ZZ Top - Tush (cover)

I wrote somewhere, but right now I'm way too lazy to link it (and even to search for it), so I write it here again: these old, classic songs are sometimes dangerous to cover. 

ZZ Top is especially dangerous.

Let's make it clear right here. "I don't know ZZ Top" just doesn't exist. You know them. Even if you're deaf, blind and intellectually handicapped at the same time. (And be thankful for my euphemism, I originally wanted to write something more straightforward, but then I remembered that I promised someone that I would be user-friendly here.) Even your dog knows ZZ Top. 

Be like your dog.

The secret of ZZ Top's music is that it's very simple, yet it gets the grip on you right in the first moment and you can't help but feel the boogie. I remember, when Cygnus Rock Band released this cover, Deneb said it during the live stream, "knowing one song by ZZ Top means that you know all songs of ZZ Top" and it's really like that!

Still, even if they play this simple 4/4 rock and roll with their very characteristic, dirty southern sound, there's a risk to screw it up in a nasty way. Basically it doesn't need deep knowledge, the songs aren't complex, still there's something that makes them special, and that's the atmosphere. The energy. It's either present in a band's cover or not.

Yet this simplicity is the advantage of ZZ Top's songs at the very same time. Bands can add their own style, they can play a lot of additional instruments, they can experiment, as long as the atmosphere (groove, boogie - as you like it) is present.

I can happily announce that Cygnus Rock Band on one hand grabbed the boogie and held it tight, on the other they added the secret Cygnus spice and the result is an absolutely genuine, kick-ass cover that is definitely better than the original, even though ZZ Top's original release from 1980 is a gem in itself. That kind which you put into your player after a rotten, exhausting day and after the first seconds you already feel the sunrays on your skin.

Cygnus Rock Band took this song in their hands. They kept everything from the original - the dirty sound, the southern dust and YES, they kept the atmosphere. They kept the groove, they kept the boogie. They kept it all and added just enough of their style, their personalities and their own energy that brings the very best out of these slightly more than two minutes.

It starts with the dusty rumble of the guitar and right there the rhythm section joins it.

I listened to both the original track and this cover numerous times trying to find out that little ingredient, that musical add-on that makes Cygnus's version so irresistible, hot and sweeping, kicking right into the stomach. Of course it's just my very own and personal point of view, as everything else here on this blog. But I do think that it's the bass, joined by Ruxx's powerful trademark drumming. The original song has got by default a strong bass line, but Deneb surely has got some secret recipe hidden in the studio's depths by which he regularly makes his very own potion he uses for rubbing his bass strings every time before recording. The sound of his instrument is so heavy, so fiery and has such a deep roar and this grointing, rumbling bass subtly but surely takes on the lead while the others are jamming. Ruxx openly enjoys playing; while everyone loves Frank Beard, simply because he is a legend and he is one of the most reliable drummers of the history of rock

in case anyone has doubts, try to play constant 4/4 for hours on drums - I can make you sure after 15 minutes you will cry

we all know that he very heavily dislikes crushes, breaks or even the slightest changes in his playing pattern. But that's why we love him, because this very constant, static drum sound is one of ZZ Top's most characteristic features. And what a great chance it is for Ruxx to flash his talent and his versatile playing style! 

And well, these two, Deneb and Ruxx join forces, and let's just be honest, they groove their asses off, making the listener totally drool.

Ruxx is singing this cover, it's not even a question, it just had to be his job. As if this song was written especially for his rock-blues-western-smoke-dirt-soaked voice. And Ruxx doesn't hold himself back, he lets his voice flow, and that scream at the 3rd chorus

and that's his very own extra for this cover!

 

that should be taught everywhere.

The two other musicians are practically jamming. You can see on Blu that - using an expression from my mother tongue - he shakes it all out of his pinky finger like an absolute professional, while keeping it dirty and elegant at the same time. Reny is plain amazing. I find it a wonderful, very very creative idea not just to put keyboards into this song, but to use this Hammond organ sound as well as the one in the second part of the song that resembles (again for me) a honky-tonk piano. This - beside the sweeping and totally adorable rhythm section - is the secret treasure of this cover. It gives such an extra flavor to it, meanwhile the original atmosphere of the song doesn't get any less from it, on the contrary!

What I especially love in this cover is that if you watch the video well, you will see how much the musicians enjoyed it. You will see Deneb's joyous face, Blu's wide grin, Reny's cool movements and Ruxx's charismatic performance. In fact this is it. For me this is the clearest proof that these musicians didn't just get the grip (and the groove) of this song, didn't just returned it better than the original but they enjoyed it fully. Apart from all the reasons I mentioned here this is why I love this cover so much.

Because they love it, too.