''Eliminator'' is the eighth studio album by American
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
band
ZZ Top
ZZ Top is an American rock band formed in 1969 in Houston, Texas. For 51 years, they comprised vocalist-guitarist Billy Gibbons, drummer Frank Beard and vocalist-bassist Dusty Hill, until Hill's death in 2021. ZZ Top developed a signature sound ...
. It was released on March 23, 1983, by
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...
, and rose high on the charts in many countries. Four hit singles were released—"
Gimme All Your Lovin'
"Gimme All Your Lovin'" is a song by ZZ Top from their 1983 album '' Eliminator''. It was released as the album's first single in 1983.
Initially unsuccessful in the UK upon its August 1983 release, in the wake of the band's American success (t ...
" which reached the American Top 40, "
Sharp Dressed Man
"Sharp Dressed Man" is a song performed by ZZ Top from their 1983 album '' Eliminator''. The song was produced by band manager Bill Ham, and recorded and mixed by Terry Manning. Pre-production recording engineer Linden Hudson was very involved ...
", "
TV Dinners" and their most successful single, "
Legs
A leg is a weight-bearing and locomotive anatomical structure, usually having a columnar shape. During locomotion, legs function as "extensible struts". The combination of movements at all joints can be modeled as a single, linear element ...
". A
Diamond certified
Music recording certifications are typically awarded by the worldwide music industry based on the total units sold, streamed, or shipped to retailers. These awards and their requirements are defined by the various certifying bodies representing t ...
album in the United States, ''Eliminator'' is ZZ Top's most commercially successful release, with sales of 11 million in the US.
Recorded in 1982, the album represents a further step of modernization by bandleader
Billy Gibbons
William Frederick Gibbons (born December 16, 1949) is an American musician who is the guitarist and lead singer of the rock band ZZ Top. He began his career in the band the Moving Sidewalks, which recorded a full-length album entitled, ''Flas ...
. Since ''
El Loco
''El Loco'' is the seventh studio album by the American rock band ZZ Top, released in 1981. The title means "The Madman" in Spanish. The band's guitarist/singer Billy Gibbons has said that the recording of this album was the first time the three ...
'' in 1981, Gibbons had been edging the band's
boogie
Boogie is a repetitive, swung note or shuffle rhythm,Burrows, Terry (1995). ''Play Country Guitar'', p.42. Dorling Kindersley Limited, London. . "groove" or pattern used in blues which was originally played on the piano in boogie-woogie mus ...
and
blues rock
Blues rock is a fusion music genre that combines elements of blues and rock music. It is mostly an electric ensemble-style music with instrumentation similar to electric blues and rock (electric guitar, electric bass guitar, and drums, sometimes w ...
sound toward the popular
new-wave/
synth-rock aesthetic while retaining ZZ Top's signature
electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...
emphasis. For ''Eliminator'', he increased the
tempo
In musical terminology, tempo (Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (often ...
and used more
synthesizer
A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...
s and
drum machines, producing a "tighter" album with a steady, driving beat.
[ Pre-production engineer Linden Hudson collaborated with Gibbons in Texas on the album tempo and songs, then producer ]Bill Ham
Billy Mack Ham (February 4, 1937 – June 20, 2016) was an American music impresario, best known as the manager, producer, and image-maker for the blues-rock band ZZ Top. Ham also gained prominence in the country music world by discovering and man ...
and engineer Terry Manning
Terry Manning is an American photographer, composer, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, audio engineer, and visual artist. In a career spanning more than 50 years, he has worked with Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, Bryan Adams, ...
joined Gibbons in Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...
, to carefully craft the sound of each song after the full band was done recording, controversially replacing much of the contributions of bassist Dusty Hill
Joe Michael "Dusty" Hill (May 19, 1949 – July 28, 2021) was an American musician who was the bassist of the rock band ZZ Top for more than 50 years. He also sang lead and backing vocals and played keyboards.
Hill was born in Dallas, Texas, an ...
and drummer Frank Beard. Ham claimed the album was solely the work of ZZ Top, denying the involvement of others, but in 1986 Hudson won a lawsuit establishing himself as composer of the song "Thug".
A series of music video
A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...
s served as successful promotional tools—the similarly themed videos for "Gimme All Your Lovin'", "Sharp Dressed Man" and "Legs" received regular rotation
Rotation, or spin, is the circular movement of an object around a '' central axis''. A two-dimensional rotating object has only one possible central axis and can rotate in either a clockwise or counterclockwise direction. A three-dimensional ...
on MTV
MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
and helped the band gain popularity with a younger base. A customized 1933 Ford coupe
A coupe or coupé (, ) is a passenger car with a sloping or truncated rear roofline and two doors.
