FROM A TO ZZ

Tres classics by the king of the cyber blues. Your guide: David Fricke.

GARAGE GUMPTION The Moving Sidewalks ★★★★ ROCKBEAT, 2012

The teenage Gibbons christened his ’66-68 combo in the spirit of The 13th Floor Elevators: “If they were going up, I was going further.” This 2-CD box presents that freaked-out mission in its entirety, including a thoroughly unhinged whack at The Beatles’ I Want To Hold Your Hand and a 1968 LP, Flash, with Gibbons pointing the way to his next band in Joe Blues.

SMALL BEARD BOOGIE ZZ Top Tres Hombres ★★★★ LONDON, 1973

After two albums of straightforward licks, the songwriting kicks in on ZZ’s first gold record: Gibbons’ frantic-telegraph riff in Waitin’ For The Bus; the elliptical slither of Jesus Just Left Chicago. Beer Drinkers And Hell Raisers is an anthemic call to arena fun. But the roots are strong: Gibbons’ descending bridge in the boogie La Grange is a Robert Johnson quote.

THE AXE UPDATE Billy F. Gibbons Hardware ★★★★ CONCORD, 2021

Attention guitar freaks: Gibbons’ fretwork on this Mojave-flavoured whirl is off the hook and on the money, while the many hues of blues affirm his wide-angle view of keeping it real: the Elevators flashback in She’s On Fire; the surfin’ noir of West Coast Junkie; the Sergio Leone-style seance Desert High. If this is where Gibbons is headed on ZZ Top’s next one, look out.