shoutin' 4: Ko Ko Blue 5: Chevrolet 6: Apologies to Pearly 7: Bar-B-Q 8: Sure Got Cold After the Rain Fell 9: Whiskey'n Mama 10: Down Brownie

Older recording but still sounds good
Excellent earthy blues and rock. This is an older recording (1972) and doesn't quite have the same punch as Fandago or Tres Hombres, but still a very good CD. Just got paid and Francene are classic Texas rock songs! Sure Got Cold After the Rain Fell is an excellent funky blues ballad. And then Bar-B-Que, well that just makes me want to go eat a big ole platter of ribs from a rib joint where their ain't no white people for ten miles around (cause we all know the brothers have perfected the Bar-B-Que)!.


ZZ Top-Rio Grande Mud
Equal in musical quality & production are their first (ZZ Top's First Album), their 3rd (Tres Hombres), their 4th (Fandango!) & their 5th (Tejas). Excellent album, ZZ's 2nd release. I do however, wish that when they re-released these recordings on CD, they wouldn't have 'digitalized' them. The sound of these records was much more natural on vinyl. .


Put the good S#$t out!
admit you were wrong and make it right!. yeah re-mix sucks but it's still great zz.


NOT THE ORIGINAL RECORDINGS!
I grew up in Texas, listening to and watching ZZ Top. I am a recording engineer and sound mixer. The first two ZZ Top albums were released on vinyl records. Tres Hombres was the first to be released on Compact Disc. When the inevitable popularity of the CD overtook the market, Bill Ham thought it would be a great idea to release the first six albums on CD, which they affectionately called the "six pack. " While remastering this compilation, somebody (who knows, but who controlled all of ZZ Top's musical movements??) got the bright idea to re-edit, reproduce, re-arrange and remix the first three albums. At the time, there was a new device in the studios that was known as a "digital echo" device for adding reverb and delay textures to sounds. Most notably, Phil Collins was using this echo device to enhance his drum sounds. ZZ Top's producer (you know who) decided it was the way to go as well, that the new sounds would attract the day's "new audience. " The echo and reverb patterns on the "six pack" were so much bigger and wetter than on the original first three albums. Then I started to notice that there were different vocal performances and different guitar riffs in a few places. Talk about re-arranging an original! At a later time, the reproduced versions released on the "six pack" were then released on individual CD's which contain the original artwork of the first three albums. However, they are definitely NOT the original recordings. This process is much like Jimi Hendrix's producer, who went into the studio after Hendrix died and actually hired a player to finish the guitar work on recordings that were incomplete when Hendrix died. Those recordings were subsequently released as "Hendrix's final unrealeased recordings. " Suffice it to say, that if the world's art museums decided that certain Rembrandt or DaVinci paintings looked "faded" or weren't "up to date with today's audience," and they repainted certain brush strokes on these masterpieces, the world art community would have a cow! Don't buy these CD's, they are not ORIGINAL works. They have been repainted to fit what someone thought would be a new and "catchy" idea. .


Rio Grande Mud evidences ZZ Top's progress
Frank Beard's riveting drum work and Dusty Hill's fluid bass patterns are sure to please the most discriminating of listeners. "Rio Grande Mud" offers the listener with a consistent and driving groove, catchy melodies, and searing guitar lines by Billy Gibbons. One can actually hear the muscial progress the guys made as they crept from "the back forty" into the mainstream of American blues and rock & roll. This CD should be bought as part of a set, to complement "ZZ Top's First Album," and "Tres Hombres. ".


You can see a complete list of all ZZ Top discography, or go back to the ZZ Top tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.

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