RIP Dusty Hill, bassist for ZZ Top

  

(from Wikipedia)

 

Joseph Michael "Dusty" Hill (May 19, 1949 – July 28, 2021) was an American musician, singer, and songwriter, best known as the bassist and secondary lead vocalist of the American rock group ZZ Top; he also played keyboards with the band. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a member of ZZ Top, in 2004.

 

 

Chris Prior introduced me to ZZ Top in the late ‘70s, when the SABC’s English Service employed him and when I subsequently saw Tejas (1976) in my local record store I bought the album, followed by Deguello (1979), Fandango(1975) and Trés Hombres (1973.) I acquired ZZ Top’s First Album (1971) and Rio Grande Mud (1972) much later as a part of the ZZ Top Sixpack collection of the first five albums and El Loco (1980.) I have no idea why Deguello wasn’t part of the six.  That was it for me regarding ZZ Top. I had little fondness for their ‘80s mega hit period, and simply had no interest in the even later stuff. For me, as with so many bands that came up in the ‘780s, the music that ZZ Top released on those first five albums are the canon and as much ZZ Top one needs in one’s life.

 

I also read a bit about the band, particularly a piece on their “Taking Texas to the People” concert tour in the mid-‘70s,  in the US rock monthly, Hit Parader, and elsewhere and realised how often musicians tend to go through many bands, and even line ups in the same band, before they strike paydirt. It seems that ZZ Top’s success came from some hit singles but mainly from non-stop touring to build a loyal fanbase.

 

I’ve heard a couple of cover versions of “Tush” and in Cape Town’s blues rock scene of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s “La Grange” was a popular number on a couple of bands’ set lists.

 

Apart from “Brown Sugar,” the debut album sounds too tentative and self-effacing and it’s only from Rio Grande Mud that the Top hits its stride, with classics like “Francene,” “Just Got Paid” and “Sure Got Cold After the Rain Fell,”  and the following three albums are the results of a creative purple patch.

 

If your taste is ‘70s style blues rock, with rather more blues than rock, and with gospel and country asides, then ZZ Top is arguably the ultimate example of how it can be done extremely well.

 

Dusty Hill held down the bass spot, sang some, co-wrote some tunes and played some keyboards and was an equal contributor to the sound and ethos of the band that managed to survive and thrive as a 3-piece for the duration of their career. 

 

Apparently, ZZ Top will continue to tour in 2021, with a new bassist, and I suppose the sound will be pretty much unaltered with only the visual  anomaly at live performances, that the guy next to Billy Gibbons (who’s been releasing sole records anyway) is not Dusty. I have no ideas whether the new guy also has a huge beard.  It’s relatively easy, for seasoned pros, to replicate the music of an iconic band member they might replace, and Billy Gibbons’  guitar sound and vocals remain intact, but it’s the visual incongruity that will jar.

 

So, you’ve probably gone too soon, Dusty Hill, but your eminent stature in rock and roll history and iconography will never be tarnished and will live forever.