The term ''coupé'' was first applied to horse-drawn carriages for two passengers without rear-facing seats. It comes from the French past parti ...
, depicted on the album cover, could be seen in three of the four videos. Following ''Eliminator'' release, ZZ Top embarked on a worldwide concert tour.
The video for "Legs" earned the band the MTV Video Music Award for Best Group. ''Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'' named ''Eliminator'' number 398 on its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. It was listed at number 39 in The 100 Greatest Albums of the 80s, and it was also included in Robert Dimery's book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die
''1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die'' is a musical reference book first published in 2005 by Universe Publishing. Part of the ''1001 Before You Die'' series, it compiles writings and information on albums chosen by a panel of music critics ...
. A remastered version was released in 2008.
Background
In 1977, ZZ Top went on hiatus, weary of constant touring. Bandleader and guitarist Billy Gibbons
William Frederick Gibbons (born December 16, 1949) is an American musician who is the guitarist and lead singer of the rock band ZZ Top. He began his career in the band the Moving Sidewalks, which recorded a full-length album entitled, ''Flas ...
traveled around Europe, and bassist Dusty Hill
Joe Michael "Dusty" Hill (May 19, 1949 – July 28, 2021) was an American musician who was the bassist of the rock band ZZ Top for more than 50 years. He also sang lead and backing vocals and played keyboards.
Hill was born in Dallas, Texas, an ...
vacationed in Mexico; both of them grew their beards longer. Drummer Frank Beard checked himself into Palmer Drug Abuse Program, a Houston
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...
detox community, to kick his addiction to hard narcotics. To help finance Palmer, Beard organized a benefit concert
A benefit concert or charity concert is a type of musical benefit performance (e.g., concert, show, or gala) featuring musicians, comedians, or other performers that is held for a charitable purpose, often directed at a specific and immediate hu ...
and an album titled ''Freeway'', working with engineers Steve Ames and Linden Hudson at Rampart Studios in Houston. Returning to action and newly signed to Warner Bros. Records
Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...
, ZZ Top recorded and released '' Degüello'' in 1979, certified Platinum in early 1980.
Getting clean in 1979, Beard bought a large house on the outskirts of Houston, in Quail Valley overlooking a golf course where he often played as a way to stay off drugs. The band wanted to have a private rehearsal studio, so Beard invited Hudson to move in and supervise a recording studio in his home. Hudson designed the studio and oversaw its construction, centered on an isolation booth
An isolation booth is a cabinet used to prevent a person or people from seeing or hearing certain events, usually for television programs or for blind testing of products.
Its most visual use is on game shows, where an isolation booth (either po ...
holding Beard's drum kit
A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player ( drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsti ...
, with more booths for guitar and bass amplifiers. Microphone signals ran through the mixing console
A mixing console or mixing desk is an electronic device for mixing audio signals, used in sound recording and reproduction and sound reinforcement systems. Inputs to the console include microphones, signals from electric or electronic inst ...
and some outboard gear
Musical outboard equipment or outboard gear is used to process or alter a sound signal separately from functionality provided within a mixing console or a digital audio workstation. Outboard effects units can be used either during a live performanc ...
to the band's semi-pro 1-inch 16-track Tascam tape recorder
An audio tape recorder, also known as a tape deck, tape player or tape machine or simply a tape recorder, is a sound recording and reproduction device that records and plays back sounds usually using magnetic tape for storage. In its present- ...
. ZZ Top used this studio in 1980 to work on material for their next album, ''El Loco
''El Loco'' is the seventh studio album by the American rock band ZZ Top, released in 1981. The title means "The Madman" in Spanish. The band's guitarist/singer Billy Gibbons has said that the recording of this album was the first time the three ...
'', professionally recorded in Memphis and mixed by the band's established engineer Terry Manning
Terry Manning is an American photographer, composer, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, audio engineer, and visual artist. In a career spanning more than 50 years, he has worked with Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, Bryan Adams, ...
. Hudson played on several early song demos, including a synth line on "Groovy Little Hippie Pad" which was carried to Memphis on tape and mixed into the album by Manning. Hudson was not credited for this work but was promised future compensation. Hudson also introduced Gibbons to drum machines during these rehearsals.[Sinclair 1986. p. 76] Gibbons later called Hudson "an influential associate... a gifted songwriter... He brought some elements to the forefront that helped reshape what ZZ Top were doing, starting in the studio and eventually to the live stage."
