Afterburner Tracklist
According to Billy Gibbons:
I think we were aware of the success of Eliminator and were spending a little more time inspecting the quality of the compositions and the execution, because it was a seemingly impossible task to top “Eliminator”. But we certainly didn’t want to feel that we hadn’t done everything to at least give it another one of our best.
“We knew that, for us, we were tiptoeing through sacred ground by venturing out into synthesizer stuff. But Dusty’s approach was, ‘Hell, turn it on and I’ll make a mess of it quickly’ [Hill played the keyboard parts]. I felt the same way: Let’s not pretend to be experts or technicians with this thing. Our point is, we probably do better by not knowing enough about it, and consequently our synthesizer work is not the kind of melodic classical thing that people normally would be afraid of.
“We didn’t even mention keyboards on the album sleeve. I think there was still a point to be proved to ZZ Top loyalists, and they might have been offended. I think we fought the word more than the sound.
“The harshest guitar tone I’ve ever had is on ‘Sleeping Bag.’ My obscenity comes in harmonics rather than grind. I really lean heavily on harmonics, and that started with “La Grange”. It happened by accident. Harmonics are unpredictable, and that makes them fun to use. They’re always in the right key, but when you really catch one sideways, man, it’s way out there!”
