July 28, 2021. I heard Dusty Hill died today right after having my lunch of German Johnson tomato sandwiches as I was reading a Billy Gibbons note to the internet via social media. All of the sudden I just stared straight ahead and went no… not Dusty… no this can’t be happening.
This Turntable Tuesday I am going to celebrate the life and music of Dusty Hill by playing the second ZZ Top album “Rio Grande Mud” and telling a few stories of my lifelong passionate musical journey with one of the best bands to ever come out of Texas. “ZZ Top.”
Rain fell this mornin’, make me feel so bad
On account of my baby walked off with another man.
Like takin’ eyesight from the blind man and money from the poor
That woman took my lovin’
And walked on out that door
And it sure got cold after the rain fell
Not from the sky, from my eye.
Somebody, can you tell me
Just what make a man feel this way?
Like river without its water, like night without a day.
And it sure ’nuff got cold after the rain fell
Not from the sky but from my eye.
If you’re home early in the mornin’ you hear that rain to fall
With thunderbolts and lightning the wind begins to call.
Your worry’s superficial ’cause you slept on through the night
But stormy weather keep you wonderin’ if everything’s all right.
And it sure ’nuff got cold after the rain fell
Not from the sky but from my eye
Not from the sky, from my eye.
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Summer 1973. I was in Greenwood, Mississippi which is an area that is called the delta where blues music found a cradle and believe me it can get impossibly hot there especially in the middle of the summer. I had spent seven of my formative years growing up in Greenwood. My oldest friend in the world who left the planet seven years ago this month had just shown me an album from a band I had never heard of as they were from Texas and were relatively unknown at the time. The album was called “ZZ Top’s First Album” and the best part was there was already a second album released called “Rio Grande Mud.” We were standing in David’s house in the middle of the birth of the blues country and a couple of blocks from the nearest cotton field. This music was now of our generation and ZZ Top was playing the blues while setting the bar very high. We wore the grooves out on these vinyl copies. I still love these tracks probably even more today. When I play these songs all those memories come rushing back to the present.
My friend David had some incredible speakers for such a young person as he had built them from birch plywood as a teenager. They were beautiful duplicates of some very expensive speakers coated in a matte satin finish. You see he had an original blueprint from Paul Klipsch from up in Hope, Arkansas and he had re-created the famous Kilpschorn speakers complete with the horns on the top of the cabinet. https://www.klipsch.com/products/klipschorn-floorstanding-speaker He had a relatively high powered Radio Shack amp that could drive those speakers as they were incredibly efficient. Somewhere I believe I have a copy of that speaker blueprint in my attic but I have not seen it in years. I remember being in Starkville, Mississippi many years later in college there at Mississippi State and going to see Paul Klipsch as he flew his Cessna in to help open an audio store. For a long time I wore a $5 t shirt with this very speaker on it. All that said when the ZZ Top albums hit the vinyl platter and started playing those blues and rock and roll through these amazing speakers I knew something great was happening. What a band! ZZ Top were only getting started as a band but these two initial albums are still some of my favorite tracks from this trio. This audio system was where I first heard these tracks and I remember it like it was yesterday. Within a week I had the albums and had made cassette duplicates to listen to and preserve my vinyl. Many decades later my vinyl preservation is paying dividends as there is not even a scratch on this original pressing.
The years flew by and I was able to see ZZ Top perform numerous times. A couple of these shows really stick in my mind. March 20, 1991. One notable show was the “Recycler Tour” at the Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hill. I pulled into the parking lot to see the show. Now this is not my favorite venue to see a concert in as it was new at the time and was setup to amplify the crowd noise for a many time basketball championship to happen. The “Dean Dome” https://goheels.com/news/2012/10/26/205720085.aspx is a beautiful place but it is not designed for concerts. The acoustics are not all that great for music. All that said I will say I pulled into the parking lot early and the tailgate was on 100%. People were already drinking HUGE quantities of beer and piling the cans in parking slots. No not just a few cans but we are talking car-sized piles of beer cans! These people were partying to the max and ready to hear ZZ Top tear it up inside later. The car stereos were blasting ZZ Top from the windows of half of the vehicles in the parking lot at maximum volume. Later as I arrived in my so-so seating position about 40 feet from the stage I was surrounded by a sold-out crowd. It was all to wall people and they were still chugging beer. Just for the record I did have at least a beer…or two. Right before the lights went out I saw a guy literally projectile-vomit into the back of a poor woman’s head. That cleared a section for a few minutes until they could get someone to help clean it up. You could smell the mess from 30 feet away. All of this action as “Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers” was blasting on the PA system on the stage. Oh the irony.
I still remember the stage for this show where TV sets were getting moved with those forks that resembled that game thing where you insert coins and try to pick up a stuffed animal if you know what I mean. Dusty and Billy were playing while moon walking on moving sidewalks on the stage and the tube TVs in the back were playing black and white MTV video. They also had those incredibly cool white fuzzy guitars and they would twirl them so synchronized it would make a high school marching band coach swoon. It really set the coolness factor of the show. This trio might be duplicated but they will never be bested for excellent entertainment while playing kick ass Rock and Roll. A show to put a smile on your face yes indeed.
Later I saw ZZ Top at a show that featured Ted Nugent , ZZ Top, and Kenny Wayne Shepherd. It as May 10, 2003 on the “Beer Drinkers and Hell raisers Tour” and I even took my 11 year old daughter to introduce her to rock music. I had some nice seats thanks to American Express as you can see on the ticket stub. I wanted to travel to Charlotte to see Kenny Wayne Shepherd open as he had most of “Double Trouble” with him and I wanted to give them some support. Stevie Ray had Chris “the whipper” Layton on drums and Tommy Shannon on bass so I knew that would rock. This was followed by Ted Nugent shooting a stuffed doll of Saddam Hussein hanging by a rope noose at the top if a light truss in the head from a distance of at least 150 feet away. What a night this was as ZZ Top rocked and were still flying high from the MTV days.
Frank 
Dusty 
Dusty and Billy
I went on to see ZZ Top again from only a few feet from the stage and then maybe a few more times. I have recently been looking at some opportunities to catch them on the tour that is scheduled for 2021. Then today happened. Dusty Hill at 72 left us on the top of his game. I am not sure what to write after I process that thought. Somehow your favorite bands that are still rocking are not supposed to have an expiration date. We all know we have that date that is stamped somewhere in our genetic code that we cannot read and one day it just happens. That does not make this one any easier to digest. Sorry for being selfish. I want Tom Petty, Dusty Hill, Gregg Allman, Lou Reed, Steve Ray and so many others back on the stage. I have all the recorded music which makes it easier to get by but in the end there is nothing like live music from your favorite artists as well as living in a time that is parallel to one of the music greats. Dusty Hill was one of them. I will miss you man. I really will.
Until next time I’ll see you , down the road.