Bottom's Up and the La Grange Connection!!

[Wolverine]

When ED wrote Bottom's Up it was a definite rip off of zz top's La Grange(which of course VH covered in their bar days).Did ZZ Top ever approach EVH about this. I know Ed and Billy Gibbons are friends.

*DOA IS ALSO A SLIGHT RIPOFF OF YRGM* Any thoughts on this!!

[Terry]

Can hear Bottom's Up (and also Hot For Teacher) being ZZ Top- influenced more than DOA being derivative of YRGM, mostly because YRGM's main riff is G to A, whereas DOA is A to F#/E/F#.

CVH used to do a smokin' version of Beer Drinkers And Hell Raisers, too. Think EVH said something about Gibbons giving him some miniature guitars as well.

[rustoffa]

Dave chose ALL the covers, including the club days era.

He's also a big ZZ Top fan.

Lyrics dictate arrangements, etc....

Good ol' Dave.....riff-influencin' taskmaster I tell ya!

[Coyote]

Originally posted by Terry
Think EVH said something about Gibbons giving him some miniature guitars as well.

Apparently, Gibbons gave Eddie a couple of those Chiquita-guitars, but he never got around to using those. (Except perhaps live for... well, you know the song.)

[Panamark]

Ed plaguerizing back then ? He was so full of great ideas its seems
stupid that he would do that. I can definately hear the similarities
in the main Riff, perhaps it was a mini tribute to ZZ top..

[ODShowtime]

Well, as awesome as ZZ-Top was, they weren't exactly avant garde themselves.

I do agree 100% with this observation though. Clearly Bottoms Up took some influence from La Grange, and we have proof that VH used to play La Grange.

I heard Gov't Mule play I'm Bad I'm Nationwide on New Years last year, so the Top's still getting some props. Man they kick ass.

[Hardrock69]

Nov. of 1976....I was 16 and saw ZZ Top on their Fandango Tour.

I snuck in and watched them do soundcheck, but I thought they were roadies or something, as I had not even seen any pictures of them (there was no MTV or Internet, and rock magazines were few and far between compared to nowadays).

The reason I thought they were roadies was that I thought Billy Gibbons was a black man!!! NO SHIT!!! Due solely to the vocals on La Grange!

So later that night, after the set change, and the lights went out, and here came ZZ TOP. AND IT WAS THOSE SAME THREE WHITE GUYS IN COWBOY HATS AND RHINESTONE COVERED NUDIE SUITS!

AND THEY KICKED MY MOTHERFUCKING ASS!!!!

I left the arena that night, not thinking about women, or fame, or money, or the drugs, or the Rock Star lifestyle....all I wanted was to make a guitar sound like what I heard that night...Pearly Gates through a nice fat distorted guitar amp!

So I bought my first electric (a $40 Heit Deluxe made by Teisco Del Rey) and the rest is history. Oh, and then 2 months later in early January of 1977, I saw Kiss on their Rock & Roll Over Tour.

That was all it took, and I have been a guitar fanatic ever since!!

[Terry]

Originally posted by Panamark
Ed plaguerizing back then ? He was so full of great ideas its seems
stupid that he would do that. I can definately hear the similarities
in the main Riff, perhaps it was a mini tribute to ZZ top..

Yeah, but that's Ed taking something from somewhere else and making it his own. Not like you're gonna mistake ZZTop for Van Halen. Like, even if you listen to just what Ed's doing on those classic records, you can pick out bits and pieces of other people's playing.

Back when he was first getting guitar mag press, Ed used to harp on how much he was influenced by Clapton, sometimes to the exclusion of anyone else and it came across to me like a game he was playing...like he wanted everyone to believe his style came out of nowhere. As talented as he is, Ed's always had a very casual relationship with the truth, lying even when it served no purpose.

[Hardrock69]

He also used to say a lot how he was influenced by Allan Holdsworth.....

[franksters]

Originally posted by Terry
Can hear Bottom's Up (and also Hot For Teacher) being ZZ Top- influenced more than DOA being derivative of YRGM, mostly because YRGM's main riff is G to A, whereas DOA is A to F#/E/F#.

CVH used to do a smokin' version of Beer Drinkers And Hell Raisers, too. Think EVH said something about Gibbons giving him some miniature guitars as well.

I hate that fucking beer song GRRRR

[Loons The Great]

A how how how how

[diamondsgirl]

Originally posted by Loons The Great
A how how how how

have mercy

[doctor roth]

Originally posted by franksters
I hate that fucking beer song GRRRR

You're kidding right ???? Ive got a vid of VH doing that song. The sound quality aint great but its good enough to let ya know it was a rockn version. Its beefed up enough to make is sound like Van Halen. I looooove the original too. But hey whatever you feel

[Loons The Great]

A how how how how!!

[Carloscda]

La Grange...

Unbelievably MMR here in Philly played this during their 1hr block of all classic VH!

Callers were going crazy saying they never heard this this before how can they get it?!

The jock of course said someone hooked him up with this little treat.

The ending is to Bottoms Up right? Matter of fact the whole track is BU, thought the melody sounded familiar.