"La Grange" Song Review

Song: La Grange
Artist: ZZ Top
From the album: Tres Hombres
Year of release: 1973

This song is a suggestion from my IRL friend Asparagus.

Intro

If there's a song which conjures up the image of the American Great Plains, it's "La Grange". ZZ Top, commonly known as "That Little Ol' Band From Texas", gained their biggest success in the 1980s with 1983's "Eliminator" and the following albums. But in the 1970s, ZZ Top had still garnered popularity on rock radio, with "La Grange" being a staple of classic rock radio then and now. The song is awesome as ever even though it's been 52 years and it will continue to be awesome among rock fans to come.

History of ZZ Top

ZZ Top began in Houston, Texas in 1969 from the ashes of blues rock group Moving Sidewalks. The group's longtime lineup had been consistent from 1970 to 2021. The group comprised of Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill (Dusty unfortunately passed away in 2021) and Frank Beard. The group are well known for their giant beards (with the exception being ironically, Frank Beard). ZZ Top had found their sound early on in the 70s, basing their music off the blues of Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker. They had gained a following through their first and second albums, "ZZ Top's First Album" in 1971 and "Rio Grande Mud" in 1972. ZZ Top's blues sound was extremely unique as it mixed the blues with the Southern rock sound popularised by the Allman Brothers Band, while also containing lyrics featuring humour, as well as of course, raunchy subject matter hidden behind innuendos. In 1973, ZZ Top released "Tres Hombres" (Spanish for "three men"), which contained the song "La Grange" on its B-side. "La Grange" would end up becoming ZZ Top's breakthrough hit, peaking at #41 on the Billboard Hot 100, as well as #15 in Australia.

Composition

"La Grange" is a quintessential song of the boogie rock genre. Boogie rock was known for its repetitive blues rhythms emphasizing on groove and danceability, rather than innovation and musicality. The song begins with a groovy lick from Billy Gibbons, with Frank Beard playing a rim-clicks based rhythm. Billy sings in an especially low register in this song, while in the studio version this is good, it's even better live, particularly in later performances in the song. Billy also allows for his Texan accent to shine through. After the first verse, the instrumental picks up. Dusty Hill's bass joins Billy's guitar and Frank goes from rim-clicking to a full on blues beat with grooving snare and hi-hat beats. This sticks around, but then we get an incredible guitar solo from Billy Gibbons. The rest of the song from here is instrumental, but this instrumental certainly is not a bore. Billy's bluesy guitar solo is practically impossible to not dance to. There is a point in the solo where it slows down and returns to the main theme, this time with no vocals. An awesome Beard fill, and then we get back into the guitar solo, this time with Billy overdubbing with additional guitar motifs which add to the solo. This solo is often praised as being one of the best solos of all time, and rightfully so, as it keeps on rolling and rolling until the end of the song. The song then fades out towards the end, hearing the final bits of Billy's solo.

This instrumental is great, but if there's one thing I have to complain about, it's that a reprise of the chorus towards the end of the song might be an interesting addition, but even though there isn't one, this doesn't stop the song from being a jam for me and many other people.

Lyrics

As stated in the history section, ZZ Top do love to add humorous and also raunchy lyrics into their songs. "La Grange" is no different. Billy Gibbons wrote the lyrics based on an illegal brothel called the Chicken Ranch, located in the eponymous La Grange, Texas. While known for their innuendos, this song's lyrics are far more open about what the song's about, especially when Billy literally says "They've got a lot of nice girls". The lyrics are short as the song is only a verse and a chorus, but essentially, Billy tells the listener about a "shack outside La Grange" and the only amount of sugarcoating there is is when Billy says "you know what I'm talking about", with it being obvious what he's referring to. In fact, Dusty Hill said in an interview he had actually been to Chicken Ranch before, perhaps this story is what inspired Billy to write "La Grange".

While this song's lyrics are obviously not so family friendly and are literally about going to an illegal brothel, many people don't seem to notice this, and that's because the instrumental is captivating and they're too busy dancing to properly take in the lyrics. To me, this is why Billy is so open in this song, because most people are too busy vibing without a care in the world.

Miscellaneous thoughts

"La Grange" is a real groovy song with a lot to appreciate. While I am a sucker for lyrics and lyrical analysis, "La Grange" obviously doesn't have that much to analyse, but it makes up for this all in the instrumental. I love the guitar solo in this song and honestly it's a great song to dance to and if I were to pick a song to represent Southern rock, I'd put "La Grange" up there with Southern rock greats like "Free Bird" by Lynyrd Skynyrd or "Proud Mary" by Creedence Clearwater Revival. This song does keep to the blues influence that were behind the song's creation, which is always great to see. I love it when a song stays true to its influences.

---

Final thoughts

Rating: A

"La Grange" is an awesome song. That goes without saying. The guitar solo may not be the most innovative, but it's still an awesome solo. I'd recommend this song to all sorts of rock listeners and is a great introduction to not just ZZ Top, but to Southern rock as a whole. I have very little negative things, if any, to say about "La Grange".