Make me some of your world famous B-B-Q: ZZ Top's smoky, chrome-tinted box.

The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame acknowledged in its class of 2004 the late George Harrison, Bob Seger, Jackson Browne, The Dells, Traffic, and (The Artist Formerly Known as) Prince in their roster. They all have talent, but we shouldn't forget about one band who rose from the Lone Star State to become runaway stars in the land of hard rock: ZZ Top, "that little ole band from Texas" who have been around for 34 years and produced 14 studio albums in their lifetime, many of them regarded as classics, like 1973’s blues-inflicted boogie classic "Tres Hombres," 1979's rock & roll raw energy of "Deguello," and the savvy yet career-bolstering 1983 masterpiece "Eliminator." But the bulk of these fourteen albums have been released on their first label, Warner Bros., from 1970-1990, and we’ve seen three pivotal compilations in the time being.

In 1977, London Records (the licensee of pre-1979 albums) took 10 of their early blues classics from "First Album" to "Fandango!" and packaged them in a tight compilation called "The Best of ZZ Top." The songs were raw, the licks were indelible, and the beards were actually short, giving the impression that before that they had facial hair down to their crotches, they should summate the high points of earlier days. It worked, as did 1992's "Greatest Hits," which picked up where that album left off, with the long beards, the surfacing of synthesizers, and the images of key chains and buxom babes that turned them into late superstars via MTV. Everything from the opening hard-chargers "Gimme All Your Lovin’" and "Sharp Dressed Man" to the obligatory new recordings "Viva Las Vegas" and "Gun Love" made the compilation great, with an improved 18 songs that told you everything you needed to know about their 1979-1992 nadir, plus two of their most obviously legendary early 1970s tracks for good measure, "Tush" and "La Grange." The songs weren’t necessary plucked from either their respective albums or "The Best Of ZZ Top," but from the 1987 three-disc package "The ZZ Top Six Pack," which had their first five albums plus 1981’s "El Loco" all remixed and remastered. This created a humongous problem: most every FM rock station I ever listened to in California, Florida and Arizona plays these versions of the songs, which sound too little like their raw, original interpretations and more like robotically-altered versions made to appease their late followers. They just don’t sound right, and many diehards like me feel these warmed-over remodels were a total distraction.

I almost forgot to mention "One Foot In The Blues," Warner's 1994 compilation of ZZ Top songs that show their blues roots, connected to "Greatest Hits” by the inclusion of "My Head's In Mississippi," which was on the 1992 hits package. It made a great companion, but wasn’t really necessary for either casual fans or diehards, especially now that we have a newer compilation to discuss: Chrome, Smoke & BBQ: The ZZ Top Box.

Well, the need for a handy, career-spanning ZZ Top package might have been in order, what with the current flux of "Ultimate," "Definitive" and "Essential" CD career retrospectives. ZZ Top’s four-CD boxed set, Chrome, Smoke & BBQ: The ZZ Top Box, would have been all that and then some, but there is a major problem that keeps this from being a completely spanning work: RCA Records are the licensers of the last three studio releases prior to this boxed set's release, "Antenna" (1994), "Rhythmeen" (1996), and "XXX" (1999).

These four albums may not have been huge successes, and I press you to find a radio station who constantly spins these newer tracks in favor of stuff like "Legs" or "Cheap Sunglasses," but they are a glaring omission nonetheless. Many of their most respectable material from the 90’s and beyond get shafted: "Pincushion," "Breakaway," "Fuzzbox Voodoo," "What's Up With That," "Bang Bang," "She's Just Killin’ Me," "Rhythmeen," "Poke Chop Sandwich," and "Fearless Boogie." These were highlights of the band’s RCA days, and if they don’t show up later on alongside their best work, at least it should prompt a decent career retrospective CD from the label. However, I shouldn’t hold my breath when even Rush best-of compilations tend to ignore their latter day best.

