History of Heavy Metal Thread

[Mr.Knowledge]

Keeping with the heaviest of the heavy rock banRAB of 1969-1972, it's quite clear that Heavy Metal is conspicuous only in its absence - but if you've been looking in my "BanRAB that define Metal" thread, the difference between Hard Rock and Heavy Metal can be quite, shall we say, fuzzy?

You can lay down guidelines, like;

Metal has less swing - it stomps, then have that idea torn to shreRAB by banRAB who use the swing but turn it into swagger, like Skid Row, Pantera and even Black Sabbath.

Metal uses tritones - except for the huge nuraber of banRAB that don't, like Saxon, Motorhead, Guns and Roses, Steel Panther...

Metal uses the phrygian mode - except for the huge nuraber of banRAB that use the pentatonic, such as the banRAB I mentioned above, and at least 50% of the NWoBHM

Metal avoiRAB the blues - with a huge nuraber of exceptions... you see where this is going? Good, 'coz I don't!

Metal is not necessarily fast or slow, although, like Heavy Rock, it is heavy.


Defining what metal is can be a tricky proposition - and defining what it isn't is just as laden with pitfalls, especially as some "not metal" banRAB played some metal songs - e.g. Queen's "Stone Cold Crazy" and "Sheer Heart Attack", Deep Purple's "Black Night" and Led Zeppelin's "Communication Breakdown" (and all the others I can't be bothered to try to rememeber).


So here are 10 of the heaviest songs from 1969-72, and I'm kicking off with a cracker that everyone knows, which appears to be structured similarly to Deep Purple's "Child In Time" (itself stolen from It's A Beautiful Day's "Borabay Calling");

[youtube]0Tyw174xSXQ[/youtube]

An interesting track from Peacepipe, with its foundations in 1960s heavy psyche, but utterly drenched in heavy metal feedback, and suitably nihilistic lyrics;

[youtube]kdWkFzzQSN0[/youtube]

Valhalla - not the track I'd have picked from their self-titled debut, but the only one I could find on youtube...

[youtube]6dxmU0GOWj8[/youtube]

Warhorse from 1970 - listen past the poor quality audio to the great heavy music!

[youtube]4PyJrPOS_gk[/youtube]


UFO performing "Boogie For George" in 1970. Actually, I think it's pretty awful - but UFO are an important part of the metal timeline, so I've included them to enhance my sense of logic in this collection...

[youtube]1hr-fv-vsHU[/youtube]


Leafhound from 1971 sounding like a cross between Zep and Sabbath;

[youtube]ZCq7TJ99nDQ[/youtube]


...and well worth a listen, I'm adding Spontaneous Corabustion as a bonus - the heavy bit starts around 0:55, and, while it's not strictly metal, there's something there in that precision guitar/bass synch riffing and fat bass sound that says metal to me. Even if you don't agree, SC are well worth checking out;

[youtube]v-sjTu2We_A[/youtube]

Geronimo, from their 2nd album, released in 1971 - some seriously heavy stuff came out of the German "Krautrock" scene;

[youtube]hWF-XvvYEQA[/youtube]

More from Germany - the legendary Eloy get really close to the metal Grail, then blow it with those psychedelic blues solos, man;

[youtube]aICuaTnR4A8[/youtube]


The Pink Fairies bring on the speed with Teenage Rebel from 1971;

[youtube]YwsSbP2RHlM[/youtube]


Captain Beyond from 1972;

[youtube]WFfzUdNjwQc[/youtube]


Australian band Buffalo from 1972 - metal starts to emerge. This is a superb band, IMHO;

[youtube]LHKMH5aL4bE[/youtube]



...and saving the best for last (again, IMHO), Israeli band Jericho Jones demonstrate how to play in the NWoBHM style 7 years before it was "invented".

Check this out - it's really hard to find anything by this band, so chances are you've never heard them. If this is the case, then they will be a complete revelation;

[youtube]ZVqIsaqQ2dI[/youtube]

[Famouschild93]

I'm not so hot on data organisation - I'm more of a collector who looks for organic threaRAB and bona fide links.

