Last week posted about the new vinyl box set of the first five ZZ Top LP’s, here. A lot of people like the band’s early blues/boogie stuff like “La Grange” and “Tush”; even more like their mega ‘80s hits like “Legs” and “Sharp Dressed Man”. Not a lot of people go beyond that, unfortunately, which is a shame because the band consistently made great stuff.
One of our favourite ZZ Top tracks is the little known “She’s Just Killing Me”, which we distinctly remember blasting out of the cinema speakers at the end of Robert Rodriguez’s fantastic From Dusk Till Dawn. From Dusk Till Dawn, if you don’t remember, is the awesome Mexican border town vampire/biker film from ’96. It was scripted by Quentin Tarantino, starred George Clooney in one of his first big screen roles, as well Salma Hayek, Harvey Keitel, Juliette Lewis, Cheech Marin (of Cheech & Chong fame!) and Tarantino himself. The film inspired a TV series which premiered in 2014 and has had three seasons to date.
“She’s Just Killing Me” sounds incredible at loud volume in the film – Billy Gibbon’s guitar tone just sizzles – and while it’s probably too late to catch From Dusk Till Dawn in a cinema you can still find the track on ZZ Top’s completely underrated and awesome Rhythmeen album, also from ’96. Rhythmeen is one of the band’s heaviest and bluesiest albums, and features other great tunes likes “Vincent Price Blues’, “Zipper Job” and “Bang Bang”.
Check out Rhythmeen on Spotify below after you watched “She’s Just Killing Me” and the great live TV thing we’ve found. Oh and beware – this video is the uncensored version. It’s raunchier than we remember the movie being even, and is definitely not for work!
“She’s Just Killing Me” (Uncensored video)
“She’s Just Killing Me” & “Vincent Price Blues” (live on French TV 1996)
Rhythmeen on Spotify
-DL