So basically, Chrome Smoke & BBQ is essentially one great big honkin' anthology of the London/Warner Days, brought to us from the ever-reliable people at Rhino Records, who have won a lot of favor in working with the Warner Records subsidiaries in bringing great expanded editions and multi-CD sets to the public. This is no exception.

A whopping 68 of ZZ Top’s best work from a total of ten releases, augmented by three songs from guitarist/singer Billy Gibbons' earlier band The Moving Sidewalks, a single release from an earlier version of ZZ Top, one obscure radio spot for the '79 album "Deguello," and six "Medium Rare" bonus tracks, which is composed of one live song, one Spanish language number, and four remixes. You're telling me that there’s not a single unreleased song in the band’s entire Warner Bros. canon?! And maybe, if we want to trace to the band’s alternate beginnings, a track or two from The American Blues, which was the band to which drummer Frank Beard and bassist/singer Dusty Hill belonged to, would’ve been a small treat. But in the end, it's all about the formation of the quintessential Texas blues-rock power trio from Gibbons, Hill and Beard. From their dirty leather Delta days to their commercialized space rock era, ZZ Top have been one of the great names in boogie, and you’ll be chillen with this deee-luxe package in no time.

The first disc kicks off with three tracks from The Moving Sidewalks, a late 1960s acid-blues-rock combo with Gibbons on lead guitar: You Make Me Shake, Joe Blues and Crimson Witch. "Shake" is a riffing and chugging piece that owes more to a garage version of acid rock, but is distinguished by Gibbons’ solid solo and lead vocals. "Witch" is even more in the style of Hendrix-style psychedelia, yet the song is ultimately sublime. The peak of these tracks has to be the slow-burning seven-and-a-half minutes of "Joe Blues," which piles on licks like a crazily affectionate dog.

The line-up of ZZ Top for the rare single release of Miller's Farm and the B-side Salt Lick consisted of an "embryonic" version of the band with Gibbons, Lanier Greg (bass) and Dan Mitchell (drums). This was released on Scat Records in 1969, a year after the Moving Sidewalks selections came out. These two are grimy little boogie-rockers which show the Sidewalks psychedelic blues Gibbons perfected in his earlier band morph into something more ballsy and straightforward, owing as much to the Rolling Stones and prime blues work as to the distinctive sound of Hendrix, thus laying the ground for the ZZ Top of the 70s and beyond to follow. And the first three Gibbons/Hill/Beard numbers taken from the 1970 debut LP, Brown Sugar, Goin’ Down To Mexico and Just Got Back From Baby's, are all prime pieces of tequila-flavored fun. "Sugar" spends its time unraveling with Gibbons’ driving licks and howls in a solo fashion before the full trio kicks in with smokin’ rhythmic flavor, "Mexico" is a down-and-dirty little ditty which steams up in the bridge, and the funky 6/8 time signature "Baby's" is just plain delicious.

Seven of ten songs from the each of the albums “Rio Grande Mud,” “Tres Hombres,” and “Fandango!” show up. First, there’s Francene, Just Got Paid, Ko Ko Blue, Chevrolet, Bar-B-Q, Sure Got Cold After The Rain Fell, and Whiskey’n Mama. "Francene," a full-throated love song with Hill’s lead vocals, takes the blooze drive of the 1970 songs and makes them punchier and more potent than ever, bearing some eerie similarities to "Brown Sugar," and I don’t mean the ZZ Top version! The workingman's ode to getting his bread, "Just Got Paid" is a full-blooded trio at powerhouse appeal, with Frank Beard’s fluid rhythm, Hill’s thick bass and Gibbons’ slide-guitar workout all congealing to outrageously catchy appeal. And they even give the song a few nifty lyrics, like "When the hound dog barkin’ in the black of the night/Stick my hand in my pocket, everything’s all right." The lawdy lust of "Ko Ko Blue" is a supposed amalgamation of Ko Ko Taylor and Howlin’ Wolf played with dynamic force, and both "Chevrolet" & "Whiskey’n Mama" are swaggering rock 'n' roll bliss. "Bar-B-Q" is also a prime standout, an all-you-can-shake boogie in 3:30 about being hungry for love, and "Sure Got Cold..." continues the 6/8 rhythmic drive for over seven minutes, carried by top-heavy drive by Beard and two superb guitar tracks by Gibbons: one’s slow and melodic, the other fast and flexing.

