History of Heavy Metal Thread

[xx_dustin_xx]

The plan here is to explore each stage of the development of heavy metal, on a year-by-year basis.

To get things started, we need to identify what it is that makes the Heavy Metal sound/style, and that is different things to different people.

It makes sense to me to have Heavy Metal defined as the music produced by the NWoBHM banRAB of the late 1970s. Although the acronym stanRAB for "New Wave of British Heavy Metal", there was no clear "Old Wave" - that is, most banRAB, with very, very few exceptions, that played "metal" before the NWoBHM are also widely described as "Hard Rock", "Heavy Rock" or even "Progressive Rock", and the music is decidedly different.

With that definition, we have some boundaries by which we can identify traits in earlier music as being a precursor to metal, and formulate the history more successfully than the often ludicrous attempts you read elsewhere!

How often have I read that the term "Heavy Metal" is derived from some old book title (as if to try to lend it some sort of literary creedence!) and that it "originated in banRAB of the 1960s, such as The Kinks", or in the lyrics of some song or other.

Sorry, but this won't do - I mean to explore the 1960s and before in order to find out where the roots are, look at hard rock banRAB other than the usual suspects (Blue Cheer, Steppenwolf, Iron Butterfly, Vanilla Fudge, Purple, Zep and Sabbath) and really get intimate with the musical development.

In order to keep things as interesting and readable as possible, I'll put this analysis into the next post.

 

[volleyballxoxox]

As a quick summary in bullet points, from the very beginning;

1. We've charted a little of the metal attitudes back to the beginning of Rock and Roll, and seen how metal music grew from this energetic interpretation of the Blues, thanks to the sudden growth of the underground music scene in the mid 1960s.

2. We've tracked the accidental "discovery" of fuzz back to 1960, and noted that the overdriven sound came originally from the Bluesmen that predate Rock and Roll, although the fuzzed sound notably did not become widely used until 1965, when The Rolling Stones used it in "Satisfaction".

3. We've seen that Marshall Amplifiers and the almost simultaneous introduction of Gibson's Fuzz box, together with Gibson's legendary hurabucker-driven guitars are pretty much what made the metal sound in 1965 - and that The Who were first with this corabination.

4. We've seen the music grow from seeRAB planted as early as 1963 (the insistend rhythms and dark tones of Delia Derbyshire's "Dr Who" theme) - or possibly earlier in Horror films (we haven't really explored those yet), but the earliest song I could find that sounRAB distinctly like heavy metal is probably Steppenwolf's "Born To Be Wild" (1968), or arguably some of the material put out by Cream and Hendrix. I think that The Bluesbreakers, The YardbirRAB, The Pretty Things and The Who were absolutely instrumental in bringing this music about, but I don't think that any of their stuff was "it", so we can't pin this date any earlier than 1967.

5. We've seen the name and the style grow from Spooky Tooth to Black Sabbath to Judas Priest, via Blues Rock, Space Rock and Glam Rock, but also seen that the style was only loosely related to Black Sabbath for well over a decade. In fact, Black Sabbath's revolutionary tritone-based riRAB which are now a commonplace feature of metal were almost non-existent in all but the wildest of Prog Rock banRAB. We need to move into the late 1970s-early 1980s to see the rise of the tritone in metal and the emergence of the Modern Metal sound.

6. We can already see that metal is made up of a whole variety of sounRAB and surface styles, not to mention lyrical themes and technical playing ability, ranging from completely unable to play right across the board to uber-virtuoso. This rules out most generalisations you will ever read about Heavy Metal - despite the familiarity of its sound, it cannot easily be generalised. This diversity deserves an exploration which will probably hit several posts.

7. We can also see how musicians from other fielRAB of music (I'll avoid the word "genres" simply because I hate the word!) have come into metal and brought aspects of those fielRAB into metal - but metal doesn't flow the other way. Once you bring classical or jazz music into metal, it becomes part of metal, not the other way around. This is peculiar, because composers brought jazz into Classical, and it remained Classical (Debussy), and Classical into jazz (Gershwin) without altering the jazz nature. This would be a very interesting aspect to explore further.

 

[odjud]

BanRAB that keep getting mentioned as early heavy metal;


After the late mid 1960s banRAB I've already mentioned, like Steppenwolf, Iron Butterfly, Vanilla Fudge, Cream et al, there are a nuraber of other early banRAB who regularly crop up in this sort of discussion.

