ZZ Prime unlocked a potent, common fact with their 1983 smash “Sharp Dressed Man”: Sharpness is not a one-size-fits-all aesthetic, however a state of being.
This got here as a revelation for threesome, who till then had carved out a profitable profession taking part in southern-fried blues-rock however had been thought to be patently unhip by the crucial institution. ZZ Prime struck gold a decade earlier with the Prime 10 Tres Hombres, however their fortunes had begun to slide because the ’70s bled into the ’80s.
They returned from a two-year hiatus with 1979’s platinum-selling Deguello, however the synthesized sounds of 1981’s El Loco alienated followers and bought half as a lot as its predecessor. In hindsight, El Loco opened a door by means of which ZZ Prime would boldly cost on their subsequent document, 1983’s Eliminator.
“With out query, there’s some loopy, interesting-sounding stuff” on El Loco, Billy Gibbons advised Basic Rock in 2021. “The intrigue of those newfound contraptions was by then simply beginning to catch on, however we did not have a trainer or information. We did not even have an instruction handbook. I used to be simply pushing buttons and [finding] one thing that sounded sort of trashy.”
ZZ Prime wanted to adapt to the altering sounds of rock music, the place club-ready new wave had outmoded their raunchy blues-rock components. Gibbons “requested me what we may do,” recalled ZZ Prime’s longtime engineer Terry Manning. “I began going to golf equipment and finding out beats. The market had modified fairly a bit from blues-based rock ‘n’ roll. So I got here up with some concepts we may implement to make a really completely different album.”
The end result was Eliminator, an 11-song tour de power of Texas-sized hooks, uber-slick manufacturing and ass-shaking beats that had been optimized for the dance ground, with many tempos uniformly within the 125bpm ballpark. ZZ Prime’s raunchy barroom boogie was nonetheless intact, nevertheless it was filtered by means of a futuristic new-wave prism that would go toe-to-toe with the dominant pop forces of the day.
The LP did not simply maintain its personal; it vanquished the competitors.
Watch ZZ Prime’s ‘Sharp Dressed Man’ Video
Spurred by a trio of singles — “Gimme All Your Lovin’,” “Sharp Dressed Man” and “Legs” — with related movies directed by Tim Newman, Eliminator bought a staggering 10 million copies in america and endeared ZZ Prime to a brand new, fresh-faced viewers.
“Gimme All Your Lovin'” encompasses a lowly gasoline station attendant who will get taken for a trip within the iconic Eliminator coupe by a trio of bombshell girls (together with mannequin and actor Daniele Arnaud and former Playboy Playmate Jeana Tomasino). Within the “Sharp Dressed Man” video, he ditches his gas-station duds for swanky formal put on — a visible metaphor for ZZ Prime’s unlikely reinvention as kings of cool.
“Tim was a terrific director,” Gibbons advised Basic Rock. “By which I imply to say he advised us we weren’t a lot to take a look at, and so we might want some fairly ladies within the combine to sweeten up the story. He introduced alongside an image e-book of fashions to our first assembly. I mentioned to him: ‘Nicely, decelerate right here and let’s take this web page by web page.'”
It did not matter that Gibbons, fellow bearded bassist Dusty Hill and mustachioed drummer Frank Beard lacked supermodel attractiveness. With their movies in fixed MTV rotation, they turned avatars of swagger. “Sharp-dressed depends upon who you might be,” Hill advised Spin in 1985. “In the event you’re on a motorbike, actually sharp leather-based is nice. In the event you’re a punk rocker, you may get sharp that manner. You could be sharp or not sharp in any mode. It is all in your head. In the event you really feel sharp, you be sharp.”
Launched as a single in July 1988, “Sharp Dressed Man” peaked at No. 8 on Billboard‘s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart and have become certainly one of ZZ Prime’s signature songs. It appeared within the first Guitar Hero online game, served because the theme track for the Duck Dynasty actuality present and landed at No. 43 on Guitar World‘s 2009 listing of the 50 biggest guitar solos.
“That track and the entire album actually embrace the simplicity of blues and techno music with the advanced problem of learn how to mix them collectively,” Gibbons advised Guitar World. “The monitor simply has a very raucous supply, which is an effective ignition level on stage, sitting on the tailgate out in the midst of nowhere, sipping a chilly one, or wherever chances are you’ll be. It simply does one thing to you.”
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