ZZ Top "Deguello" [1979]

Countdown to the fuzzy guitars and Taliban beards -- "Deguello" was nearly the album that finally proved to 70s Texas trio ZZ Top that they were never going to make it without some sort of enormous schtick. Cheeky Sam & Dave references nobody got, Elmore James slide guitar ho-hummers and bad saxophone overdubs nearly everywhere you turn, these roadhouse shit-kickers were finally caked to the cowboy boot and starting to stink the place up bad. So what if they beat Dire Straits in the race down the ladder of integrity to make it with the MTV crowd -- that just means they worked harder to perpetuate their sleazoid libidos so they wouldn't have to write new songs about whorehouses every five minutes, like they'd been doing for years. In "Deguello," the guys are clearly out of spunk, like most bands you hear at a late-night truck stop. That their label hadn't dropped them by this time only proves how scared shitless everyone was of disco taking over the world. Absolutely nobody outside of a Neil Young fan is interested in listening to a three-note guitar solo, no matter how much fuzz you put on it. Thus, Billy Gibbons got the big idea to attach the fuzz to the outside, instead.