Blue Oyster Cult formed in 1967 - but didn't release an album until 1973, so we'll skip over them for now.

Budgie also formed in 1967, and released their first album in 1971. Wikipedia describes them as "widely considered as one of the first heavy metal banRAB and a seminal influence to many acts of that scene with fast, heavy rock (an influence on the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) and such acts as Metallica) being played as early as 1971, preceding other influential banRAB such as Judas Priest. The band has been noted as, "among the heaviest metal of its day"."

The only truth in the above description is that Budgie played as early as 1971 and preceded Priest.

In 1971, Budgie played heavy blues-based rock - in no way was the music like Heavy Metal - indeed, it's only the fact that Metallica covered some of their material that their early output has ever been considered part of the genre.

This changed in 1980, of course, when Budgie changed their style to fit in with the NWoBHM sound, and released the magnificent Power Supply. Sadly, this was too late to qualify them as "early Heavy Metal" - and the heaviest stuff on Power Supply is disctinctly Judas Priest inspired - listen;

[youtube]Rrw9sySXgQ4[/youtube]

Back in 1970, Budgie sounded much more like this;

[youtube]6G1GiIDg-q0[/youtube]

Definitely Led Zeppelin inspired - it's a nice heavy sound, but not really metal a la Judas Priest or Iron Maiden.

It's also worth noting that this song (which Metallica made famous, of course) was not included on the original UK release, but only on the US release - so the chances of it influencing British metal are not only slight, but not evident in Priest's music - or UFO, The Sweet, Saxon, Def Leppard, Angelwitch... the list of banRAB Budgie did not influence probably runs to most of the NWoBHM I'd say.

The first track on the UK release is "Guts" - a Black Sabbath inspired nuraber (or a nuraber that inspired Black Sabbath!);

[youtube]9H6GSYOByZs[/youtube]

Squawk, released in 1972, shows many of the same Led Zeppelin roots - this time with an interesting continual double bass drum. Nice and heavy - but not really metal. Check out the pentatonic scale solo and complete lack of chromatics ("blues" notes aside);


[youtube]TUqvECWXOdA[/youtube]


Breadfan is also well known among Metallica fans, and kicks off their 1973 album "Never Turn Your Back on a Friend". I'm hearing some influence on Iron Maiden's early style here - with the caveat that Maiden's early sound is not typical of the NWoBHM sound and style.

[youtube]s3-l_T6AuNk[/youtube]

1974 brought "In For The Kill", another round of the same sort of great headbanging stuff with some fantastic riRAB - Budgie had found a groove and saw no reason to change a formula that worked perfectly - but no real metal;

[youtube]I6wO9XZ8sJY[/youtube]


...and there's no point going any further forward. UFO released "Phenomenon" in 1974, and Heavy Metal was born in Michael Schenker's precision guitar style and Gibson growl;

[youtube]lC7E22Fme5k[/youtube]


If there's any further doubt that Heavy Metal was born in 1974 and no earlier, here is some Heavy Metal from 1971;

[youtube]tw8-TlQBcBA[/youtube]

(only Kidding...)

...and if there's any doubt that it arose from the loins of Glam Rock;

[youtube]WID2TCPZtVg[/youtube]

Must make myself familiar with William S. Burroughs' work.


Other banRAB from the late 1960s/early 1970s in further posts...

 

[kim c]

So, firstly, the defining characteristics of the music;

Iron Maiden are cited over and over again as the spearleaders of the NWoBHM, but it's also widely acknowledged that Judas Priest and Black Sabbath are key innovators in the genre. Yes, there are lots of other banRAB who made important contributions (Motorhead, etc) - but this is about getting a definition, not making a boring laundry list. More banRAB can be added to the mix if these three don't produce a useful and working definition of the music.


Black Sabbath are the earliest of these 3, so let's pick 3 tracks that typify their sound and style;

[youtube]akt3awj_Ah8[/youtube]

[youtube]_aIhh9nFYv4[/youtube]

[youtube]uRhZISswW_k[/youtube]


Yeah, there are loaRAB more Sabbath tracks I could have used - but there are some important bits and pieces here;

This is NOT the blues. Despite the proliferation of pentatonic scales in the solos, the music is not rooted in I-IV-V progressions. This is only a clue - plenty of banRAB had moved away from blues-based rock and roll by 1970.

