Audience 8.6 - What this old tape delivers in terms of sonic clarity and atmosphere for such a vintage ZZ Top performance has to rank it at the top of the list of must-haves for ANY collector of this band’s music. Yes, it is nothing short of a revelation, uncovering a lot of the muck, dirt, mud and distortion that most, if not all, of the early and mid ‘70’s bootlegs seem to have present. That is not to say this tape is “excellent” or even “great” as far as how it would be measured in a laboratory, but the lab is your own ear, and your mental tape measure for previous examinations of early Top. What I am saying is, this tape allows you to hear not just Billy’s immense tone, but also the notes played on bass, and they are separate just enough to let you get a bona fide realistic feel for what this concert sounded like – you can sense position, size (of venue), PA, crowd, pretty much all of the elements of a gig in a VERY reasonably well documented way by taper. Some hiccups, nothing major or too distracting and thankfully brief, and some between song hollering near the mic but music comes through without much frustration and man, that tone! Oh, and it must have been a really good night for the guys, they are playing fluidly and in high spirits. Kudos to whoever remastered this gem, or I should say whoever remastered this tape created a real gem.
ZZ Top
Overton Park Shell, Memphis, Tennessee
(Memphis Country Blues Festival)
1971-04-25
Disc 1
1) Every Day I Have The Blues
2) Somebody Else Been Shaking Your Tree
3) Neighbor Neighbor
4) Just Got Back From Baby's
5) Whiskey 'N' Mama
6) Rattlesnake Shake
7) Goin' Down To Mexico
Disc 2
8) Instrumental Improvisation
9) Memphis Blues
10) Little Queenie
11) It's My Time
12) Drums & Bass Solo
13) Brown Sugar
14) Jailhouse Rock
Audience 8.6 - What this old tape delivers in terms of sonic clarity and atmosphere for such a vintage ZZ Top performance has to rank it at the top of the list of must-haves for ANY collector of this band’s music. Yes, it is nothing short of a revelation, uncovering a lot of the muck, dirt, mud and distortion that most, if not all, of the early and mid ‘70’s bootlegs seem to have present. That is not to say this tape is “excellent” or even “great” as far as how it would be measured in a laboratory, but the lab is your own ear, and your mental tape measure for previous examinations of early Top. What I am saying is, this tape allows you to hear not just Billy’s immense tone, but also the notes played on bass, and they are separate just enough to let you get a bona fide realistic feel for what this concert sounded like – you can sense position, size (of venue), PA, crowd, pretty much all of the elements of a gig in a VERY reasonably well documented way by taper. Some hiccups, nothing major or too distracting and thankfully brief, and some between song hollering near the mic but music comes through without much frustration and man, that tone! Oh, and it must have been a really good night for the guys, they are playing fluidly and in high spirits. Kudos to whoever remastered this gem, or I should say whoever remastered this tape created a real gem. ZZ Top Overton Park Shell, Memphis, Tennessee (Memphis Country Blues Festival) 1971-04-25 Disc 1 1) Every Day I Have The Blues 2) Somebody Else Been Shaking Your Tree 3) Neighbor Neighbor 4) Just Got Back From Baby's 5) Whiskey 'N' Mama 6) Rattlesnake Shake 7) Goin' Down To Mexico Disc 2 8) Instrumental Improvisation 9) Memphis Blues 10) Little Queenie 11) It's My Time 12) Drums & Bass Solo 13) Brown Sugar 14) Jailhouse Rock
Audience 8.8 - Well here it is folks, the BEST early vintage ZZ Top recording to ever surface. We already gave up a long time ago that the band would dig into their archives for us, but now it’s been completely left up to the fans to provide the early documents…and for better or worse they have (mostly worse). After all this time a tape has surfaced that presents a powerful early testament to the rocking blues power of ZZ Top before they “made it” to the FM bigtime. The hits were already in the repertoire, but only hinting at the massive success to come. This is the REAL DEAL – a clear, loud, balsy tape from very early in the bands career. ZZ Top Hec Edmundson Pavilion Seattle, WA December 5, 1973 01 Thunderbird 02 (Somebody Else Been) Shaking Your Tree 03 Chevrolet 04 Waitin' For The Bus 06 Jesus Just Left Chicago 06 Gonna Ride Away (?) 07 Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers 08 I Just Got Back From Baby's 09 Rattlesnake Shake 10 La Grange 11 Let's Go Get Stoned + Mellow Down Easy
Audience 7.4 - 8.3 - Don’t let the ratings dissuade you from this one – for one thing, the material is all remastered and sounding as good as possible, which in most cases you will find it sounds better than most of the mid 70’s Top audience tapes out there. The never before circulated 1969 material sounds particularly good, in fact you might be quite astonished at how good it is.
Audience 7.8 - This is well worth getting if you want to know what was happening before the big time. Good big hall sound, not overly echoey or boomy at all.
Radio Broadcast 9.7