Eliminator (Remastered) ZZ Top

• 1Gimme All Your Lovin'03:59
• 2Got Me Under Pressure03:59
• 3Sharp Dressed Man04:13
• 4I Need You Tonight06:14
• 5I Got The Six02:52
• 6Legs03:35
• 7Thug04:17
• 8TV Dinners03:50
• 9Dirty Dog04:05
• 10If I Could Only Flag Her Down03:40
• 11Bad Girl03:16
• Total Runtime44:00

Info for Eliminator (Remastered)

Very few classic rockers went through a transformation as jarring, or as triumphant, as ZZ Top did 30 years ago today (March 23, 1983) with the release of 'Eliminator.' Old-timers scoffed at the band’s decision to go digital on their eighth album, dismissing the synth drums and other electronic elements as incongruous with the Texas trio’s scuzzy boogie rock. But the kids who fed on a daily diet of MTV ate it up. ZZ Top’s previous album, ‘El Loco,’ barely broke gold and the Top 20; 'Eliminator' went Top 10 and has sold more than 10 million copies.

'ZZ Top had reached the top of the charts before, but that didn't make their sudden popularity in 1983 any more predictable. It wasn't that they were just popular — they were hip, for God's sake, since they were one of the only AOR favorites to figure out to harness the stylish, synthesized grooves of new wave, and then figure out how to sell it on MTV. Of course, it helped that they had songs that deserved to be hits. With 'Gimme All Your Lovin,' 'Sharp Dressed Man,' and 'Legs,' they had their greatest set of singles since the heady days of Tres Hombres, and the songs that surrounded them weren't bad either — they would have been singles on El Loco, as a matter of fact. The songs alone would have made Eliminator one of ZZ Top's three greatest albums, but their embrace of synths and sequencers made it a blockbuster hit, since it was the sound of the times. Years later, the sound of the times winds up sounding a bit stiff. It's still an excellent ZZ Top album, one of their best, yet it sounds like a mechanized ZZ Top thanks to the unflaggingly accurate grooves. Then again, that's part of the album's charm — this is new wave blues-rock, glossed up for the video, looking as good as the omnipresent convertible on the cover and sounding as irresistible as Reaganomics. Not the sort the old-school fans or blues-rock purists will love, but ZZ Top never sounded as much like a band of its time as they did here.' (Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide)

'Eliminator makes ZZ Top's last album, El Loco, sound positively mellow as it harks back to the single-minded, burn-rubber days of the band's biggest successes. One could do a lot worse: drummer Frank Beard slams away as tight, hard and potent as a kicking mule, bassist Dusty Hill accompanies Beard with the kind of dirty thunks that'll loosen your back teeth, and guitarist Billy Gibbons roars through a repertoire of blues- and Hendrix-influenced licks as sharp and flashy as a pimp's wardrobe.

Lyrically, the songs tell a simple story: a guy fuels up with the right food ('TV Dinners'), clothes ('Sharp Dressed Man'), car (constant references, including the album title) and attitude ('Gimme All Your Lovin''), and heads out into the Houston night to flag down a fast woman. The next day, unfortunately, he finds out she's a shade too fast ('Bad Girl') and starts calling her names ('Dirty Dog'). Of course, one could ask for more variety, or for a more enlightened approach to courtship; one could also say it worked better in 1974 than in 1983. But when songs like 'Bad Girls' and 'Gimme All Your Lovin'' kick in, complaints like those start sounding pretty wimpy. Hey, bud, let's party.' Steve Pond, Rolling Stone)

Billy Gibbons, guitar and vocals
Dusty Hill, bass and vocals
Frank Beard, drums

Engineered by Bob Ludwig and Terry Manning
Produced by Bill Ham

ZZ Top
This sturdy American blues-rock trio from Texas consists of Billy Gibbons (guitar), Dusty Hill (bass), and Frank Beard (drums). They were formed in 1970 in and around Houston from rival bands the Moving Sidewalks (Gibbons) and American Blues (Hill and Beard). Their first two albums reflected the strong blues roots and Texas humor of the band. Their third album (Tres Hombres) gained them national attention with the hit "La Grange," a signature riff tune to this day, based on John Lee Hooker's "Boogie Chillen." Their success continued unabated throughout the '70s, culminating with the year-and-a-half-long Worldwide Texas Tour.

Exhausted from the overwhelming workload, they took a three-year break, then switched labels and returned to form with Deguello and El Loco, both harbingers of what was to come. By their next album, Eliminator, and its worldwide smash follow-up, Afterburner, they had successfully harnessed the potential of synthesizers to their patented grungy blues groove, giving their material a more contemporary edge while retaining their patented Texas style. Now sporting long beards, golf hats, and boiler suits, they met the emerging video age head-on, reducing their "message" to simple iconography. Becoming even more popular in the long run, they moved with the times while simultaneously bucking every trend that crossed their path. As genuine roots musicians, they have few peers; Gibbons is one of America's finest blues guitarists working in the arena rock idiom — both influenced by the originators of the form and British blues-rock guitarists like Peter Green — while Hill and Beard provide the ultimate rhythm section support.

The only rock & roll group that's out there with its original members still aboard after three decades (an anniversary celebrated on 1999's XXX), ZZ Top play music that is always instantly recognizable, eminently powerful, profoundly soulful, and 100-percent American in derivation. They have continued to support the blues through various means, perhaps most visibly when they were given a piece of wood from Muddy Waters' shack in Clarksdale, MS. The group members had it made into a guitar, dubbed the "Muddywood," then sent it out on tour to raise money for the Delta Blues Museum. ZZ Top's support and link to the blues remains as rock solid as the music they play. A concert CD and DVD, Live from Texas, recorded in Dallas in 2007 and featuring a still vital band, were both released in 2008. The Rick Rubin and Gibbons-produced La Futura, the band's 15th studio album, and the group's first new studio outing since 2003's Mescalero, appeared in 2012.

This album contains no booklet.