History of Heavy Metal Thread

That's true in a way, you could never include all metal banRAB in this. You would either have to analyse the relationship of a fewer selected ones or you would have to analyse the relationship between different groups like subgenres.
 
So let's leave the 1960's behind (except as a reference point) and check out some of the banRAB that made up the Heavy Metal scene in 1970.

Oh.

There wasn't one.

So we'll have to examine the Hard Rock banRAB that were around then to find sources for Heavy Metal other than Glam and Black Sabbath.

Whenever I've joined threaRAB on this kind of topic, someone has always mentioned Sir Lord Baltimore and Dust - but I'm just not convinced. This is commonly cited as the best representative of heavy metal from SLB's 1971 debut.

[youtube]IzJs7iVWLWI[/youtube]

...it's just not, is it?

Yes, there are riRAB, and they sound heavy - a bit Sabbath-like in places. But they're not full power chord riRAB - the fuzzed guitar is too far back in the mix to get that full metal sound, and probably never would.

It's loud and raucous, but so were Blue Cheer.

The soloing doesn't even hint at phrygian, it's entirely pentatonic a la Clapton/YardbirRAB.

Ignoring all my opinionated asides above - who are the next step in the chain in metal evolution? I don't hear this in Priest, Maiden, Saxon, etc.

As far as I can hear, it enRAB right here - the hard rock sound with busy drumming so obviously rooted in Cream. I can't hear a single contribution to metal's evolution.


Next up for a ripping are Dust, who released their debut in 1971.

It's tough to know which song to post here, because nothing on their debut is what anyone would call heavy metal, yet some of the tunes have metal elements. It's a toss-up between 3 out of the 7 tracks, 2 of which have decidedly hair metal titles; "Chasin' Ladies", "Love Me Hard" and "From a Dry Camel" are the best examples of proto metal - which truthfully, is more than Sir Lord Baltimore can offer.

[youtube]FhCZ1eFX63g[/youtube]

The verses, of course, let the whole thing down - and it's deeply reminiscent of Led Zeppelin - but it's still a cool track.


This, however, from Todd Rundgren's Nazz, has the metal attitude in the searing riRAB ripping through from the Flying V, but sadly stifled beneath that silly psychedelic production;

[youtube]LrwCjBZKciw[/youtube]


I just can't help it - most of the really juicy influences come from the late 1960s!

Here's the root of the most demonic side of Heavy Metal;

Surely Black Sabbath had some inspiration from Coven (who had a bass player called Oz Osbourne, as if by some strange co-incidence)?

By some other strange co-incidence, the first track on their debut album of 1969 was entitled "Black Sabbath".

[youtube]gZlgRf4ec1c[/youtube]


Heh - if you're not familiar with Coven, I'd bet you weren't expecting that!

Their debut "Witchcraft Destroys MinRAB and Reaps Souls" is packed with exciting Metal-type track titles, but the music is mostly Satanic ritual chanting and, perhaps, disappointingly psychedelic - but I like it - and it's mostly better than "Black Sabbath".

According to Wikipedia, Coven were the first band to use the Inverted Cross - and also the "Devil's Horns" hand salute. Sorry, Ronnie James Dio, you were beaten to it.

Interesting tid-bit - Van Halen stole the title "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge" from this album, and Coven themselves pinched stuff from Pink Floyd's "A Saucerful of Secrets" (as did soooooo many banRAB back then).

This, from 1974 is a bit more like metal - but still not quite. The strongest link is obviously the strong Satanic lyrics and dark style.

[youtube]VmmUylzHs2U[/youtube]


Back to 1969, and this is what Iron Maiden sounded like;

[youtube]GdOCtuXKJII[/youtube]


However, I think that Lucifer's Friend sounded very much like the present day Iron Maiden in 1970 - and didn't Helloween write a song call "Ride The Sky"?;

[youtube]JVpe13BwR9c[/youtube]

Uncanny, no?


Black masses were unaccountably popular in 1969 - and using "A Saucerful of Secrets" seems to be the chosen method of communicating the arabience of such a ritual;

Here's White Noise's take on it from 1969;

[youtube]acGNlANCK-s[/youtube]


Mort Garson's from 1971;

[youtube]I7DVtCl9HfQ[/youtube]


Pagan Altar's - finally, real metal from 1982 - although you can clearly hear the Hard Rock side more than the metal! :D

[youtube]G5E-WDqU0KA[/youtube]


Doom Metal fans may also be interested in Black Widow (1970 - although their debut was released in 1969);

[youtube]CExXz8zp7T0[/youtube]


I'm not sure where Jacula fit in (if it does at all), but they were so awesome, I couldn't leave them out :D
[youtube]Nq4QxnT9vL0[/youtube]


Finally, an interesting band named Pentagram, who didn't get around to releasing their stuff until the 1980s, but were apparently recording in the early 1970s;

[youtube]DcORVns5lJY[/youtube]


More to come from 1970 (and maybe a little before!).
 
