Geez.
ZZ Top
Gimme All Your Lovin’ (live)
Sharp Dressed Man (live)
I Got the Six (live)
TV Dinners (live)
Got Me Under Pressure (live)
Legs (dance mix)
Legs (Album Version)
All of these tracks are from the 2008 Collector’s Edition of Eliminator, which was released in 2008 and has been seemingly out-of-print ever since. For some reason (and whatever the reason is, it’s a bad one) all digital versions currently being sold only have the single edit of “Legs.” Some CD versions have the album version still, while others use the single edit. It’s pretty hard to tell which has which just from looking though. Both are perfectly fine versions, I don’t prefer one over the other, but it would be nice to have the album version on the album (duh).
Completely exclusive to this release is the dope as fuck super extended “Dance Mix” which really jacks up the sequencers. It’s basically “I Feel Love” with blues riffs. A great concept that I’m really bummed more people didn’t get behind in the 80s. The live tracks are decent, but let’s be honest, this is an album that was never made to be played live. It’s a studio creation through and through.
I recently bought the remastered vinyl of Eliminator. It came on cherry red vinyl to match the Eliminator car and it sounded great. That is, until it got to “Legs” and it just suddenly cut out near the end of the song. No fade, no breakdown, it just cuts out entirely. What I suspect happened was that they pressed the original album version on a groove that was allocated for the single edit, which is over a minute shorter. Â Whatever the reason, it’s pathetic that Rhino, who released the disc, never issued any sort of public recall for the LP. I emailed them twice, with neither message getting a response. I eventually had to return it to my local record store.
Anyways, between the error-riddled vinyl and the out-of-print 2 CD edition, Rhino/Warner Bros. really need to get their shit together on this one. Eliminator is one of the greatest albums of the 80s. They should teach it in music school and the class should be called “how to sell out for cash and still make a kick-ass record.” Because, let’s face it, a Texas blues band adopting a synth-heavy sound in 1984 was about as hard a sell-out as humanly possible. But they made it work.
It baffles me that anything is out of print these days — why not milk the last remaining people (like me) who still want to buy physical (preferred) and digital media (Plan B) in lieu of streaming (fuck that).
I already have these files, but your comments about how ZZ Top sold out when they released Eliminator are spot-on and hilarious.
From one Toledoan to another…
Eliminator is surely one of the greatest albums of the 80’s, at least IMHO. Besides the 2 disc (CD+DVD) version I’ve one of the early Europe LP-pressings. According to the reviews on Discogs there are more complaints about the remastered red vinyl USA-LP. The question is, does the European version also have the error in Legs? If not, we’ve to buy that one…
As much as I love them, Rhino seems to be Sideshow Bob in the parking lot full of rakes when it comes to managing their reissues. The Costello ones from the early 2000s were pretty good, but whenever I go to look at other deluxe releases of theirs, the Amazon reviews end up noting that “this track was actually some other remix instead of the album cut” or something like that, and it’s over and over again.
Also, you are 110% correct about this album. Thank you.
It’s funny. I love Eliminator and of course it has huge nostalgic value for me. I was amazed that the album version of Legs was replaced by this new remix and I spent years looking to download the original version. I finally did from a “Complete Recordings” thing I found on Google Play or iTunes (I forget which one). So now I have the original version remastered on my iPod. Happy days. I prefer the original version because of the awesome opening guitar lick.
Thank you for making me feel less alone as a gay synthpop nerd who loves ZZ Top.
Glad to hear I’m not the only one, but is this like Highlander and we have to fight now?