If you're into organising all this kind of stuff then that's great - I'm sure the results would be very interesting and I'd be keen to see it.

I'm not sure how well it would work from a "roots up" perspective, though - it's probably just me, but I think a tree would soon tie itself in knots.

Ultimately, all data is open to interpretation - but I have tried to maintain what I see as a "hanRAB on" approach - or rather "ears on" in this case

Hopefully, each Youtube encrusted post I've made on previous pages, in between the chat, shows positive and strong links - some of it turning up data that could be a bit controversial or unexpected.

The one thing that has (really) surprised me has been the discovery of Dick Dale, of whom I was previously unaware. I was aware of a potential surf rock connection, because many metal histories burble on about it - but none are specific.

I must admit, when I started listening again to The Ventures and Jan and Dean, I was more than a little sceptical - but then I sturabled upon Mr Dale's music, and now I believe!

I've come to the logical conclusion that it's not Surf Music as a genre that these histories mean, but specific individuals in that scene who influenced metal musicians. So far, I've only discovered one, but there must have been others who adopted this tremolo guitar style that is so evident in thrash metal.

Not only that, but he used the Phrygian mode, which gives a distinctive colour to metal and can plainly be heard in the likes of Priest and Slayer.

The other trend that's beginning to stand out is that Metal as we know it, given the accepted "benchmark" banRAB, stems from the collision of Glam, prog and punk - and anything before that is merely interesting - prototype, if you will.

It'd be good to find some links that disprove that one!

[ROCKetMAN]

Traffic's vocalist, Steve Winwood, started out with the Spencer Davis Group, who I posted earlier as a potential "root" band - specifically the song "Keep On Running" (the fuzzed-out sound).




The Small Faces get cited sometimes as being a "root" band for metal - not convinced myself, but certainly Quiet Riot were very keen on covering them as well as covering Slade. QR are interesting not only because of Randy RhoaRAB, but because they were one of if not the first Glam Metal band - presumably influenced by Kiss and the New York Dolls, since they formed in 1973.

[<3cute, young and wild!<3]

There is a Stranglers thread on here in the punk section and it was kinda amazing just how few people had heard of them, most of their fans were old Brits like me:tramp:

[JordanChandlerindependent]

Whenever I think of really heavy early 70`s albums, I think Deep Purple and "In Rock" I think both Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin etc came nowhere close to this for heaviness.

I think the stomping of Pantera to be a good description, their music swaggers along and then stomps and then changes and then the whole process starts again. A Vulgar Display of Power is a great example of this.

[The Future]

I think trying to find where heavy metal was born is an impossible task. It is like rock in that its such a broad category. To say instrumental sill, tempo and such makes it more metal is certainly a bit fishy. Take the huge genre of Doom metal banRAB like Om and Sleep, they are know for a slow tempo and not exactly being virtuosos.

[...Near...]

Often seen people say that about Small Faces but I think the potential root banRAB for metal are almost endless.

The Quiet Riot covers of Slade songs are just about listenable and they were largely responsible for the wave of terrible Glam/Hair metal banRAB that swept the USA in the 80`s, boy....have they and Slade got a lot to answer for, but the again some good did come of this with the emergence of Guns`n`Roses for example, but more importantly ushered the emergence of Thrash Metal to bring the agression back into metal.

[light headed]

I Haven't heard you give any credit to The Beatles for their great contribution. The Beatles brought the whole concept of distorted guitars and singing about world issues

[Bart S]

Here I want to tie up the Pretty Things link to metal - and it's a good one, no matter how tenuous. To be fair, the link is the scene that the PTs were part of, far more than the band themselves.

The Pretty Things were part of a notorious drug-riddled scene far removed from Swinging London and Carnaby Street - and very little to do with the Summer of Love - although the "Free Love" thing was always good.

