Billy Gibbons takes fans on a ride through a “Desert High” in the video for his latest single. The song comes off the ZZ Top guitarist’s upcoming album Hardware, out on June 4th via Concord Records.
The song is instantly cinematic, as a black-and-white drive through Joshua Tree blends with Gibbons’ spoken word musings. Throughout “Desert High” are tributes to Jim Morrison (“The desert toad takes me for a ride/The Lizard King’s always by my side”) and Gram Parsons (“Gram died in room eight and left it all to Keith/Just a couple of miles from the salt and sea”). The Flying Burrito Brothers frontman died in Joshua Tree, several years after Keith Richards and the Rolling Stones allowed the FBB to release “Wild Horses” ahead of the Stones’ own version.
While the first couple minutes of “Desert High” are a significant departure for the celebrated blues guitarist, the rest of the song brings it all back home. Following Gibbons’ lengthy diatribe on the spirits of lost colleagues, he does what he does best with clean blues licks that ride off into the horizon of the dusty desert.
“The song is, perhaps, not typical of Hardware as a totality but it gives an indication of the album’s desiccated sonic sensibility,” Gibbons said of the song in a statement. “The desert is a truly mysterious place and we were privileged to have spent all that time there absorbing the heat, the vibe, and cranking it out. It’s where natural background is at its most raw and untamed. We suspect what we’ve done is something of a reflection or, perhaps, a mirage, that relates.”
Watch the new music video for “Desert High” by Billy Gibbons. Hardware is out on June 4th and is available here for pre-order.
Billy Gibbons – “Desert High” (Official Video)
[Video: Billy F Gibbons]