Power Ballad of the Day: ZZ Top, “Rough Boy”

Tuesday, August 7th, 2007 by Jeff Giles

For a time, the power ballad was so prevalent that you almost couldn’t be a rock band and get away without recording one. Even the grizzled ass-kickers in ZZ Top got into the act with today’s entry in the series, 1986’s “Rough Boy” (download). And you know what? They did it right. “Rough Boy” is far from the band’s best song, but it’s saved from outright mediocrity by a perfect solo. This one skirts the outer edges of the “power” part of power ballad, but it was about as tender as this trio ever got, so I’m putting it on the list.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 7th, 2007 at 7:30 am and is filed under Music, Power Ballads. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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