ROCK MOMENT – ZZ Top “I Got The Six”
“I Got the Six” may not have received the massive radio exposure of “Legs,” “Sharp Dressed Man” or “Gimme All Your Lovin’,” but the song remains one of the hardest-rocking cuts on ZZ Top’s blockbuster 1983 album, Eliminator. Fast, loud and filled with suggestive humor, it also gave bassist Dusty Hill a rare opportunity to take over the lead vocal.
Officially credited to Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill and Frank Beard, “I Got the Six” was developed during the sessions that transformed ZZ Top from a Texas blues-rock institution into an international MTV phenomenon. The band had already begun experimenting with synthesizers on 1981’s El Loco, but Eliminator pushed that approach much further. Guitar riffs were locked to programmed rhythms, giving the songs a mechanical precision without completely removing their gritty blues foundation.
The album was produced by longtime manager Bill Ham, with engineer Terry Manning playing an important role in shaping its polished sound. Much of the preliminary work was done in Texas, while the final recording and mixing took place in Memphis. Engineer and songwriter Linden Hudson also contributed ideas during the album’s development and reportedly helped with lyrics for “I Got the Six,” although the three members of ZZ Top received the original songwriting credit.
Unlike most of Eliminator, “I Got the Six” features Hill singing lead instead of Gibbons. His rough, muscular vocal is a perfect match for the track’s charging rhythm and stripped-down arrangement. Gibbons answers with thick power chords, squealing guitar fills and a compact solo, while the production gives the song the same tightly controlled pulse heard throughout the album.
As usual, ZZ Top loaded the lyrics with double meanings. The central phrase about having “the six” and wanting “your nine” is a playful reference to the numbers 69, leaving little doubt about the song’s adult subject matter. Additional lines continue the joke with the kind of sly, over-the-top innuendo that had long been part of the band’s personality.
At less than three minutes, “I Got the Six” moves quickly and never overstays its welcome. It was not released as one of the album’s major singles, but it helped give Eliminator its balance of slick technology and barroom swagger. The album eventually sold more than 10 million copies in the United States and earned Diamond certification, becoming the most commercially successful release of ZZ Top’s career.
“I Got the Six” captures an important moment when ZZ Top proved that synthesizers, sequencers and polished production could live alongside roaring guitars and Texas attitude. It may be a deep cut, but it is pure ZZ Top: heavy, humorous and just a little bit dirty.