From this point forward, the band was not able to reproduce certain songs in concert without using pre-recorded tracks. The band carried a small tape player
An audio tape recorder, also known as a tape deck, tape player or tape machine or simply a tape recorder, is a sound recording and reproduction device that records and plays back sounds usually using magnetic tape for storage. In its present- ...
to each concert, with a technician hitting the "play" button to give Beard a click track
A click track is a series of audio cues used to synchronize sound recordings, sometimes for synchronization to a moving image. The click track originated in early sound movies, where optical marks were made on the film to indicate precise timin ...
cue in his headphones to start any song requiring such augmentation. The tape held synthesizer parts, drum samples and other advanced elements of album production.[ Republished online on March 22, 2021.] None of this was made public; Bill Ham
Billy Mack Ham (February 4, 1937 – June 20, 2016) was an American music impresario, best known as the manager, producer, and image-maker for the blues-rock band ZZ Top. Ham also gained prominence in the country music world by discovering and man ...
, the band's manager, was closely controlling the image of the band to create a "mystique" of self-sufficiency and authenticity.
Recording
Guitarist Gibbons was inspired by British electronic acts such as Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in Basildon, Essex, in 1980. The band currently consists of Dave Gahan (lead vocals and co-songwriting) and Martin Gore (keyboards, guitar, co-lead vocals and main songwriting).
Depeche ...
and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) are an English electronic music, electronic band formed in Wirral Peninsula, Wirral, Merseyside, in 1978. The group consists of co-founders Andy McCluskey (vocals, bass guitar) and Paul Humphreys (keyboar ...
to explore electronic music technology. He often spoke with Hudson about new ideas in music. A former radio DJ, Hudson presented Gibbons with personal research showing that many hit songs were clustered near a tempo
In musical terminology, tempo (Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (often ...
of 124 beats per minute—faster than ZZ Top's normal practice.[ Gibbons followed suit with most of ''Eliminator'', setting the new pace with drum machines.] "Legs" and "Sharp Dressed Man" are both 125 bpm while "Gimme All Your Lovin'" runs at 120.[ Gibbons said in 2012 that he first used a drum machine on ''Eliminator''—the first album on which ZZ Top "paid serious attention" to timing and tempo, which was "timed and tuned very tight".][
The first songwriting sessions for ''Eliminator'' were mainly Gibbons and Hudson working together in Beard's home studio while Beard was out playing golf. Beard and Hill sometimes participated, and Ham checked in occasionally. Hudson programmed a drum machine for the rhythm, and played ]keyboard bass
Keyboard bass (shortened to keybass and sometimes referred as a synth-bass) is the use of a smaller, low-pitched keyboard with fewer notes than a regular keyboard or pedal keyboard to substitute for the deep notes of a bass guitar or double bass ...
. Gibbons and Hudson collaborated on lyrics and music, putting together a demo of " Got Me Under Pressure" featuring Gibbons's electric guitar work on top of the electronic sounds. Gibbons felt that the synthesizers "created a nice platform that allowed the guitar to stand on its own", and that as the synthesizers could play an octave
In music, an octave ( la, octavus: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is the interval between one musical pitch and another with double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been refer ...
lower than a bass guitar, they created "a nice full bed of sound" that contrasted with his guitar.[ Ham was initially unaware that Gibbons was building a new sound without Beard or Hill.][Blayney 1994, p. 199] While the band was off touring, Hudson wrote "Thug" by himself.
Carrying the demo tapes created by Gibbons and Hudson, ZZ Top traveled without Hudson to Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...
, to stay at the Peabody Hotel
The Peabody Memphis is a historic luxury hotel in Downtown Memphis, Tennessee, opened in 1925. The hotel is known for the "Peabody Ducks" that live on the hotel rooftop and make daily treks to the lobby. The Peabody is a member of Historic Hote ...
while they recorded basic tracks at Ardent Studios
Ardent Studios is an American recording studio located in Memphis, Tennessee, United States.
History
Ardent Studios was founded by John Fry and were initially a studio in his family's garage, where he recorded his first 45s for the Arden ...
, with Manning once again at the controls of the custom-built SpectraSonics mixing console. For the majority of songs, Gibbons played Dean guitars
Dean Guitars, commonly referred to simply as Dean, is an American importer and maker of stringed instruments and musical products with its headquarters in Tampa, Florida.