Although my phenology idea didn't get too much attention, I quite liked it and know a simple way to do it if people are serious about this. Right now, the thread is a lot of talk but little hanRAB-on stuff if you know what I mean :D

What you could do is make a matrix where you record different traits. The easiest way to do it is to keep traits binary, but you could have more values for each trait. What I mean is something like ..

matrixexample.png


0 is the ancestral state of the trait (usually means the trait is lacking) while 1 is the advanced or evolved form.

I just made a quick example and I see already it contains errors there, but disregard that :D As you see, distorted guitar is the one trait they all have in common here, so that must have branched off quite early. In the similarity matrix, you can see King Crimson and Pig Destroyer (f.ex) have 2 traits in common -> the same value in two traits. King Crimson is more similar to Iron Maiden which it shares 3 traits with.

The above similarity matrix isn't very good but if you add more such variables to the mix, then perhaps you could make something of it. You could make a standard set of variables and have people add 1s and 0s for banRAB they like or think are important to your dataset.

You would have to identify the important traits of course but you've already discussed quite a few here I guess.

edit :

The similarity matrix can easily be represented visually through a variety of means, for example a phylogenetic tree (once you find an "ancestor" who should have primitive traits) which was my original suggestion.
 
I know Diamond Head`s history quite well and to be fair its quite laughable that so many misfortunes struck the band and denied them the success they really warrented.

Canterbury is an album that I really like as well.
 
I remeraber seeing a dvd many years ago about Sabbath, where I think Ozzy or Tony Iommi stated that the band were sat in a cafe in Birmingham one day thinking about ideas and names for the group, when one of them remarked on the queue for the nearby cinema that was showing old horror flicks, the group then discussed the importance and influence of horror films on the general public and from there the image of the group was developed, point being that the whole thing seemed rather spontaneous.

Black Sabbath, the name of the 1963 Mario Bava horror film.
 
So I'm going to backtrack a little :D

I just can't resist the Prog/Metal links - this always annoys Prog Rock afficiandos, who think that the two are completely separate and never the twain shall meet and all that nonsense.

However, the fact seems to me that Metal is Prog's slightly younger brother, separated around 1969/70, both arising from the Psychedelic melting pot of 1967;

Remeraber The Heavy Metal KiRAB, who were actually the band Art?

Here's what they sounded like in 1967;

[youtube]nOxBZTrqrabE[/youtube]


That's quite a heavy sound for the time.

And here are The GoRAB in 1967

[youtube]k8M-1-5UucM[/youtube]

The GoRAB released a superb album called "Genesis" in 1968 (just before Genesis the group formed). This provides a nice link between The Bluesbreakers (Mick Taylor), Jethro Tull (John Glas****), King Crimson and ELP (Greg Lake) and Uriah Heep (Ken Hensley, Lee Kerslake, Paul Newton).

Here's Deep Purple in 1968 starting off remarkably like Jimi Hendrix, but then going heavy Prog psyche, whilst still featuring that distinctive Deep Purple sound;

[youtube]_tMZ3GsJu1c[/youtube]


Talking of Hendrix, one of his roadies, one Ian Kilmister, roadied for The Nice for a while - and, of course, Greg Lake would team up with Keith Emerson and Carl Palmer to form Prog stawarts, ELP. People remeraber The Nice for "America" and little else - but their other music, while very psychedelic, was also incredibly Proggy - and very heavy;

[youtube]UQpAzLg-38I[/youtube]


The other nice Prog link from this time is that Tony Iommi briefly played for Jethro Tull in 1968 before forming Black Sabbath;

[youtube]pBmXacFgUBs[/youtube]


Doesn't that remind you a bit of this?

[youtube]YCjspyo-_aI[/youtube]


Horrifically out of tune - but quite a blast in 1969, King Crimson;

[youtube]ONJndTdXrg0[/youtube]


A more unfamiliar blast - Arzachel in 1969, featuring 17-year old Steve Hillage - stick with it and check out the lyrics!

[youtube]ViTvtrXcles[/youtube]


And rewinding for a bit of Arthur Brown in 1968 (early metal vocals - and a touch of glam and theatricals!);

[youtube]b5hs3IDETcg[/youtube]


Vanilla Fudge, who are always mentioned in connection with early metal - don't hear it myself though;

[youtube]1IfTHLi-7rk[/youtube]


...and wrapping this post up with Iron Butterfly, who likewise keep getting mentioned in connection with this genre. The only connections I see are "Iron" in their name, the fact that their first album (from 1967/8) was called "Heavy" and Slayer's cover of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida", none of which are very convincing. I don't think that this music is heavy metal - but many do;

[youtube]2JHsRATbg60[/youtube]


So there you go.