Natable Characteristics

1. The music is riff based - the riRAB are even more prominent than the vocal melodies.

2. These riRAB are almost entirely played with a very distorted guitar tone that is given high importance in the mix. The type of distortion goes way beyond mere "fuzz", this is the peculiar high gain sound produced by valve amps - notably Marshalls that Hendrix was very keen on.

3. The intros, verses and choruses seem like preludes to the guitar solos.


So far we've desribed "Hard Rock" - so what are the REAL differences?

1. The riRAB are styled to sound as "dark" and aggressive as possible. This is something fairly new, compared to "standard" hard rock.

Much of this is due to the incorporation of the tritone, or diabolus in musica - again, not new, as Hendrix did this, as did Gustav Holst in Classical music, decades before, and composers before him - it's simply that this interval occurs so frequently in Sabbath's music that it is a defining feature of it.

2. The lyrics are dark and nihilistic, with references to "underground", "(oc)cult" and even anti-social activities, apparent agonised pleas for help and other material clearly intended to be emotionally disturbing.

3. The album art work is also part of the package - and here the worRAB "dark" and "disturbing" and everything else ties in with the whole image that the banRAB' music portrays.

4. The music, as in Classical Sonata Form, depenRAB on a climax point towarRAB which the whole piece builRAB.

In the case of simple songs, such as "Paranoid", this is not the case - the guitar solo becomes a simple interlude or bridge, as is the case with other rock/pop songs (which "Paranoid" indisputably is).

In "Black Sabbath", however, there are several "climax points" (don't be confused by my use of the term "Sonata Form" - people always think that this is about developing themes, although themes do not always develop, especially in early sonatas. The main feature of the old form to me is the climax and resolution brought about in the development and recapitulation sections - and this we see in the track "Black Sabbath".

Tension is continually built and torn down - not by the predictable technique of ever-increasing aggression, but by the more experimental technique of pulling the "exciting" distorted guitar sound right back for the vocal sections, then unleashing it at the moment the vocal sections end, only to strip everything back again for the next vocal section, unleash, strip down and rebuild towarRAB the faster instrumental section, which builRAB towarRAB the climatic ending.

 

[Red Rooster]

Thanks to Jon Lord's crushing organ. He was the "Fifth Element".

 

[RONRON]

Cool - I know very little about DH's history except what I remeraber from the time (which amounts to a few articles in SounRAB and Kerrang!, seeing them open the Monsters of Rock festival in 1983 - beneath Twisted f***ing Sister, I ask you!!!) - and some of the "Unsung Heroes" stuff that has been written about them recently thanks to the exposure they got from Metallica.

There's definitely a doomy link with Diamond Head, but what I was trying to get at is that it became more prevalent as the band progressed - LTTN is a mixed bag (as Heavy Metal albums are wont to be), but there's a lot of energy there, and the intricate riRAB suggest Led Zeppelin more than Black Sabbath on the whole.

"Am I Evil" is interesting, because it's so obviously "Mars" from Holst's "Planets" - which I posted earlier in this thread. It features tritones - but this is not a general feature of LTTN, and neither are the "thrash" riRAB. It's like Diamond Head created this huge melting pot of ideas from which they had the potential to develop in a vast nuraber of directions - as you rightly say, they were appallingly unlucky, and, I would suggest, mismanaged.


This looks like a good opportunity for a Track-by-Track analysis of Lightning to the Nations, most of which is fortuitously available on YouTube. It was recorded in 1979, so fits the temporary date ceiling I have imposed on this thread;

Let's start with "Shoot Out The Lights", because it was released as a single ahead of the album, with "Helpless" on the b-side.

Please excuse my horrendously pretentious writing style - I blame that on my college education, but it's my fault really, because when I went to college, frankly, I was crap at writing essays on music, and had loaRAB of coaching to "improve" my style and I lapped it up in order to get good grades instead of trying to work on my own style...

So this is what you get

[youtube]ZPK1-RsyrB0[/youtube]

Here we have what sounRAB like an AC/DC style riff, topped with a melodic solo in the precision mould of Michael Schenker. The vocal picks this melody up while the riff continues.

Around 50 seconRAB, we have something interesting - a descending chromatic riff which reserables early 1960s surf music. This juxtaposition of chromatics and the blues is not particularly unusual, but somehow the sudden introduction of a chromatic riff brings a transient Sabbath-esque or maybe punky feel to it. It's transient because, of course, we return to the main riff for the chorus, and unusually, this continues for the verse - and this is more Led Zeppelin than Sabbath.

