The 500 - #398 - Eliminator - ZZ Top

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

Album # 398

Album Title: Eliminator
Artist: ZZ Top
Genre: Hard Rock, Blues Rock, Synth Rock
Recorded: Ardent Studios
Released: March, 1983
My age at release: 17
How familiar was I with it before this week: Very familiar
Song I am putting on my Spotify Mix: I Need You Tonight

Eliminator Album Cover - ZZ Top (1983)

It is difficult to quantify how ubiquitous ZZ Top and this, their eighth studio release, was in 1983. It was the heyday of music videos and ZZ Top marketed perfectly to a teenage music base through television, particularly MTV and its Canadian counterpart MuchMusic.   

ZZ's videos complemented their undeniably catchy, blues-inspired guitar rock. Each provides and opportunity to escape into a fantasy world complete with heroes, villains, cool cars, beautiful girls and a dash of magic. Most importantly, there was always a "wink to the camera" comedy. The band, with their faux-fur-covered guitars were clearly having fun.

Although dated by today's standards, the video for Legs is still entertaining. Sure, one has to get past a simple, trope-fueled, fairy tale loaded with pejorative stereotypes - such as the ugly, overweight villainess berating the sweet-as-pie heroine. It is such a quintessential snap-shot of an early 80s decadent aesthetic.

Three, beautiful lace & leather clad angels magically appear in a lavishly restored 1930s Ford Coupe (aka: The Eliminator) to rescue a beleaguered fry-cook by transforming a meek shop-clerk, Cinderella-style, into a stunning beauty who takes him away to...paradise...I suppose. The ending is unclear. But, who really cared at the time.

Re-listening to this record after at least 30 years was a nostalgic trip. It was played at countless house parties and every garage band in my area played a version of Gimme All Your Lovin' or Sharp Dressed Man. 

In the end, I was most drawn to the more traditional sound of I Need You Tonight, which was more like the ZZ Top I had first heard and wrote about in my review of Tres Hombres back in March, 2019, when it appeared at #490 on The 500 List. 

If you are in the mood for a trip back to the fusion of blues-rock and synth-pop in 1983, give this record a listen. Better still, click on some of those video links and enjoy the cheesy decadence of a classic ZZ Top video.