Finishing off the third CD are some tracks from the breakthrough third album from 1973, "Tres Hombres": La Grange, Waitin’ For The Bus, Jesus Just Left Chicago, Beer Drinkers And Hell Raisers, and Master Of Sparks. "La Grange" is the signature ZZ Top staple that cribs a riff from "Boogie Chillen" to raucous effect, and hearing in its raw form sounds like a breath of fresh air, the remastering helps bring distinctive light to the clackety sounds of the opening percussion as well as the driving solos Gibbons etches out (remember that there‘s very few words in this song other than two verses dedicated to the infamous brothel outside La Grange). "Waitin' For The Bus" is a three-chord 4/4 shuffle that features a wildly inventive harmonica-and-guitar bridge, and the companion piece "Jesus Just Left Chicago" takes the tempo down to the ever-so-fluid 6/8 beat pattern. One song’s an ode to getting on the ride home ("Well I'll be riding on that bus till I Cadillac") and the other depicts Jesus trekking through South side of America ("You don't have to worry, cause takin' care of business is his name"). "Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers" is their best party song, the title sums up everything you need to know about the lyrics while the trio pile on the power with enough gut-busting strength to boost. "Master Of Sparks" has a nice little "fact or fiction" story to it involving how an acquaintance of Gibbons welded a steel ball for which one could ride inside of on the back of a pick-up truck going at 60 mph. Two further "Tres Hombres" extracts, the semi-autobiographical Precious And Grace and the laid-back Shiek lead off the second disc of the package.

Disc two goes on with a multitude of songs from their follow-up to "Hombres," the 1975 release "Fandango!" This was an LP whose first side was 14 minutes of live material, and the second was a longer batch of newly recorded studio tracks, and two concert cuts and almost the entire studio side are reprised here. First are the two live selections, the lightning-paced Thunderbird, a wild celebration of drinking the title booze, and Dusty’s leather-voiced tribute to his musical idol on a swift cover of The King's Jailhouse Rock. Nasty Dogs and Funky Kings is a hot, short bit about finding out your most desirable girl is making it with someone else, but it is bettered by the funnier and more attractive Heard It On The X, an upbeat battery with Billy and Dusty’s lead vocals bouncing off each other and handclaps punctuating bits of the rhythm. A winning tribute to hearing your favorite gospel and blues recordings late at night on pirate radio, the song remains a staple of any rock station that has an "X" in their call letters. Blue Jean Blues has a distinctively melancholy variant on the standard 6/8 tempo that suits the song’s subject matter, based on Frank Beard's real life experience seeing his old girlfriend walk into a bar with another guy, with her wearing his old blue jeans. Mexican Blackbird is another charmingly sleazy song based on a real-life person the band members encountered as kids ("They all call her 'puta' cause no one really knows her name/She works the cantina, dancin' and lovin's her trade/Her mama was Mez'can and her daddy was the ace of spades."), and the last selection is the perennial rock classic Tush, Dusty’s classic vocal barks set against a slick Gibbons riff copped from a Roy Head B-side, and the lyrics all about looking for that one fine thing, although it helps in Yiddish terms to say it’s a song about looking for some a**.

Six songs are taken from the album “Tejas,” the selections being It’s Only Love, Arrested For Driving While Blind, El Diablo, Enjoy And Get It On, She’s A Heartbreaker and Asleep In The Desert. These songs have leZZof a rugged blues influence than previous albums and show the band stretching out their style, with some Keith Richards-style plucking on the country-tinged "It’s Only Love," the semi-acoustic majesty of the instrumental "Asleep In The Desert," and the polished-sounding "El Diablo." However, both of the cautious album tracks "Arrested For Driving..." and "She's A Heartbreaker," as well as the down-and-dirty "Enjoy And Get It On" ("Could I get some pie a la mode/When I come in off the road"), contain the hard-hitting boogie of yore. However, it's these songs that signal the change in style that ZZ Top would continue to build upon with their Warner label debut.

