mp3: "La Grange"
Taken from ZZ Top's blues classic album Tres Hombres
"La Grange" is one of the best blues songs ever written...by white men.
From Texas.
The reason the song succeeds so well is because of its ability to conjure up
a visual image. From the first measure of the "doo doo doo doo doo dee doo" riff,
provided by the genius of Billy Gibbons by way of John Lee Hooker and Lightnin' Hopkins,
you feel as if a stranger just rode into town...into La Grange. The click-clack of the rims reminds me of a horse clattering down a dirt rode...then POW! The drums burst in and it seems that somethin's about to go down, maybe a gunfight or a brawl.
Then the key change jumps in and Billy's drunken six shooter guitar takes over the rest
of the work, rolling in and out of musical valleys, seemingly coming from nowhere to blast
you with another pass up and down the neck of the guitar...you've heard it before, but not like this. The fight is going down in the shack...
"La Grange" is one of those songs that you want to keep going on and on.
The lyrics are sparse for good reason, as Billy's guitar does the rest of the storytellin'.
The things he says at the beginning are just set up for the tale he's about to tell.
Rumour spreadin' a-'round in that Texas town
'bout that shack outside La Grange
and you know what I'm talkin' about.
Just let me know if you wanna go
to that home out on the range.
They gotta lotta nice girls ah.
Have mercy.
A haw, haw, haw, haw, a haw.
A haw, haw, haw.
Well, I hear it's fine if you got the time
and the ten to get yourself in.
A hmm, hmm.
And I hear it's tight most ev'ry night,
but now I might be mistaken.
hmm, hmm, hmm.
Ah have mercy!
This a song that kids should listen to before they can walk.
Too bad ZZ Top had to go and stop making blues music to get a bit o' money.
