The biographer David Blayney explains in his book Sharp Dressed Men that the recording engineer Linden Hudson was involved as a pre-producer on this album.

On June 3, 2013, Gibbons told Joe Bosso of MusicRadar.com that the album was "a really interesting turning point", explaining that the band had "befriended somebody who would become an influential associate, a guy named Linden Hudson.

He brought some elements to the forefront that helped reshape what ZZ Top were doing, starting in the studio and eventually to the live stage.

"[4] However, Blayney described in his book how Hudson had composed and performed the synthesizer parts at the band's studio in Texas, a tape of which was taken to Memphis to be mixed into the final version of the song, without being credited.

[2] The double entendres on "Tube Snake Boogie" and "Pearl Necklace" are barely disguised, while much of the record plays as flat-out goofy party rock.