ZZ Top boxed set will include original mixes of early albums

by Steve Newton on May 1st, 2013 at 5:32 PM

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Remember how ZZ Top's Tejas album sounded back in '76 when you tossed it on your Yamaha turntable, cranked up the Kenwood amp, and blasted it through those Pioneer speakers?

Well, I sure do. It sounded wicked!

Especially when it got to "Pam Am Highway Blues".

Fellow oldsters who loved the Top in the seventies should note that the li'l ole band from Texas is releasing a new boxed set, ZZ Top: The Complete Studio Albums (1970-1990), on June 10.

The package will include ZZ Top's First Album (1971), Rio Grande Mud ('72), Tres Hombres ('73), Fandango! ('75), Tejas ('76), Deguello ('79), El Loco ('81), Eliminator ('83), Afterburner ('85), and Recycler ('90).

The main selling point is that, for the first time ever, the original mixes of First Album, Rio Grande Mud, and Tejas will be available on CD without the '80s-style percussion that was added to modernize the band's sound and bring it more in line with that heard on the hugely successful Eliminator and Afterburner discs.

Nobody needs that.

"We're gratified that the albums from the first 20 years of the band are going to be made available in this set," said the band in a statement. "We're especially delighted to note the restoration of ZZ Top's First Album, Rio Grande Mud and Tejas has been incorporated; it's good to have been made whole again on a certain level."

Each album is in a wallet sleeve with original artwork, so get that magnifying glass ready in case you want to try and decipher those old liner notes.