Gimme All Your Lovin’: The Blues, Boogie, and Beard of ZZ Top's Billy F. Gibbons by Christopher McKittrick Book Review

In Gimme All Your Lovin’, Christopher McKittrick explored the career of ZZ Top's Billy F. Gibbons and the changes they experienced as a rock band. The band consisted of vocalist and guitarist, Billy Gibbons, vocalist and bassist, Dusty Hill, and drummer Frank Beard. Billy and Gibbons are largely known for their long beard appearance. In September 2006, the trio lost their contract to RCA. They are one of the oldest and most successful record labels around. This came after 14 years and four albums. They were worth $30 million dollars. After their first RCA album, Antenna failed to go platinum and didn’t have a hit single. The next three albums had about the same fate. They haven’t shot a music video since 1996. The book opened up about how the launch of MTV helped to set ZZ Top into the charts by their music videos. The book shared how La Grange had even hit pop and was featured in films such as Armageddon. It is one that is ranked a top rock song. 

 

 

What I found was interesting was to learn about the album XXX and how this album turned out to be a problem. It was released on their 13 anniversaries of the band. Billy is credited as a producer solely by himself. The album lacked clear detail about it being a celebration album. It was part studio tracks and then four tracks were live. They said in interviews that it was recorded worldwide at surprise club shows. There is no record of them performing any shows in about two years. There were no special headlines of any shows. People debated if the tracks were even filmed live. Some thought they used crowd sound bites. It has been said that Sinpusher lyrics were changed because he couldn’t remember the lyrics but he has performed this song live a bunch of times. I haven’t ever heard this story and it was interesting to read although fans will probably never know the truth. 

 

 

 

I would recommend his book to anyone who is a fan of ZZ Top and are curious to learn more about them as a band and learn some of the history. It was very well researched and might be the closes fans get to a memoir. Fans got to glimpse at their life and their ups and downs as a band and their struggled with fame. 

 

 

 

 

“I received this book free from Global Pequot the for my honest review.”

 

 

 

 

 

If you would like to purchase a copy, check it out on Amazon:

 

 

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1493074431