ZZ Top - Asleep In the Desert (1987 Six Pack Remix)

In 1987, Warner Bros. Music released the ZZ Top Six Pack, which contained the first 5 ZZ Top albums and the El Loco album. Every track from the first 5 albums (excluding 3 live songs) were remixed with 80s style drums and beefier guitars. This caused much controversy as these were not sold as remixes and the original mixes were left out of print for years until the band finally released them once again.

I have decided, for historical sake, to release the remixes as some of these are hard or impossible to find on YouTube and strangely the Six Pack on iTunes and Spotify contains some of the remixes, then others are the original mixes which is quite strange. I am not endorsing this remix, nor saying it is better than the original mix, I just simply believe people should have the chance to hear these without searching for a physical CD. Some of these are on YouTube but extremely hard to find and in bad quality.

Something no one has done is give a more detailed list of all of the changes in this remix which I will give. It is obvious that the drums are different, I will not repeat this as everyone knows it and it doesn’t need further explanation. The guitars interestingly are much beefier, which much more distortion added, chorus, and reverb. The changes are much more drastic on the first 2 albums than the later ones, most likely due to how these albums had a more dry and less distorted sound as the next few. Here are some highlights and changes:

•The song Just Got Back From Baby’s makes the remix obvious, with the guitar being much more in your face and distorted. The intro “why don’t you dowse that light” has been made much louder.

•A tiny bit of the guitar intro to Backdoor Love Affair is cut.

•The guitar solo in Just Got Paid is shortened

•Ko Ko Blue is sped up & in a higher key

•In Chevrolet, during the guitar solo, another solo begins playing towards the end but it is low in the mix. This is not present on the original.

•Apologies To Pearly: does not fade into the next song

•Bar-B-Q: The intro does not fade in from the previous song, meaning the intro is longer and has some previously unheard guitar lines

•The song that probably has the most dramatic change is Sure Got Cold After the Rain Fell, the guitar is MASSIVELY distorted and you can hear the buzz and noise added from this and even strings behind the nut making noise at one point.

•Whiskey Mama: guitar solo has massive delay and during it a guitar on the right side comes and plays different licks. I believe this guitar isn’t a different take but playing a different part of the already playing take of the solo

•Down Brownie: the vocals are much louder in the mix, so now I can actually make out the lyrics

From this album on, the guitars in the mix seem to not have been changed quite as much, not as much distortion has been added and they sound a lot closer to the original mix. My guess is that Billy was more happy with the guitar tones on these albums so he didn’t try and retweak them as much.

•Jesus Just Left Chicago: an alternate vocal take is used

•La Grange: the have mercy during the first solo is made much louder, the outro solo has a noticeable amount of delay added

The 3 live tracks: Thunderbird, Jailhouse Rock, & Backdoor Medley are all the same as the original mix. This most likely is due to the bleeding of instrument mics which would’ve made remixing next to impossible. Therefore, I will not upload these.

•Mexican Blackbird: this song has a different vocal take used, with the last lyric of the song being changed and new lyrics during the outro solo

•Tush: the guitar solo has an extra slide note on the start, which was cut off in the original mix

•Arrested For Driving While Blind: the first words “when you’re” were cut off in the intro

This is every difference I have been able to notice. If there are more that I have not noticed, feel free to comment. Contrary to comments made online, no vocals or guitar parts were re-recorded and only 1 song has a lyric change. El Loco was included in the Six Pack but used the original mix and I therefore will not post this.