ZZ Top
Chrome, Smoke, and BBQ
(Warner Bros.)

Let’s just go ahead and say it right at the outset. Box sets are a dime a dozen these days, but ever so often, you find one that rises like cream to the very top. “Chrome, Smoke, & BBQ” is one such set.
Four CD’s, housed in a box that looks like an old Texas roadside BBQ stand, the set includes paperdolls (yes, paperdolls) of BIlly, Frank and Dusty, wild cacti, a picnic table and menus. Also included is a nifty flip book. Remember those? Two scenes, Watch ZZ Top spin their guitars!
As if that weren’t enough (and with ZZ, it’s never enough.) There is a whopping 86-page book filled with liner notes, photos, kudos from fellow artists, and song by song comments from that “little ol’ band from Texas” themselves.
And then, there’s the music. Beginning with tracks from Billy Gibbons’ pre-ZZ band. The Moving Sidewalks, and rocking through early tracks like “Francene” (which is repeated later in the set in Spanish-natch.) “Chevrolet,” “Bar-B-Q,” and their first real radio hit “La Grange.”
All the ZZ Top favorites are here, from “Jesus Just Left Chicago,” to “Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers,” “Tush,” “Thunderbird,” and “Arrested For Driving While Blind.” And let’s not miss out on “Cheap Sunglasses,” “A Fool For Your Stockings,” “She Loves My Automobile,” “Pearl Necklace,” and “Tube Snake Boogie.”
All the ZZ Top MTV tunes are included - “Gimme All Your Lovin,” “Legs,” “Sharp Dressed Man,” “Rough Boy,” “Sleeping Bag” - on into more recent hits like “My Head’s In Mississippi,’
“Doubleback,” and “Reveration,” from the Rocky Erickson tribute album, “Where The Pyramid Meets The Eye.” There’s a dance remix of “Viva Las Vegas” and “Legs,” and a live take of “Cheap Sunglasses.”
For those of you keeping score at home, there are a total of 80 tracks on four CD’s. This is the holy grail for ZZ Top fans. An absolutely perfectly executed tribute to one of America’s all time best loved bands.

-Michael Buffalo Smith [courtesy of http://www.gritz.net/]