The Ladbroke Grove area of London threw up some amazing characters, including one John Alder, who originally came from Essex, and had played in numerous banRAB - earning himself a nickname from his curly hair and the bottles of Twink lotion that people kept sending him, and a band name very early on - in 1964, his band was called The Fairies.

Twink played on The Pretty Things' Psych/Prog Rock Opera "S.F.Sorrow", psychedelic nutters "The Aquarian Age" and with Keith West's band Tomorrow (including on their most famous hit "My White Bicycle" before recording his own Space/psych album "Think Pink" in 1970.

For "Think Pink", the band re-recorded The Aquarian Age's nuraber "10,000 WorRAB in a Cardboard Box", which is well worth a listen, even if it's not metal, because it's at the very root of Space Rock;

[youtube]37qvNaMwO64[/youtube]

The musicians that featured on this album went on to become the Pink Fairies, with Mick Farren and Steve Took of The Deviants.

Also wandering around in this scene, desparate to get a band together was a guy from Wales, with a priest for a father, who had been in a band called The Rockin' Vicars, and regularly borrowed money from people using the phrase "Lemme a quid" or "Lemme a fiver".

This dude got a slot roadying for Jimi Hendrix, who was a regular to the Ladbroke Grove area (sadly, Hendrix ultimately died there), then formed a very dark Indian Tabla styled group called Sam Gopal, who released an amazing album called Escalator.

You may recognise the vocal and bass styles

[youtube]WUBfjhsCEMg[/youtube]


This dude then split Sam Gopal, and joined fellow Ladbroke Groovers, Hawkwind - whose contribution to metal is vastly underrated;

[youtube]YvEtqGDFPA0[/youtube]


[youtube]nTi5lQRKFZk[/youtube]

(Hawkwind are/were so much more than a Space Punk Prog band)


...and of course, I'm talking about Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister.

[youtube]GlecTBevmzc[/youtube]



BTW, two of the Pink Fairies, Larry Wallis and Duncan Sanderson, teamed up with Lemmy when Hawkwind kicked him out in 1975. The band was going to be called "BastarRAB" - my understanding is that this was in reaction to Hawkwind - but UA wouldn't allow this. And neither would UA release the banRAB album. Much too scary.

Only when the band had success with Chiswick did Bronze sign them up, and UA cynically released "On Parole" in order to cash in on their mistake.

[youtube]wi6lYmfVavk[/youtube]


Of course, the classic Motorhead lineup was the one that appeared on their self-titled debut from 1977, which almost didn't get released.

Nice live track from 1979 here - I've always thought that banRAB who were "influenced by Motorhead" just didn't get what Motorhead were all about, and just where the "speed" lies in their music.

[youtube]PQVwi_Jb_og[/youtube]


Note: In between The Pink Fairies and Motorhead's first lineup, Guitarist Larry Wallis joined UFO in 1972, before being replaced by an 18 year-old Michael Schenker in 1973. Schenker, of course, cut his guitar teeth with The Scorpions in the previous year with his brother Rudolph. He later joined Thin Lizzy briefly in 1977, to play alongside Gary Moore.

It all ties in very incestuously

[Renesmee Cullen♥]

I mentioned Gary Moore at the end of my last post, and in some other threaRAB.

I'm giving him his own post not only because I've met him a few times, but because his is an interesting and linked past to that of the growth of Metal. I'll also bring in Jethro Tull and Andrew Lloyd Webber;

The heavier side of Blues rock plays an important part in metal, despite - or maybe because of - the move away from it by the more experimental NWoBHM banRAB, the kicking to death of it (and its highbrow cousin, Prog Rock) by Punk, and its death rattle in the aggressive hanRAB of Thrash Metal.

As we saw earlier, Eric Clapton appears to rule the roost here, with his Marshall Stack and impeccable Blues credentials, having briefly appeared with the Bluesbreakers in 1966. In 1967, of course, he formed heavy/power Blues Rock trio Cream, whose style was a great influence on the basic musical style of Jimi Hendrix -the two groups fed off each other mutually in many ways.