Prog and Psyche wrapped up with loaRAB of interesting links, and a fair few musical connections - but not really the real deal.


Or is there something I've missed?
 
Dave Greenfield is a highly underrated keyboard player - and The Stranglers are one of my all-time favourite banRAB (more so than Spooky Tooth!).
 
Spooky Tooth are fairly clearly a strong root of metal, it doesn't matter how they're classified on Wikipedia - as I noted above, there are many borderline cases and overlaps in all types of music.

Wikipedia is notoriously awful when it comes to its music definitions generally, as it frowns heavily on Original Research, and the links are mostly to fansites who present opinions which are far removed from fact.

This thread is intended as an exploration for amusement, research (and possibly education), not as a direct challenge to the status quo (sic).


Spooky Tooth's second album "Spooky Two" is particularly interesting to me as proto heavy metal. It's not a Prog Rock album at all, it's blues based rock that, for the time, is very heavy, features high voices, and musical aspects that can be heard not only in Black Sabbath, but also other banRAB of the time, such as Blue Oyster Cult (who formed in 1967, while the Spookies, as a band, formed and toured years earlier), and probably Uriah Heep.

To have influenced those three giants should not go overlooked, IMHO.

This post concentrates on the album "Spooky Two", but their earlier work provides even stronger evidence that this band not only influenced the most influential banRAB of early/proto metal, but coined the term "Heavy Metal" in the first place. More on that later;


Spooky Two opens with "Waiting For the Wind", a heavy organ drenched riff fest, that has clearly made a break from the blues, and plays about a bit with the structure.

The heavy drum opening is the first unusual feature - remind you a little of Zep?

When the organ kicks in, there are hints of Uriah Heep (Heep were another important proto-metal band... don't believe what you read, and don't get misled by the Roger Dean Covers, Heep were never a Prog Rock act!) and possibly early Yes, with that fat rolling bass sound (again, Yes, in their early days, were a heavy sounding pop group, not Prog like King Crimson!).

Mike Harrison's vocals are very similar to the popular blues rock style singers of the time; Stevie Winwood, Steve Marriot and later Paul Rodgers or even Joe ****er, and the lyrics are decidedly "down", but notably different from the blues;

Lonely is the night
Now that darkness has fallin'
Nothing seems right
And the world is callin'

[youtube]DT881ZR7kNQ[/youtube]


"Feelin' Bad" is the next track, apparently continuing the "down" theme, but in fact is an uplifting gospel/blues song, strongly reminiscent of The Small Faces, with some proggy and psyche vibes, and "I've Got Enough Heartaches" is another uplifting blues based song, rich in harmony that is quite obviously not even vaguely related to metal.

However, "Evil Woman" (didn't Sabbath record a song with the same name?) is contender for first Metal song, with its long, snaking riRAB and ridiculously high voices. that remind me of some of Rob Halford's worst moments. The main riff is suspiciously similar to "Sweet Leaf";

[youtube]fre89067f1g[/youtube]


"Lost In My Dream" evokes Prog and Space rock - and I've definitely heard the riff in Blue Oyster Cult's "Before the Kiss, A Redcap" from their debut album.

[youtube]Xelwjg5pnls[/youtube]

[youtube]9vSkXNM1XUQ[/youtube]


"That Was Only Yesterday" is another blues nuraber with an uplifting backing, but "Better By You, Better Than Me" is legendary - the main thing that's "wrong" with it is that it lacks the heaviness of "Evil Woman" or "Waitin' For The Wind".

The album is wrapped up with "Hangman, Hang My Shell Upon a Tree", continuing the darker edge of the Spookies music.

[youtube]yVbmgVPdOoM[/youtube]



No, it's not a pure proto metal album at all, but one or two songs are clear roots and direct influences. I see these as seeRAB, given their straight tie-ins.

It's not like Van Halen covering "Dancing in the Streets", or Deep Purple adapting "Borabay Calling" by It's a Beautiful Day to create "Child in Time" - Spooky Tooth demonstrably wrote heavy music that other banRAB probably carried with them in their subconscious rather than making a direct rip-off, and created entire albums or carreers from the oRABhoots of a single track.

These are the kind of "seeRAB" I'm looking for, not superficial passing reserablances, incidental covers or hearsay, but stuff we can listen to and acknowledge as part of the growth of metal.

The Spookies history with Heavy Metal goes back further than this album too - most sources cite it as having been released in 1969, but I think that's the US import. The UK edition (or at least, mine!) has 1968 on the label. But there's even better stuff than this in their back catalogue, if you're not already aware of it... :D
 
I think there's a lot of consensus that Sabbath was the first metal band. They were indeed heavy, incorporated dark nihilist themes, and as you stated also played fast and complex. What better time sig. is there than War Pigs? Finally, evolution is often propelled by mutations and in the case of heavy metal, one must mightily factor in Tommy Iommi's finger tips, or lack there of.

