An American original ZZ are back on top BY SEAN RICHARDSON

Next March, ZZ Top will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, alongside chart-topping contemporaries like Prince and Bob Seger. The honor is voted on by music-industry professionals, but "that little ol’ band from Texas" have always been the people’s choice: they’ve sold 25 million albums overall, and they earned the RIAA’s prestigious diamond award (10 million sold) for the 1983 disc Eliminator (Warner Bros.). And they’ve done it without a single line-up change: ever since they signed their first recording contract, in 1970, ZZ Top have been guitarist/frontman Billy F. Gibbons, bassist Dusty Hill, and drummer Frank Beard.

The recent Rock Hall announcement is an exclamation point on what’s been the most exciting year in ages for ZZ Top fans. In September, the band released their first album since 1999 and their 14th overall, Mescalero (RCA), which debuted at #57 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. A month later, they put out the four-disc box set Chrome, Smoke & BBQ (Warner Bros.), which their label calls "the most comprehensive collection of ZZ Top music ever assembled." They’re not the first to go into the Rock Hall alive and kicking, but few groups have remained at the top of their game as long as this one.

ZZ Top have always been famous for their playful sense of humor, so it’s no surprise that the packaging of Chrome, Smoke & BBQ is a howl. The cover looks like a Texas BBQ shack, the box opens up to a plate of sausage, and the 86-page booklet of essays, tall tales, and credits is labeled "menu." For extra kicks, there’s a photo flipbook of two scenes from their classic 1980s music videos. Which brings to mind two more projects for the boys to consider in the future: a DVD video collection (1992’s fine Greatest Hits is available only on Warner Bros. VHS) and an anthology of concert recordings (they’re one of precious few rock legends without a live album in their catalogue).

Otherwise, Chrome, Smoke & BBQ covers all the bases of the most successful era in ZZ Top history, from the beginning to the moment they left Warner Bros. for RCA in the early 1990s. Disc one starts with Gibbons’s earliest recordings, including three tracks by his 1960s psych-rock band the Moving Sidewalks, who are pictured in the booklet with one-time tourmate Jimi Hendrix. Two songs from the first ZZ Top single, which was recorded before Gibbons met Hill and Beard and released on life-long manager/producer Bill Ham’s Scat label, appear for the first time on CD. Like most archival stuff, the early Gibbons material is primitive, but his stinging, Texas-fried guitar style is already well on its way to greatness.

Once Hill and Beard were aboard, ZZ Top signed with London, which at the time was also the Rolling Stones’ label. On their five London albums, the band established the sound — a gritty, blues-based boogie — that made them a rock-radio treasure. In the booklet, they talk about the inspiration (a famous Texas whorehouse) behind the squealing guitar workout "La Grange," and they contend that "Tush" comes from a word meaning "fine" as well as "ass." Not that either oversexed party anthem requires much of an explanation.

At the end of their first decade together, ZZ Top took a break and left London for Warner Bros., which won control of the band’s back catalogue. During the hiatus, Gibbons and Hill grew their signature mountain-man beards, and in 1980 the group re-emerged with Degüello, the best album of their pre-MTV career. Named after the Mexican army’s battle cry during the siege of the Alamo ("No quarter to the losers," as Rick Nelson explains to John Wayne in Rio Bravo), the disc charged ahead with a grimy cover of the old Sam & Dave hit "I Thank You" and the bleary-eyed rager "Cheap Sunglasses." But the country-pop weeper "Leila," from the following year’s El Loco, is the most telltale sign of the band’s impending Top 40 crossover.

Beard’s rapturous description of the first time he saw MTV (he and his wife stayed up all night watching because they thought it was a "one-shot deal") is one of the booklet’s highlights. The biggest of Eliminator’s three smash videos, "Legs," is both a defining moment of the network’s early days and the last word on ZZ Top’s "beards, cars, and chicks" image. To the chagrin of many rock purists, that album’s synth-crazy pulse became the new cornerstone of the band’s sound. The twin blockbuster Afterburner was even more commercial, competing with labelmates Van Halen for the electro-metal crown on the hits "Sleeping Bag" and "Rough Boy."

