ZZ Top -- Legs

 

Starting off this week's Reminiscings of  Youth on a sad note, I saw the news scroll yesterday state that Frank Beard, the drummer and founding member of the rock group ZZ Top, had passed away at the age of 77 on August 17th. My condolences to his family, friends and fans.

I wasn't a huge ZZ Top fan but there were a few songs that I remember during my youth in the 1980s. One especially was "Legs" which came out in 1984 and had one memorable video. Beard and his two main mates, Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill in their iconic hats, sunglasses, long coats...and beards as they carried their furry guitars, acted as the scruffiest guardian archangels while their leggy and beautiful angels helped out a mousy young lady (and her admirer by association) somewhere in an American suburb to succeed over a lot of resistance. It was basically a contemporary rehashing of Cinderella and the classic tale of the bullied getting some revenge on the bullies. I saw the music video for the first time last night and remarked "Yep, that was some fashion back then!"

"Legs" was a song and video that held onto the charts and television screens for a very long time as I recall. I thought it was just a propulsive rock song but according to its Wikipedia article, it's got a lot of genre labels: blues rock, electronic rock, synth-pop, boogie rock, pop rock and new wave. But I'll stick with the rock label. The video itself won the 1984 MTV Video Music Award for Best Group Video and the song managed to hit No. 9 on the Canadian charts while in America, it peaked at No. 8.

Since Wikipedia only gives the release year for "Legs", let's find out which two acts won Best New Artist honours in that year's Japan Record Awards.

Issei Fuubi Sepia -- Zenryaku, Michi no Ue Yori （前略、道の上より）

Koji Kikkawa -- Monica（モニカ）