Early Heavy Metal

I've been a huge Black Sabbath fan since I was an awkward 7th grade boy. I got into Ozzy's solo stuff first because Down To Earth had just come out, which is actually a really good album. Then I got the Ozzman Cometh best of which had two early Sabbath demos of "Black Sabbath" and "War Pigs." When I heard the riff from "Black Sabbath" I fell in love. I knew I needed to immediately go out get all of their albums. Ozzy, Tony, Geezer, and Bill have been a huge part of my life ever since. Every time I'm walking or biking around at night, I listen to Black Sabbath or Masters of Reality. From the 1970 debut all the way to Heaven and Hell with Ronnie James Dio, I've spent more hours than I could possibly ever recount listening to Sabbath. After a while I started to wonder where this music came from, who were the bands that were playing this heavy music who influenced Sabbath, and which other bands from the 70s were playing this heavy music at the same time or slightly after. Sabbath are called the fathers of heavy metal, but it couldn't have come out of nowhere. I was a little surprised when I found out where Sabbath got there sound from (though now that I'm older and wiser it makes perfect sense)...it came from the blues.

Sabbath started out as a blues band who experimented with heavy riffs. From there, I started to discover other heavy bands based in the blues, namely Blue Cheer. Blue Cheer formed in 1966 in San Francisco and were extremely radical in that they combined the blues with hard rock and psychedelia. Some of you might be saying to yourself, it's not that radical, Cream were doing it at the same time...Well, Blue Cheer were doing it much heavier and freakier than Cream. They could go from a straight ahead blues rock tune to the craziest, distorted freakouts being made at that time. Their first two albums, Vincebus and Outside Inside, both released in 1968, are essential listening. No other band at the time or since has done it quite like Blue Cheer, and every band based in blues rock, especially the entire stoner metal scene with bands such as Monster Magnet, Kyuss, Fu Manchu, etc. owe a lot to Blue Cheer for paving the way more than 40 years ago.


Then there was the MC5. Though the MC5 are considered more of a proto-punk band than a proto-metal band like Blue Cheer, they used the blues as a starting point for creating something much heavier which is why I would argue they were both. All you have to do is listen to "Borderline" "I Want You Right Now" and "Come Together" to hear what I'm talking about. Though all three of their albums are great, their 1969 live debut Kick Out The Jams is essential, and fits the proto-metal sound I'm talking about best. (I reviewed this album in my 1969 article).



Now fast forward one year. The '60s are over, having officially died on December 6, 1969 at the Altamont festival organized by the Rolling Stones. With this new decade came heavier music. Black Sabbath released their first two albums in 1970. Two other bands also released their debut albums in 1970, and these albums should have been huge but for some reason just faded into obscurity. The first was Wishbone Ash, a British rock band formed in 1969. Their self titled debut album released in 1970 was grounded in the blues but it had an edge to it that set it apart from the other British blues rock bands of their time, such as Fleetwood Mac and Cream. It was heavier than what was going on in pop music but today it just sounds more like a blues rock album than a hard rock album because of how hard rock and metal have progressed. The band also sported two lead guitarists. Their twin lead format was really incredible and the vocals were very bluesy. Their first album, which sported 6 songs in 42 minutes was their crowning achievement. After this album they moved on to softer territory incorporating folk into their sound, and from then on they were never as heavy again.




The second band, Sir Lord Baltimore, formed in 1968 in Brooklyn. They released two albums, Kingdom Come and Sir Lord Baltimore in 1970 and 1971 respectively. These guys were HEAVY. They, along with Sabbath, were some of the first people to get really heavy and write bone crunching, distorted riffs. They also straddled the line, keeping it really bluesy while also making it distinctly heavy metal, as you can hear on heavy metal blues freakouts "I Got A Woman" and "Hell Hound" off the first album. In addition, they also did straight up heavy metal in songs like "Kingdom Come" from the first album and "Where Are We Goin" and "Woman Tamer" from the second album. These two albums are incredible from start to finish. They were both reissued on one CD, but that reissue is long out of print. If you ever come across a copy, GET IT.






There was another band who embodied the early heavy metal sound perfectly. They were second only to Black Sabbath themselves. The band was called Pentagram. I felt they deserved their own article, so stay tuned for more 70's metal, because if you were at all interested in this article you'll need to hear about Pentagram...

1969

I was listening to Sounds of 69 by Crazy Baldhead today, which is an album of covers of songs originally released in 1969 given the Crazy Baldhead reggae treatment, and it got me thinking that 1969 was a great year for music. I started flipping through my collection and realized just how great a year it was. I decided to make a post about a few of my favorite albums which turned 40 this year that Agent Jay didn't cover songs from.

MC5- Kick Out The Jams

The MC5 were part of the (un)holy trinity of proto punk bands including The Velvet Underground and The Stooges (both of which released classic albums in 1969 but aren't being discussed in this article because Crazy Baldhead covered a song from both of them). Kick Out The Jams was the MC5's debut album and cemented them as total badasses not only because the album kicks ass but because they debuted with a heavy, loud, LIVE album. The album is THE prime example of what an MC5 show was like when they were at their loudest. This band did everything that rock bands weren't doing or were too afraid to do at the time. Their political affiliations were more than radical. Joh Sinclaire, leader of the White Panthers,a companion group to the Black Panthers which consisted of white people assisting their cause, gives a speech at the opening of this album. They were doing blues and r&b covers ("Motor City's Burning" by John Lee Hooker, and the r&b standard, "Ramblin Rose") which was not too out of the ordinary for their "hard rock" contemporaries but crediting one of their songs to Sun Ra because they borrowed the lyrics from one of his poems is not something many rock bands were doing and still isn't something I've ever heard of a rock band doing. They also opened the first track on the album with a call to arms for everyone who knew what was what and which horrified everyone who didn't: "KICK OUT THE JAMS, MOTHERFUCKERS!"

