ZZ Top - hard rock or not?

[treeduck]

ZZ Top is a heavier, bluesy Dire Straits, at least from what I've heard.

 

Yeah, I don't get that either. Dire Straits is laid back and atmospheric, with a lot of their songs having a real cinematic quality. ZZ Top is pretty straight forward bluesy hard rock. The closest they ever came to sounding alike was Knopfler trying to mimic Billy's 80s tone on Money for Nothing.

[Nate2112]

ZZ Top is a heavier, bluesy Dire Straits, at least from what I've heard.

 

Yeah, I don't get that either. Dire Straits is laid back and atmospheric, with a lot of their songs having a real cinematic quality. ZZ Top is pretty straight forward bluesy hard rock. The closest they ever came to sounding alike was Knopfler trying to mimic Billy's 80s tone on Money for Nothing.

 

 

I never said I was right, I just said what I'm hearing. Oh well

[treeduck]

ZZ Top is a heavier, bluesy Dire Straits, at least from what I've heard.

 

Yeah, I don't get that either. Dire Straits is laid back and atmospheric, with a lot of their songs having a real cinematic quality. ZZ Top is pretty straight forward bluesy hard rock. The closest they ever came to sounding alike was Knopfler trying to mimic Billy's 80s tone on Money for Nothing.

 

 

I never said I was right, I just said what I'm hearing. Oh well

http://9358-presscdn-0-75.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Hagler-vs-Hearns.jpg

[Entre_Perpetuo]

Hard southern rock for sure. They can really rock out when they want, but it's that blues that's at the heart of their sound.

I would definitely not classify them as southern rock. Texas boogie and southern rock completely different animals. I don’t have a problem callin them hard rock but they’re one of the few bands that would be comfortable playing a dance hall while couples did a little two step on the floor in that genre.

 

Perhaps I don't know enough about the south, but I was under the impression if a rock band was from the south (or southwest) and had a reasonably bluesy, twangy, or country sound to them, they were pretty much a southern rock band.

 

A few famous bands I'd call southern rock:

CCR

Eagles

Lynyrd Skynyrd (the quintessential one)

R.E.M. (to an extent, they saw themselves as very southern, and many others did)

ZZ Top

The Black Crowes

Allman Brothers Band

 

Seem right by you?

 

I don't think of CCR as a southern rock band, more of a straight classic rock band. Early Eagles were southern rock, but as time went on I think they became more of a classic rock band. REM I think of as an "indie" band more than anything else.

 

To your list I'd add Molly Hatchet, .38 Special, the Fabulous Thunderbirds and Blackfoot.

 

Forgot .38 Special for sure. CCR have Avery southern vibe to me ears. Born On The Bayou?

[ReRushed]

A rock band.

[ozzy85]

Metal!

 

:haz:

Well, their MTV-era albums definitely Had a place with my metalhead friends and I. I had to search backwards to find out how blues based they were. I voted hard rock on the strength of their Deguello through MTV albums.

[toymaker]

This tune has some pretty heavy guitar and a great raw vocal, but it's still pretty boogie-dancy:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAAz6TlkTZ4

[New_World_Man]

hard blues rock but yeah we can call them hard rock. Hard rock doesn't have to be super hard or heavy. It just has to be harder than a regular rock song that doesn't try to be hard or heavy.

 

Is Journey hard rock? Some of their songs qualify. How about Foreigner? They were more consistently hard rock than Journey probably. We can go around in circles with this for the next ten years if we want to. :P

[EagleMoon]

Southern blues rock is always what they’ve been.

[Ancient Ways]

I think when you are from the south you have a different take on what “south” means than non southerners. I generally don’t recognize anything Texan to be from the south.