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Earliest "heavy" recording


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quote:

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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...

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Yup...

 

I remember seeing Blue Cheer doing "Summertime Blues" on the Dick Clark Show. I'm guessing 1967. A definite eye-opener for me.

 

bk

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Originally posted by Steve LeBlanc:

Give props to Black Sabbath...their first album (1969?) was pretty damn heavy

 

I'd say that was the first "modern" heavy metal record BECAUSE it broke away from blues progressions in a way that was unique for the time. You can still play that record to kids and they'll think it's something relatively new...

 

Leslie West was "heavy", but that's a different story...

 

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Originally posted by Tedster:

Anybody remember Frigid Pink?

 

Yea Tedster, they were real heavy!

I think they were from Michigan. (They used to do a lot of "double bills" with Grand Funk.) What was their big hit?, wasn't it a cover version of a Motown / Temptations tune?

 

-Hippie

In two days, it won't matter.
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Link Wray...I think the song was called "Rumble"...and I believe recorded in the late 50's. Awesome distorted guitar tone, very heavy and very ahead of it's time.

 

Blue Cheer..."Summertime Blues"

 

The Live Yardbirds featuring Jimmy Page...I think it was their last album just before Page formed L.Z.

 

Johnny Winter...Progressive Blues Experiment album.

 

'Nuff said...I could go on all day!

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Originally posted by dondottcomm:

Frigid Pink...House or the Riseing Sun..I think

 

Don

 

Yeah, that would have been it. I remember they played a gig at Lee's Garage, a now-defunct rock and roll club in Port Huron...probably in the mid seventies. People that heard them (and there were only a couple who went for some unknown reason...maybe the weather sucked) swear to this day that they've never heard anything louder in their lives... http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/biggrin.gifhttp://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/biggrin.gifhttp://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

"Cisco Kid, was a friend of mine"
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Originally posted by trickfall@yahoo.com:

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!

 

Thanks for the tip, trickfall. The Swans are one of the Great American Bands as far as I'm concerned- the "Black Sabbath at 16 rpm" description really fits for the early stuff, and tunes like "Failure" are what I would call truly alternative Country.

 

Batman mentioned Spooky Tooth- there's a connection to Musique Concrete, as they did an album with Musique Concrete pioneer Pierre Henri (a heavy Catholic Mass, it's definitely worth listening too). The connection between the "classical" avant garde and "heavy" rock was big back then, Stockhausen is on the cover of Sgt. Peppers for crying out loud. I guess Frank Zappa would be the prime example of that symbiosis- Hot Rats isn't exactly "lite" come to think of it.

 

-CB

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I've got another one...pretty early...and for the day quite heavy..."Pictures of Matchstick Men"...Status Quo...

 

What year did that come out? Couldn't have been much later than '66...

"Cisco Kid, was a friend of mine"
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I've been listening to a lot of King Crimson lately (check out "Absent Lovers - Live 1984 - Outstanding!) and although I wouldn't call them a heavy metal band, to me a lot of Crimson's early 70's stuff sounds heavier than a lot of rock bands then, or at least more deliberately ominous. Tracks like "Red" and "Lark's Tongues in Aspic pt.2" come to mind...

 

Amazing band, especially 80-84 era w/ Belew.

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not heavy music, but mucho heavy n wild lead guitar... lowman poling from the 5 royales 1951-1559 with a les paul just maxed through a little amp..distortion city...

 

kink's "all day all night" is purty darn riffy...

 

beethoven's 5th is pretty heavy stuff...

 

-d. gauss

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I was just about to post "Beethoven" when I saw your post. It must have been quite an experience in that day -- you didn't have loudspeakers, but I bet those orchestras got pretty loud. Without any means to record it, every concert must have been a very special occasion.
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I was there as a kid.

 

Black Sabbath by a mile, IMO. Cut 1 Side 1, from the rain and the pealing of the church bell followed by the first 3 chords the band hit, you knew this was a first. Nothing else like it. Heeeeeeaaaaavy, baby.

 

Made everything else up to that point sound outright gay by comparison.

 

Regards,

Brian T

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Originally posted by Tedster:

I've got another one...pretty early...and for the day quite heavy..."Pictures of Matchstick Men"...Status Quo...

 

What year did that come out? Couldn't have been much later than '66...

 

I love that song.

I was in a band that played "Pictures...", I remember having to control the flanger on the chorus' with a footpedal as well as the wah-wah I was using for the geetar parts. After a few drinks, it used to get a little confusing making sure I was turning off and on the right thing! A few times I would really screw it up http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/biggrin.gif -Try that with a few Crown Royals in ya!

