the 70s prog scene's attitude to early metal |
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Atavachron
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator Joined: September 30 2006 Location: Pearland Status: Offline Points: 65289 |
Posted: July 24 2014 at 04:20 | ||
I believe there was a brief period when the two were considered genetically related, at least from a certain perspective;"...Heavy
Rock as a style grew out of Progressive Rock sometime in the early 1970s. The trend setters were Deep Purple and Black
Sabbath" -- from Philip S. Walker's notes in the Warhorse Red Sea reissue.
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"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy
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Svetonio
Forum Senior Member Joined: September 20 2010 Location: Serbia Status: Offline Points: 10213 |
Posted: July 24 2014 at 05:20 | ||
The Who were heavier and louder at stage than many of 70s 'officially' heavy metal (hard rock) acts.
In above video John Entwistle play bass guitar in the way that was ahead of his time.
Edited by Svetonio - July 26 2014 at 06:49 |
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Dean
Special Collaborator Retired Admin and Amateur Layabout Joined: May 13 2007 Location: Europe Status: Offline Points: 37575 |
Posted: July 24 2014 at 06:03 | ||
^ the Berlin Philharmonic playing Wagner on stage were probably louder and heavier so what's your point?
I sorta agree with that because of the association to Rock'n'Roll based Rock in those bands - I notice he didn't mention Led Zeppelin who were more Blues-based even though they ventured into other genres they didn't begin as a Progressive Rock band.
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Dean
Special Collaborator Retired Admin and Amateur Layabout Joined: May 13 2007 Location: Europe Status: Offline Points: 37575 |
Posted: July 24 2014 at 06:18 | ||
Another fly in the ointment was the appearance of The Heavy Metal Kids on the Glam/Heavy Rock scene around 1972-74. Most certainly not a Heavy Metal band they took their name from William S. Burrough's Nova Trillogy:
Burroughs is of course referring to narcotics derived from toxic (heavy) metal elements and it wouldn't surprise me a great deal if most of the other uses of the phrase in the music scene picked it up from Burroughs. Hapshash and the Coloured Coat (who are only really remembered now for their iconic Hendrix, Soft Machine and Pink Floyd posters) used it along with another Burroughs phrase "The Human Host" as the title of their 1967 début album "Hapshash and the Coloured Coat Featuring The Human Host And The Heavy Metal Kids" But again, I don't think any of that means a great deal in the scheme of things other than demonstrating that the phrase was in common use before it was used to describe the music genre.
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Svetonio
Forum Senior Member Joined: September 20 2010 Location: Serbia Status: Offline Points: 10213 |
Posted: July 24 2014 at 06:20 | ||
I believe so. Well, I was too young to be a fan in early 70s when e.g. Uriah Heep were considered as a progressive rock band; I remember them as a melodic hard rock band. However, in the second half of the golden decade, I remember that New Hard Rock Champions undoubtely were AC/DC - the band which I used to hate with a passion.
Edited by Svetonio - July 24 2014 at 06:56 |
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chopper
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator Joined: July 13 2005 Location: Essex, UK Status: Offline Points: 20030 |
Posted: July 24 2014 at 07:15 | ||
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Svetonio
Forum Senior Member Joined: September 20 2010 Location: Serbia Status: Offline Points: 10213 |
Posted: July 24 2014 at 13:01 | ||
What was the press loved among the crowd of Heavy Rock bands back then? Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple. But, Black Sabbath and Uriah Heep have long been rehabilitated. Like the French Impressionists, lol.
Edited by Svetonio - July 24 2014 at 13:02 |
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Toaster Mantis
Forum Senior Member Joined: April 12 2008 Location: Denmark Status: Offline Points: 5898 |
Posted: July 24 2014 at 13:57 | ||
Well, in Denmark those professional critics who defended progressive rock weren't the same who defended early heavy metal either. Again I don't know that much how it was elsewhere. Didn't Lester Bangs champion both in the US though?
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"The past is not some static being, it is not a previous present, nor a present that has passed away; the past has its own dynamic being which is constantly renewed and renewing." - Claire Colebrook
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cstack3
Forum Senior Member VIP Member Joined: July 20 2009 Location: Tucson, AZ USA Status: Offline Points: 7311 |
Posted: July 24 2014 at 15:37 | ||
I seemed to be one of the few fans in my circle of friends who enjoyed early metal acts (esp. Black Sabbath) as well as 70's prog. Most of my friends turned their noses up at the metal acts for some reason.
