ZZ Top Album: “Fandango”

Finally... this fantastic album gets the treatment it deserves.

The echo is gone. The drums are dry (in a good way) and the vocals are right up in front along side the Reverend's holy guitar tone. To sum it up, this remastered copy of Fandango! sounds brilliant.

The cd artwork is great as well- faithful to the old LP artwork and complete with lengthy and interesting liner notes. The addition of 3 bonus live cuts at the end is excellent. In particular,the live version of Tush is INCREDIBLE. I personally was hoping they would include the entire live recording from which Side A of this album was taken, but I really can't complain with what is here.

The songs are great (Billy's slide playing on Mexican Blackbird is worth the price of the album itself) and the sound quality is perfect. This copy of Fandango is the complete package. Buy it and throw out your old cd copy if you still have it.

Remasters are great. Much better than the older cd. The live side (the first 3 tracks in this case) is alright. It was recorded down in The Warehouse in New Orleans which closed down awhile ago. The sound quality's real good. The studio side is grade A. Most hard rockin cuts are "Heard it on the X" and "Tush" I'd say.

If your'e a fan of boogie or blues rock this is good stuff.

The bonus tracks are actually kinda disapointing. I was hoping they'd put on some more recordings from the concert on Side A on this but I don't know maybe they were all real bad or they've lost them. That would be a cool idea for another album, to just be that whole concert in New Orleans. Anyway that's beside the point.

The live bonus tracks were taken from around 1979 or 1980 I think according to the new liner notes. They're bootleg quality sound and the crowd noise is pretty loud most of the time. The live version of "Heard it on the X" is really bad compared to the studio version. I don't know really why they included ANOTHER live version of "Jailhouse Rock".

Their are expanded liner notes on this remaster. Much more than what they had in the old cd. Very informative and it has a bunch of photos in it.

A pretty darn good album overall. Get the remastered version of Tres Hombres too. I'd say it's just about as good an album as this one.

It's great to see FANDANGO! restored to its original mix, which had previously been available only on LP and cassette, on CD. The remastering is warm and thick, and you can actually hear every instrument without all the electronic trickery, which is great. The fact that the band's members advocate sanctions on countries which falsely convict foreign visitors, capital punishment/life without parole for aggravated kidnapping, and increased law-enforcement funding makes me hope that the first two albums and TEJAS will get the same treatment as TRES HOMBRES and this one have received.

The sound quality here is excellent. Much truer to the original ZZ Top vibe than the bastardized version presented on "Six Pack". No ZZ Top fan will be disappointed in this purchase. My only beef is the live part of the album. With the expanded cd format, why not give us the rest of the live show (ala The Who "Live At Leeds" or Skynyrd's "One More From The Road")? I own this cd, and if you're a ZZ Top fan you should too. But as a diehard fan, I'm still holding out for the complete concert. BTW, search zShops for the best price.

This is my fave ZZ Top album, and I have most of them (I'll have them all soon, I'm sure). Whether it's the first-rate studio cuts, or the electrifyingly great live cuts, there's nary a weak track on here. Everybody knows "Tush", "Jailhouse Rock" and "Balinese", and many know "Heard It On The X", but the lesser known tracks truly stand out, especially the killer "Back Door Medley", which, at over 9 minutes, still isn't long enough, and "Mexican Blackbird". The albums "Tres Hombres" and "Deguello" are right up there, but this one is the best one you can get, and it's actually a pretty good intro to the band if you're just starting a collection.