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
The Tripp The Tripp The Tripp, known earlier as The Just Us and later Livingston's Journey, was a Canadian rock band, based in Toronto, Ontario from the mid-1960s, featuring Neil Merryweather and Stan Endersby. Keyboard player Ed Roth, drummer Bob Ablack, lead guitarist Bill Ross and Brian Hughes started out playing rock instrumentals in a suburban Toronto band the XLs, which became Gary & The Reflections with the addition of singer Gary Muir in 1964. In early 1965, singer Bobby Neilson replaced Muir and the group changed its name to The Ookpiks, after a native-designed stuffed toy owl called Ookpik that was