When I mentioned this fact to ZZ Top's veteran recording engineer Terry Manning, he replied,'Before you go 'live' to broadcast with your new studio, would you allow me to play the master mix of the unreleased ZZ Top album in there?' I could not believe my good fortune! "By February 1983, ROCK 103's owner decided to reinvest some of the record revenues back into the facility with a major control room studio update, complete with new broadcast console, electronics, and JBL monitors. So ZZ Top proceeded to make every subsequent album there with ace Ardent recording engineer Terry Manning, with titles en Espanol including Fandango, Tejas, DeGuello, and El Loco. As it turned out, one of my personal favorite bands, Houston-based ZZ Top, had discovered the high caliber, low key facility as early as their 1973 breakthrough album Tres Hombres, and in typical Bill Ham style ( the band's colorful longtime manager and producer who passed away in 2016), 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'. "Up to ZZ Top's March 1983 release Eliminator, one of my secret weapons at making ROCK 103 the top-rated radio station in Memphis from 1980 through 1983 was the friendship that developed with the late legendary studio owner John Fry and his wonderfully talented staff at the world-renowned Ardent Studios nearby. But Eliminator, with its four Top Twenty hits, modern ear candy updated production, and campy, quirky videos blanketing the new 24-hour video channel MTV forty years ago, was a flat-out international phenomenon. Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill, and Frank Beard had already been releasing albums and touring for over a decade, and Gibbons had been elevated among the rock world's most prestigious guitar players as a wholly original and immediately identifiable Tone Monster. Redbeard had this to say, "Prior to the March 1983 release of ZZ Top's Eliminator, it's not like the Texas trio had been struggling or anything. The 40th anniversary of ZZ Top's hit "Eliminator" album is being celebrated by the syndicated radio show In The Studio With Redbeard: The Stories Behind History's Greatest Rock Bands.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |