Billy Gibbons' Career in 5 Songs

Join PJ Pat as he dives into a Guitar Player magazine article about Billy Gibbons' career through five iconic songs. From The Moving Sidewalks to ZZ Top, explore stories, gear quirks, and the lasting impact of Gibbons' musical journey. Grab your headphones and crank it up!

00:00 Introduction to the Podcast
00:11 Billy Gibbons: A Guitar Legend
00:44 Billy Gibbons' Early Career and Influences
01:10 The Article: My Career in 5 Songs
02:54 ZZ Top's Future and Dusty Hill's Legacy
05:08 Gibbons' Gear and Guitar Collection
09:11 Song 1: 99th Floor by Moving Sidewalks
10:47 Song 2: Waiting for the Bus/Jesus Just Left Chicago
12:05 Song 3: Legs from Eliminator
13:33 Song 4: I Gots to Get Paid
14:48 Song 5: Treat Her Right
16:08 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Article is from GUITAR PLAYER MAGAZINE January 2024 issue. 
MY CAREER IN FIVE SONGS
“La Grange” aside, these are the songs Billy F. Gibbons considers among his finest achievements.
Written by Mark McStea

Transcript

[00:00:00] Well, hello, hello, rockers. Welcome to the it's one ladder podcast. I'm your host, PJ Pat. And on this podcast, I share my love and passion for rock and roll with you. Hopefully in a fun and entertaining way. And today's no different. We're going to dive into this article that I saw in guitar player magazine about the one and only Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top.

[00:00:19] So stoked to bring you this article. He is definitely one of my favorite guitar players of all time. I just love his tone. I can't get enough of his tone. He's one of those guys where. If you're a song on the radio and you just hear one guitar lick, one guitar note, you know it's that guy, you know it's Billy.

[00:00:35] And that to me is a sign of a real true master who's not only mastered his technique, but mastered his tone and that unique voice. So believe it or not, Billy Gibbons did not start off In ZZ Top, he actually had a band before that called The Moving Sidewalks and they actually opened for Jimi Hendrix.

[00:00:53] The Jimi Hendrix experience when they first toured North America for the first time and that's when Jimi and Billy really got to get to know each other and Jimi Hendrix is famously known to saying that Billy Gibbons is his favorite guitar player and I think mainly it was because of his tone actually.

[00:01:08] Surprise, surprise. Alright, so this article is called My Career in 5 Songs. Lagrange aside, these are the songs Billy F Gibbons considers among his finest achievements. Article by Mark. Mixte, M C S T E A. When we asked Billy F. Gibbons to select five key songs from across his career, there was a proviso. He couldn't include La Grange, as it had already been the subject of in depth scrutiny in our How I Wrote feature of May 2021.

[00:01:37] When I was asked to participate in the series, I got lit up and began peeling the onion over what songs to zero in on. The most obvious Lagrange was ZZ Top's first national breakthrough to climb the pop singles chart. But alas, having been asked to set it aside, the question that I had to ponder was, where to start?

[00:01:55] Certainly it's no easy task when you've got a back catalogue with the quality and depth that Gibbons has amassed both with ZZ Top and in more recent years as a solo artist. Where he's found an alternative outlet for his creativity. It's something of a different headspace when engaging with the solo excursion adjacent to ZZ, he explains.

[00:02:11] Of course, the sometimes obvious six string similarities have much in common, yet there's a considerable vibe in the mix. There's mucho feel which can connect in a very ZZ like way, and yet also some far fetched opposites to balance the affair. Some of it is a bit outside, some a bit inside, but a lot of it is still quirky.

[00:02:30] The down and dirty process slides into mindless instinct while bringing things to conclusion. As far as Gibbons is concerned, the solo process fires up the creative juices for ZZ Top and vice versa. With ZZ looking at scheduling some recording time in the near future, he's Yes, we're on the edges of nailing another album down.

[00:02:47] Keeping the band on the road so much of late continues to stir up the angst for a rapid studio return. I guess it's time to write the new ones. You know what, it'll be really interesting to see what they do or, you know, how they sound with this new album because, you know, Dusty Hill, Rest in peace the bass player died at 72 not too long ago, and I actually thought that you know, that was it You know, he's such an integral part of the band.

