ZZ Top started out in 1970 in Houston, Texas, with Billy Gibbons on guitar and vocals, Dusty Hill on bass and vocals, and Frank Beard on drums. With their feet firmly planted in rootsy blues they recorded two albums before their breakthrough, Tres Hombres, in 1973.

This helped to push ZZ Top as a headlining act, and they were supported by the likes of Joe Cocker, Bad Company and Santana. In 1976 they took the one of the biggest rock shows ever on the road, the Worldwide Texas Tour, with the band playing on a Texas-shaped stage. The tour broke records worldwide and turned the trio into superstars.

The 80s saw the band change their sound. Although still wearing their blues influences on their sleeves, they introduced synth parts, and electronic drums resulting in a much more polished radio-friendly sound. 1983 saw the release of Eliminator, which included the smash singles Legs, Sharp Dressed Man, and Gimme All Your Lovin’. Their new sound continued with their follow-up album Afterburner, in 1985.

More recently, the band have returned to a less commercial sound with such albums as Rhythmeon. ZZ Top have always had a slight oddball outlook, whether it’s sporting beards that have not been trimmed since the 70s (despite drummer Frank

Beard remaining beardless!) or their collection of bizarre, and sometimes furry, guitars.
The original version of this track includes overdubs and layered parts, so I have condensed things down into two manageable parts. After the drum introduction, the main riff starts in BAR 5, and is based around the chords of F5, and C5. The riff includes some fourth double stops based around C minor pentatonic:

C Eb F G Bb C
I b3 4 5 Ь7 I

This riff is pretty consistent throughout the track. Guitar one kicks off with some pretty standard blues-based licks that also use notes from the C minor pentatonic scale.

The verse enters at BAR 13. During this section guitar one performs some stabbing chords, so keep these tight. Guitar two continues with the original riff. Due to space restrictions I have repeated this verse for all three verses. At the beginning of the second verse, guitar one enters with the stabbing chords from the start, so simply play this part from the beginning of this verse. The third verse includes some simple bending licks. Although these are not transcribed they are pretty simple, and I’ve included them on the GTCD.

The chorus begins at BAR 21, with guitar two performing the chords of Bb5, F5, plus the original verse riff over the C chord section. Guitar one continues the stabbing chord figure, and embellishes it with more blues based lines.

The solo section is introduced at BAR 45, with a tight double stop figure. The main solo enters at BAR 47 and is based yet again around the C minor pentatonic scale. Billy Gibbons is renowned for his use of pinched harmonics, so make sure you have a little extra gain at hand. There is nothing to cause too many problems; just try' to keep things grooving, and work on your dynamics. During this section, guitar two performs some incidental power chord, while a third guitar plays a chugging eighth note rhythm based around the C5 power chord.

After the final verse and chorus the coda enters at BAR 87. On the original this section included an improvised solo that was pretty much based around repeating double stop idea. Once again, due to space, I have transcribed a small section of this solo and repeated it, so feel free to do your own thing during this section, just as Billy did.

Sound advice Billy Gibbons' gear

It is pretty hard to tell exactly what guitar Billy would have used to record this track as he has such a wide variety, but I would hazard a guess at a humbucker equipped guitar, possibly a custom explorer. For the GTCD I used my Musicman Axis Supersport guitar plus a 6 Watt Cornford Harlequin into a custom built Cornford Speaker Coffin.

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