By The Beachwood Have Mercy Affairs Desk
When the needle dropped on ZZ Top’s Tres Hombres in 1973, music lovers were treated to an instant classic that continues to be covered by all manner of bands: “Waitin’ For The Bus” (sometimes known mistakenly as “Have Mercy”) segueing into “Jesus Just Left Chicago.” It wasn’t exactly meant to be, but it was.
“The two songs were written separately during sessions that were not too far apart,” guitarist Billy Gibbons told Classic Rock Revisited. “We were in the process of compiling the tracks for the album Tres Hombres, and that segue was a fortunate miscalculation by the engineer. He had been attempting to splice out some blank tape, and the result is that the two come off as a single work. It just seemed to work.”
Indeed.
“Jesus Just Left Chicago” went on to be sampled by AC/DC and covered by bands as distinctly different as Phish, Big Head Todd and the Monsters, and Pat Travers, as well as becoming a bar band staple. Let’s take a look.
1. Phish at the Redbird Arena in Normal on October 4, 1999.
According to Phish.net, the band first played the song live on August 10, 1987. Since then, the site says, it has been played at 4.93 percent of the band’s shows.
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2. AC/DC’s “Ride On” from Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap.
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3. Gov’t Mule with David Hidalgo of Los Lobos at the Beacon Theater in New York City, on December 30, 2010.
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4. Big Head Todd and the Monsters at the Paramount in St Cloud, Minnesota, on April 15, 2011.
See also: Todd Park Mohr doing another version in the studio.
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5. Pat Travers from Top Musicians Play ZZ Top.
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6. Soulsavers with Mark Lanegan at Bumbershoot 2009.
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7. Black Dutch Sioux in practice, uploaded December 20, 2011.
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8. The 777s, uploaded December 8, 2011.
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9. Paul Gilbert in Legnano, Italy, on November 23, 2011.
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10. Chris Daughtry in Camden, New Jersey, on May 15, 2011; he recorded the song(s) for ZZ Top: A Tribute From Friends.
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11. ZZ Top from 1980’s Double Down Live.
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Comments welcome.
Posted on December 26, 2011