[00:03:09] He's been there from the get go. I mean, they're only three, right? It's not like they're Slipknot. There's like seven eight guys in that band, but they're only three and Tessia was there from the get go I'm sure an integral songwriter of their sound and music. So but you know surprisingly They continued on.

[00:03:27] That might have been one of Dusty's wishes. I know the guy that replaced him, I can't think of his name now. They've known him for a long, long time and he's, I think, come in to, um, play a couple of times with them. So, they're very familiar with that. I guess it's kind of similar to what happened to ACDC when Malcolm Young passed away.

[00:03:43] Um, I think one of their cousins came in and replaced. So, the point is they're very familiar with that musician. So, yeah. It was probably very seamless to them and probably was pretty much a wish of Malcolm and Dusty to, you know, have the band keep on playing and keep on, uh, blessing us with this music.

[00:03:59] And to be quite frank, monetarily wise, it's probably a good idea too, so that, you know, their kids and their kids generations could benefit from this as well. Keep the gravy train growing, you know? Okay, back to the article. When I get around to recording then, those tracks will be the band's first with bassist Elwood Francis.

[00:04:16] There you go, Elwood Francis, Gibbon's guitar tech for three decades, who came into ZZ Top following the 2021 death of founding bassist Dusty Hill. Uh huh, speak of the devil, just like I was saying. As far as Gibbons is concerned, they couldn't have found a better person to step up the plate and fill Dusty's shoes.

[00:04:32] The directed transition eased in with all the senses fired up, he says. The unexpected but strident instruction came from Dusty to get Elwood to fill the spot when he knew he was going to be out of action for a few months prior to his death. We accommodated his wishes immediately solidified the move.

[00:04:49] It's a legacy from the dust moving forward with Elwood Keeping the bottom on the top in my opinion without Dusty's blessing They wouldn't continue with this dude, but because he said it's all good give it gave the band a thumbs up I mean, they're probably fired up more than ever before And, uh, wanna honor Dusty with their music going forward.

[00:05:08] Gearwise of late, Gibbons has been seen sporting a hybrid SG style guitar that features a flying V styled headstock. We defined a design that emerged from the drawing table, he says. It was a valued collaboration with John Bolin at Bolin Guitars and the fine folks at Gibson. It's an expression with a visual appeal which seems to work.

[00:05:25] While working within the collective components found throughout the running history of Gibbons appointments. It looks really cool. As always, Gibbons continues to favor extremely light gauge strings, which seems remarkable given the depth and weight of tone that he managed to pull from his axes. Yeah, so that's still surprising me to this day when I found that out that, you know, I always believed, and I'm sure a lot of guitar players believe that the thicker the strings, the kind of heavier the tone would be.

[00:05:51] Steve Ray Vaughan is famously known for paying super heavy gauges and really thick strings to get that tone. Tone, I think he believed that he got that tone out of it and Stevie Ray Vaughan, my, definitely my favorite guitar player of all time And a lot of it is because of his tone, obviously But that, you know, when I found out a couple years ago that, you know, the strings had nothing to do with the tone It just kind of blew me away and this is proof of it Gibbons plays super light strings and he gets that massive tone out of them.

[00:06:18] Amazing. Yes, Jim Dunlop managed to draw the ultra light This 007 gauge wire with success on all counts he affirms. The ultralight, okay? 007 gauge wires. Man, you know what? I need to switch those strings. I gotta give those strings a go. I mean, if it's good for Gibbons, it's good for me. The resiliency of the string's tension combined with the secrets of the Dunlop alloy make for some rad reaches for bending over the fretboard.

[00:06:43] They require nothing in the way of adjusting your touch or approach. It's just a matter of grab the guitar and go. Gibbons has long been renowned as a collector of some of the finest guitars ever created, plus some of the downright weirdest. There remains one guitar though that is still his most prized possession.

[00:06:59] That's got to be that mysteriously magnetic Pearly Gates, the 1959 Les Paul Standard that sounds like no other I've encountered, he says. She's got to be the first I put in the go bag in event of fire or disaster. The real trick is thinking about the next one. I went to see Gibbons many years ago and they still rock out, you know, as old as they are with Dusty, they were rocking out.

[00:07:19] And one thing they're famous for is that they keep on switching guitars and bass quite often, you know? And so he definitely does have a collection of weird, quirky guitars. And what's cool is that Gibbons would match his guitar to Dusty Hill's bass. And so they kind of would have the same theme going on, which is really cool.

