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Earliest "heavy" recording


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I remember hearing some killer heavy grooves before it was the popular thing, specifically Mountain's Mississippi Queen, and King Crimson's 21st Century Schitzoid Man. Of course right around the corner came the Zeps and Sabbaths. But for me those were the two that I heard first and made the biggest impression. Yours?
Down like a dollar comin up against a yen, doin pretty good for the shape I'm in
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The Beatles' "Revolution" (the loud version, not the slow one on the White Album).

 

Also, Boston's first album made a big impression on me as a kid, for better or worse. http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/smile.gif

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"Heavy" being the key word the first thing that came to mind for me, was my first encounter with "Iron Butterfly". I remember being in H&H Music in Houston and the fellow that worked there calling us over to listen to a new record. Listening to it and wondering where we were going to go from there.

AaV

 

 

_______

"Save something for the encore"

My family "coat of arms" buckles in the back. Is that normal?
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This is a great topic. You would have to dig deep down into the 60's to find the very first example of rock'n'roll heaviness, I don't know what that would be. Because I didn't hear those early moments of heaviness in context, I never had the fun of hearing them as REALLY HEAVY MAN.

 

In the context of the Four Freshmen and Pat Boone... you know what I'm saying.

 

The first music I ever heard that struck me as truly heavy was the early Swans, recorded probably 20 years after the first sonic brontosaurus trudged onto tape, whichever band that might have been.

 

-CB

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I'm also a firm believer that Sabbath was the first heavy metal band.

 

I think Dick Dale deserves a nod. He was doing things on the guitar in the early 60's that had to be mind blowing at the time. I think even today, his music is in a league of it's own.

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Steppinwolf..Magic Carpet Ride.Or it might of been the Pusher{Hoyt Axton?}My aunt had the record so I heard it over and over..LOL.But it was and still is great!

 

Don

What? you mean I can take this block of fine swiss and make a song??...COOL!

 

Don

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I agree with most choices so far, got to include My Generation by the Who. That song is like a truck with no brakes heading down the grapevine.

 

As an impressionable youth, I found a tape (cassette) of West, Bruce and Lang called Why Dontcha. Leslie West (of Mountain) Jack Bruce and Corky Lang, the title track knocked my socks off.

 

The heaviest, hard hitting rock-of-all-time trophy has to go to the man himself. The one who showed us how it was done, on his album "In a Metal Mood" - Pat Boone.

 

 

-David R.

-David R.
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The Stooges' first album came out in '68, it's pretty heavy, there's always the MC5 too, who go back to '65 I think but their first album was released in '69.

 

I'll bet there's some '50s Musique Concrete piece that sounds as heavy and moderne now as it did then but probably didn't hit the top 40, being less in the "man, that's heavy!" vein so much as "what the HELL are you listening to?!?!" style.

 

-CB

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Originally posted by E-money:

Not the earliest or the heaviest, but the first time I heard Helter Skelter, I was scared.

 

Really Scared.

 

You weren't watching the Manson trial, were you?

 

BTW...What do you get when you cross devil music with bubblegum?

 

Marilyn Hanson...

"Cisco Kid, was a friend of mine"
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I'd go for Sabbath. From my limited knowledge it seems that back then even though distorted guitars and power-chorded rock was around. The "evil" & "doom" ambience that their 1969 recording has seems to be related with nothing else of that area. I always wondered how it was perceived back then because my reaction when put into context of what played back then is: " What the fuck were they thinking?"

 

Same thing for "21st Century skidzoid man". That song in a nutshell summerized the modern rock productions that would follow 25 years later. The vocal distorted tone, the contant use of disonnant intervals, blending brass instrument with rock aggressiveness, it goes on and on.

 

Let's just say that betwwen 65 and 70 a lot has happened. Which I had been there to live it.

 

Emile

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Originally posted by bvdd:

This wasn't the earliest but it's worthy:

 

"Hot Smoke and Sassafras" by Bubble Puppy. Circa 1969.

 

GREAT SONG!!! BTW...they have a website that tells an interesting tale of record company destruction. Their old guitar player was even nice enough to reply to one of my emails.

 

To that end...how 'bout "Up Around the Bend" by CCR? That tune kicked...was even covered by another more metalloid band a few years back. I'd second the "Mississippi Queen"...and add "Whole Lotta Love"...plus some Cream...Hendrix of course...

 

Sorry if some of my chronology is out of place...my sense of time may have been a bit askew back then...

"Cisco Kid, was a friend of mine"
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If you want to go way back try "Fat Boy Rag" by Bob Wills. I know it won't quite have the sonic impact as something from the tape era but it does show an early effort that few from that time (mid 40's) could comprehend.