This was the 1979 release "Deguello," and the first item from the album is the trio’s take on Sam and Dave’s I Thank You, which is ZZ Top giving the soul track a naked rock interpretation which signals that the band’s risqué humor was shining through during this time ("You didn't have to squeeze it, but you did/And I thank you/You didn't have to hold it, but you did/And I thank you"). However, the song is accompanied by two originals that have become classics in the Top canon: Cheap Sunglasses and I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide. The first is a hilarious fashion statement which explains that no matter how attracted to a woman you are by her jeans and sweater, you still end up looking into her Ray Ban-wearing eyes and end up in serious lust. The latter is a guitar rocker simply about being cool and on top of the world with a car full of foxes and a gold tooth display.

Following the slinky slow-blooze come-on that is A Fool For Your Stockings, which is discovered in the booklet to be one of Farrah Fawcett's favorite ZZ Top songs (more on the booklet later), we get a rare radio ad for the "Deguello" album, which sounds almost like Satan was doing the voiceover. The next two numbers finish off the 1979 album extracts, with the deep-voiced Manic Mechanic and the brassy shuffle She Loves My Automobile leading way to the final two tracks of the second CD, the "El Loco" classics Leila and Tube Snake Boogie. The former is a melodic ballad in the musical vein of Duane Eddy but with Beach Boys-style harmonies tossed in for safe measure. The latter is also in the same oldies-inspired league, a musically representative combination of barroom and frat house sensibilities that features playfully silly lyrics laced in double entendres. However, the production of both these songs by longtime ZZ Top collaborator Bill Ham clearly start enhancing new wave in their Southern rock format.

The trend continues with a few more “El Loco” tracks that launch the third disc: I Wanna Drive You Home, It’s So Hard, Pearl Necklace, and Heaven, Hell Or Houston. "Pearl Necklace," a popular FM rock smash with its chugging bass-and-guitar flow and blatant lyrical metaphor for oral sex, will be the most familiar to casual ZZ Top fans, leaving three album tracks in its wake. "I Wanna Drive You Home" has a similarly funky yet slightly down-tempo rhythmic hook, "It's So Hard" is a heartbreaking ballad not unlike "Leila" (albeit more in classic ZZ Top form), and "Heaven, Hell Or Houston" sounds like some unshakable novelty with robotic vocals and bridge sections that sound downright uncharacteristic of prime Top.

Now, I pointed out that 2/3 of their three respective 1970s albums from "Rio Grande Mud" to "Fandango!" were represented in this collection. Disc three has only four songs from "El Loco," and the entire rest of the disc is composed of a total of 16 songs from their two most commercially successful eighties ventures, 1983's "Eliminator" and 1985's "Afterburner." The first album is represented by 8/11 of the actual LP, and the latter by an incredible 8/10 (that's more from this album than from "Tres Hombres"). This represents the sleeker side of the band, when they revved up the 1934 Ford, paraded the leggy honeys, and fuzzy-looking guitars that did 360 with one slight touch. It also shows the band’s longevity by means of incorporating obvious keyboards, harder-sounding guitars, and lyrics that get progressively more risqué.

The first eight tracks are "Eliminator" cuts: Gimme All Your Lovin', Got Me Under Pressure, TV Dinners, Sharp Dressed Man, Legs, I Got The Six, Dirty Dog, and If I Could Only Flag Her Down. Now, anybody who has ever listened to rock music in their life is bound to remember the rocking tripod of "Gimme All Your Lovin'," "Legs," and "Sharp Dressed Man" if not from countless airplay on radio, then from countless airplay on MTV. The spaced-out keyboards, buzz saw guitars, and hoarse-throated yowls of Billy Gibbons remain the same, and I noticed that the remastering brings basically every echo and purr from these recordings to life. However, "Got Me Under Pressure" and "TV Dinners" both remain severely underlooked mainstream rock singles releases from that era as well.