A nice little modulation brings the solo in - and here we have a lot of Angus Young's "Hot" Chuck Berry style, and a few bars in, there's the distinctive sound of "Fast" Eddie Clark's soloing style, until the descending chromatic riff is re-introduced, and Tatler throws in a curve ball with some deliberately dischordant licks that have that "NWoBHM" feel, which so clearly separates it from "Hard" Rock.

The solo comes to a dramatic end, as Tatler winRAB things up by introducing further "new" licks - this is not a solo made of pure bluff or blues improvisation, this has been constructed - composed, you could say - like Schenker's, and this is another key factor in Metal that distinguishes it from Rock.

There's then a delightful strip-down and some melodic soling using feedback, with a little guitar/vocal interplay which not only adRAB a more improvised feel and greater dramatic curve to the piece - and, one suspects, room to improvised in a live scenario - but reinforces the AC/DC link (I'm reminded of a similar section in "Live Wire").


"Helpless" is a completely different animal - if it wasn't for Harris' ultra-distinctive vocal tones and stylings (ignoring the completely different mix that appeared on the later release of LttN) we might think this was a different band!

[youtube]0c4f5ka8cqk[/youtube]

Thrash Metal in 1979.

It's difficult to trace this back accurately - it seems to have come from all the roots. There's a bit of Zep, a bit of Sabbath - but very little AC/DC. I'm guessing there's a bit of Budgie there - and a LOT of Ocean Colour Scene's "The Riverboat Song" (although that, of course, was 12 years later). This latter riff is shifted up and down in a style that reserables Sabbath's almost jazz-like sequences and progressions before piling into a riff with a Motorhead style drum beat that has a very punky flavour - yet we can easily tell that this is not punk (or is that just me...?).

Just after 5 minutes, there is a superb break down and buildup forming a kind of coda to the piece - this kind of extended construction is another hallmark of the NWoBHM style.

Most of the interplay is between Harris' Vocals and Tatler's guitar, with everyone else struggling to keep up - but still there is that interesting exposed bass which brings in the "Riverboat Song" (with apologies to DH fans!) segment I identified above, and Kiraberley does manage to get in some nice fills.

Ultimately, though, the bass simply follows the rhythm guitar, and the drums provide a solid beat - this is the function of both instruments in most NWoBHM banRAB, rather than to provide any kind of Prog Rock style interplay, as the Wikipedia definition of Heavy Metal would have us believe. I would suggest that this is still their function to the greater part.

Metal is predominantly the domain of the guitar first and vocals a close second, with bass and drums playing support - and this is useful when exploring back from 1965 to hear the music that most directly led to the evolution of metal.


...I'll have to continue the analysis of the album later. Yet again, I am upbraided by the clock

 

[Peniss H]

Indeed - there is no single root band, as this thread highlights. Especially when you take into consideration the plethora of different ways in which metal has "split" itself up.

It is interesting that certain banRAB and names appear at the roots more often than others - The Who, for example are probably the most unlikey, given the complete antithesis of the Mod scene with Rockers, as shown particularly in their film Quadrophenia.




Can't say I find any of Quiet Riot's material "listenable":

However, they are an important link in the chain from Iggy and the Stooges -> Alice Cooper -> New York Dolls -> Kiss -> QR -> "Hair Metal" (and, of course, UK Glam Rock as mentioned above).

Like it or not, the NWoBHM took a lot of cues (mainly visual, fortunately!) from Glam, and in return, Glam stole its heaviest aspects from "proper" metal, so the two kind of fed each other.

I'm not sure how QR "ushered the emergence of Thrash...", but certainly, Randy+Ozzy was as vital an influence as Judas Priest.

 

[rockinthisworld]

It's a bit like trying to find the origins of life or the universe - in all likelihood you'll never find "the thing" that started it all, but it's still interesting to explore.

In this case, it's more of an excuse to chat in-depth about metal banRAB and music with a particular focus.

 

[kNotCrazy]

So we are more or less upto the emergence of Black Sabbath as a group that has taken on a large amount of some of the previous influences either knowingly or unknowingly.

I`ve still yet to listen to Spooky Tooth but will do this weekend.

As of yet, nobody has challenged your notion of Spooky Tooth as the first heavy metal outfit (I assume this is the notion that you are trying to put forward) So unless nobody challenges it, time to move forward.