Its products include solid-body electric guitars, bass guitars, and acous ...
with DiMarzio super distortion pickups, plugged into a Legend hybrid amplifier, and miked with an AKG 414B-ULS large-diaphragm condenser microphone
A microphone, colloquially called a mic or mike (), is a transducer that converts sound into an electrical signal. Microphones are used in many applications such as telephones, hearing aids, public address systems for concert halls and public ...
. When recording rhythm guitar parts, the sound pressure level
Sound pressure or acoustic pressure is the local pressure deviation from the ambient (average or equilibrium) atmospheric pressure, caused by a sound wave. In air, sound pressure can be measured using a microphone, and in water with a hydrophone ...
(audio volume) was set very high to satisfy Gibbons, but this made it impossible for him to lift his fingers from the guitar to change chords without feedback
Feedback occurs when outputs of a system are routed back as inputs as part of a chain of cause-and-effect that forms a circuit or loop. The system can then be said to ''feed back'' into itself. The notion of cause-and-effect has to be handled ...
. Instead, each chord was played once and doubled again on a pair of tracks, then the next chord was played twice and recorded to two more adjacent tracks. These alternating pairs of tracks were blended seamlessly into each other by Manning punching the tracks in and out. A side benefit of this laborious process was the elimination of the usual squeaks from shifting the fingers to change chords. Hill and Beard laid down bass guitar
The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...
and drums, recording their parts onto 2-inch tape. Hill sang his vocals for "I Got the Six". When they were finished, Hill and Beard returned home to Texas.
Gibbons, Manning and Ham continued to work on the album without Hill and Beard. Vocal harmonies were supplied by Manning and Jimi Jamison
Jimmy Wayne Jamison (August 23, 1951 – September 1, 2014) was an American singer. Best known as Jimi Jamison, he earned recognition as the frontman for the rock bands Target, Cobra, and Survivor from 1984 to 1989, performing the songs " Burn ...
, the new lead singer of Cobra. Most of Hill's bass parts were replaced by Gibbons or Manning playing bass guitar or a Moog Source
The Moog Source is a monophonic Z80 microprocessor-controlled analog synthesizer manufactured by Moog Music from 1981 to 1985. The Source was Moog's first synthesizer to offer patch memory storage. The design was also the first (and only) Moog sy ...
—a keyboard synthesizer. A Memorymoog
The Memorymoog is a polyphonic electronic music synthesizer manufactured by Moog Music from 1982 to 1985, the last polyphonic synthesizer to be released by Moog Music before the company declared bankruptcy in 1987. While comparable to other polyph ...
was also used for supporting synth sounds. Most of Beard's drumming was replaced by drum machine or Simmons SDS-V
The Simmons SDS 5, SDSV, or Simmons Drum Synthesizer (notated as ''SDS-V'' on the following) was the first viable electronic replacement for acoustic drums. It was developed by Richard James Burgess and Dave Simmons, manufactured initially by M ...
electronic drums, keeping Beard's acoustic tom-tom drum
A tom drum is a cylindrical drum with no snares, named from the Anglo-Indian and Sinhala language. It was added to the drum kit in the early part of the 20th century. Most toms range in size between in diameter, though floor toms can go as la ...
fills and cymbal
A cymbal is a common percussion instrument. Often used in pairs, cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys. The majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs soun ...
accents. The song "Legs" was not coming together for Gibbons, so Manning carried the tape home to his 24-track attic studio and reworked every part except the guitar and vocals from Gibbons. Manning also created a longer dance mix for "Legs". To replace the drums, Manning programmed his Oberheim DMX
The DMX is a programmable digital drum machine manufactured by Oberheim. It was introduced in 1980 at a list price of and remained in the company's product line until the mid-1980s.
The Oberheim DMX was the second digital drum machine ever to b ...
drum machine, then augmented the snare drum
The snare (or side drum) is a percussion instrument that produces a sharp staccato sound when the head is struck with a drum stick, due to the use of a series of stiff wires held under tension against the lower skin. Snare drums are often used ...
and hi-hat
A hi-hat (hihat, high-hat, etc.) is a combination of two cymbals and a pedal, all mounted on a metal stand. It is a part of the standard drum kit used by drummers in many styles of music including rock, pop, jazz, and blues. Hi-hats consist o ...
sounds by triggering more samples on an AMS AMS or Ams may refer to:
Organizations Companies
* Alenia Marconi Systems
* American Management Systems
* AMS (Advanced Music Systems)
* ams AG, semiconductor manufacturer
* AMS Pictures
* Auxiliary Medical Services
Educational institutions
* A ...
