With their second album, Rio Grande Mud, ZZ Top uses the sound they sketched out on their debut as a blueprint, yet they tweak it in slight but important ways.
The first difference is the heavier, more powerful sound, turning the boogie guitars into a locomotive force.
There are slight production flares that date this as a 1972 record, but for the most part, this is a straight-ahead, dirty blues-rock difference.
Essentially like the first album, then.
That's where the second difference comes in -- they have a much better set of songs this time around, highlighted by the swaggering shuffle "Just Got Paid," the pile-driving boogie "Bar-B-Q," the slide guitar workout "Apologies to Pearly," and two Dusty Hill-sung numbers, "Francine" and "Chevrolet." There are still a couple of tracks that don't quite gel and their fuzz-blues still can sound a little one-dimensional at times, but Rio Grande Mud is the first flowering of ZZ Top as a great, down-n-dirty blooze rock band.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | FrancineMarty Cordray, Billy Gibbons | ZZ Top | Play | 02:53 | 6 MB | 18 MB |
| 2 | Just Got PaidBilly Gibbons, Bill Ham | ZZ Top | Play | 03:48 | 8 MB | 24 MB |
| 3 | Mushmouth Shoutin'Billy Gibbons, Bill Ham | ZZ Top | Play | 03:45 | 8 MB | 21 MB |
| 4 | Ko Ko BlueFrank Beard, Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill | ZZ Top | Play | 04:23 | 10 MB | 29 MB |
| 5 | ChevroletBilly Gibbons | ZZ Top | Play | 03:19 | 7 MB | 21 MB |
| 6 | Apologies to PearlyFrank Beard, Billy Gibbons, Bill Ham, Dusty Hill | ZZ Top | Play | 02:47 | 6 MB | 17 MB |
| 7 | Bar-B-QBilly Gibbons, Bill Ham | ZZ Top | Play | 03:22 | 7 MB | 21 MB |
| 8 | Sure Got Cold After the Rain FellBilly Gibbons | ZZ Top | Play | 06:49 | 15 MB | 41 MB |
| 9 | Whiskey'n MamaFrank Beard, Billy Gibbons, Bill Ham, Dusty Hill | ZZ Top | Play | 03:20 | 7 MB | 21 MB |
| 10 | Down BrownieBilly Gibbons | ZZ Top | Play | 02:26 | 5 MB | 15 MB |
| 36 mins | 84 MB | |||||
| 36 mins | 233 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Frank Beard | Composer, Drums |
| 2 | Robin Brian | Engineer |
| 3 | Marty Cordray | Composer |
| 4 | Billy Gibbons | Composer, Guitar, Harmonica, Slide Guitar, Vocals |
| 5 | Bill Ham | Composer, Producer |
| 6 | Dusty Hill | Bass, Composer, Guitar (Bass), Vocals |
| 7 | Pete Tickle | Guitar |
| 8 | ZZ Top | Primary Artist |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |
| CD Quality | FLAC | 16bit 44.1kHz | FLAC is an audio coding format which uses lossless compression. Digital audio in FLAC format has a smaller size and retains the same quality of the original Compact Disc (CD). |