Along with their overtly sexual themes, one other element of classic ZZ Top survived the pop transition: Gibbons’s sassy blues-rock guitar, which is all over MTV faves like "Gimme All Your Lovin’ " and "Sharp Dressed Man." Rock radio remained the band’s staunchest supporter, but their songs also started to leak into dance clubs: remixes of "Legs" and "Velcro Fly," both of which actually hit the disco charts, are included in the handful of "medium rare" tracks at the end of disc four. The Eliminator formula was running out of steam by 1990’s Recycler, on which the group said goodbye to Warner Bros. with the stylish hit "Doubleback" and watched their sales numbers fall back to earth.

Chrome, Smoke & BBQ essayist Tom Vickers says it best about the band’s four recent RCA discs, none of which is covered on the box set. Referring to the 1996 effort Rhythmeen, he writes, "Though the album was embraced by the ZZ faithful, it gathered very little radio play, as the band’s primary radio format, AOR (Album Oriented Rock), was dying on the vine and taking many artists down with it." Those of us old enough to remember AOR were indeed happy with the group’s new direction, which eased up on the synthesizers and emphasized their blues-rock roots. Even without airplay, they outperformed many of their peers: their RCA debut, Antenna, went platinum, and subsequent releases have charted respectably. Last year, their label put out Sharp Dressed Men, a stellar tribute album featuring a host of today’s biggest country (yes, country) stars.

Which brings us to Mescalero, a 16-track, 66-minute blowout that’s as ambitious — not to mention eccentric — as anything ZZ Top have done. Named after the Mescalero Apache tribe of New Mexico and featuring vivid cover art inspired by the holiday El Día de los Muertos, the album touches on just about every era of the band’s sound: they still love the blues, and they’re still not afraid of technology. The opening title track starts with a Texas-size riff from Gibbons that’s doubled with maximum distortion by Hill and set to a coolly mechanized drums-and-marimba beat. Gibbons’s seasoned croak takes over (in Spanish) from there, followed by a sing-along chorus and a meaty guitar solo. It’s rock the way rock used to be, and it doesn’t sound any worse just because this kind of music doesn’t get played on the radio anymore.

The first half of Mescalero follows suit: it’s one fine-tuned sex boogie after another, with plenty of big hooks and raunchy guitars. Sometimes it gets too Eliminator-by-the-numbers: the back-to-back "Alley-Gator" and "Buck Nekkid" barely register beyond their upbeat, skirt-chasing grooves. The cheating-victim’s lament "Two Ways To Play" fares better with its metallic riffs and ominous instrumental break. The band sound most comfortable playing straight blues: Gibbons gets deep with a despairing guitar solo on the ballad "Goin’ So Good," and Hill revisits his rowdy, "Tush"-singing persona on the savage "Piece."

On the album’s second half, ZZ Top tone down the pop and crank up the mischief. The fun starts with the disc’s best Afterburner-style wallop, "Stackin’ Paper," a funky James Gang homage with rap-inspired lyrics and an ambush of tight vocal harmonies. That’s followed by the bright-eyed swing of "What Would You Do" and the vocoder-jumbled roadhouse kick of "What It Is." "Qué Lástima" ("What a Shame") is an elegant border-town ballad with harmonica, a gong, and a tear-stained saloon of a chorus. The band are at their most experimental on "Crunchy," a hilarious parade of English-as-a-second-language vocal samples that gives way to a hyperactive space jam.

Mescalero is rounded out by two zany cover tunes that take its tongue-in-cheek charm to another level. The Otis Redding/Carla Thomas soul nugget "Tramp" gets a low-down spoken-blues overhaul: think "I Thank You" getting launched into orbit. Twenty seconds after the closing "Liquor," the band ease into a steel-guitar-drenched version of the Casablanca standard "As Time Goes By," complete with a stately after-hours guitar solo. Gibbons plays it straight, but just in case you think he’s turning into fellow Hall of Famer Rod Stewart — who uses the same song as the title track to his new J album of selections from "the great American songbook" — the bearded one closes the disc with the same otherworldly growl that opens it.

Last month, Gibbons appeared on another high-profile new release: Kid Rock on Atlantic, where he’s credited with "guest vocals and beer" on "Hillbilly Stomp." Radio might not have time for new music from ZZ Top these days, but their appeal continues to cross generational lines. Because as someone will no doubt remark when the Rock Hall ceremony comes around, they’re a true American original.