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
Merryweather (band) in The Just Us, The Tripp and Livingstone’s Tripp (which Roth and Livingston had renamed Livingstone’s Journey following Lillie's departure to join Rick James briefly in the final version of The Mynah Byrds in May 1967). Adding guitarist David Kindred and drummer Gary Hall, the new group, initially called New King Boiler, began rehearsing in Lillie’s grandmother’s basement in May 1968. Kindred was quickly replaced by ex-Fraser Loveman Group guitarist Dave Burt (born in Hamilton, Ontario on September 19, 1948). (Apparently, Gary Hall drank so much coffee that Lillie's grandmother called him ‘Coffee’, and the band started to call him