(Credits: Far Out / Chris Woodrich)
There’s no question that ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons stands tall in the guitarists’ hall of fame.
Hailing from Texas, ZZ Top’s homebrew of rootsy southern rock and unabashed love for the ramshackle boogie swiftly won them fans across the 1970s, Tres Hombres propelling the trio to regional stardom. Yet, there was always an eye on the broader musical trends beyond the Lone Star State, as well as a creative hunger that saw Gibbons pay close attention to the pop trends around him.
Embracing a love for the new wave era’s synthesizers and drum machines, an eager jump into electronic touches yielded the mammoth success Eliminator in the 1980s, the tongue-in-cheek glitz of their lavish videos heralding ZZ Top as unlikely stars of the MTV era. Years back, like much of his generation, Gibbons was gripped by the British Invasion dominating the Billboard charts following The Beatles and The Rolling Stones’ spearheading.
One future name from London’s swinging era, however, demanded high praise from the bearded guitar maestro, as well as indirectly revealing a much-loved slice of UK cinema.
“Jimmy Page is one of the greatest,” Gibbons told MusicRadar in 2018. “I would invite all of you readers to go check out the nightclub scene from the 1966 movie Blowup, where The Yardbirds are playing. They had Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page at the same time! Listening to the band doing ‘The Train Kept A‐Rollin’’… it’s just ferocious. Both of those guys had tone for days”.
A gem of the British 1960s counterculture and essential document of the day’s rapidly shifting culture, Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blowup follows David Hemmings’ photographer, simply known as Thomas, as he snaps his way across London and believes he may have unwittingly caught a murder on his negative reel. The club scene in question, so embedded in Gibbons’ mind, is a tasty sequence, showing Beck thoroughly narked at his failing gear, he shoves his guitar to the ground and stamps on his axe for good measure, radiating believable irk in his brief but memorable cameo.
It’s hard to glean exactly what can be learned from the blast of destruction, but Blowup is certainly worth a watch, as are its spiritual remakes, The Conversation and Blow-Out. While Beck steals the show with his on-stage tantrum, Page quietly works his magic alongside him, sowing the seeds for Led Zeppelin’s future greats. Gibbons would honour Page with a rendition of ‘Whole Lotta Love’ in 2020, recruiting a similarly impressive guitarist roll call in the vein of The Yardbirds, Lzzy Hale, Slash, and Cheap Trick’s Robin Zander and Rick Nielsen, all lending their axes to Gibbons’ Led Zep love letter.
The feeling was more than mutual. “I think that’s what rock ‘n’ roll is all about,” Page confessed to Guitar World in 1986 regarding ZZ Top’s legacy. They really are incredible. They have great music, really fine playing, really solid, and they have a sense of humour as well. They’re damn fine. And everyone is enjoying it and they’re enjoying themselves”.
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