If you’ve ever wondered how there’s a ZZ Top and a Z.Z. Hill, it’s because Billy Gibbons – always a purveyor of the rawest things in life – was a huge fan of Z.Z. Hill and somehow combined B.B. King and Z.Z. Hill into ZZ Top. Billy Gibbons won’t wrong. This track was towards his later years before he died, when he was on Malaco Records, doing them down home ‘80s blues that were entirely their own vibe. I’ve actually been on a Malaco Records kick the past few months, and any time I’m digging in some 45 crates, if I run across a Malaco single, I snatch it up, regardless. Folks often only think of blues in the old ways, but damn, it’s some good ass stuff out here that’s been made since the old blues days, and nothing captures a certain life aesthetic quite like blues music. Of course, there’s also some horribly bland ass sterilized blues that’s been made the past 40 years, too, by dudes who listen to talk radio all day at work, but dick around on an expensive guitar as a hobby. That ain’t the blues, that’s propaganda. Propaganda never has the same soul as real shit (whether you’re talking about music, politics, or anything). On the old "Down Home Blues" collections commercials that run constantly on local TV, this was one of the songs that got the highlight title lyrical line. I could probably recite that whole commercial, line for line, because they played it on Channel 13 every damn day while I was trying to watch Scooby Doo after school.
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