Johnny Otis- Snatch and the Poontangs/Cold Shot

Johnny Otis is an R&B pioneer. He also happens to be white but that never stopped him. He grew up in a black neighborhood of Berkeley and gravitated towards "race music." When he was younger it was swing. Eventually he fell in love with rhythm and blues and became completely intertwined with the genre despite being one of the very few white men involved in it. A few of his accomplishments include many #1's on the R&B charts, discovering Etta James, and producing Big Mama Thorton's "Hound Dog." By 1968 the hits had stopped coming in and he was getting a little old (47 to be exact) but that didn't stop him from putting out two amazing albums that year, Cold Shot and Snatch and the Poontangs. Musically they are both very similar albums. They are blues raveups, updating that R&B sound that Johnny had made his mark playing all those years. Lyrically, however, they are worlds apart. Cold Shot is a straight ahead blues album, whereas Snatch and the Poontangs, as the name suggests, is filthy, raw, X-rated blues. Not only is the music incredible but the songs are hilarious. It should also be mentioned that featured on both albums is Johnny's 15 year old son, Shuggie, who plays the blues so well he rivals some of Hendrix's best blues playing. Shuggie would go on to become a cult hero in his own right, releasing 3 solo albums, Here Comes Shuggie Otis, Freedom Flight, and Inspiration Information, and playing guitar on Al Kooper's Super Sessions follow up called Kooper Sessions.

*Both of these albums plus two bonus tracks from the Snatch and the Poontangs album sessions were compiled onto one CD.

Herbie Mann- Memphis Underground

In keeping with the theme of incredible albums made by white guys in a predominately black genre, here we have Herbie Mann with the soul jazz classic, Memphis Underground. On this album are jazz legends Roy Ayers playing the vibes, Larry Coryell on guitar, and Sonny Sharock also on guitar. The band is rounded out by the Memphis rhythm section. This album is Herbie Mann's tribute to soul music. 3 of the 5 songs on the album are soul covers ("New Orleans" originally recorded by Gary U.S. Bonds, "Hold On, I'm Comin" originally recorded by Sam & Dave, and "Chain of Fools" originally recorded by Aretha Franklin). Of the remaining 2 songs, "Memphis Undergound" is a Herbie Mann original and "Battle Hymn of the Republic" is a traditional song arranged by Herbie Mann. The musicianship is incredible and the grooves are tight. Once you hear Sonny Sharock's guitar solos you'll understand that this is more than just a jazz album and more than just a soul album.

Frank Zappa- Hot Rats

This was Zappa's second solo album, the first being the incredibly experimental Lumpy Gravy. It is also Zappa's first album of jazz compositions (not his first foray into jazz however, as he was composing classical and jazz before forming The Mothers). This is not your father's jazz album though. This is jazz fusion as only Zappa could do. The band features Zappa on guitar, octave bass, and percussion and Zappa regular Ian Underwood playing piano, organ, flute, all clarinets, and all saxes. Beyond that the musicians are not the same for each song but feature special guests Captain Beefheart lending his vocals to "Willie the Pimp", Jean Luc Ponty playing violin on "It Must Be A Camel", and the aforementioned Shuggie Otis playing bass on "Peaches En Regalia" This is the first installment of what has come to be known as Zappa's jazz trilogy which also includes Waka/Jawaka and The Grand Wazoo. This album is much more rock oriented the the other two, especially in Zappa's guitar playing and his solos.

Chicago- Chicago Transit Authority

When people think of the band Chicago, they think of the pop songs such as "Saturday in the Park" or "Just You N' Me." While I still enjoy those songs for what they are they couldn't be farther, stylistically, from what this band started out as. They formed in 1967 in Chicago and then moved out to Los Angeles and signed to Columbia who released their self titled debut album, which also happened to be a double LP which was just as unheard of as debuting with a live album. The band has 7 members including trumpet, trombone, and various woodwind instruments. 5 of the 7 members share vocal duties. All of the 7 members of the band were amazing musicians but one should have been a legend. Guitarist Terry Kath should be a household name mentioned in the same breath as Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, and Jimmy Page. In fact, in the liner notes, sax player Walter Parazaider recalls playing a show at the Whiskey in L.A. before the album was recorded and having Jimi Hendrix come up to him and say, "Your horns are one set of lungs, and you know your guitar player is better than me." Kath's genius is all over this album in his incredible solos on "Introduction," "Listen," "Poem 58," "South California Purples," "I'm a Man," and "Liberation." But where he really shines is his epic "Free Form Guitar." The song clocks in at just under 7 minutes of what some would call noise and feedback but I call it guitar virtuosity. In those seven minutes Kath gets sounds to come out of his guitar you've never heard before and yet as a whole, it works surprisingly well as one piece of music. This album is full of heavy songs with a heavy R&B influence. My favorite thing about this album, however, is playing it for people who have never heard it. When they hear I want to play them a Chicago album they're usually surprised and don't want to say no but don't believe me when I say it's going to blow their mind. As soon as the horns kick in on the first track, "Introduction," and Terry Kath starts singing in his bluesy growl it always blows their minds.