RIP, Dusty. You and your band were the Jesus of cool...

[Chocaholic]

Get ready fellas. A lot of our music super heroes are well into their sunset years. Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, The Stones (well, not Keef), Van Morrison, Linda Ronstadt, Joni Mitchell and the list goes on.

[gorthar]

Originally Posted by IXXI_carrera

I saw them as an opening act for the Rolling Stones in '81 at the Cotton Bowl. Famous rain show - never missed a beat.

Amazing sound coming from those three guys.

Didn't one of the guys drive/race Porsche's? My memory is not what it once was ...

Frank Beard did indeed race Porsches in IMSA.

https://www.racingsportscars.com/driver/Frank-Beard-USA.html

I recall a Daytona 24 hour race I either snagged off of a torrent site or watched on Youtube where they were interviewing him/or the crew as he was getting ready to leave the pits and the crew member signaled him to go with the classic ZZ-Top wave around with the hand lol.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by gorthar

Frank Beard did indeed race Porsches in IMSA.

https://www.racingsportscars.com/driver/Frank-Beard-USA.html

I recall a Daytona 24 hour race I either snagged off of a torrent site or watched on Youtube where they were interviewing him/or the crew as he was getting ready to leave the pits and the crew member signaled him to go with the classic ZZ-Top wave around with the hand lol.

Which is impressive. In the documentary, he was quite candid about all of the drugs that he did. It sounded like he quit when he was still pretty young, but he never actually said, "and I've been clean since then." Of course, would he still be kickin' if he wasn't?

[Baz]

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Baz

I remember 8-tracks from when I was little. My dad had some. I want to say we even had a vehicle in the early 80s that had one (was in the car when we bought it, I think). By the time that I was driving, it was all cassettes.

I remember when I was really little, dad had a reel to reel.

I think all of my ZZ Top stuff was on CD, but it's possible that I may have had a cassette for listening in the car.

[javadog]

I grew up listening to eight track tapes. LPs were fine but they didn’t play well in the car. Cassettes were available, too, but that was some seriously expensive, cutting edge technology.

[GH85Carrera]

In the early 1970s I was a stereo geek. No internet to research things, just magazines and friends to talk to.

I went to the local stereo geek place and listened to all the equipment. 8 Tracks sounded better than the then brand new cassettes, and the cassettes were really expensive.

To establish credit I got my dad to co-sign a loan at the bank for $1,000 to buy my dream home stereo. That is the equivalent of a $6,708.54 purchase today. I paid that off in 10 months. 8 Tracks were the best at the time. They truly suck in reality, but it was the best there was at the time for a car. I used that system until shortly after I got married in 1992.

[javadog]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

I used that system until shortly after I got married in 1992.

Man, you hung onto that thing like grim death. I guess that new music was not on your playlist.

I transitioned to cassettes in the late 70s and CDs as soon as those became readily available.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

I8 Tracks were the best at the time. They truly suck in reality, but it was the best there was at the time for a car. I used that system until shortly after I got married in 1992.

Originally Posted by javadog

Man, you hung onto that thing like grim death. I guess that new music was not on your playlist.

I transitioned to cassettes in the late 70s and CDs as soon as those became readily available.

No kidding, holy moly. In 1985, my stereo (at home) had a CD player and double, auto-reverse cassette deck and a turntable. Every car that I've had until the last one or maybe 2 has had a cassette player. For the past 10-ish years, I've either been using an ipod or Pandora.

[GH85Carrera]

OK, my bad writing, the 8 tracks went away long before. It was all individual components. The 8 track player went in the trash long ago and was replaced with a cassette player and recorder, by the late 70s. Separate turntable, (Dual 1218) and 4 Advent speakers. The cassette went away and was replaced with a CD player than a CD changer. Only the amp, and the turntable and speakers lasted the entire time. The amp was huge and way wider than modern components and would not fit in any stereo cabinet.

[masraum]

When I was 15, I bought a Sansui component system. It came in a cabinet, and I added a CD player.

These pics from the 'Net looks very similar to most of my components.





When I was in college, I still had most of the components, but I upgraded to some of my dad's old stuff that was better because he had upgraded.

Sansui Z9000

[Baz]

Originally Posted by Chocaholic

Get ready fellas. A lot of our music super heroes are well into their sunset years. Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, The Stones (well, not Keef), Van Morrison, Linda Ronstadt, Joni Mitchell and the list goes on.

[Baz]

1975.....kid had some pipes!

[javadog]

He’d been singing for money since he was eight. Frankly, I preferred many of the songs he sang to those that Billy sang.

He was a fan of Elvis and, rumor had it, that he did a fairly decent Elvis impersonation.

[masraum]

That was fantastic, Baz!

[red-beard]

[red-beard]

Baz, that had to be past 1978. 75 Was the world wide Texas tour and they didn't have beards. Well, not like that.

[javadog]

The Worldwide Texas Tour was 1976-1977. I was there and I have the pictures to prove it. Somewhere…

Tush came out on Fandango in 1975.

[red-beard]

But the beards came after the tour, not during.

ZZ Top continued the Worldwide Texas Tour in support of Tejas through most of 1977, even though they had been touring regularly for seven years. The band then went on what was supposed to be a 90-day break from public appearances. Gibbons traveled to Europe, Beard went to Jamaica, and Hill went to Mexico.[16] The break extended to two years, during which Gibbons and Hill grew chest-length beards.[17]

[masraum]

Originally Posted by red-beard

Baz, that had to be past 1978. 75 Was the world wide Texas tour and they didn't have beards. Well, not like that.

Right, the World Wide Texas tour ran through most of 1977. Then Frank Beard went to rehab to get off drugs. It was supposed to be 90 days, but ended up being 2 years. When they came back from hiatus in 1979 and signed with WB, they hadn't seen each other. Both Dusty and Billy had stopped shaving. So the long beards didn't appear until 1979.

Still, wrong year or not, very cool video.

Hard to believe these are the same guys.