"Got Me Under Pressure," "Dirty Dog," and "I Got The Six" are even more four-on-the-floor and raucous than the aforementioned smash hits, with tighter delivery, more forceful playing, and bolder lyrical matter. For instance, "Pressure" contains the classic line "She don't like other women/She likes whips and chains/She likes cocaine/And flipping out with Great Danes," and "Six" is a song concerning a lonely horn dog who has to resort to masturbating to centerfolds to get his kicks. "TV Dinners" is a hilariously cheeky love song about teriyaki, enchiladas, and chicken in blue gravy. "Dirty Dog" is an inarticulate slander-fest on a cheating lover, and "...Flag Her Down" is a polar opposite, an insanely lusting and meaty blues-rocker concerning "a real sweet candy bar" of a chick.

For the follow-up to their multi-platinum 1983 opus, ZZ Top streamlined their sound to the point where many feel they went too far. They upped the ante on technological production, which somewhat undermines the fact that ZZ Top is and always were "that little ole band from Texas." And when you see that cherry red Ford reinvented as an interstellar craft, then you know someone decided to go mental with the drum machines and synthesizers. The first single and the first taste of "Afterburner" on this set, Sleeping Bag sounds more like Jan Hammer Fairlight experiment than the 1983 model of ZZ Top, but is an infectious rock/dance track nonetheless, with occasional strums of guitar and even a solo puncturing the sequenced beats. Unfortunately, it feels more like a Billy Gibbons solo track with Bill Ham covering up the empty holes with machinery music, now matter how perfect it may be. Stages was another mainstream rock smash, with even more guitar than "Sleeping Bag," and sounds like "Eliminator" at 90 mph, which means that you can hear Frank and Dusty’s contributions to the track. It’s an amazingly reflective rocker concerning a man coping with love while running around on the road, but is nearly overshadowed by Woke Up With Wood, the silliest and least imaginative piece of raunch in the band's catalog despite having such a rousing hard rock assault.

Rough Boy sounds disarmingly like a Don Henley ballad, not good for the band who once sang about the juvenile appeal of women and cars. Things pick up some much needed steam with the tell-all joy of Can’t Stop Rockin', which is blessed with an inner Chuck Berry that makes the song potent. It’s also great to hear Dusty take the reins on lead vocals even if he seems to have not plucked a note on his bass for the entire song. Planet Of Women overloads on sci-fi themes in how Billy gripes about living on an entire planet full of females and how he's losing his head (c'mon, I thought you were the "Pearl Necklace" king!). However, all three aforementioned tracks are subtle compared to Velcro Fly, which you can immediately pigeonhole as a synth-dance track complete with relentlessly cold staccato drums, outrageous use of keyboards, and processed guitar. At least the mix was good enough so that the bass could be distinctly heard though. The third disc ends with Delirious, and not even Dusty's reliably gruff singing redeems the mechanical monstrosity that this song unleashes.

The trio finally moved out of eighties excess in 1990, with the release of "Recycler," which was a supposed return to the classic ZZ boogie. Despite the fact that technology doesn’t become overkill, this still feels tethered to the "Eliminator" form of ZZ Top. But these are really good songs, these seven extracts: Concrete And Steel, Lovething, Penthouse Eyes, My Head’s In Mississippi, Give It Up, Doubleback, and 2000 Blues. "Give It Up," "Concrete And Steel" and "Doubleback" (also heard in "Back To The Future Part III") are boss singles that harkens back to the edged chemistry that composed their 1983 claZZics, and the lyrical heatstroke/acid trip of "Mississippi" and finally harkens back to the greasy John Lee Hooker-inspired glory days of their early seventies days, complete with hungry lion vocals from Mr. Gibbons and killer riffs to boot. He makes the delivery of such lines as "I kept thinking bout that night in Memphis/I thought I was in heaven/But I was stumbling through the parking lot of an invisible 7-11" work like a charm. Irresistible funk runs through the lifeblood of "Penthouse Eyes" and "Lovething." Finally, "2000 Blues" is a stately piece of moody melancholy which is everything "Rough Boy" wasn’t.

