I know that there will be those amongst you who will have a different starting point and I’m sure that there will be valid arguments that I’m not right but for the premise that I’m going to propose, we need a starting point, so here it is.
There are threads for a variety of different genre, jazz, prog, country to name just three but, apart from the very successful Rank ‘Em Ozzy Osbourne, there are very few if any (that I’ve seen) relating to the heavy side of rock.
So, what I’m proposing is that we take each year, starting with 1968 and talk about the great heavy rock and metal albums that came out in that year and then move onto the next year and so on.
This could fall on its face and if so, fair enough, but if you are up for the discussion, so am I.
I'm not sure that this can actually be called heavy rock in it's purest sense and ultimately it's a disappointing album for me however, it's the title track, which is a Bonafede heavy rock classic, this album would have disappeared into the foothills of rock history.
It does have some other decent tracks, Most Anything You Want and My Mirage are decent tracks and Are You Happy? Is great but the rest of the album is rather ho-hum
It's impossible to ignore the title track. Without it, the album would have been just OK however, this track is just amazing.
It has its flaws of course. I’m not a fan of drum solo’s, maybe a 20 second one is OK but here we have 2 and a half minutes. Yawn! So, any track that’s over 17 minutes long will have but overall, it’s a phenomenal track.
Is it heavy metal? Possibly not quite but there are elements of metal in here. Is it Psych? Most definitely. There’s also a big chunk of the blues in here.
A great jam of a track. To me it feels like the band are improvising the track as they go along each taking turns to impress. I’m sure that it’s not that way at all and that it was totally planned out but you get that feeling and that’s a good thing.
I think what's happened over the years is that if you say Black Sabbath's 1970 debut LP was "the first heavy metal album," you get fewer arguments on internet forums, so people have just settled into doing that.
So... then people started getting into arguing over "what was the first heavy metal song ever released," which is a lot less contentious because there's less at stake culturally (especially between the US and the UK). Personally I'd go with "Purple Haze," but there are legitimate arguments for "In-a-Gadda-da-Vida," Blue Cheer's "Summertime Blues," and Steppenwolf's "Born to be Wild" too.
Some of those arguments don't make sense to everyone — for example, there are people who will tell you that "real" (i.e., legitimate) heavy metal guitar distortion has to be either an overdriven tube amp or an overdrive effect pedal, and such pedals didn't exist until 1972 or so — Hendrix used a Fuzz Face, which was a different type of circuit, and the others either used similar fuzz pedals or "Rat" type distortion pedals, which back then sounded closer to the opening riff from "Satisfaction" by the Rolling Stones. Another example is what I call the "doom argument," whereby you can't call something "heavy metal" unless the overarching mood/atmosphere of the band, or at least the album, is doom-laden, apocalyptic, scary, quasi-Satanic, and/or evil-sounding. When that argument is accepted, the Sabs' proponents pretty much always win.
I saw a thread somewhere (not on this site) that despite their not being so doomy-gloomy, the Yardbirds would have gone down as the inventors of "heavy metal" as early as 1965 if the people producing and mixing their early records had let them record the guitars the way they (or at least Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page) wanted. But oh well, a classic case of "could'a would'a should'a," I guess! 😐
Vincebus Eruptum was released on January 16th of 1968 thereby beating Heavy by one week. It's also a great album! Now I'm going to have to have a battle - Heavy vs. Vincebus Eruptum - to decide which one's better! 😎
I think what's happened over the years is that if you say Black Sabbath's 1970 debut LP was "the first heavy metal album," you get fewer arguments on internet forums, so people have just settled into doing that.
So... then people started getting into arguing over "what was the first heavy metal song ever released," which is a lot less contentious because there's less at stake culturally (especially between the US and the UK). Personally I'd go with "Purple Haze," but there are legitimate arguments for "In-a-Gadda-da-Vida," Blue Cheer's "Summertime Blues," and Steppenwolf's "Born to be Wild" too.
Some of those arguments don't make sense to everyone — for example, there are people who will tell you that "real" (i.e., legitimate) heavy metal guitar distortion has to be either an overdriven tube amp or an overdrive effect pedal, and such pedals didn't exist until 1972 or so — Hendrix used a Fuzz Face, which was a different type of circuit, and the others either used similar fuzz pedals or "Rat" type distortion pedals, which back then sounded closer to the opening riff from "Satisfaction" by the Rolling Stones. Another example is what I call the "doom argument," whereby you can't call something "heavy metal" unless the overarching mood/atmosphere of the band, or at least the album, is doom-laden, apocalyptic, scary, quasi-Satanic, and/or evil-sounding. When that argument is accepted, the Sabs' proponents pretty much always win.
I saw a thread somewhere (not on this site) that despite their not being so doomy-gloomy, the Yardbirds would have gone down as the inventors of "heavy metal" as early as 1965 if the people producing and mixing their early records had let them record the guitars the way they (or at least Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page) wanted. But oh well, a classic case of "could'a would'a should'a," I guess! :|
Interesting parameters. I sorta go with the "I know it when I hear it" school and to me, the most logical starting point for HEAVY ROCK is, and quite easily I might add, Cream & Jimi Hendrix. Those two are my ground zero with The Yardbirds, Manfred Mann and as Roman pointed out heavy Garage Rock like The Monks & The Sonics & The Remains being a decent launching pad. But, yeah, it would be unseemly not to start with...
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