The Roots of Heavy Metal
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Topic: The Roots of Heavy Metal
Posted By: Cristi
Subject: The Roots of Heavy Metal
Date Posted: April 27 2009 at 19:08
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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.
 Well, I ask for your help because I honestly need it and i welcome it.
Enlighten me...
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Replies:
Posted By: harmonium.ro
Date Posted: April 27 2009 at 19:44
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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. |
Posted By: zappaholic
Date Posted: April 27 2009 at 20:30
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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 - 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 |
Posted By: The Quiet One
Date 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... |
Posted By: mrcozdude
Date Posted: April 27 2009 at 20:56
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. ------------- http://www.last.fm/user/cozfunkel/" rel="nofollow"> 
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zappaholic wrote:Posted By: mrcozdude
Date Posted: April 27 2009 at 20:57
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Dam I'm drunk sorry for the above but i hope you know what i mean ^
------------- http://www.last.fm/user/cozfunkel/" rel="nofollow">
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Posted By: moe_blunts
Date Posted: April 27 2009 at 22:03
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Black Sabbath The End. ------------- http://www.last.fm/user/moe_blunts/?chartstyle=minimalDarkRecent"> 
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Posted By: topofsm
Date Posted: April 27 2009 at 22:15
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Yeah, I'd agree that Black Sabbath and Zeppelin were just hard rock that lots of metal was based off of. Don't know about DP ------------- 
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Posted By: Petrovsk Mizinski
Date Posted: April 28 2009 at 02:19
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I've been a metal fan for ages and obviously, I'm one of the select few chosen to be a Progressive Metal Team member at this side and to me, Led Zep ain't metal. Reading lots of interviews of guys that played metal in the generation after Sabbath (the 80s stuff, thrash etc) and they all cite Sabbath as an influence, but few if any of those guys even talk about Led Zep as being metal, let alone an influence. That G aeolian chug towards the last 1/4 of the song Black Sabbath is IMO, the first true, proper metal riff. |
Posted By: Man Erg
Date Posted: April 28 2009 at 02:25
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One of the touted theories was that the Kinks,'You Really Got Me' was the first heavy metal riff. ------------- 
Do 'The Stanley' otherwise I'll thrash you with some rhubarb. |
Posted By: b_olariu
Date Posted: April 28 2009 at 02:55
Heavy metal , the genre that we known today was promoted at large scale by Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Motorhead,etc each of them with contribution to the genre. Sabbath had doomy riffs over slow and groovy music but combined with heavy arrangements, Priest and Maiden delivered the heavy metal music to the large public and Motorhead gives the speed in heavy arrangemets. If about the heavy metal term , yes Steppenwolf was the first one who sad "heavy metal Thunder" in Born to be wild. Anf if about Led Zep, Uriah Heep, Purple - they are hard rock bands with prog leanings - not metal at all.
