Posted on 01/01/2013 5:37:18 PM PST by a fool in paradise
Before ZZ Top became a blues-rock band known for gritty, boogie-based rhythms, sizzling guitar flights, humorous lyrics and luxuriously long beards, it was a Houston-based psychedelic proto-punk garage band called the Moving Sidewalks. And though its following was decidedly regional at the time its biggest hit, 99th Floor, was a chart-topper in Houston for six weeks in 1967 the groups recordings can be found on more than half a dozen compilations of 1960s garage band tracks, not to mention the ZZ Top anthology Chrome, Smoke & BBQ: The ZZ Top Box.
... with ZZ Top between tours, Billy Gibbons, the guitarist and founder of both bands, has reconvened the Moving Sidewalks for a gig its first in 44 years at B.B. King Blues Club and Grill in Manhattan on March 30.
For Mr. Gibbons, the transition from the Moving Sidewalks to ZZ Top occurred fairly smoothly.
The Vietnam War was in full swing, Mr. Gibbons said in a telephone conversation, and it captured our bass player, Don Summers, and our keyboardist, Tom Moore. That left me and the drummer, Dan Mitchell, trying to figure out how in the world we were going to keep this together. We played with other people, and then the drummer twisted off, and the result was what you know as ZZ Top.
But we all kept in touch, we kept up the correspondence, and it was quite a robust exchange. And remarkably, although Id gone to a different planet and the other three had their day gigs, they were all weekend warriors, playing in bands here and there. So by a stroke of good fortune, when the opportunity came along, they had the interest, and had kept up their chops.
(Excerpt) Read more at artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com ...
This ought to be interesting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTa0TGJ8J74
The Moving Sidewalks - 99th Floor
You neve hear music that that anymore.
Sounds like the “Shadows of Night.”
G-L-O-R-I-A....
Billy thought he was Jimmy...Moving Sidewalks - Pluto - Sept 31st (1968)... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-zr60cvBWw
I recognize Jimi Hendrix, but which one is Gibbons and who are the rest of them?
Mark
The Original Animal Speaks
A direct link to the Jack Bruce Ver
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfRIGQGR2T0
Johnny Rotten covered it too.
I can see where the Doors got some of their inspiration. It also sounds a lot like the Kinks -”All Day & All of the Night”
Billy’s in the middle.
(L-R) Tom Moore, Hendrix, Don Summers, Gibbons, Dan Mitchell
I probably own every Hendrix biography in print, so I know a few trivial things about his life and career. Billy Gibbons was one of Hendrix' favoring up-and-coming players. Jimi was so impressed with him, that he gifted him with a pink Fender Stratocaster, which Billy still owns.
Jimi never said who his all-time favorite guitarist was, but there's no question that he idolized all of the old blues greats like they were gods. They were his spiritual/artistic mentors.
http://www.yoliverpool.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=23566&d=1320887314
This link is a short article in the Liverpool University student newspaper (Feb 1966) listing the groups scheduled for their charity week. The Hollies, The Fortunes, Gerry and the Pacemakers. All for a local university do at ticket prices a student could afford...:^)
My daughter was on tour with a film crew last summer and she needed her guitar repaired while they were in Austin. She found a little one-man guitar shop down some side street and walked in and the guy fixed her guitar. So she’s looking around at the walls and sees gold records and pictures of ZZ Top and Billy Gibbons and other people who looked like rock and rollers.
It turned out that the guitar shop guy had recorded with ZZ Top and did some gigs with them back in their early days. His name is Mark Erlewine, and he designed and built guitars with Billy Gibbons and Johnny Winter. Other clients who have walked into his shop over the years include Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimmie Vaughan, Dusty Hill, and Eric Johnson.
Apparently, Mark decided long ago that the touring life wasn’t for him. He is happy as a clam running his guitar shop and being free to do whatever he feels like whenever he feels like it.
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