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Topic ClosedThe Roots of Heavy Metal
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mrcozdude View Drop Down
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Points: 2078 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 27 2009 at 20:56
Originally posted by zappaholic zappaholic wrote:

Steppenwolf was the first band to use the phrase "heavy metal" in a song (in 1968's "Born To Be Wild").  They borrowed it from William S. Burroughs, if I'm not mistaken.  Rock critics Mike Saunders and Lester Bangs are generally credited with naming the musical genre, with references as early as 1970.

And the roots of metal go back further than the Kinks.  Link Wray was playing distorted riff-rock back in 1958!

Wikipedia has a fair-to-middlin summary:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_metal_music



I was going to say the same about Steppenwolf.I their lyrics they say "heavy metal thunder" but I believe Judas Priest were the first to coin heavy metal.

When people mention the kinks with heavy metal there associating them with distortion and chugging riffs as much as you think the genre has evolved from those, these were certainly large qualities involved in metal music aka Communication breakdown - led Zeppelin,Helter Skelter - The Beatles etc.



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The Quiet One View Drop Down
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Points: 15745 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 27 2009 at 20:33
A decent documental to watch is Metal: Story of Heavy Metal from VH1, though it's based, obviously, on just the popular bands of each era, so don't imagine any real details...
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zappaholic View Drop Down
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Points: 2822 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 27 2009 at 20:30

Steppenwolf was the first band to use the phrase "heavy metal" in a song (in 1968's "Born To Be Wild").  They borrowed it from William S. Burroughs, if I'm not mistaken.  Rock critics Mike Saunders and Lester Bangs are generally credited with naming the musical genre, with references as early as 1970.

And the roots of metal go back further than the Kinks.  Link Wray was playing distorted riff-rock back in 1958!

Wikipedia has a fair-to-middlin summary:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_metal_music
"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard." -- H.L. Mencken
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harmonium.ro View Drop Down
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Points: 22989 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 27 2009 at 19:44
From what I know, "heavy metal falling off the sky" was an expression used by a journalist in order to visualise the kind of experience induced by Jimi Hendrix' performanc... sometime in '68 I think?

Myself I agree with the oppinion that Black Sabbath I can be called the first metal album (despite not all the material on it being truly metal). Also, from what I have listened, the only pre-Sabbath I song that has all everything that makes this album "metal" is Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love". All the other attempts (my favourite being "Beck's Bolero" from Jeff Beck's first solo album, or "Good Times Bad Times" from Zepp I) would be better called, IMO, proto-metal.

Also, I agree on Zepp, DP, UH etc. being described as hard-rock. That's what they actually were, simple as that.
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Cristi View Drop Down
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Points: 42939 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 27 2009 at 19:08
I've been involved in a silly dispute on another forum whether Deep Purple/Uriah Heep/Led Zeppelin are metal. I believe they are not (the hard rock classification works and makes sense to me); then I state that these bands together with Black Sabbath are proto-metal, meaning they shaped the things to come later in metal music. I believe nobody was saying in 1970 about BS that they are a heavy metal band or did they?
 
When did the term "heavy metal" appear to describe the music?
 
Another theory I've read is that in late 60s, the term heavy metal was used to describe the noisy bands that started to appear such as Steppenwolf/Iron Butterfly and bands with samey sound. I for one am in the dark...
 
And the silliest thing I've read is that Kinks invented metal with You Really Got me Now. Confused 
 
Well, I ask for your help because I honestly need it and i welcome it.
 
Enlighten me...
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