[00:07:36] I don't think anyone else does that. Gibbons continues to find inspiration in the blues music that first excited him, and in making music with some long time Texan contemporaries. Seems that lately we've returned to a handful of a dozen select LPs or so which continue to inspire. It's an ongoing discussion among the regular gathering with our sideband act, The Jungle Show, back in Texas with Jimmy Vaughn, Sue Foley, Mike Flanagan, And Chris Whipperlayton, as we go on arguing about elusive new directions which might light the fuse unexpectedly.

[00:08:05] We know what's out there, it just morphs into the unknown as fast as greased lightning. Given a number of years and miles Gibbons has put on the clock since the mid 60s, you would be forgiven for thinking that it might start to take its toll, but you'd be way off the mark. I'm more excited and enthused than ever before if that's possible, he attests.

[00:08:23] Having this job, getting out there and playing each night and every night, Spending countless studio hours exchanging sonic ideas with others is one of the greatest privileges one could have. Man, totally agree. Totally agree. If you're a guitar player and a creator and an artist, I mean, that just sounds like the dream, right?

[00:08:40] Like the dream. That's why only one in a million bands make it like ZZ Top and the rest of us end up reading articles about it. Sometimes dreams abound in Technicolor about thrashing on a guitar and then it happens to righteously unfold on stage. Hard to predict yet easy to savor and enjoy. I never tire of the old ZZ Top standards, they're like old friends, and it's always good to get together with them.

[00:09:03] When they're played, there's a recurrent recollection of what it was like early on, so it becomes the now. At the same time, it's a vivid trip down memory lane. Okay, song number one of the five songs that he picks that defines his career, 99th Floor, Moving Sidewalks, single, 1967. So this was his first band, pre ZZ Top.

[00:09:21] Going way back to the Moving Sidewalks, our pre ZZ band, we stabbed the stake in the ground. That was back in those pre Cream, pre Jimmy Hendrix experience days, inspired by psychedelic pioneers and fellow Texan pals, the 13th Floor Elevators. Their brilliant frontman, Rocky Erickson was, as they say in the tech biz, an early adopter of exactly what is hard to say.

[00:09:44] The elevators came up with some rather unearthly sounds not previously conceptualized. Elevators go up and sidewalks move forward, which inevitably brought the name the moving sidewalks into focus, featuring the realm to be all things horizontal. The contradiction, of course, being 99th floor. The first recorded version of the number, by the way, predates the sidewalks, as it was originally cut with Billy G and the Blue Flames, my band from way, way back, he says.

[00:10:10] We recorded the demo to get the ball rolling, moving into the sidewalks with drummer D. Meryl Mitchell. We re recorded a streamlined version, releasing Tantara label, which hit with some commotion in Houston. The folks at Scepter caught it and licensed it for their Wand subsidiary. The same label as Louie Louie by the Kingsmen, along with the classic Twist and Shell by the Isley Brothers.

[00:10:31] That was some seriously August label made company we were keeping. That release led to additional earplay and touring opportunities, including teaming up with Jimi Hendrix Experience, who became our friends and mentors. As I remember it, I played a Fender Jazzmaster through a Vox Super Beetle and a Hunter Harp through a Fender Bassman.

[00:10:47] Okay, song number two, Waiting for the Bus slash Jesus Just Left Chicago. Man, what a classic. Tres Hombres is the album, 1973. This is my favorite ZZ Top album, Tres Hombres. Yes, there are two song titles there, I admit, yet the two tracks are counted as one song stream. That's the way they've been perceived ever since they debuted as side one, tracks one, and two on the album Tres Hombres.

[00:11:10] Our engineer navigating the space between the two songs used the tried and almost true method of razor blading for tape splicing, and it seemed then he did too good of a job. However, the effect eliminated any silent space between the two songs on the album. The two tracks heard together in rapid succession made for an unplanned, or maybe unchained, Medley that serves both of the songs so well.

[00:11:30] The two are really one in most fans eyes. Waiting offered an anticipatory experience of a down and outer spending significant part of the day in a state of suspension and Jesus set the pace moving from Chicago to New Orleans and all points in between. He laughs. In essence, it's a blues suite in 4 4 and 6 8 time.