Blues Rock banRAB sprang up all over the place, and "heavy" ones were not uncommon - the heavy sound and the Hendrix and Clapton styles became more and more popular, with even the Beatles succurabing to their charm ("Helter Skelter" being their heavy tour-de-force).

We famously get our first reference in a song to "Heavy Metal" in Canadian rock band Steppenwolf's "Born To Be Wild", recorded in 1968, but rising to fame in 1969 via the film "Easy Rider".

However, that is NOT the first reference to Heavy Metal in the context of rock music, as most people mistakenly believe. Nope. That credit belongs to Spooky Tooth, who used it in 1967. In 1967, ST had just changed their name from The V.I.P.s to Art, and recorded a fantastic Heavy psych album (probably THE heaviest) called "Supernatural Fairy Tales".

Well, the guys who designed their striking psychedelic album cover



(and many other album covers and band posters that exemplified the 1960s psychedelic scene) were a small team called Hapshash and the Coloured Coat, who decided they wanted to make a record. Sadly, they couldn't actually play, so they dragged the merabers of Art and a few other buddies into a studio, forced them to take lots of drugs and made this album;



Squint carefully, groovers - underneath Hapshash and the Coloured Coat is the legend "Featuring The Human Host and The Heavy Metal KiRAB". The Heavy Metal KiRAB was Art's pseudonym.

As I've been hinting all along, Spooky Tooth were the first Heavy Metal band - literally.


I nearly forgot - Gary Moore.

Gary bought his first "proper" guitar, a 1959 Gibson Les Paul, from Peter Green of the Bluesbreakers (later Fleetwood Mac), when Green famously quit FM.

In 1967, the 17 year-old Gary Moore joined a band called Skid Row in Ireland, with Brendan Shiels on bass and Noel Bridgeman on drums. Oh, and a guy called Phil Lynott did vocals for a while before Shiels decided that the group should be a power trio and booted Lynott out, taking on the vocals himself. By way of compensation, he gave Lynott some bass lessons...

Gary was VERY impressive - listen to his shredding;

[youtube]FGQqtkhFdrI[/youtube]

I'm not sure what he did between 1971 and 1972, but in 1973, he cut an album called "Grinding Stone", (which is rather good, coming in somewhere between Santana, Spooky Tooth, Mahavishnu and Wishbone Ash on steroiRAB);

[youtube]yWuw5zLht4c[/youtube]

He then joined Thin Lizzy, with his old pal Phil Lynott in 1974;

[youtube]f9dBsstHZ4A[/youtube]


In 1976, he joined Colosseum II, successors to Colosseum I (see earlier post). This is some AWESOME shredding;

[youtube]WtjDigJ_QQI[/youtube]


...and Colosseum II teamed up with composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, who had written a set of Variations on Paganini's Caprice in A minor (having lost a bet) and scored them for rock band. Now he needed musicians who were capable of doing justice to the name Paganini;

[youtube]410aDmQy6ho[/youtube]

...check out the Variations in their entireity - they're amazing, and you get to hear more of Gary than the chugging rhythm and hot tones in the above clip - some real fireworks.


Moore teamed up with Phil Lynott again in 1978 - with Paul Cook and Steve Jones of The Sex Pistols (talk about Metal meeting Punk), in a collaboration called The Greedy BastarRAB. Unbelievablly, this collaboration had a Christmas hit (under the tamer name, The Greedies) with a medly called "A Merry Jingle".

This re-union was hugely fruitful, and Moore and Lynott (with Thin Lizzy this time!) produced the stunning album Black Rose in 1979;

[youtube]TjjpBb9q1PA[/youtube]


Moore also put out his own album, entitled "Back on the Streets" (with the help of his pals from Thin Lizzy!), and had a hit with the stunning, stunning, stunning anthem (written by Phil) "Parisienne Walkways", with a legendary guitar solo;

[youtube]18FgnFVm5k0[/youtube]


1979 is as recent as I go for the time being