If you've not heard about the "remaster" that was done on this release consider this your heads up.

At sometime in the 1980s/90's they remixed this album with way too much echo and fake drum machines. Gone is the beautiful rawness and classic mix that defined this album. What you now get is a sound that resembles a bad soundcheck in a tin room. I can see why this was done, it was an attempt to get the Elminator/Afterburner fans to buy the early discs. One review on the "Best of ZZ Top" early greatist hits package, said he felt these remasters have destroyed the whole original vibe of the music making it almost unlistenable. I gotta agree with him. Why can't an import at the very least be issued of the original mix? I would gladly cough up 20 to 25 bucks to have this and the other early albums in the way they were meant to sound.

So be wary of this CD. This release is not the album you remember.

As part of an attempt to capitalize on the success of their Eliminator sound, ZZ Top decided to go back into the studio and remix and also re-record parts of their first 6 albums thinking it would make them more money and entice fans of their newer sound to go back and buy their earlier records. Well guess what, in the process their older fans who were used to the original versions on the old cassettes and albums were shocked when they listened to any of these first generation CD releases. They heard bogus reverbed drums, and entire sections of both music and vocals re-recorded. Talk about tarnishing the legacy of a great band's output. Well someone finally wised up and now at least Tres Hombres and Fandango are now available in original mix, remastered form. So stay away from this trash and wait for the entire back catalog to be released in it's original mix, remastered form on CD.

This is in regard to the 1980's recomposed/remastered version of ZZ Top's First Album. Ditto all of the comments about the awfulness of the reverb and fake drums. What's really sad is what was printed on the back of the vinyl LP jacket in 1970:

"In this day of homogenized rock, synthesized music, retakes, overdubbing, multi, multi-tracking, an honest recording by accomplished musicians is a rewarding pleasure. Z Z TOP'S FIRST ALBUM is just such a recording. This is the way blues-rock is meant to be played: openly, honestly, and spontaneously. It takes an experienced sensitive group such as Z Z TOP to capture the abstract blues from within and combine it with the ability to feel and play good hard rock without losing their communication."

17 years later, they trashed their own philosophy. Tres Hombres, and Fandango by Rhino, are the first honest digital transfers of the original first 5 ZZ Top albums.

I am a recording engineer and sound mixer. I grew up in Texas, listening to and watching ZZ Top. The first two ZZ Top albums were released on vinyl records. Tres Hombres was the first to be released on Compact Disc. When the inevitable popularity of the CD overtook the market, Bill Ham thought it would be a great idea to release the first six albums on CD, which they affectionately called the "six pack." While remastering this compilation, somebody (who knows, but who controlled all of ZZ Top's musical movements??) got the bright idea to re-edit, reproduce, re-arrange and remix the first three albums. At the time, there was a new device in the studios that was known as a "digital echo" device for adding reverb and delay textures to sounds. Most notably, Phil Collins was using this echo device to enhance his drum sounds. ZZ Top's producer (you know who) decided it was the way to go as well, that the new sounds would attract the day's "new audience." The echo and reverb patterns on the "six pack" were so much bigger and wetter than on the original first three albums. Then I started to notice that there were different vocal performances and different guitar riffs in a few places. Talk about re-arranging an original! At a later time, the reproduced versions released on the "six pack" were then released on individual CD's which contain the original artwork of the first three albums. However, they are definitely NOT the original recordings. This process is much like Jimi Hendrix's producer, who went into the studio after Hendrix died and actually hired a player to finish the guitar work on recordings that were incomplete when Hendrix died. Those recordings were subsequently released as "Hendrix's final unrealeased recordings." Suffice it to say, that if the world's art museums decided that certain Rembrandt or DaVinci paintings looked "faded" or weren't "up to date with today's audience," and they repainted certain brush strokes on these masterpieces, the world art community would have a cow! Don't buy these CD's, they are not ORIGINAL works. They have been repainted to fit what someone thought would be a new and "catchy" idea.

it's a 5 Star album -- but I gave a 1 Star for the cheesy CD remixes they did. But get it if you want to hear the sheer genius of their original vision -- it'll do until they reissue the original mixes. -- E.T.

Genius one-of-a-kind album --- Pointless, retarded and destructive remix.

I HAVE AN ORIGINAL MIX of the brilliant and flawless "FIRST ALBUM" on CD --- released before the HORRIBLE idiotic "Six-Pack" remix. Any true Top fan who wants one -- just drop me an e- mail and I'll burn it for you for free.

Shoot, that's just asking for trouble, so scratch that -- but it'd almost be worth being taken to court just to be able to ask the band "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? -- and why in the world don't you rerelease the original mixes?"

Maybe we can get Rick Rubin to intervene on our behalf...

My friend just found a used First Album CD in a used bin -- and it matches the UPC and CAT# on my good mix. So if you can find a used CD with NO DATE ANYWHERE on it and but the CAT # is: 3268-2 and UPC is: 7599-273779-2 -- BUY IT.

They also destroyed the equally brilliant "TEJAS" album -- they even CHANGED GUITAR LINES on "Asleep in the Desert" AND CHOPPED STUFF UP. Cut in HALF the brutally gorgoeus harmonica lead on "It's Only Love" -- Jerks. I think it must have been all the drugs people were doing in the 80's --- "hey lets spray paint over the Mona Lisa"

"Drivin while Blind" -- used to start with the vocal "A when yer drivin' down the highway at night..."
and now they chopped off the "A when yer..." so now you practically hear the punch-in . Now it starts...

"(d)rivin' down the highway at night..." WHY WOULD THEY DO THAT???

'Tejas' nearly unlistenable. So sad. How can we pressure The Top into UNmixing their remixes? Hmmm...

BUT OH JOY! I did just find a MINT CONDITION PROMOTIONAL LP of TEJAS in a used bin at FREAK BEAT RECORDS in Sherman Oaks CA -- so I'm gonna bounce that from wax to CD to tide me over until Rhino Records works their magic and remasters the orignal (God bless Rhino Records)...