However, I didn't find it to be anything written in stone or anything. Some bands like Captain Beyond did a fine job of walking the line between metal and prog. Edited by cstack3 - July 24 2014 at 15:37 |
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SteveG
Forum Senior Member Joined: April 11 2014 Location: Kyiv In Spirit Status: Offline Points: 20616 |
Posted: July 24 2014 at 15:47 | ||
Edited by SteveG - July 24 2014 at 15:50 |
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Gerinski
Prog Reviewer Joined: February 10 2010 Location: Barcelona Spain Status: Offline Points: 5154 |
Posted: July 24 2014 at 17:18 | ||
I can't say much, I was very young then (born in '66) and living in a musically retarded country (Spain), but from that perspective I would say that there was no rivalry whatsoever, but the situation was not reciprocal, Prog fans in general tended to enjoy Heavy-Rock and early Metal, me and my mates were mostly Proggers but we loved heavy and metal as well, while many if not most Metal fans did not get what Prog was about and despised it.
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Dean
Special Collaborator Retired Admin and Amateur Layabout Joined: May 13 2007 Location: Europe Status: Offline Points: 37575 |
Posted: July 24 2014 at 18:38 | ||
Blues Rock certainly came first, growing out of the British R&B explosion of the mid 60s and many bands and musicians had Blues roots early in their careers. With only a few exceptions Psychedelic rock was where that blues influence was shaken off in favour or a more rock'n'roll form of rock music. British Progressive and Heavy Rock came out of Psych and not directly from R&B. The Animals psych records retained that R&B influence but they are probably the least British-sounding of all the Brit Psych bands, it's the Psych Pop bands like The Move whose non-blues form of rock would get heavier as the 70s dawned before branching off as ELO. Of course there will always be exceptions and this is never an exact science. Black Sabbath, Jethro Tull and Judas Priest all began as Blues Rock in the latter half of the 60s (and all came from the English Midlands). But the majority of British blues-based heavy rock bands such Free, Bad Company, Cream, Humble Pie and Stray have never been associated with Progressive Rock or Heavy Metal. [Then at the other extreme you've got Status Quo who quickly morphed from a being a very British Psych band into the most unprogressive and least experimental Heavy Rock band of all time. If ever was a band that was simultaneously condemned and condoned by the music press and the record buying public it would be Quo.] Nascent music genres are not usually started by established bands, they either grow steadily from the grass-roots over a period of time "off-radar" and the suddenly becomes popular in a fully-formed state or they are triggered by a single notable event or newly emergent band with a drastically different take on the existing music scene and other bands run to keep up with them. The difficulty there is the paucity of recorded evidence of any of that underground activity, unlike today where anyone can record themselves and throw it out into the internet for all to hear or ignore, back then if you were not signed you didn't make records (Priest's début album was released five years after their formation and so we have no physical evidence of their blues-rock origins - similarly Maiden's debut was also released five years after their formation ). The problem that people have in trying to identify the roots of heavy metal is there isn't an unbroken row of dots that we can draw neatly connected lines between - we can produce dots for when and where the name was used, dots for bands that were loud and heavy, dots for riff-based power chords, dots for screaming vocalists, dots for various bands that inspired later generations and dots for those one-off songs that sound like they could be proto-metal but the dots don't connect. This is why I can't see Sabbath, Purple or Zeppelin being called Metal as retrospective tag, this is why AC/DC don't even have a dot on the diagram. I've posted an old TV programme from 1979 in the Documentary Thread by a then youthful Danny Baker that discusses the new Heavy Metal music that was emerging in London at the time. For those with 24 minutes to waste watching a B&W video will see that in 1979 the term Heavy Metal as applied to a genre of music was new and originated as "The New Wave Of British Heavy Metal" without there being an Old Wave of British Heavy Metal to precede it. Not even the fans were sure whether to call it Heavy Metal, Heavy Rock or Hard Rock and Danny Baker merrily interchanges the three terms throughout his narration. For those who don't have 24 minutes to spare fast forward to 6:38 and listen to DJ Neal Kay of the Bandwagon Soundhouse try and explain the origin of the term (badly I might add). Edited by Dean - July 24 2014 at 19:46 |
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SteveG
Forum Senior Member Joined: April 11 2014 Location: Kyiv In Spirit Status: Offline Points: 20616 |
Posted: July 24 2014 at 18:51 | ||
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SteveG
Forum Senior Member Joined: April 11 2014 Location: Kyiv In Spirit Status: Offline Points: 20616 |
Posted: July 24 2014 at 19:15 | ||
^Good doc Dean. Even if it seems to make things a bit more confusing. I'm still sticking to my take that the metal tag was resisted in England in the early to mid Seventies. I recall that it did become more used toward the end of the seventies but by that time it was an afterthought after punk rock kicked in, and I recall that Brtitish music magazines like NME and Sounds ate it up (punk rock), much to my dismay.
