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Post by QuocaQuola1 on Apr 26, 2017 14:08:15 GMT
I can't. Red Sky's shite. It's OK. So is ZZ Top's Eliinator/Afterburner era. Not a patch on their proper stuff... ZZ Top's First Album, Rio Grande Mud, Tres Hombres, Fandango! Etc... ZZ Top's 80s output still shites all over even some of Quo's 70s output. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 26, 2017 14:22:46 GMT
frozenhero I think if you take the hey-day 70's FF period to what evolved to the mid to late 80's then Quo went a long long way in terms of departure. I can't put it in technical muso terms like some of you boys can to identify reasons for differing production sounds, but my simple little ear tells me there is a big difference. Its with this in mind that the overall impression to me is that ZZ Top stuck much closer to their early retro ethos than Quo, who changed massively in my opinion. To my knowledge they never pirouetted on stage either  I don't know what a "fatter sound" means exactly in terms of what you say about Red Sky being less dated? That is if I have understood this part right anyway.
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Post by MrWaistcoat on Apr 26, 2017 15:28:35 GMT
With the drum machines and so on, the mid to late 80's ZZ stuff does sound dated now...but it also still sounds good. And yeah, they had vision and knew what they were doing. Put simply, they could "go commercial" but still be cool. So could other rock bands. Not Quo As for ZZtop, Tʰᵉ Wᵃˡˡ Oᶠ Dᵉᵃᵗʰ, I just love em. Deguello is probably my favourite album. It's many quirky and original (not really rock at all) moments are just dripping in cool and filth. A class act! |
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Post by charles on Apr 26, 2017 18:22:49 GMT
It's OK. So is ZZ Top's Eliinator/Afterburner era. Not a patch on their proper stuff... ZZ Top's First Album, Rio Grande Mud, Tres Hombres, Fandango! Etc... ZZ Top's 80s output still shites all over even some of Quo's 70s output. Why don't you just listen to the 70 albums? You might get another epiphany. (Old ZZ Top is great by the way.) |
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Post by QuocaQuola1 on Apr 26, 2017 19:46:19 GMT
ZZ Top's 80s output still shites all over even some of Quo's 70s output. Why don't you just listen to the 70 albums? You might get another epiphany. (Old ZZ Top is great by the way.) I do only listen to the 70s albums. Quo didn't exist after 1981. |
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Post by frozenhero on Apr 28, 2017 19:35:41 GMT
frozenhero I think if you take the hey-day 70's FF period to what evolved to the mid to late 80's then Quo went a long long way in terms of departure. I can't put it in technical muso terms like some of you boys can to identify reasons for differing production sounds, but my simple little ear tells me there is a big difference. Its with this in mind that the overall impression to me is that ZZ Top stuck much closer to their early retro ethos than Quo, who changed massively in my opinion. To my knowledge they never pirouetted on stage either I don't know what a "fatter sound" means exactly in terms of what you say about Red Sky being less dated? That is if I have understood this part right anyway. Frank and Dusty did not play a single note on the albums. That's what I mean; Quo changed their style a lot but the basic premise - four or five guys playing - was still more or less intact. Also, Quo made two pop albums before they started to play boogie rock, so that pop element had been lurking anyway, ZZ started with blues so it's less of a surprise that even the synthetic 80s albums were still (sort of) blues. But I adore Frank's drumming on albums like "Rio Grande Mud" or "Tejas" so the lack of that human element does bug me. The two Dave Edmunds productions sound "fatter" to me than the rest of the ITAN album, particularly the way the guitars were recorded and mixed. Also the drums don't sound as thin. It seems that Pip embraced that thin, bass-shy, 'plastic' mid-80s sound a lot more. Compare the drums on "Red Sky" to, say, "Save Me"... Interestingly, ZZ's first electronic album (Eliminator) had a pretty fat sound, whereas Afterburner just two years later sounds a lot thinner (but still not as thin as Quo's mid-80s Pip productions)... |
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gav
Veteran Rocker Rollin'
Posts: 2,152
Favourite Quo Album: On The Level
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Post by gav on Apr 28, 2017 20:38:23 GMT
frozenhero I think if you take the hey-day 70's FF period to what evolved to the mid to late 80's then Quo went a long long way in terms of departure. I can't put it in technical muso terms like some of you boys can to identify reasons for differing production sounds, but my simple little ear tells me there is a big difference. Its with this in mind that the overall impression to me is that ZZ Top stuck much closer to their early retro ethos than Quo, who changed massively in my opinion. To my knowledge they never pirouetted on stage either I don't know what a "fatter sound" means exactly in terms of what you say about Red Sky being less dated? That is if I have understood this part right anyway. Frank and Dusty did not play a single note on the albums. That's what I mean; Quo changed their style a lot but the basic premise - four or five guys playing - was still more or less intact. Also, Quo made two pop albums before they started to play boogie rock, so that pop element had been lurking anyway, ZZ started with blues so it's less of a surprise that even the synthetic 80s albums were still (sort of) blues. But I adore Frank's drumming on albums like "Rio Grande Mud" or "Tejas" so the lack of that human element does bug me. The two Dave Edmunds productions sound "fatter" to me than the rest of the ITAN album, particularly the way the guitars were recorded and mixed. Also the drums don't sound as thin. It seems that Pip embraced that thin, bass-shy, 'plastic' mid-80s sound a lot more. Compare the drums on "Red Sky" to, say, "Save Me"... Interestingly, ZZ's first electronic album (Eliminator) had a pretty fat sound, whereas Afterburner just two years later sounds a lot thinner (but still not as thin as Quo's mid-80s Pip productions)... The ITAN album was a shock to even my 11 year old ears back then. It sounds as if a whole frequency range previously evident on most, if not all Quo songs, is missing from the mix. And i genuinely thought there was no bass in Rollin' Home when I first heard it! As for that one and Red Sky, the drums sound like Jeff is hitting them with an enormous sledgehammer. Obviously a lot of work went in to sanitizing Quo's sound to utilize current trends. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 29, 2017 9:25:16 GMT
Thanks for all that - not that I am much the wiser 
As said previously, I just listen to the finished product and decide whether I like it or not and don't think about how its mixed or what shape plug the guitarist chose Still don't really understand what this fat sound concept is going on, but its obviously a guys thing   |
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