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Track Listing: (Somebody Else Been) Shakin' Your Tree Brown Sugar Squank Goin' Down to Mexico Old Man Neighbor, Neighbor Certified Blues Bedroom Thang Just Got Back from Baby's Backdoor Love Affair

Southern blues rockers ZZ Top conveniently named their first album "ZZ Top's First Album". It did not achieve anywhere near the same commercial success that future albums of the mid 70s and 80s did, but it played a vital role in defining the band's sound and image, which they kept building on to eventually become a band that has now sold more than 50 million albums worldwide.

Even though Southern rock dates way before ZZ Top's time, back to Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard, when I listen to bands like Clutch or even instrumental blues rock guitarists like Joe Satriani, I can pick out strong traces of direct influence from ZZ Top tunes like "(Somebody Else Been) Shakin' Your Tree" and "Brown Sugar".

This album was the very first dose of the frolicking Southern twang in Billy Gibbons' vocals, most prominent in tunes like "Squank" and "Bedroom Thang". Even though the majority of the album is slow to mid-tempo, the opening track creates a soothing effect on the listeners' mind, and brilliantly sets the mood in order to successfully hold their attention for the journey on which the rest of the album takes them. Oddly and interestingly enough, on "Brown Sugar" you can hear the exact same bass lick that can be heard on a Pink Floyd song that was released way later, in 1979. The beauty of this style of music is that it has roots in Americana music, which greatly raises its value amongst music connoisseurs.

From what I've gathered reading on the internet, the 1987 reissue of the album isn't even the original mix. It's at moments like this that I feel like getting a record player and listening to the sound emanating from the original vinyl pressings of albums like ZZ Top's First Album.

Even after 40 years that saw a multitude of rock albums that were much more successful, not least of all ZZ Top's own subsequent albums, their first album will always retain a certain charm of its own, at least for me.