Doing the Tube Snake BoogieI’m not going to bore you by waxing sentimental over the undeniable mastery of early ZZ Top, or by singing the praises of their first seven records. Each one is a flawed masterpiece, some more flaw than masterpiece, which you can discover in your own time the same way I did, after you have fully absorbed the superlative greatness of Eliminator. Yes, that’s right, ELIMINATOR!Test-tube Snake Boogie?Eliminator is the record where ZZ Top nerds, and there are plenty, will tell you they lost the plot, went commercial, added drum machines and gated snare drums, and generally became a comic-book version of themselves. It’s certainly true that every record since then has been a total cow-pie. but I would argue that Eliminator was actually the most innovative record of the eighties. They combined chooglin Texas boogie-rock with dance-music synthesizers and sequencers, creating not only a hybrid of the two unlikeliest musical forms, but also the template for the entire FUTURE OF ROCK. Everyone from the Smiths to Radiohead have been playing catch-up ever since.Yeesh.Now, I’m not claiming they were the first rock band to use any of that technology, but they were the first rock band to turn the concept on its ear, to play completely against type, and to do it (mostly) with a straight face. Admittedly, they haven’t made a good record in 25 years, and they are kind of terrible live nowadays too. But man, they useta wail.