[00:11:50] It's still being auspiciously delivered on the concert stage as a twofer. The guitars of choice for this were a 54 hardtail strat and pearly gates. The 59 burst through an early Marshall 1968 super lead. Okay, song number three, Legs, ZZ Top, Eliminator, 1983. This is an exemplar of the Eliminator era.

[00:12:13] Although we might equally lean into Sharp Dressed Man, or perhaps Give Me All Your Lovin from the same zillion selling album. This was a time when that little red 33 Ford three window coupe became a cultural icon. When MTB began And against the odds created an unexpected ZZ Top video trio commotion.

[00:12:31] The unassuming fact remains, we ceded the spotlight to them pretty gals and the cool custom car. It translated to the stage easily and we used the fuzzy spinning guitar seen in the video. And the visual connection ignited a delight with audiences across the board. That video, by the way, was a reshoot.

[00:12:48] The original filming shot over a weekend was accidentally misplaced by a lab worker, which required us to return back the very next week. What?! Reshooting the whole thing frame by frame. Whoa! I'm pretty sure that lab worker wasn't working there the next day. Wow, that's crazy. Can you imagine the amount of time and money wasted?

[00:13:07] Quite the happy accident, especially when the song went top 10 for an extended run for months on charts. And wouldn't you know it, it was adapted for use in a pantyhose commercial. Pins are us. The guitar used to record it was a fur covered solid body plank fabricated from the Bolin production line, mic'd up under an arc of archaic tube amps that I named the Amp Cabin.

[00:13:30] Alright, song number four, I gots to get paid! ZZ Top, La Futura, 2012. This is another favorite track, definitely perceived as a left field turn, as it's actually an interpretation of a track born of the Houston ghetto, 25 Lighters by DJ DMD featuring Lil Keke and Phat Pat. Our engineer GL G Main Moon worked at John Moran's Digital Services in Houston, the studios patronized by a plethora of rap and hip hop clients.

[00:14:00] We shared many off and on hours with some of those cats, coming up with some rad ideas and comparing notes. Our newfound friends showed us beats, and we showed them some guitar chops, as could only happen in Houston. Very cool, that collaboration. We dig into that track with our own take inspired by a coupling of Lightning Hopkins styling throughout.

[00:14:19] The song was a highlight of La Futura. I think many top fans perceived that album as one of our strongest for many years, and it certainly felt like it was a worthy addition to our catalog. Once again, when it comes to the perfect tool for the job, Pearly Gates stepped up to the task, bolstered with a mid 70s Fender 6, running through a blonde Fender reverb tank.

[00:14:38] And last but not least, song number 5, Treat Her Right, Gibbons and the BFGS, Perfecto Mundo. Lastly, I've decided to go for Treat Her Right from my first BFG solo album, Perfecto Mondo, which was recorded and released in preparation for the annual Havana Jazz Festival, following an invitation to perform there.

[00:15:00] The brainstorming in the recording studio led to delving in advance of that performance into the world of Afro Cuban music. This inflected record that drew upon the revered, experience as apprentice to Tito Puente many years earlier. Of course, the original version by Roy Head, recorded and released on Don Robby's Backbeat label, made a huge splash, crossing all charts when it came out in 1965.

[00:15:25] Knowing Roy Head and his intimate frantic stage antics, we attempted to follow the rhythmic exercises, and so was with the BFGs jumping at the notion to take it for a ride. Upon its release, word reached us of Roy's delight over our recorded efforts. Speaking of Mr. Head, Roy included a song on the flip of his You're Almost Tough single entitled Tush Hog back in the day, and of course, that possibly led to a veiled R& B influence on another favorite ZZ Top's Tush.

[00:15:53] The guitar amp was the same as can be seen on the Conan O'Brien TV clip, a Fender Cohiba Esquire hardwired into a Magnatone Super 15 tube amp, gained hard with the volume cranked out. Hopefully the volume was cranked one louder, you know what I'm saying? Alright, well that was it. I hope you enjoyed that one.

[00:16:10] Billy Gibbons, one of the all time greats. Do yourself a favor, I'm gonna do the same. Let's go back and listen to these five songs according to him. This is right from the horse's mouth in terms of, you know, his evolution and sound of his band and his career. Let's crank it up one louder and I'll see you in the next episode.

[00:16:28] Thanks for listening.