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Thunderbird Club

#95,941
GBassNorth said:
Excellent point!
So between Iron Butterfly, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, and Black Sabbath - who had the first heavy rock song out first, and what was it?
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I have no idea. When I retire and write my book, I’ll let you know my final opinion. Certainly Ray Davies’ You Really Got Me was a hard rock song. I think ‘68 was the year though, that many rockers were consciously striving for a harder edge. McCartney of all people, put down the tracks for Helter Skelter, Birthday, Why Don’t We do it in the Road. He showed a hard edge earlier in 64 or 65 with I’m Down, which as I understand it, Martin flat refused to produce as a studio mix. Lennon did Yer Blues for the White album. Hendrix was definitely into heavy stuff. MC 5 was pretty hard. Nugent (ugh) with his Amboy Dukes stuff was certainly hard edged and had been around for some time before ‘68. There’s probably some guy out there somewhere teaching a college course called The Evolution of Hard Rock who has some thoughts on the subject. Anyway, with baseball about over, I’ll be delving into my toxic waste dump of vinyl and will see if I have a more definitive answer.
 
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#95,948
PillO said:
Steppenwolf - Born to be Wild - 1968
first mention of heavy metal...
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Crimson's offering I guess was more twisted art rock... but it hits me with more heft and jagged angst, which is, to me, meaningful.

Edit... Maybe a fitting parallel relationship would be Mötorhead>Tool... although I prefer Mötorhead.
 
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#95,949
MCF said:
I have no idea. When I retire and write my book, I’ll let you know my final opinion. Certainly Ray Davies’ You Really Got Me was a hard rock song. I think ‘68 was the year though, that many rockers were consciously striving for a harder edge. McCartney of all people, put down the tracks for Helter Skelter, Birthday, Why Don’t We do it in the Road. He showed a hard edge earlier in 64 or 65 with I’m Down, which as I understand it, Martin flat refused to produce as a studio mix. Lennon did Yer Blues for the White album. Hendrix was definitely into heavy stuff. MC 5 was pretty hard. Nugent (ugh) with his Amboy Dukes stuff was certainly hard edged and had been around for some time before ‘68. There’s probably some guy out there somewhere teaching a college course called The Evolution of Hard Rock who has some thoughts on the subject. Anyway, with baseball about over, I’ll be delving into my toxic waste dump of vinyl and will see if I have a more definitive answer.
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At the end of the summer of 1967, the hippies had a funeral for 'hippie' marking the end of the hippie movement (editorial - it went the way of all culture in the US, hallmark got hold of it and homogenized it for consumption by all).

By 1968 psychedelic music was giving way to louder, crunchier, heavier, blues oriented rock (editorial - the proto-metal music). So although it is probably close to impossible to pinpoint the first 'heavy metal' song/album; perhaps it is better to mark the ending of what came before and I think the 'death of hippie' in Haight Ashbury is probably as close as you can get to a defining moment when culture and music changed.
 
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#95,950
Count Bassie said:
Crimson's offering I guess was more twisted art rock... but it hits me with more heft and jagged angst, which is, to me, meaningful.
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I have a full play list consisting only of different versions of 21st Century Schizoid Man. There is a lot that can be done with it. Probably art rock as you say.

FWIW, I have never heard a neurosurgeon scream for more. Actually, I have never heard a neurosurgeon scream; they tend to be very calm and restrained people.
 
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#95,951
PillO said:
I have a full play list consisting only of different versions of 21st Century Schizoid Man. There is a lot that can be done with it. Probably art rock as you say.

FWIW, I have never heard a neurosurgeon scream for more. Actually, I have never heard a neurosurgeon scream; they tend to be very calm and restrained people.
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Fun with subtext...
 
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#95,956
GBassNorth said:
Excellent point!
So between Iron Butterfly, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, and Black Sabbath - who had the first heavy rock song out first, and what was it?
Click to expand...
In early 1968 Iron Butterfly released their first album - HEAVY - (material written in 1967). The only song on it that I'd classify as close to heavy rock or metal was the song titled "Iron Butterfly Theme" and truth be told it's a bit more Trippy than Metal...


So it looks like Iron Butterfly entered the heavy metal scene with the song "In-a-Garda-Da-Vida" which was released on their second album in 1968. However, there's this interesting little quote from wiki...

" Jeff Beck claims that when he saw Iron Butterfly perform at the Galaxy Club in April 1967, half a year before the band recorded their first album, their entire second set consisted of a 35-minute long version of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida".

So in light of that early 1967 performance (which might not have even been their first performance of the song) we might very well have the seed that started the heavy metal movement...


By contrast, at roughly the same time The Beatles were singing this song...
 
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#95,960
Dadagoboi said:
No 'Inna Gadda' without this...



not to mention Vanilla Fudge...

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According to the Jeff Beck quote, Inna Gadda precedes Sunshine of your love by about 6 months. So maybe it's actually no Sunshine without Gadda.

Looks like Vanilla Fudge released Keep me Hanging (which to my ears is more psychedelic or trippy than heavy metal) about 4 months after Jeff Beck heard Iron Butterfly perform Gadda. So unless there's earlier copies out there I think Iron Butterfly still takes it.
 
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