Tag: I’m Bad

That Little Ol’ Band from Texas.

ZZ Top is a fun band. I like their music and when they made Eliminator it was a good sound for that time but I always favored their seventies-period. Their music before that album is a little rawer and edgier. Billy Gibbons is a hell of a guitar player and even  Jimi Hendrix was a fan.

This song was released in 1979 and didn’t chart but it remains one of my favorites of them. It was on the Degüello album released in 1979. The album peaked at #24 on the Billboard Album Charts. In case you are wondering…  I’m here to teach!”Degüello” is a Spanish noun from the verb “degollar”, to describe the action of throat-cutting.

They are a tight band and I bought a ticket to one of their shows in the early 80s…they were explosive with a great light show. They had a huge sound for a trio.

A Texas blues musician named Joey Long, who was good friends with the band, inspired this song. Long didn’t have a driver’s license, but he always had a new Cadillac. His wife Barbella would drive him to gigs in that car.  Joey Long never became a household name nor rich and famous but was a guitar mentor to Billy Gibbons. The song just embellished Long driving along with females all around him.

Billy Gibbons played what he described as “a multi-stringed mandolin-like instrument from Parral, Mexico” that Joey Long gave him on this track.

Billy Gibbons: “If you listen closely, you can hear close-miked mandolin-sounding rhythm accompaniment, the lead track was played on a custom-made, half-sized, real short-scaled guitar tuned to G. It was actually standard tuning cranked up three steps, which remained quite playable thanks to the guitar’s short scale. The song’s tail end alternates between three distinct effects created by two pedals: an Echoplex doubler and a Maestro octave box alternating every third bar between having the octave up and the octave down.”

I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide

Well I was rollin’ down the road in some cold blue steel
I had a blues man in back, and a beautician at the wheel
We going downtown in the middle of the night
We laughing and I’m jokin’ and we feelin’ alright

Oh I’m bad, I’m nationwide
Yes I’m bad, I’m nationwide

Easin’ down the highway in a new Cadillac
I had a fine fox in front, I had three more in the back
They sportin’ short dresses, wearin’ spike-heel shoes
They smokin’ Lucky Strikes, and wearing nylons too

‘Cause we bad, we nationwide
Yeah we bad, we nationwide

Well I was movin’ down the road in my V-8 Ford
I had a shine on my boots, I had my sideburns lowered
With my New York brim and my gold tooth displayed
Nobody give me trouble ’cause they know I got it made

I’m bad, I’m nationwide
Well I’m bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, I’m nationwide
Yes man!