DMX delay unit. Eight years later, Gibbons thanked Al Jourgensen
Alain David Jourgensen (born Alejandro Ramírez Casas; October 9, 1958) is a Cuban-American singer, musician and music producer. Closely related with the independent record label Wax Trax! Records, his musical career spans four decades. He is be ...
because his early Ministry
Ministry may refer to:
Government
* Ministry (collective executive), the complete body of government ministers under the leadership of a prime minister
* Ministry (government department), a department of a government
Religion
* Christian ...
drum samples had been used to polish ''Eliminator''.
Writing dispute
Hudson collaborated on the album tempo with Gibbons, and he co-wrote several songs. The band's longtime stage manager, David Blayney, wrote about the collaboration in 1994 in his book, ''Sharp Dressed Men''. The demo version of the album that was prepared for Memphis was largely the product of Gibbons and Hudson. On "I Got the Six", Hudson helped write the lyrics, and on "Dirty Dog" he originated the shouted phrase, "Hey! Get that dog outta my yard!", which was exactly duplicated and replaced in Memphis. He added special effects to "Dirty Dog" and "TV Dinners", and the pulsing synthesizer effect on "Legs" was his invention. He helped compose and arrange "Got Me Under Pressure", including playing the synth bass line and programming the drum machine.
Hudson's song "Thug" was taken in its entirety: on the album, "Thug" lists Gibbons, Beard and Hill as the songwriters. ZZ Top's management company—Lone Wolf—denied that Hudson was significantly involved, and said that the album concept was solely the work of Gibbons and Ham. After the album came out in late March 1983, Hudson moved out of Beard's house, cut his ties with the band, and sued Lone Wolf for $1 million, arguing that his December 1982 copyright date for "Thug" preceded ZZ Top's copyright date of April 1983. Ham claimed that Hudson sold the song outright, but no record of such a sale was brought forward, and in December 1986 the judge decided in Hudson's favor, awarding him $600,000. Hudson paid a third of this to his attorneys, and a third to his publisher, Huey P. Meaux. Blayney wrote that "Linden Hudson in a fair world should have had his name all over ''Eliminator'' and gotten the just compensation he deserved. Instead he got ostracized."
Vintage car
The album was named for a drag racing
Drag racing is a type of motor racing in which automobiles or motorcycles compete, usually two at a time, to be first to cross a set finish line. The race follows a short, straight course from a standing start over a measured distance, most c ...
term after Ham said the band should feature Gibbons's newly customized 1933 Ford coupe
A coupe or coupé (, ) is a passenger car with a sloping or truncated rear roofline and two doors.
The term ''coupé'' was first applied to horse-drawn carriages for two passengers without rear-facing seats. It comes from the French past parti ...
. An early suggestion for the album title came from filmmaker Mike Griffin who proposed ''Top Fuel
Top Fuel is a type of drag racing whose dragsters are the quickest accelerating racing cars in the world and the fastest sanctioned category of drag racing, with the fastest competitors reaching speeds of and finishing the runs in 3.62 seconds ...
'', but Ham shifted the idea to ''Eliminator''—the term for any category of race cars competing against each other.
In 1976, Gibbons met with Don Thelen of Buffalo Motor Cars in Paramount, California
Paramount is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. According to the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 54,098, down from 55,266 at the 2000 census. Paramount is part of the Greater Los Angeles Area and is borde ...
, and Ronnie Jones of Hand Crafted Metal with some help from Sid Blackard, to build the car. It was built with a Corvette
A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the slo ...
-style engine. It was finished in 1983 and called the Eliminator after the album name. The car has become recognizable for its red finish and graphics, and is in several of the band's music videos, plus appearances in television, movies, auto show
An auto show, also known as a motor show or car show, is a public exhibition of current automobile models, debuts, concept cars, or out-of-production classics. It is attended by automotive industry representatives, dealers, auto journalists a ...
s, and charity events. The car reportedly cost Gibbons $50,000.[ Gibbons keeps the car in ]Cleveland
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), sometimes simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and othe ...
where it is on display, but he may still "crank it up and take it out for a spin" whenever he is in the area.
Release
''Eliminator'' was released worldwide on March 23, 1983. "Gimme All Your Lovin'
"Gimme All Your Lovin'" is a song by ZZ Top from their 1983 album '' Eliminator''. It was released as the album's first single in 1983.
