Texas Rock & ZZ Top genre poll

Is ZZ Top “southern rock”?
No discussion – just yes or no. This is a Texas only thread.

Texas can be considered a music mecca.
Who do you think of when you think off Texas rock?

ZZ Top - of course
Stevie Ray Vaughan – right off the back
The Fabulous Thunderbirds – yes
Buddy Holly – actually no but I should
Johnny Winter

 

Kinky Friedman

 

I think of Kinky...I also think of Demons (Roky Erickson).

 

Technically, yes, but I never think of them like that. I consider them great Texas rock along with Point Blank.

 

I don't know nothin about no polls but "Sharp Dressed Man" wins it.

 

No.

Jay Boy Adams !

 

Great song! Their 1st two are the best!

 

Bobby Fuller
Buddy Holly
13th Floor Elevators

 

I would add Eric Johnson
and Dangerous Toys

I voted no

 

Shiva's Headband
Ed Hall
Glass Eye
Miracle Room
The Reivers
Roky Erickson

That's the music I think of when I think Texas.

 

This is considered the Southern United States, so technically they fit in.

 

ZZ Top = Blues Rock. SRV, Johnny Winter..the same.
Just like Rory Gallagher or Gary Moore from across the pond.

 

Not to me. they are more texas blues boogie rock. (latin influenced not southern)

 

No. If Southern rock is a genre and not just a regional designation...then ZZ Top are not it. They're something else.

I think of the True Believers and the Buck Pets.

 

Bluesy Texas bands really deserve their own category because they all share a certain musical kinship, but it’s distinct from other sub genres, not “southern rock” at all.

 

Doug Sahm

 

No.

Lots of great acts mentioned. When I think of Texas rock . . .

 

Not necessarily so. Sly Stone is from Texas, but he has little to no southern rock tendencies.

 

Spoon? Doesn't adhere to 70s/80s-era Texas boogie, but man they're sharp. I'd take them any day over any of the above.
I hope Texas appreciates that they've got arguably the greatest American band of the last 20 years.

Oh, but to answer the question: I think "Southern Rock" becomes too narrow to really be a genre if you can't consider Texas boogie as Southern Rock. I mean, if Southern Rock consists of like six bands (or only two? Skynyrd and ABB?), is it really a "genre" or is it just handful of bands and a few copycats?

 

Texas blues/boogie, if you have to identify a genre for ZZ Top. Southern rock is ABB, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Marshall Tucker Band, Outlaws, Blackfoot and early Molly Hatchet. As mentioned, part of it is regional. Southern rock tended to be more localized in Georgia and Florida and contained country and bluegrass influences that did not appear in the music of ZZ Top.

 

Not many trios in the Southern Rock category, so that is a bit of distinction too. ZZ Top rocked, but not with the layers of instruments that most Southern rock has.

 

Yes, southern rock would feature a trio of guitarists.

 

Steve Miller Band. He's out of Dallas and attended University of Texas.

 

Like I said in another thread, if they get a mention in "The South's Gonna Do It Again" they qualify.

 

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
Little Feat
Fabulous Thunderbirds
ZZ Top
Dr. John

None of these to me are what I consider "Southern Rock". I think over the yrs I 've seen various comps, rock articles, tv docs etc try and lump them in with that.

Having said that...Little Feat does have a couple songs that would fit in great on a Southern Rock comp. "Oh Atlanta" and "Dixie Chicken" ...but making great songs about the south don't make you a true blue southern rock band imo.