Track listing
Show track credits
- A1 It's Only Love 4:24
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- A2 Arrested for Driving While Blind 3:05
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- A3 El Diablo 4:20
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writer
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writer
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- A4 Snappy Kakkie 2:56
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writer
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- A5 Enjoy and Get It On 3:23
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writer
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writer
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- B1 Ten Dollar Man 3:42
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- B2 Pan Am Highway Blues 3:15
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- B3 Avalon Hideaway 3:07
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- B4 She's a Heartbreaker 3:02
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- B5 Asleep in the Desert 3:24
- Total length: 34:38
Rate/Catalog
Catalog
Set listening
Review
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19 Issues
- Release view [combined information for all issues]
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Tejas [p] 33 rpm, Gatefold
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Tejas 33 rpm, Gatefold
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Tejas 33 rpm, Gatefold
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Tejas 33 rpm, Gatefold
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Tejas Gatefold
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Tejas 33 rpm, Gatefold
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Tejas 33 rpm, Gatefold
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Tejas 33 rpm, Gatefold
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Tejas CD Sized Album Replica, Gatefold, Limited Edition, Remastered, SHM
43 Reviews
Tejas drips Southern fried fuckin’ flavor!
Issued in 1976, prior to the three year ZZ snooze, Tejas features spicy cuts of smokin' Tex-Mex blues, as only the legendary ZZ Top can pump out on a consistent basis. The tasty three chord shuffle runs from Billy Gibbons drive the fine-tuned three-piece ZZ machine, as the group incorporates numerous musical influences to accent that tracks throughout Tejas.
The ten song album cooks as the Top lean in with "It's Only Love", "Arrested for Driving While Blind", "El Diablo", "Sappy Kakkie", "Ten Dollar Man", and the instrumental LP closer "Asleep in the Desert".
Following the release of Tejas, the lil' ol' band from Texas undertook a massive tour in support of the LP, before Laying low. The tour was a major budget affair. Billed as the "Taking Texas to the World Tour", the ZZ trio trucked plant life, steer, snakes and an endless supply of booze from one city to the next, in an effort to accent the production of their down-home Southwestern theme stage show.
ENJOY & GET IT ON!
Issued in 1976, prior to the three year ZZ snooze, Tejas features spicy cuts of smokin' Tex-Mex blues, as only the legendary ZZ Top can pump out on a consistent basis. The tasty three chord shuffle runs from Billy Gibbons drive the fine-tuned three-piece ZZ machine, as the group incorporates numerous musical influences to accent that tracks throughout Tejas.
The ten song album cooks as the Top lean in with "It's Only Love", "Arrested for Driving While Blind", "El Diablo", "Sappy Kakkie", "Ten Dollar Man", and the instrumental LP closer "Asleep in the Desert".
Following the release of Tejas, the lil' ol' band from Texas undertook a massive tour in support of the LP, before Laying low. The tour was a major budget affair. Billed as the "Taking Texas to the World Tour", the ZZ trio trucked plant life, steer, snakes and an endless supply of booze from one city to the next, in an effort to accent the production of their down-home Southwestern theme stage show.
ENJOY & GET IT ON!
Published
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Love this album. Atmospheric and even romantic in a way that ZZ Top never approached before or since. Songs for a night drive through the desert. The music is fully a match for the beautiful cover art. I bought the boxed set of their first ten albums just to have this gem on CD with its real (gorgeous!) mix, unforgivably confined to that set.
(I also bought a Neil Young box for Time Fades Away, and that finally got reissued on its own last month. Hope springs eternal!)
(I also bought a Neil Young box for Time Fades Away, and that finally got reissued on its own last month. Hope springs eternal!)
Published
What makes ZZ Top so great? For me, it's the breakdowns where they show off their musical skills. Songs like Cheap Sunglasses and I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide are popular examples: tight numbers with wicked instrumental sections. Precious and Grace, from Tres Hombres, also fits this bill.
The songs on Tejas have several of these classic ZZ Top breaks in them. It also features Frank Beard's best drumwork. The Eliminator-era brought in drum machines, and it's a shame, because Frank is a crucial part of this Texas three-piece.
Two of the better tracks are Pan Am Highway Blues and Avalon Hideaway: both on the B side. If you're a regular ZZ fan and trying to make sense of Tejas, start on the back side first. Pan Am is clean line rocker, and Avalon Hideaway has a vicious groove and great lyrics.
Tejas is misunderstood. It didn't spawn any hits, and couple of the songs have more of a country bend to them. Don't sleep on this one though, if you're any kind of a 70's Top fan. This album is amazing.
The songs on Tejas have several of these classic ZZ Top breaks in them. It also features Frank Beard's best drumwork. The Eliminator-era brought in drum machines, and it's a shame, because Frank is a crucial part of this Texas three-piece.
Two of the better tracks are Pan Am Highway Blues and Avalon Hideaway: both on the B side. If you're a regular ZZ fan and trying to make sense of Tejas, start on the back side first. Pan Am is clean line rocker, and Avalon Hideaway has a vicious groove and great lyrics.
Tejas is misunderstood. It didn't spawn any hits, and couple of the songs have more of a country bend to them. Don't sleep on this one though, if you're any kind of a 70's Top fan. This album is amazing.