Initially unsuccessful in the UK upon its August 1983 release, in the wake of the band's American success (t ...
", "Sharp Dressed Man
"Sharp Dressed Man" is a song performed by ZZ Top from their 1983 album '' Eliminator''. The song was produced by band manager Bill Ham, and recorded and mixed by Terry Manning. Pre-production recording engineer Linden Hudson was very involved ...
", " TV Dinners" and "Legs
A leg is a weight-bearing and locomotive anatomical structure, usually having a columnar shape. During locomotion, legs function as "extensible struts". The combination of movements at all joints can be modeled as a single, linear element ...
" were released as singles. "Gimme All Your Lovin'" went to the number two position of ''Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
'' Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks
Mainstream Rock is a music chart in ''Billboard'' magazine that ranks the most-played songs on mainstream rock radio stations in the United States, a category that combines the formats of active rock and heritage rock. The chart was launched in Ma ...
chart in April 1983, then a month later it broke into the Top 40 pop chart. The next three singles also hit the Mainstream Rock Airplay chart: "Sharp Dressed Man" peaked at number 8 in July, "TV Dinners" rose to number 38 in December, and then "Legs" topped out at number 3 in June 1984 after its video was released in May. The song "Got Me Under Pressure" also received radio airplay and peaked at number 18 in May 1983.
''Eliminator'' was the first ZZ Top album to become a worldwide success, and made the band "bona fide pop stars", according to the ''Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...
''. By December 1996, ''Eliminator'' had sold more than 11 million copies in the US, ten times more than any previous ZZ Top album.
Music videos
Record executive Jeff Ayeroff
Jeffrey Kent Ayeroff (born January 20, 1947) is an American record executive who has worked for A&M, Warner Records, Virgin U.S., Work Group, Apple, and Shangri-La Music. He founded Rock the Vote in 1990 in response to a censorship campaign ag ...
saw how MTV
MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
was reshaping popular music throughout 1982. After he joined Warner Bros. Records
Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...
in early 1983, he convinced them to pay for the first ZZ Top music video
A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...
, for "Gimme All Your Lovin'". Warner hired filmmaker Tim Newman, who also created videos for "Sharp Dressed Man" and "Legs". The videos depicted America as "a land of rock and roll, cars and girls", with three female models driving the Eliminator car. The "Legs" video featured the debut of ZZ Top's spinning guitars, covered in white sheepskin.
The videos greatly advanced ZZ Top's visibility. According to ''Texas Monthly'', the album's synthesizer sound was "perfect" for the MTV audience, who had previously seen ZZ Top as an "old-fogey band". The videos earned ZZ Top awards for Best Band and Best Group Video
The MTV Video Music Award for Best Group (also known as the MTV Video Music Award for Best Group Video) is given to recording artists at the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs). The award was introduced at the inaugural ceremony in 1984 by vocalis ...
at the 1984 MTV Awards
The MTV Video Music Awards (commonly abbreviated as the VMAs) is an award show presented by the cable channel MTV to honour the best in the music video medium. Originally conceived as an alternative to the Grammy Awards (in the video category) ...
. For "Legs", Newman negotiated a fixed payment every time ''Eliminator'' was certified for another 250,000 units sold in the US, earning him a substantial sum. The "Legs" video was released in May 1984, driving the single into the Mainstream Rock Airplay charts the next month. A video was also released for "TV Dinners", it was directed by Marius Penczner, and featured clay animation
Clay animation or claymation, sometimes plasticine animation, is one of many forms of stop-motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable"—made of a malleable substance, usually plasticine clay.
Tra ...
.
Tour
The Eliminator tour was a return to the larger-than-life scale of ZZ Top's 1976–1977 Worldwide Texas Tour. From May to October 1983 the band toured the US, interrupted in August by several days in the British Isles, playing Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
and then Castle Donington
Castle Donington is a market town and civil parish in Leicestershire, England, on the edge of the National Forest and close to East Midlands Airport.
History
The name 'Donington' means 'farm/settlement connected with Dunna'. Another suggest ...