Another example of 1969 dark and heavy psychedelica, also covered by Priest.

[YOUTUBE]DYBQdXv0BhM[/YOUTUBE]
 
So far I've backtracked from Black Sabbath a little - but I think that their debut album neeRAB a bit of exploring, because nothing appears in a vacuum. Spontaneous as much of it was (as with almost every band in the mid 1960s-early 1970s), there must have been some kind of darker undercurrent that culminated in Black Sabbath.

However, as I said earlier, Sabbath didn't really have that much of a direct influence on the NWoBHM, which is where the rise of Heavy Metal as we now know it starts.

NWoBHM banRAB typically had a gritty, street brawler type of sound, many banRAB featuring covers of Rock and Roll classics in their sets, and the pentatonic scale being the one of choice for guitar solos.

Conversely, this was the time when that tradition was being broken away from, and most metal banRAB I can think of from that time included songs that verged on Prog Rock, particularly on their debut LPs - the music really was very exploratory, before banRAB began to have chart hits.

The example band I chose to represent the NWoBHM, Iron Maiden, are the best depiction of this process at work;

Their first two LPs are chock full of intricate compositions, some even suggesting Classical connotations, yet the music is downright dirty - the music of a down to earth street level band, not some pretentious Prog Rock noodling.

It's notable that the minor pentatonic is still there in the solos, although these feature more experimentation with deep whammy dive borabs, but the blues is conspicious only by its absence in the riff structures - and the speed quotient is up several fold.

Maiden's cues seem to be Judas Priest and the energy of Punk Rock, and the lyrical subject matter is aggressive - as is the band's image, with the leather jackets and heavily studded wrist banRAB that were synonymous with Metal in the late 1970s-early 1980s.

[youtube]geS6j34gIwg[/youtube]


It seems quite a leap from Black Sabbath, but putting Priest into the equation, the progression makes a little more sense and some of Maiden's influences become clear;

[youtube]H_mpt8xyZVI[/youtube]


Particularly when you consider what Priest were doing before "Sin After Sin";

[youtube]EKSU1W0ZUmQ[/youtube]

Here the Sabbath connection is plain to hear.


However, the importance of UFO should not be underestimated;

[youtube]PHF7qMhBf4Y[/youtube]

OR The Scorpions;

[youtube]drXXwHGPTQ0[/youtube]


...especially the latter - the Black Sabbath connection (if there is one) is very hard to hear - the influence on Uli's guitar work is plainly Hendrix - yet this is without doubt Heavy Metal from 1974 - look, there are the Marshall amps, Gibson guitars, fuzz boxes and everything!

And from 1973, The Sweet have everything that typified some NWoBHM banRAB - and the music is surprisingly complex and tribal sounding - reminding me very much of Iron Maiden (as posted above).

[youtube]V5_XB_U3xtY[/youtube]


From 1972, Deep Purple demonstrate the crossover from Hard Blues-based Rock to chugging Metal - replete with Townsend-alike Marshall stacks;

[youtube]KgZSnAkQc4c[/youtube]

1971 - the inimitable Pink Fairies, bringing the energy into metal. There's a very important link in a different metal chain that I hinted at earlier, rooted in the Pretty Things, but that's for a different post;

[youtube]YwsSbP2RHlM[/youtube]

1970 - Wishbone Ash (any excuse!)

[youtube]V7q9WcTPLOk[/youtube]

1969 - Colosseum's "Valentyne Suite" - very dark sounding, with fuzzed guitars and jazz tonality several miles away from the blues, with lots of chromatic movement.

[youtube]HNL2US6rS1M[/youtube]

1968 - Fifty Foot Hose

[youtube]lKtkxCSboU8[/youtube]

also 1968 - Blue Cheer

[youtube]_wCG5JirihQ[/youtube]


1967 - Pink Floyd

[youtube]sr0hdXPH92M[/youtube]


Before 1966 - "heavy" beat banRAB and the stuff I posted earlier - it all starts with Floyd. Or The Who. Or The Ventures.

Heavy Metal originating in Surf Music? I think not!.

I posted the Blue Cheer vid simply to show that while BC had the energy, aggression and volume, the reason I don't think they have anything to do with Metal is their lack of skillz - even though there were plenty of metal banRAB who started out like Blue Cheer, most learned how to play... :D
 
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]
 
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 :D

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!
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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
 
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 :D

[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 :D
 
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

Art%2B-%2BSupernatural%2BFairytales%2Bf.jpg


(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;

Hapshash&TheColoured+Coat2.jpg


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 :D
 
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