50 albums: 1975 - Fandango! by ZZ Top

In 1980 Motorhead's first label released a cash-in 12" single that had a cover of ZZ Top's Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers. In 1981, Girlschool released their second album, Hit and Run which has an awesome version of ZZ Top's Tush. This was my introduction to ZZ Top. I picked up their next album, El Loco, and laid my hands on an import copy of their 1977 compilation "The Best of ZZ Top" and that ought to have been enough. Then in 1983, they released Eliminator, they played third on the bill at Monsters of Rock behind Whitesnake and laughably, Meat Loaf. They played a short set in daylight, no encore, uneventful but proficient.

In October, they played a promo show at the Marquee, me and a couple of mates queued up but never got in, after we'd waited outside for an age some PR drone came out and dished out "I MADE IT TO THE TOP" badges, which of course ironically we hadn't. We went to a pub. Suddenly ZZ Top were bigger than we thought. Eliminator got huge. I saw them one more time, at the Hammersmith Odeon, and then that was pretty much it for me and the Top.

Fandango! Is half live, which is frankly a bit rubbish, and half studio, which is only a little bit better. I maybe ought to have picked an album I liked more like Tres Hombres or El Loco, or probably just that "Best of."

(play on YouTube)