: the Monsters of Rock
Monsters of Rock was an annual hard rock and heavy metal music festival held in Castle Donington, England, from 1980 to 1996, taking place every year except 1989 and 1993. It later branched into other locations such as the Netherlands, Poland, ...
concert. The European leg of the tour in October–November 1983 brought the band to Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, France, Belgium and back to the UK, including one added date at Wembley Arena
Wembley Arena (originally the Empire Pool, now known as OVO Arena Wembley for sponsorship reasons) is an indoor arena next to Wembley Stadium in Wembley, London, England, used for music, comedy, family entertainment and sport. The 12,500-sea ...
to meet demand. The final leg of the tour picked up more dates in the US in early 1984. The band performed all four singles from ''Eliminator'' as well as selections from their earlier albums, closing the show with " Tush". The ''Eliminator'' car was represented by an outsized replica, and the stage equipment included laser lights. At each concert on the final song, a smoke bomb
A smoke bomb is a firework designed to produce a large amount of smoke upon ignition.
History
Early Japanese history saw the use of a rudimentary form of the smoke bomb. Explosives were common in Japan during the Mongol invasions of the 13th ...
was triggered, then parts of the lighting structure along with a mannequin roadie
The road crew (or roadies) are the technicians or support personnel who travel with a band on tour, usually in sleeper buses, and handle every part of the concert productions except actually performing the music with the musicians. This catc ...
crashed down from the overhead grid to simulate a rigging
Rigging comprises the system of ropes, cables and chains, which support a sailing ship or sail boat's masts—''standing rigging'', including shrouds and stays—and which adjust the position of the vessel's sails and spars to which they are ...
failure.[ The stage itself was patterned after the ]dashboard For business applications, see Dashboard (business).
A dashboard (also called dash, instrument panel (IP), or fascia) is a control panel set within the central console of a vehicle or small aircraft. Usually located directly ahead of the driver ...
of the vintage car.
Critical reception
Robert Christgau
Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...
wrote that the album's faster tempo produces "boogie in overdrive... The videos make you smile, the record runs you over. That's the pleasure of it." Writing for ''Record'', Samuel Graham found it lacked variety compared to the band's previous albums, but praised "Gimme All Your Lovin, "Legs", "Thug", and "I Need You Tonight". He wrote: "We've heard most of this before. ''Eliminator'', then, will probably satisfy ZZ Top's boogie chillin' faithful. But it's a lateral move at a time when Gibbons, Hill and Beard could be stepping forward."
A number of ZZ Top fans reacted negatively to the album. The prominent use of synthesizers and drum machines marked a significant change for ZZ Top, and drew speculation that Hill and Beard did not play on the album. Hill compared the reaction to Bob Dylan's controversial move to rock music. However, the album attracted many new listeners, including teenage girls for the first time, and many teenage boys. ''Spin
Spin or spinning most often refers to:
* Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning
* Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis
* Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...
'' Glen O'Brien wrote in 1986 that the "average ZZ Top fan" was no longer a long-time follower but a young person who had discovered them through music videos. He said that "ZZ Top is a joke ..but they're in on it. ZZ Top is like metal, but its blues roots are truer, and there's no bullshit. ZZ Top is not into the devil, leather, chains, or angel dust. They're into fun."
Retrospective opinions are largely positive, praising ZZ Top's ability to match the spirit of the times. ''Guitar World
''Guitar World'' is a monthly music magazine for guitarists – and fans of guitar-based music and trends – that has been published since July 1980. ''Guitar World'', the best-selling guitar magazine in the United States, contains original art ...
'' wrote in 2002 that ZZ Top had been expected to fail in the MTV era, but that they "surprised everyone with ''Eliminator'', a brilliant merger of roadhouse blues and synthesizer swells and looped beats". The ''Houston Chronicle
The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Texas, United States. , it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. With it ...
'' wrote in 2018 that it brought together Gibbons's classic rock foundation and interest in new-wave synthesizers, retaining "a sense of the Delta blues
Delta blues is one of the earliest-known styles of blues. It originated in the Mississippi Delta, and is regarded as a regional variant of country blues. Guitar and harmonica are its dominant instruments; slide guitar is a hallmark of the s ...
under all the technology".[ Critic Alan di Perna wrote in 2012 that "ZZ Top had found the potent combination that would bring them into the eighties and their era of greatest commercial triumph: raunchy guitar sounds coupled with the pounding drive and unrelenting sex machine rhythmic precision of electronic dance music and ]synth pop
Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s a ...
".
The album spent 101 weeks on the Canadian album charts between April 16, 1983, and March 30, 1985.
In 2000, the album was voted number 355 in Colin Larkin
Colin Larkin (born 1949) is a British writer and entrepreneur. He founded, and was the editor-in-chief of, the ''Encyclopedia of Popular Music'', described by ''The Times'' as "the standard against which all others must be judged".
Along wit ...