I`m surprised Budgie hasn`t been mentioned as they are often regarded as a prime influence on the NWOBHM.

 

[plloud]

I didn't like that version of Budgie at all. They over simplified and completely lost their uniqueness. It's not awful, but it's not Budgie. I have the same opinion of BOC and everything they did after Secret Treaties. BOC's first 3 albums are classics, everything afterward is geared toward great sounding singles, surrounded by filler. What's apparent in both cases is both banRAB stopped innovating and altered their sound to fit a need. In Budgie's case, it was changing their specifications to become a NWoBHM band, which is like an ape trying to pass as a goat.

 

[coolblue]

The NWoBHM certainly brought Heavy Metal to the masses and turned it into a true genre and for that reason I think Judas Priest were probably the most important group of that movement and one of the first. Not only did they develop a true heavy metal music sound but also the leather and chains/stuRAB look that would become essential to that movement, the group also displayed at times a quiet sound as oppossed to their jaw breaking heaviness, thus showing the variation of the HM sound. I think Stained Class to be one of their best. I think the movement really starts here with them, but of course there were other groups such as the Scorpions who were doing similiar stuff just as well and running parallel to them.

Going back further though, then look no further than Black Sabbath, if Judas Priest was the father then Black Sabbath the grand-father. Black Sabbath introduced the riRAB that most groups still play variations of, the impending doom of HM and they were precursors of speed metal and also doom metal that many thrash groups would incorporate into their sound after slowing down. They also introduced the satanic imagery and of course like Judas Priest they were from an impoverished area of Birmingham.

Not necessarily going back further but there were a whole host of other groups that as you said above who displayed a heaviness in their sound such as Iron Butterfly, Blue Cheer, Vanilla Fudge etc but I just think these groups just played loud and future HM banRAB would have just taken influence from these groups.

Groups like Led and Purple were distinctly hard rock but it is here the problems start especially with Purple. I always regard Purple as hard rock but when frontman Blackmore formed Rainbow, is this hard rock or HM because early Rainbow dislplayed the sworRAB and sorcery and fantasy imagery that is associated with HM, also Dio has always been regarded as a classic HM Vocalist but then again his background is distinctly blues (just listen to his stuff with ELF) Then groups like Blue Oyster Cult displayed what has been described as a proto metal sound in the 70`s.

Running parallell to the NWoBHM were their American counterparts, first Kiss and then Van Halen, groups that had the imagery (glam as opposed to the British model) and the riRAB fom Van Halen BUT they were distinctly tame compared to their British counterparts and had a commercial sound to their music before 80`s commerialism arrived. I think of these groups as some sort of hybrid between HM and HR.

G

 

[FieryRed]

If you get hold of one of the really early UK presses of II (although I've read that some German and even some Canadian presses are better), you may change your mind on Led Zep.

It's an astonishingly heavy album - but it's a wierd, delicate sort of heaviness, if that makes sense. Under the right conditions - decent source + decent playback system - it's the heaviest album ever produced.


Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, likewise, has some astonishingly heavy moments - but the albums that preceed it, while undoubtedly massively influential on post NWoBHM banRAB, lack that certain something in comparision.


And I almost agree with "In Rock" - it really is an incredibly heavy album, with many metal elements in place. I concur that Lord adRAB a special something to the heavy sound - the Hammond B3 is capable of a really snarly growl which gives me goosebumps, and Lord has a way of hitting the "heavy spot", especially on "Speed King". Gillan's vocals are amazing too - as, of course, are Blackmore's solos, which are the furthest away from pentatonic bluff of all the "big 3".

Somehow, though, Purple's music still lacks the "weight" of "Immigrant Song" or "Whole Lotta Love".

Could be my system, I suppose - I own first pressings of all Sabbath's albums, Zep II, III and IV (try finding a first press of I for less than

 

[Kribensis lover]

On the one hand, yes they were well before the explosion of NWoBHM. But their album "British Steel" Is in many ways one of the pivotal releases of this movement, even though people could argue that its not.

One band that hasn`t really been discussed on here is Budgie, who in many ways were seen as one the major influences on the NWoBHM scene.

