Texas music writer Joe Nick Patoski remembers hearing a ZZ Top song, some thirty years ago, titled 'I Heard It On The X'. Before that his impression of tha band had been, "Boogie music with funny cowboy hats." That all changed the instant Patoski heard what Billy Gibbons's song was about. Gibbons remembers listening to border radio as a child, switching dials late nights, trying to emulate sounds he heard on his guitar; the strange music thrilled him. Stations like XERA, XERF, and especially XERB from Tijuana/Rosarito area of Baja California, Mexico played music by Jimmy Reed, B B King and Muddy Warers, something local and Top 40 stations didn't. [ Border-blaster stations are licensed commercial radio stations that transmitted at very high power to USA from various points along the Mexican border. Not pirate radio, since they were licensed by the Govt. where they were located.]
Patoski felt Gibbons captured the feeling of listening to border-blaster radio quite well in the song and his opinion is shared by other writers and music producers. He also remembers listening to Wolfman Jack, who has been with XERF before moving to XERB. The song itself is a love letter to border-blaster stations and the piece explains why.
Review of I Heard it on the X !
Emon Hassan
Posted on March 17, 2006 at 08:42 AM
Texas music writer Joe Nick Patoski remembers hearing a ZZ Top song, some thirty years ago, titled 'I Heard It On The X'. Before that his impression of tha band had been, "Boogie music with funny cowboy hats." That all changed the instant Patoski heard what Billy Gibbons's song was about. Gibbons remembers listening to border radio as a child, switching dials late nights, trying to emulate sounds he heard on his guitar; the strange music thrilled him. Stations like XERA, XERF, and especially XERB from Tijuana/Rosarito area of Baja California, Mexico played music by Jimmy Reed, B B King and Muddy Warers, something local and Top 40 stations didn't. [ Border-blaster stations are licensed commercial radio stations that transmitted at very high power to USA from various points along the Mexican border. Not pirate radio, since they were licensed by the Govt. where they were located.]
Patoski felt Gibbons captured the feeling of listening to border-blaster radio quite well in the song and his opinion is shared by other writers and music producers. He also remembers listening to Wolfman Jack, who has been with XERF before moving to XERB. The song itself is a love letter to border-blaster stations and the piece explains why.