's ''All Time Top 1000 Albums
''All Time Top 1000 Albums'' is a book by Colin Larkin, creator and editor of the ''Encyclopedia of Popular Music''. The book was first published by Guinness Publishing in 1994. The list presented is the result of over 200,000 votes cast by the ...
''. In 2005, it was listed in ''Rock Hard
"Rock Hard" is a single by the Beastie Boys, released by Def Jam Records on 12" in 1984. The track contains samples from the AC/DC song "Back in Black", which was used without obtaining legal permission, causing the record to be withdraw ...
'' book of ''The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time''.
Track listing
On the album, credits for songwriting were assigned to Billy Gibbons
William Frederick Gibbons (born December 16, 1949) is an American musician who is the guitarist and lead singer of the rock band ZZ Top. He began his career in the band the Moving Sidewalks, which recorded a full-length album entitled, ''Flas ...
, Dusty Hill
Joe Michael "Dusty" Hill (May 19, 1949 – July 28, 2021) was an American musician who was the bassist of the rock band ZZ Top for more than 50 years. He also sang lead and backing vocals and played keyboards.
Hill was born in Dallas, Texas, an ...
and Frank Beard. Linden Hudson co-wrote several with Gibbons, and wrote "Thug" alone.
Personnel
The official album credits list the following as the sole musical contributors, with no mention of synthesizers:
*Billy Gibbons
William Frederick Gibbons (born December 16, 1949) is an American musician who is the guitarist and lead singer of the rock band ZZ Top. He began his career in the band the Moving Sidewalks, which recorded a full-length album entitled, ''Flas ...
– guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...
, vocals
Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...
*Dusty Hill
Joe Michael "Dusty" Hill (May 19, 1949 – July 28, 2021) was an American musician who was the bassist of the rock band ZZ Top for more than 50 years. He also sang lead and backing vocals and played keyboards.
Hill was born in Dallas, Texas, an ...
– bass, vocals
* Frank Beard – drums
A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...
The actual musicians working on the album include the following:
*Billy Gibbons – guitar, harmonica
The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica inclu ...
, vocals, bass guitar, keyboard bass, synthesizers, production, arrangements
*Dusty Hill – bass guitar, vocals
*Frank Beard – drums, especially tom-tom drum
A tom drum is a cylindrical drum with no snares, named from the Anglo-Indian and Sinhala language. It was added to the drum kit in the early part of the 20th century. Most toms range in size between in diameter, though floor toms can go as la ...
s and cymbal
A cymbal is a common percussion instrument. Often used in pairs, cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys. The majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs soun ...
s
*Linden Hudson – synthesizer, production, arrangements
*Terry Manning
Terry Manning is an American photographer, composer, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, audio engineer, and visual artist. In a career spanning more than 50 years, he has worked with Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, Bryan Adams, ...
– drum machines, electronic drums, bass guitar, keyboard bass, synthesizers, backing vocals, production, arrangements
*Jimi Jamison
Jimmy Wayne Jamison (August 23, 1951 – September 1, 2014) was an American singer. Best known as Jimi Jamison, he earned recognition as the frontman for the rock bands Target, Cobra, and Survivor from 1984 to 1989, performing the songs " Burn ...
– backing vocals
Production
*Bill Ham
Billy Mack Ham (February 4, 1937 – June 20, 2016) was an American music impresario, best known as the manager, producer, and image-maker for the blues-rock band ZZ Top. Ham also gained prominence in the country music world by discovering and man ...
– producer
*Terry Manning
Terry Manning is an American photographer, composer, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, audio engineer, and visual artist. In a career spanning more than 50 years, he has worked with Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, Bryan Adams, ...
– engineer
*Linden Hudson – pre-production engineer, songwriter
*Bob Ludwig
Robert C. Ludwig (born c. 1945) is an American mastering engineer. He has mastered recordings on all the major recording formats for all the major record labels, and on projects by more than 1,300 artists including Led Zeppelin, Lou Reed, Qu ...
– mastering
*Bob Alford – art director
*Tom Hunnicutt – cover illustration
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications and sales
See also
*List of best-selling albums in the United States
This is a list of the best-selling albums in the United States based on RIAA certification and Nielsen SoundScan sales tracking. The criteria are that the album must have been published (including self-publishing by the artist), and the album mus ...
References
{{Authority control
ZZ Top albums
1983 albums
Terry Manning albums
Albums produced by Bill Ham
Warner Records albums
Rock albums by American artists