Eliminator is the eighth studio album by American rock band ZZ Top. It was released on March 23, 1983, by Warner Bros. Records, and rose high on the charts in many countries. Four hit singles were released—"Gimme All Your Lovin'" which reached the American Top 40, "Sharp Dressed Man", "TV Dinners" and their most successful single, "Legs". Eliminator is ZZ Top's most commercially successful release, with sales of 11 million and diamond certification in the US.
Since El Loco in 1981, the bandleader, Billy Gibbons, had been moving ZZ Top's boogie and blues rock style towards the popular new wave style. For Eliminator, he increased the tempo and used more synthesizers and drum machines, producing a "tighter" album with a steady, driving beat. 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. A remastered version was released in 2008.
Background
In 1978, ZZ Top went on hiatus, weary of constant touring. Bandleader and guitarist Billy Gibbons traveled around Europe, and bassist Dusty Hill vacationed in Mexico; both grew their beards longer. Drummer Frank Beard checked into Palmer Drug Abuse Program, a Houston detox community, for his addiction to hard narcotics. To help finance Palmer, Beard organized a benefit concert and an album titled Freeway, working with engineers Steve Ames and Linden Hudson at Rampart Studios in Houston. After signing to Warner Bros. Records, ZZ Top released Degüello in 1979, which was certified platinum in early 1980.
In 1979, Beard bought a large house in Quail Valley outside Houston, overlooking a golf course where he often played as a way to stay off drugs. The band wanted a private rehearsal studio, so Beard invited Hudson to move in and construct a recording studio in his home. Hudson designed the studio and oversaw its construction, centered on an isolation booth holding Beard's drum kit, with more booths for guitar and bass amplifiers. Microphone signals ran through the mixing console and some outboard gear to the band's semi-pro 1-inch 16-track Tascam tape recorder. Hudson also introduced Gibbons to drum machines during these rehearsals. 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. None of this was made public; Bill Ham, the band's manager, was closely controlling their image to create a "mystique" of self-sufficiency and authenticity.
Recording
Gibbons was inspired by British electronic acts such as Depeche Mode and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark 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 of 124 beats per minute—faster than ZZ Top's normal practice. "Legs" and "Sharp Dressed Man" are both 125 bpm while "Gimme All Your Lovin'" runs at 120. 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 lower than a bass guitar, they created "a nice full bed of sound" that contrasted with his guitar. 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, to stay at the Peabody Hotel while they recorded basic tracks at Ardent Studios, Hill and Beard laid down bass guitar 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, the new lead singer of Cobra. To achieve Gibbons' desired clock-steady rhythm section, most of Hill's bass parts were replaced by Gibbons or Manning playing bass guitar or a Moog Source—a keyboard synthesizer. A Memorymoog was also used for supporting synth sounds. Eight years later, Gibbons thanked Al Jourgensen because his early Ministry 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.
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. Ham claimed that Hudson sold the song outright, but no record of such a sale was brought forward, 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." and is in several of the band's music videos, plus appearances in television, movies, auto shows, and charity events. The car reportedly cost Gibbons $50,000 (). 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 eight in July, "TV Dinners" rose to number 38 in December, and then "Legs" topped out at number three in June 1984 after its video was released in May. who also created videos for "Sharp Dressed Man" and "Legs". The videos depicted America as "a land of rock and roll, cars and girls",
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 "Legs" video was released in May 1984, driving the single into the Mainstream Rock Airplay charts the next month. 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 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 was triggered, then parts of the lighting structure along with a mannequin roadie crashed down from the overhead grid to simulate a rigging failure.
Critical reception
Robert Christgau 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."
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. Spin 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. The Houston Chronicle 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 under all the technology".
In 2000, the album was voted number 355 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums. In 2005, it was listed in Rock Hard book of The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time.
Track listing
On the album, credits for songwriting were assigned to Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill and Frank Beard. Linden Hudson co-wrote several with Gibbons, and wrote "Thug" alone.
Personnel
The official album credits list only the band members:
- Billy Gibbons – guitar, vocals
- Dusty Hill – bass guitar, backing vocals, lead vocals on "I Got the Six"
- Frank Beard – drums, percussion
The actual musicians working on the album include the following:
- Billy Gibbons – guitar, harmonica, vocals, bass guitar, keyboard bass, synthesizers, production, arrangements
- Dusty Hill – bass guitar, backing vocals
- Frank Beard – drums, especially tom-tom drums and cymbals
- Linden Hudson – synthesizer, production, arrangements
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Year-end charts
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! Chart (1983)
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! scope="row"|German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)
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! scope="row"|New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)
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! scope="row"|US Billboard 200
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! Chart (1984)
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! Chart (1985)
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! scope="row"|Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)
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! scope="row"|New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)
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