 

-Hippie

In two days, it won't matter.
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Originally posted by strat0124:

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?

 

I heard a group called 'Love Sculpture' in that era that did heavy metal versions of classical music - they totally kicked ass! The one I remember most was a 2 (or maybe 3) guitar version of 'Saber Dance'. Unfortunately, I've never heard of them again, or found a copy of their album. My friend who introduced them to me suicided many years ago, sad to say...

 

- Philbo

Tangent Music

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Originally posted by take5:

Link Wray...I think the song was called "Rumble"...and I believe recorded in the late 50's. Awesome distorted guitar tone, very heavy and very ahead of it's time.

 

Second that... this was in the 50s!

Kris

My Band: http://www.fullblackout.com UPDATED!!! Fairly regularly these days...

 

http://www.logcabinmusic.com updated 11/9/04

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Originally posted by demtation:

I've been listening to a lot of King Crimson lately (check out "Absent Lovers - Live 1984 - Outstanding!) and although I wouldn't call them a heavy metal band, to me a lot of Crimson's early 70's stuff sounds heavier than a lot of rock bands then, or at least more deliberately ominous. Tracks like "Red" and "Lark's Tongues in Aspic pt.2" come to mind...

 

Amazing band, especially 80-84 era w/ Belew.

 

Hey, this thread got me to go back and listen to that stuff. I read the posts about 21st Century Schizoid Man (that album should get an award for "heaviest" record cover of all time -- a ha! a new thread!) and went back and listened to that up against the fripp/wetton/bruford/muir period, and that wins hands down. Lark's Tongues In Aspic Part II gets a special price both because it rocks so much AND because it has the heaviest violin rock solo ever. I know, it's a small category, but this was a killer solo.

 

Also love the Belew/Levin period, but the 70s stuff has a heaviness while the later stuff has more of, well, a playfulness to it that's nice.

 

Best,

--JES

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Let's not forget Lord Stutch! He had an album out in '68 or '69 with Noel Redding on bass, John Bonham on drums, and Jeff Beck on guitar... Just heavy as hell! Unfortunatley, I've only ever heard the album once, it's impossible to find, and I can't remember the song names http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/frown.gif

 

Other nods: Fleetwood Mac's "Green Manalishi" from back in the days when they were a ROCK band, and Judas Priest's "Sad Wings of Destiny." Recorded in 1976, it was epic sound on a shoestring budget... it was also about as anti-disco as it gets http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/smile.gif

 

-0z-

Glenn "0z" Fricker

Spectre Sound, The Heavy Rock Specialist!

http://www.spectresound.org

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Originally posted by Tedster:

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!!!

 

Bloodrock was another band of the same days as Grand Funk Railroad. Same producer (Terry Knight) and label - Capitol. Bloodrock was a good band for that genre. Their second album had some great songs on it, D.O.A. was not one of them.

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The examples of "heavy" music prior to 1969 are confusing to me. High Impact? Heavy for the time? I'd say yes.

 

But from my child of the 1970's perspective, I define heavy with massively overdriven guitar sounds. Even though I'm not a big Sabbath fan, I'd have to say they, and a few other bands from around 1969, introduced "heavy" music, by that definition.

 

A funny aside, IMO, is that I just looked at the Ty Tabor signature guitar on www.yamaha.com, and their marketing dept. states this on the web page:

 

Heavy rock didn't start in Seattle it started in Katy, Texas with King's X.

 

I like their (Yamaha's) guitars, but no matter where you decide "heavy" music began (from the suggestions on this thread, at least), it certainly has been around for a LOT longer than KingsX! http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/rolleyes.gifhttp://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

 

Deep Purple & Black Sabbath are the first bands I remember being truly "heavy" guitar music. Even Kansas and Foreigner were somewhat heavy, but nothing like DP and BS.

 

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Neil

 

Reality: A few moments of lucidity surrounded by insanity.

It's easiest to find me on Facebook. Neil Bergman

 

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I have to go with The Beatles Revolution(single version). That was shockingly heavy for '68. John's intro scream was almost barbaric! Also, anyone remember the "Red Album" from Grand Funk? That was kick ass for late '69 early '70. I think it beat the first Black Sabbath album to the stores by a couple of months. I still remember buying all those albums.

 

This message has been edited by daddy-o on 07-19-2001 at 12:51 PM

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