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Posted By: Petrovsk Mizinski
Date Posted: April 28 2009 at 02:57
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Posted By: Negoba
Date Posted: April 28 2009 at 09:12
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Metal didn't evolve out of nowhere...the bands cited contributed to metal to be certain, and so did Cream, Hendrix, and a host of others. Sabbath was the first truly metal band. BTW, in the 80's and 90's just as many metal bands cited Zeppelin as an influence as Sabbath. It was with the advent of grunge who leaned on sludge rockers like the Melvins that Sabbath really took a more center stage. There's a fair bit of Judas Priest I wouldn't call heavy metal. AC/DC was certainly considered metal in their day but now...... ------------- You are quite a fine person, and I am very fond of you. But you are only quite a little fellow, in a wide world, after all. |
Posted By: Dick Heath
Date Posted: April 28 2009 at 12:16
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I thought the British band of the late 60's the Heavy Metal Kids, were in the early days mix somewhere ------------- The best eclectic music on the Web,8-11pm BST/GMT THURS. CLICK ON: http://www.lborosu.org.uk/media/lcr/live.php - http://www.lborosu.org.uk/media/lcr/live.php Host by PA's Dick Heath. |
Posted By: StyLaZyn
Date Posted: April 28 2009 at 12:26
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I've often thought Beethoven's 5th was Classical Heavy Metal. ------------- 
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Posted By: crimhead
Date Posted: April 28 2009 at 12:36
I've heard the Kinks often referred to as being the first punk band. |
Posted By: Negoba
Date Posted: April 28 2009 at 12:40
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The Kinks are the origin of all things. Forget the Big Bang theory. ------------- You are quite a fine person, and I am very fond of you. But you are only quite a little fellow, in a wide world, after all. |
Posted By: crimhead
Date Posted: April 28 2009 at 12:49
I don't think that they would want to take credit for Country music. |
Posted By: Alberto Muņoz
Date Posted: April 28 2009 at 13:22
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This is THE real metal:
Other are vulgar copies
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Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: April 28 2009 at 13:26
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In the UK Hard Rock was called Heavy Music or just Heavy (the word Rock was seldom used, but implied because any band that was not "pop" was "rock" by default) ... and bands like Purple and Sabbath were Heavy, but were never called Metal.
One point: If Iron Maiden & Saxon were part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal in 1977 then the implication is that there was an Old Wave of British Heavy Metal before them, and by that, Heavy Metal from other countries prior to 1977 as well...
Gary Holten's HMK were just another band who took their name from William Burroughs (Steely Dan, Soft Machine, Dead Fingers Talk, Naked Lunch) and were not in any way metal or heavy - though they may have popularised the phrase among music journalists.
The Kinks have been called the first of many things - such as the first Brit-Pop and the first Power-Pop band. I've even heard claim that Jimmy Page played the riff on You Really Got Me (fiercely dispute by Dave Davis) ------------- What? |
Posted By: mr.cub
Date Posted: April 28 2009 at 13:46
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I believe the term was first used to describe a Humble Pie performance...never understood why bands like Black Sabbath,Uriah Heep, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin aren't considered metal because they didn't sound like the groups to come after them. It seems the idea of metal changes from one generation to the next; the fact that something older doesn't sound like the metal today doesn't make it any less metal- these older bands had the same boundary pushing mentality...just my two cents ------------- 
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Posted By: topofsm
Date Posted: April 29 2009 at 23:46
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^I suppose the term metal had to have changed, rather than the boundaries being pushed. Cause let's face it, if Led Zeppelin was metal today, we'd have to say that My Chemical Romance, Green Day, and any pop-punk or regular punk band more intense than them as metal. Let's face it, those bands have more distortion, screaming, and more frantic drumming than LZ, Black Sabbath, or Deep Purple. Though if they were called metal in the 70's, then they certainly were metal in the 70's. -------------
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Posted By: toolis
Date Posted: April 30 2009 at 00:42
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talking about roots of heavy metal and not real metal bands, right? so, i'd have to say: Blue Cheer, Atomic Rooster, Grand Funk Railroad, Iron Butterfly, Lead Zeppelin and of course Steppenwolf... ------------- -music is like pornography... sometimes amateurs turn us on, even more... -sometimes you are the pigeon and sometimes you are the statue... |
Posted By: toolis
Date Posted: April 30 2009 at 00:43
------------- -music is like pornography... sometimes amateurs turn us on, even more... -sometimes you are the pigeon and sometimes you are the statue... |
Posted By: mr.cub
Date Posted: April 30 2009 at 15:29
Yeah it is nice that the defintion of metal has changed, but I feel it would be greater service to look at the bands relative to their time period and the music around them to classify them, rather than comparing one band from the 70's to another in the 00's. Because we do know music evolves-thankfully! Sure Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Uriah Heep and Led Zeppelin are all Proto-Metal bands, but I do find Witchcraft and other sludge bands very interesting and a breath of fresh air; their music could easily be mistaken for something taken from the early 70's- and it is no less metal today. I'm not sure... -------------
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