ZZ TOP 50th Anniversary

I disagree. I did like half of the tracks which is more than I can say about the other albums they made after Recycler. But the CD just sounds like rubbish. Maybe @peteham can tell Frank about how bad the mixing/mastering is on that one? Their old 70s sound has dynamics and space galore, which is why it still sounds good.

 

Each of 'em turns 70 this year .......
first up ..... May 19 -- Happy 70th Birthday, Dusty Hill !

 

They could have called this the "70th Anniversary tour" (meanwhile John Mayall is on his 85th anniversary tour...)

 

The 50th compilation set is the daily deal on Pop Market today (19% off). I bit and preordered the 5 LP set. It seems like a nice playing order. Rhino typically does a nice job on this kind of release.

 

☆ Jun 11 : today is Frank Beard's 70th birthday !

 

Saw them last week outdoors in Uppsala, Sweden. 80 minutes of almost pure bliss. I haven't seen them before and lost track of them between Recycler and La Futura. Billy Gibbons voice is not what it was, but apart from that it was a great great concert. You can't argue with ZZ Top.

 

Yes, happy birthday, Frank! I'll be seeing the band in two weeks in Bietigheim...

 

Great set! Reminder when your set arrives make sure the bar code is the latest version 8122796519
more information in these threads;
ZZ Top Complete Albums Box Snafu?
and here;
Received My ZZ Top Complete Studio Albums Box

Gonna have to get this ZZ Top - Goin' 50 release, now to decide on which version.

 

Looks like an “okay” set... I went ahead and ordered. There is a nice representative selection. I suppose it serves its purpose in that regard. But, and this may be discussed in the previous pages (gotta go back and catch up...), it’s mighty top heavy on the 80s robo-boogie. Afterburner has a whopping 7 tracks out of 50. Mother of god. If you’re gonna weight an era or an album, why Afterburner? ONE track would have been enough. Maybe two at most. That album has not aged well. I’d rather listen to Rhythmeen and XXX back to back than Afterburner (and that’s sayin something).

Anyway. I figure maybe a nice mix might do me good. I have all this stuff and have heard it thousands of times (the old stuff), and plenty of times for the newer stuff. Plus I might as well support these dudes. They’ve given me enough joy through the years to have earned it.

 

Listening to this on Tidal now. Sounds really good. Does anyone know who did the remastering?

 

ZZ Top rocks!

 

This has become a homemade 2 cd set, this track list

 

I made my own 2 cdr set of just my favorite tracks through the Deguello lp. I have to find that again.

 

Cool!

I noticed afterwards that I could have added a few more tracks to the first disc, I made these Goin' 50 alternate Spotify playlists:
ZZ Top CD1, a playlist by 99thfloor on Spotify
ZZ Top CD2, a playlist by 99thfloor on Spotify
ZZ Top CD3, a playlist by 99thfloor on Spotify

(I should swap out some versions as there are problems with the files used in Spotify's Complete Studio Albums, for examle "La Grange" is the mastering with the glitch from the 2006 Tres Hombres.)

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Goin' 50 on Spotify has the tracks all jumbled up (or at least whole sections are moved around): Goin' 50

It also includes the live "Backdor Medley" while it is missing "I Gotsta Get Paid", the latter's exclusion could be a licensing thing for streaming, but it is a strange track to replace it with (how about adding "Just Got Paid" instead).

This seems to be a thing, the same thing happened with the recent Fleetwood Mac 50 Years compilation.

 

Tidal stream on Audirvana shows ReplayGain -10.69 dB, which means that whoever “remastered” this, used a lot of compression…

 

Yeah, it's definitely quite heavily compressed. On the other hand, I hear more clarity in the top end than previous remasters.

 

The Rolling Stones compilation Honk that was released a month or so ago also has a completely mixed up track list on Spotify. Not sure why that keeps happening with comps. In the case of Honk, it completely ruins any sense of flow that the real sequence had.

 

Looking at it again, the tracks that are equal to a first disc are the same as are on the single disc version of Goin' 50 (but in a different order, and the last few tracks from the post-Warner years are not included), after those the remaining tracks are chronologically arranged, so it's not totally random. This is how it was with the Fleetwood Mac compilation to, it started out like te single disc version and then it went chronological after that.

I don't understand why, but there must be some point to having differences for streaming sites, something to do with rights maybe? I don't understand why they included the long live "Backdoor Medley" tough, it is totally out of place (it says 2019 remaster, just like the other tracks).

I had to rearrange it for myself (removing the live tracks in the process): Goin' 50, a playlist by 99thfloor on Spotify

 

I quite like Afterburner - to me it has far better songs than XXX or Rhythmeen (which I personally think is an abomination, save for a few tracks). But you're certainly right about the amount. I think "Sleeping Bag", "Rough Boy" and "Velcro Fly" are all musts, because they were hits and can still be heard on the radio today. Other than that, not sure why the other songs are there.

 

i have not heard those songs on the radio in 20+ years

 

Well, I have "Velcro Fly" only once though, I think. "Sleeping Bag" is still rather popular where I live.

 

One of the very few recordings I've ever returned to the store, based on how badly I hated what I was hearing. Until then, I bought every ZZ Top album blindly based on trust, and was never let down.

 

I can understand that. I was listening to it again the other night ((actually, a few days ago)) because I wanted to hear all their stuff in order and I just couldn't help feeling "there must be something better to do with my time". I mean there's a few tracks I can tolerate in the middle, but "Hummbucking, Part 2"? What the hell were they thinking?