Published
Another fine album by the well known texan southern blues rock band ZZ Top. Dirty blues/boogie at it's best! Classic songs like "arrested for driving while blind", "El Diablo", "ten dollar man" and the beautiful, relaxing, all instrumental "asleep in the desert". Recommended.
(3,65/5,00)
(3,65/5,00)
Published
Tres Hombres and Fandango! had established ZZ Top as one of the USA’s premiere rock bands, catapulting them onto the arena circuit with their stripped down rhythmic rock and roll boogie, where they rubbed shoulders with the likes of Aerosmith and KISS. While the majority of their arena rocking peers wowed audiences with their flamboyance, ZZ Top went an original, if somewhat questionable route with their stage show to promote 1976’s Tejas, filling the stage with Texan wildlife and subsequently wondering if that had been such a good idea.
The thing is, while promoting Tejas ZZ Top had to do something to distract from the fact that their latest album just wasn’t as solid as Fandango!, and waaaay below their high water mark of Tres Hombres. It was as if, once they had ascended to the top flight of American rock bands, they weren’t exactly sure as to what to do once they had got there. While most of ZZ Top’s 70s output is at least a solid slab of enjoyably riff heavy Southern Rock, Tejas genuinely struggles to leave much of an impression, especially when compared to the albums that they had released in the previous couple of years. Individual tracks struggle to stand out on Tejas, and the album as a whole seems to slip by unobtrusively.
Maybe it’s because ZZ Top felt that they had taken their sound to its natural conclusion and they were wanting to get a bit more ambitious, but for me at least, Tejas is a bit of a misfire.
The thing is, while promoting Tejas ZZ Top had to do something to distract from the fact that their latest album just wasn’t as solid as Fandango!, and waaaay below their high water mark of Tres Hombres. It was as if, once they had ascended to the top flight of American rock bands, they weren’t exactly sure as to what to do once they had got there. While most of ZZ Top’s 70s output is at least a solid slab of enjoyably riff heavy Southern Rock, Tejas genuinely struggles to leave much of an impression, especially when compared to the albums that they had released in the previous couple of years. Individual tracks struggle to stand out on Tejas, and the album as a whole seems to slip by unobtrusively.
Maybe it’s because ZZ Top felt that they had taken their sound to its natural conclusion and they were wanting to get a bit more ambitious, but for me at least, Tejas is a bit of a misfire.
Published
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Maybe their best
Not sure if ZZ Top ever made a truly great album -- they were always more of a singles band with monster hits and some truly classic deep cuts, but they never released that single undisputed front-to-back classic. No question that TRES HOMBRES has the highest highs of any ZZ Top record. And while the highs on TEJAS don't quite get there, this feels like the closest the little band from Texas ever came to making a front-to-back great album. It's far more varied than their previous work with the band trying on more sounds and genres than ever before. There's forays into country ("She's A Heartbreaker"), Exile-era Stones rock ("It's Only Love"), and some moodier sounds that rely on atmosphere and groove ("Snappy Kakkie", "El Diablo", the atypical Tex Mex instrumental "Asleep in the Desert") alongside some fantastic classic ZZ tracks ("Arrested for Driving While Blind", "Enjoy and Get It On", "Ten Dollar Man") that could've easily fit on HOMBRES or FANDANGO. Between this album and DEGUELLO it's clear the boys were working toward something interesting and maybe even truly great if they'd stayed on course. But the '70s ended, the '80s began and they went in another (still interesting but very different) direction.Published
The more I listen to this the more I suspect that this very fine album may well be my favourite by these guys. There's not really any total mind-expanding stand-outs but every track is good and adds something slightly different and they all feel very much of a piece, which is a much more impressive and challenging thing. It's an album that creeps up on you; you look for something to chill out to on a warm night and throw it on without thinking about it too much and before you even realise you're in its world and everything looks and feels just a little different. You listen again the next day and like it but it isn't quite right, but next time you hear it again it's close to midnight and you're right back there. It's perhaps the ultimate NIGHT MUSIC album, at least of its type. Lightning in a bottle, everything in its right place.
Published
It's a shame that such a great album is seen as their worst record during their creatively fertile period, during the 1970s. This might be one of my favorite ZZ Top albums if I'm being completely honest. Has a very bluesy, roots-rock almost country feel that really embodies the sound of where these guys hail from, Tejas, as the album title emphatically declares. I think it just came in between Fandango and Deguello, both of which had massive hits and this one sports no big hits, but it's about as rock solid an album as they would ever make, up there with Rio Grande Mud and Tres Hombres in my humble opinion. The opening track even has a Stones circa Sticky Fingers vibe bearing resemblance to the tunings Keith Richards was using around this time.
Published
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Catalog
14 May 2024
10 May 2024
6 May 2024
23 Apr 2024
20 Apr 2024
17 Apr 2024
12 Apr 2024
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A1
It's Only Love
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A2
Arrested for Driving While Blind
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A3
El Diablo
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A4
Snappy Kakkie
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A5
Enjoy and Get It On
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B1
Ten Dollar Man
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B2
Pan Am Highway Blues
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B3
Avalon Hideaway
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B4
She's a Heartbreaker
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B5
Asleep in the Desert
11 Apr 2024
10 Apr 2024
9 Apr 2024
5 Apr 2024
2 Apr 2024
31 Mar 2024
29 Mar 2024
26 Mar 2024