Three additional studio tracks appear from non-LP sources, with their blistering cover of the Roky Erickson and the 13th Floor Elevators’ 1966 album track Reverberation (Doubt) from the "Where The Pyramid Meets The Eye" Erickson tribute album, giving an already warped rocker a harder sheen to ride on. The remaining two were originally new recordings that augmented the 1992 “Greatest Hits” retrospective, with Hill once again paying his respects to the King on an "Afterburner"-style remake of Viva Las Vegas and the driving rocker Gun Love, which is the one song that points the way to the sound of "Antenna," the first in their string of RCA label recordings.

Finally, six additional singles obscurities fill out the bonus song package, known as "medium rare" tracks. Now while this may definitely apply to both the interesting Francine (Spanish ) and an on-the-ball Cheap Sunglasses (Live), songs which deserve to be risen from their slumber, the remaining four tracks, all of them dance remixes of big 1983-1992 era hits, are more of the "overcooked" variety. Legs (Dance Mix) comes across as programmed to the point of distaste, and the trio of Viva Las Vegas (12" Mix), Give It Up (2,800 Mile Mix), and Velcro Fly (12" Mix) are harmless extended configurations that go against everything ZZ Top is beloved for. Again, I ask: Was there not a single rarity or outtake from the 1970-1979 era other than the alternate take of "Francine"?

If you are lucky to pick up the limited edition like I did, go for it. The design is perhaps the most creative thing I've ever seen in a boxed set, especially one tailored to the Southern Rock image the group is celebrated for. The cardboard box is made into the shape of a little roadhouse shack with a flappable roof lid, which houses the four CDs in their respectable jewel cases, as well as a lavish, large booklet crammed with photos and testimonials (just wait until you hear what David Lynch has to say), it's front cover reminiscent of a restaurant menu. You also get little ZZ Top paper dolls (sadly, they’re not able to be perforated) and a flipbook which shows the band twirling their guitars as seen in the "Legs" music video. The regular box is also a good bet too, but for those who want something more, this is the way to go.

And another thing about that booklet: aside from the blurbs by Billy Bob Thornton, Kid Rock and Dwight Yoakam, as well as the requisite essay from rock historian Tom Vickers, you get track-by-track commentary on the 80 songs from the three band members, although the "medium rare" and Moving Sidewalks tracks are only occupied by Billy Gibbons’ comments. Still, these are enlightening descriptions that point out little quirks on songs such as "Pearl Necklace," "Dirty Dog," and even their classic "Waiting For The Bus" & "Jesus Just Left Chicago" medley, which was a studio accident which would become immortalized in the form of classic rock radio playing the songs back-to-back, and mainly from the 1987 "ZZ Top Six Pack." Also, check out the obscure anecdote Dusty spins on "Precious And Grace."

This is a highly costly package, not unlike the other respectable Rhino Records boxed sets available now (from the likes of Talking Heads, Otis Redding, Yes, Richard Pryor, Ray Charles and Black Sabbath), but is a worthy purchase nonetheless, just like those I mentioned in the parentheses. ZZ Top smoked classic blues, hard rock, new wave and pop on the same grill, and even though the flavors may have run together, the majority of these confections are quite tasty. ZZ Top are a versatile unit, and they managed to build a long-lasting career together in the way fellow power trios Cream and The Police couldn't. In fact, they might just be shuffling and rocking their way until their bears turn gray, and we wouldn’t want it any other way. Fire up the grill and crank up the Top!