 

Robert Morin

Alesis

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Earliest heavy stuff? Anything by Dick Dale (early 60s). "Rock Around the Clock (1955)," pounding drums and distorted power chords!

 

Also, by no means early, but Donovan's "Hurdy Gurdy Man," with still- Yardbirds guitarist Jimmy Page, was seriously heavy in '67-68. It always struck me as one of the heaviest songs ever.

 

Hendrix and Cream, of course, and The Who, with their early feedback in '66, and the whole Sell Out period. As well as lots of Yardbird stuff.

 

Of course, "heavy" did not mean the same thing before 1970 as it did afterward. In the late 60s, heavy meant intense musically, emotionally or psychologically. That included fuzzed out guitars and pounding drums a la Cream, The Who and Hendrix. But it also included a lot of music by San Francisco bands like the Airplane, things like "Strawberry Fields" and "I Am the Walrus," The Chambers "Time Has Come Today," and one of the earliest "heavy" songs I can think of: "Eight Miles High" by the Byrds, recorded in late 1965.

 

It was only in 1970 or so that "heavy" started to mean skinny, big-haired British bands, playing ponderous Les Pauls, who spent way too much energy trying to look cool, and had little sense of humour (well, Mott the Hoople and Queen did)!

 

In the beginning some of the music was really great. But after more than 30 years, it's getting old! When I listened to "Whole Lotta Love" as a high schooler, I never dreamed high schoolers over 30 years later would listen to that same song on their "contemporary" station! Back then that would have been like listening to a song from the late 1930s!!!!!!!!! UNTHINKABLE!

 

Sorry 'bout the negative editorial. I really do love that stuff, ya' know!

 

Neon

neon

Mixville Productions, LLC

Creative Music and Sound Design

 

"I guess all songs is folk songs. Never heard no horse sing 'em."

Big Bill Broonzy

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For an example of maybe the grungiest, dirtiest,

still-supposed-to-be teen pop, put on some good cans and

listen to The Dave Clark 5.

It sounds like every VU meter was PINNED in every song.

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Howlin' Wolf - Wang Dang Doodle, early 50's I think. Hard as hell!

 

Screaming Jay Hawkins - I put a spell on you, don't know when it was recorded but it must have been quite early too. Scary voodoo stuff!

 

/Mats

http://www.lexam.net/peter/carnut/man.gif

What do we want? Procrastination!

When do we want it? Later!

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Originally posted by bvdd:

For an example of maybe the grungiest, dirtiest,

still-supposed-to-be teen pop, put on some good cans and

listen to The Dave Clark 5.

It sounds like every VU meter was PINNED in every song.

 

Hey that sounds cool to me at times, like hearing Wilson Pickett distort out a vocal, or Sam and Dave. Foghat did it as well with "I just wanna make love to you". I specifically mentioned 21st Century and Mississippi Queen, because at the time they were recorded, there was nothing like them really. I think 21st came out either in 66 or 67, and Mississippi Queen around the same time......way ahead in the power chord department.

Down like a dollar comin up against a yen, doin pretty good for the shape I'm in
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Originally posted by bvdd:

This wasn't the earliest but it's worthy:

 

"Hot Smoke and Sassafras" by Bubble Puppy. Circa 1969.

 

HEAR HEAR!!! http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

 

I remember a song called "D.O.A.", by the band of the same name. Lots of blood and gore.

 

My brothers used to lock me in a dark room and crank up the 45 as loud as possible. Very scary stuff for a seven year old...

 

Steve

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I remember a song called D.O.A. by a now-obscure band called "Bloodrock". And "Time has come today" by the Chambers Bros...YES! "I might get burnt up by the sun...but I've had my fun"...Hoo hoo hoo...AWRIGHT!!!
"Cisco Kid, was a friend of mine"
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Bobro, if you like Swans you might wanna check out The Heroin Chics.

I'm surprised no ones mentioned The Velvet Underground's Sister Ray. I wasn't around when it first came out, but even after listening to all the stuff mentioned, plus things like The Sex Pistols and Ramones it still sounded pretty effing heavy!

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Originally posted by Bruce Lash:

The first time I heard something on the radio and thought "heavy", it was Blue Cheer doing "Summertime Blues". Very heavy...

 

Yup...

Blue Cheer, Iron Butterfly and, UK band Spooky Tooth (including Greg Lake and several other well-known Brit legends whose names I have infuriatingly forgotten)

The original reference (for all you atavistically-oriented sorts.) is in good ol' Billy Burroughs, "Naked Lunch"...."The Heavy Metal Kids"...name taken by a 70s Brit band led by the late, great, Gary Holton...

Salute!

Ade

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