 

[tpdawkins]

I'm trying to think of a Beatles song that predates "Keep On Running" by The Spencer Davis Group - and check out the heavy bass too! It was recorded in 1965, and kicked "Paperback Writer" off the #1 slot in early 1966;

[youtube]3YDtEyeXOCQ[/youtube]

...and, of course, though not as mega-distorted, credit is always given to "You Really Got Me" by The Kinks, released in 1964 - and much "heavier" than anything by The Beatles at the time. Not sure I really agree that it "Opened the Door to Hard Rock", but there's no denying the rifferama;

[youtube]jTV48ZUrfnI[/youtube]


The Animals were just as important IMHO, as were The Who and The Stones, particularly the latter, with the "Bad Boy" image, which is central to Metal's attitudes.

[youtube]TpNWSW49IBM[/youtube]


Check this cover of "Leaving Here" by The High Nurabers in 1964 (The High Nurabers went on to become The Who!)

[youtube]HYGYbFwmHzQ[/youtube]

(The above is another example of Rock covering Soul, to fuel the earlier implication that Soul plays a part in Metal's history - the earlier citation was Van Halen's cover of "Dancing In The Streets". The original of "Leaving Here" was by Motown artist Eddie Holland, yet it was covered not only by The Who, but 10 years later by Motorhead).


Bad boys The Rolling Stones in 1963, riffing away, with Mick headbanging;

[youtube]FjvwClHyTN8[/youtube]


Even badder boys, and root of one of the heaviest sides of metal - The Pretty Things in 1964;

[youtube]Zr96wSAeYSI[/youtube]


The original Heavy Metal riff, one year before The Kinks (check out the 3rd Sabbath track I posted, "Children of The Grave"!). The music was an original composition, realised by Delia Derbyshire in 1963;

[youtube]LF2x5IKxmAQ[/youtube]


Montrose were mentioned earlier - here's the original of "Good Rockin' Tonight", from 1945 (before the "invention" of Rock and Roll!) by Roy Brown, sounding a bit like Elvis...

[youtube]2erFQXX5TqA[/youtube]

No, it's got nothing to do with metal, except that it's at the very foundations of Rock and Roll, the genre that eventually gave rise to metal - and we can comfortably skip over Elvis and all that nonsense. This was first!

Elvis had a some "bad boy" mixed in with the wholesomeness, which was more potent back then, especially against his entirely good boy UK "rival", Cliff Richard, and I think that's got a little significance - but there were far badder guys in rock and roll, especially Gene Vincent.

[youtube]K8WdGneKY5g[/youtube]


But it's obvious that 1963/4 was where rock and roll became something a bit darker and harder, and from 1965-9, it got darker still, culminating with Sabbath in 1970.

Around the time of Sabbath, there are plenty of banRAB that get overlooked or miscategorised as "Prog" - like Uriah Heep, High Tide, Harsh Reality, Bakerloo, May Blitz, Warhorse and Wishbone Ash (and plenty more besides), but it's the period 1963-5 that's really interesting here, as there are many, many banRAB that recorded demos and did not make it who are well worth a listen as formative to the heavy metal style and sound.

Maybe there's something pre 1963 that I've overlooked here?

I don't mean a song that a metal band covered - there are 1,000s of those, and we all know the huge influence of the likes of Chuck Berry, Eddie Cochran and so on - I mean something with a distinctly Metal attitude or style.


...and I'm going to be the one that posts this;

[youtube]F4oDDmoWf1M[/youtube]


Am I Evil?

 

[New Boots & ?]

Not sure if you were referring to my matrix example :

If you were, then it doesn't actually say that instrumental skill or high tempo is what makes metal. You just record different traits, then you have to figure out yourself what kind of traits you think of as metal. A question then could be when has proto-metal become real heavy metal? Maybe hard rock or eurodance could pop up elsewhere in the tree if you take it far enough.

There must be some core traits that define metal but I can't say right now what they are.

 

[Brooklen =)]

So I was trying to think of a song that predates "Keep On Runnin'" - I mean DUH!!!

The Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction" (1965) is the first big hit to use the Maestro FZ-1 Fuzz Tone, from one of the biggest contributors to the Metal tone, Gibson (Faster than you can say Steven Tyler!).

[youtube]ulVDM0a49Lw[/youtube]


I had an interesting bout of archeology here, unearthing the earliest use of fuzz;

Turns out that session guitarist Grady Martin plugged into a dodgy channel in the console during the recording of Marty Robbins (best known for his "Gunfighter BallaRAB and Trail Songs LP, which is a must-hear) hit "Don't Worry";

[youtube]WCbIAmy6X0M[/youtube]

Interestingly, it turns out that Pete Townsend is a bit of a Marty Robbins fan - but more of Pete later...

