ZZ Top debut album, the band released "Rio Grande Mud" (1972), which failed commercially and the promotional tour consisted of mostly empty auditoriums. ZZ Top released "Tres Hombres" in 1973. The album's sound was the result of the propulsive support provided by Hill and Beard, and Gibbons' "growling" guitar tone. Dan Erlewine wrote that the album "brought ZZ Top their first Top Ten record, making them stars in the process". The album included the boogie-driven "La Grange" (written about the Chicken Ranch, a notorious brothel in La Grange, Texas, that also inspired the musical "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas"). On the
Famous Maroon Band Famous Maroon Band The Famous Maroon Band is the name of the marching band at Mississippi State University in Starkville, Mississippi. The Maroon Band plays at all Mississippi State home football games and sends at least a pep band to a majority of the football away games. Typically, the full band also travels to bowl games, the Egg Bowl against the University of Mississippi, and at least one other away game per season. The band was formally established in 1902 at what was then called Mississippi A&M College and was a military band, as was the college at the time.