Edited by SteveG - July 24 2014 at 19:18 |
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DaleHauskins
Forum Senior Member Joined: December 23 2005 Location: So.California Status: Offline Points: 239 |
Posted: July 24 2014 at 19:54 | ||
The older I get,the more recording projects I play on,and gigs I do...As an American Los Angeles native Californian lifelong guitarist,I am truly amazed and see how blessed I was to have joined a well-known Swiss progressive rock band called Flame Dream;that was signed to Vertigo Records.
There was no internet in 1979,and I was extremely bold and lucky to meet Peter Gabriel when I was 19 in Bath Spa England.All of it became together since that meeting. I moved to Lucerne Switzerland and became soon friends with bands like Switzerland's Krokus,and OM. No major record label would ever even think of signing a Swiss progressive rock band now... Blessings everyone from record heat on this mega hot summer's day in Southern California ! |
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Dale Hauskins
(858) 401-2973 (310) 293-0432 https://artistecard.com/Dalehauskins |
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Svetonio
Forum Senior Member Joined: September 20 2010 Location: Serbia Status: Offline Points: 10213 |
Posted: July 24 2014 at 23:31 | ||
That general "paperclip" of press and fans, musicians, the worshipers of heavy rock and progressive rock, actually was Jimi Hendrix, of whom Heavy Rock was born in May 12, 1967. That newborn genre was "baptised" at the Jimi Hendrix concert at Monterey Pop Festival, in June 1967; after that the sound of the electric guitar was no longer the same. Hendrix' revolution has inspired an entire generation of young guitarists to move to experiment with their guitars - which has led that new born heavy rock to all of its styles and sub-genres, but also the proto-prog and prog (even Genesis were recoderd heavy track The Knife). So in the period from late 60s to early 70s the fans and the rock critics was undivided regarding that heavy rock / progressive rock. An iconic picture of Jimi Hendrix at Monterey Pop Festival, June 1967 The picture was taken by Ed Caraeff, 17-year old boy who was in the front row. Ed Caraeff never seen Hendrix before nor head his music. Jimi Hendrix's Purple Haze, Foxy Lady and Wild Thing live performed at Monterey Pop Festival, June 1967. EDIT: a stunning heavy perfomance of Voodo Child in Stockholm, 1969. Edited by Svetonio - July 25 2014 at 03:18 |
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Svetonio
Forum Senior Member Joined: September 20 2010 Location: Serbia Status: Offline Points: 10213 |
Posted: July 25 2014 at 02:46 | ||
Nick Logan and Bob Woffinden were mentioned "heavy-metal" the term several times in The illustrated New Musical Express Encyclopedia of Rock ( 1976 and 1977 Salamander Books Ltd. London, UK). You can read that in the chapters of Led Zeppelin, Uriah Heep, Black Sabbath ( they wrote: "the band get an affirmation as one of the most successful British heavy-metal export acts"), Kiss, also in that separate entry for Ritchie Blackmore (they wrote: "founder of British heavy-metal band Deep Purple"). Edited by Svetonio - July 25 2014 at 03:17 |
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SteveG
Forum Senior Member Joined: April 11 2014 Location: Kyiv In Spirit Status: Offline Points: 20616 |
Posted: July 25 2014 at 08:23 | ||
Edited by SteveG - July 25 2014 at 14:45 |
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Svetonio
Forum Senior Member Joined: September 20 2010 Location: Serbia Status: Offline Points: 10213 |
Posted: July 25 2014 at 11:40 | ||
it was / is always determined by the audience and critics are also part of the audience, although paid to write. |
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LSDisease
Forum Senior Member Joined: April 29 2008 Status: Offline Points: 494 |
Posted: July 25 2014 at 12:31 | ||
When I want something sophisticated I listen to prog rock. When I want something really heavy I listen to the 80's metal cos early metal isn't that heavy and aggressive yet not really complicated as thrash metal. I like Budgie though.
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