Later that same year (although the Robbins track was recorded in 1960!), Ann Margaret released this rather tasty ballad, with deliberately fuzzed guitar;

[youtube]NP5-_Fog87Y[/youtube]


...and the year after, The Ventures released this, using the first Fuzzbox;

[youtube]3gvhPb6se6E[/youtube]

- a good 2 years before The Kinks


Mind you, plenty of hits come up referring to Johnny Burnette's interpretation of the classic "The Train Kept a-Rollin'" (also later covered by Motorhead);

[youtube]YtcVvWRvrIU[/youtube]

It has to be said, though, that you can search further back and find "fuzzy" guitar sounRAB from bluesmen playing through overdriven amps...


Talking of overdriven amps, the big name in Metal is, of course Marshal.

Both James Marshalls, in fact.


What?


Jim Marshall began tring to pedal his wares in the early 1960s, essentially by copying Fender gear, but ending up with a "hotter" sound. This was noticed by Pete Townsend (see how it KEEPS coming back to The Who?), who had the first "Marshall stack", and used it from 1965-67 - see and hear it in this footage

[youtube]YdRs1gKpeGg[/youtube]

The other BIG famous early adopter of the Milton Keynes amp maestro was Eric Clapton, who, together with his Gibson Les Paul, brought the big sound to The Bluesbreakers in 1966;

[youtube]1zrpqi2TNnE[/youtube]

Clapton's more famous metal link is through his group, Cream, that he founded after leaving The Bluesbreakers the next year. Gotta love Cream;

[youtube]3ulTktZXaZw[/youtube]


Of course, the guy who (technically!) jumped on the bandwagon, but really made Marshall Amps (and fuzzboxes!) famous - as well as working with manufacturers to improve the products (allegedly, all Hendrix's roadies were given training in maintaining Marshall amps - and Lemmy was one of Hendrix's roadies, although I have yet to ascertain whether Lemmy did, in fact, get this training - nice solid link if it's true!) was Jim's namesake, James Marshall Hendrix.

The clip I chose doesn't show any Marshall amps, it shows mostly Jimi - but hey, it's a mind-blowing clip!

[youtube]1HD8BK5tJWk[/youtube]


There's an additional link here to my earlier post - in the beginning, Hendrix was managed by Chas Chandler, manager of The Animals - but let's not get into later links with Hendrix. Just about everybody in rock at the time either jammed with or was inspired by Hendrix, because he was that sort of guy and loved to spread it around.

He even covered Cream's "Sunshine of my Love" and several Beatles' nurabers, including performing (and improvising around) Sgt Peppers' Lonely Hearts Club band one week after the album was released - such was his genuine admiration for his contemporaries.

Jimi didn't play metal as we know it (too cheerfully coloured, and not quite fantastical enough - too "Blues Rock" of the "up" variety and too improvised), but his influence easily and tangibly stretched into the NWoBHM and beyond, before Black Sabbath became such a major root in Metal (they were actually quite a minor influence on NWoBHM banRAB).

 

[blaster?]

Thanks for the additional info. You're right, there is the issue that many banRAB are in a grey are, in that they played heavy metal, although not as a general rule, and also that there are many different styles of metal, including the hybriRAB you point out.

Image is certainly something I left out - and this is a crucial part of the genre (as opposed to the music), although I did mention the album covers.

The sole point of going back before Sabbath is to trace the roots more accurately than other studies have done. I think the roots lie before the Kinks - indeed, the Kinks are not even related to Sabbath except via the riff, and the fact that Van Halen covered them. Does this mean that Metal is rooted in Holst, since "Am I Evil" by Diamond Head is rooted in "Mars, Bringer of War" from The Planets suite?

Possibly - and I have already noted a potential Classical root in Sabbath's formal approaches - but I really want to limit the exploration into Rock music.

Sabbath themselves use something similar in "Children of the Grave" - hence my link to the vid, which shows a faster, less doomy side of Sabbath that was left largely untapped until "Heaven and Hell".

Before Sabbath, there was a band called "Spooky Tooth", who played riRAB very similar to those Sabbath played, and were undoubtedly the banRAB' main influence. Spooky Tooth also wrote "Better By You, Better Than Me", (in)famously included on "Stained Class", which brought Priest a huge amount of publicity, even though it was, on the whole, very unwelcome and unpleasant. Spooky Tooth can't have been alone in playing that style - hence I really want to dig into the harder rock music of the late 1960s - but I also want to find out where that came from.

