I often see ZZ Top and Status Quo lumped together, as if they play the same type of music, and again this is so incredibly lazy, regardless of if you like or don't like one or the other I find very few similarities in their music except on a very shallow level.Р”В¬lick to expand.I should add that I like Springsteen, when he's doing his own thing, I especially love the first couple of albums.Р”В«ut I very rarely hear anyone cover a ZZ Top song and actually get it. I know you're fan of Status, so I won't say too much, but I've seen them live a few times and one of the times I had to leave halfway through because everything really did sound exactly the same the whole time.Р”В«ut I know they do have other things in their repertoire than what they chose to highlight in concert. If that is supposed to be a cover of the same song then, besides the fact that they've basically rewritten the very foundation of it, they have in the process managed to remove exactly every single thing about it that I like (and that's a lot of things, to make it so totally unrecognizable), all of the detail and finesse that make a ZZ song are gone and replaced by clichР“В©s, how pointless.

How does that have anything to do with the ZZ song, except for a few lines of the lyrics being included.? Let's dig into Deguello before the band disappear behind their facial hair and (expensive) sunglasses. But it's all still to be enjoyed at this point. It marks the moment they began to morph from one thing into another, and I get that a lot of fans think the emerging weirdness and jokes took away from the more 'honest' blues-rock ZZ of before.

Not that there's not still great stuff to come, of course. After this point the rhythms get straightened out and things get streamlined, the lyrics become less evocative. There are at least four songs on here that rank amongst their all time best (and imo there's not a bad one here), but sadly they never quite write like this again. We're along for the ride, but we're also in on the jokes. But there's tons of peculiar chords and odd song progressions to keep the ears engaged.Р”Р„nd there's also a sort of tongue in cheek, 'knowing' delivery with a few songs. Sometimes it rocks, especially when Dusty lets loose. It feels sultry, languid, a long cruise through the streets in the sticky heat of late summer. If Tejas feels like small Texan towns and cool nights on open highways, Deguello to me seems more urban. most of all though there's a very cool 70s 'vibe' that is hard to pin down in words, but is irresistible.Р”Р„ big part of that is the world conjured up, lyrically and aurally. Frank has retained much of his funky, jazzy feel from 'Tejas', there are horn parts, the Sam and Dave cover. Perhaps its the soul and funk influences that make it go down so easily. I think it is my favourite ZZ album, jostling for that position with Rio Grande Mud but just edging it. The funny thing is this is how they performed this song in concert already back in '77 before it was recorded, so they (or maybe that should be Billy) had a very different approach to the studio and live performance. Note that on the live version of 'I Thank You' Dusty takes much greater part in the vocals, singing a harmony part for the first sections and then taking the second section of the second verse himself, an example of how in live performance some of Billy's vocals from the records were given over to Dusty (happened on several songs, for example he takes over all of 'Dust My Broom'). Still since the studio versions are so extremely good that still means that even if the live versions are way below in standard they are still very enjoyable. The studio recordings have such tight playing, such swinging grooves, such prefect tones and sound, most of it is lost. Click to expand.I think it's safe to say that every song they did live lost the vibe of the studio version, it has always been a huge disappointment to hear the live interpretations.

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