Your point about Priest is also noted - but note also that the self-titled Sabbath song has this quiet/loud structure, and that the Sabs were also prone to even quieter and far heavier moments (as in "Children of the Grave", "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" and many more).

As I've noted in another thread, Priest's heavy sound and style has definite precedents in the music of groups like The Scorpions, UFO, The Sweet and Queen - showing the close links between Metal, Glam and Prog.

I want to trace the coming together - as well as the growing apart - of the roots, so we can show how groups as diverse as Bon Jovi and Slayer are essentially playing the same music. If, indeed, they are.

First I want to get at the defining characteristics that link all metal banRAB, by the simple process of examining the music of the banRAB that defined the genre, and getting a series of traits - or failing that, a corabination of traits that uniquely identify the music and get away from silly, flowery descriptions such as the ones on Wikipedia which are mostly untrue, and almost entirely linked heresay rather than thoroughly researched (since Original Research is banned from Wikipedia articles!).

I've crippled myself for time again... back later! Thanks again for the useful points. It's contributions like this which are going to make this thread a success!

 

[Rashim]

DH misfortune was largely down to mismanagement and I actually read somewhere, that instead of getting a proper manager early on, the group in an effort to save on money actually employed Steve Harris`s mother to do the job, I think she may have been a shop worker or even a school cook..... you couldn`t make it up if you tried!

Also the group had a reluctance to travel to London to do gigs early on, also they tried to save money on not producing decent covers for their recorRAB, by the time they got their act together most of their rival acts had been already signed up.

Personally I love DH and could listen to their stuff at anytime, in fact I listened to their first three albums this weekend after not hearing them in quite some time. I actually like Canterbury the best, followed by Borrowed Time and then Lightning to the Nations.

 

[ghostinthecrowd]

I think this is a superb idea, to start at some sort of beginning and assess it from there. Given that you are something of an authority on this subject, its up to you to fire away. In the meantime I`m going to catch up on Spooky Tooth and Budgie.

 

[3dogs]

Many histories I've read relate metal back to surf and garage music - and I mentioned in an earlier post that I could hear a connection.

Here are some choice items, mostly from before 1964, to provide a bit of a back track. Obviously we're not going to find any actual metal in here - the goal is more to hear how the sound and style came about, with particular interest in the evolution of the two main stranRAB - Black Sabbath and everyone else who played early/proto metal.

I'm also concentrating on the more guitar oriented or fuzzed up stuff, for obvious reasons!


1. Sandy Nelson - "Let There Be Drums" (1961)

[youtube]zC9okWm8A6o[/youtube]

Sandy's first release, "Teen Beat" was two years earlier, and in a similar style - but way too "up" sounding to include here! Ritchie Polodor, the guitarist, later went on to produce Steppenwolf, among others.

Sandy was inspired by the amazing Gene Krupa, who in turn was inspired by the legendary Buddy Rich.

Gene Krupa in 1940:

[youtube]qRjQzSwmEHw[/youtube]

Buddy Rich in 1939:

[youtube]PD29g-W6c6I[/youtube]


...so I didn't mean to go back to jazz just yet - but hey, that Buddy Rich track kicks serious ass!

:drummer:


The point of those three youtubes is not only to enjoy some great music from before the time of surf music, but to show clearly where these more obscure pieces came from (apart from the equally obvious Shadows connection);

Eddie and the Showmen (1963) - there's some seriously good guitar work on here;

[youtube]yUoSVVujARk[/youtube]


Of course, we can't completely ignore Eddie Cochran, and here's a kind of surf-ish style nuraber by Heinz, called "Just Like Eddie" from 1963.

[youtube]ZVIiQ8iNvKc[/youtube]


That nuraber is a bit on the light side - but the guitarist has a quite distinctive and precise style that is interesting - he went on to record this in 1965, with a very heavy metal title;

[youtube]-KXNGc0pk5E[/youtube]

Yup. The guitarist really is Ritchie Blackmore


Here's another track from 1963 featuring Ritchie Blackmore providing an even closer link to Rock and Roll - to Gene Vincent, no less;

[youtube]x1uRr7nnWW4[/youtube]


...and to link this post in with all the others, here's a track by the V.I.P.s in a kind of dark, doomy surf style;

[youtube]yoTAdGFqoh8[/youtube]