The Mosh Pit 3.21.08: 1970 – The Year Metal Was Born

Posted by Dan Haggerty on 03.21.2008

Closing the hat-trick on our look at forgotten years for metal, and this time it is the year heavy metal was born. From Black Sabbath to Deep Purple, from Mountain to Uriah Heep, we step back to the beginning and look at the brightest and heaviest that made it a great year for music!









Tonight's Show: 1970 – The Year Metal Was Born



The week of the hat-trick, as we wrap up our look at a few years that don't get enough love in the world of metal; we started with the year metal was supposedly buried to make way for grunge – 1990. Then moved on to the year that punk was supposedly king – 1980. Now it's time to go back to the year that started it all – 1970. The million dollar question is how many metal albums could have come out of a year that is credited with the creation of the genre? Well, you might be surprised, especially when you consider two important points regarding the 70's:

1. You need to include hard rock, as true metal as we know it today might only encompass like two dozen albums from the entire decade. The 70's was a mix of hard rock, blues, and many other classical rock elements and the sound evolved through many patterns over the years. Actually, metal, like all music genres has always gone through a slow evolution through the years. It's just that the 70's evolution had no history of the metal movement to build off of so it was the earlier traditional rock influences that wove through the music. So any discussion of metal in the 70's will involve a lot of "hybrid" or sounds that are primarily metal but also "close". That means…

2. What led to the creation of metal evolved from a number of sounds and inventions from the 60's (and that my friends, is a completely different column). So it's not surprising that other bands had picked up on some of these conventions and came close, especially in context of how music sounded in the 70's. That is what some of the bands here quantify as – Close to metal but not metal proper.

That being said, we still have two groups credited with the birth of heavy metal in 1970, and some critics even argue influence from a third. So this turned out to be quite the interesting year with many unknown forgotten classics that were hard rock or "close".




Note On Bands People Talk About That Did Not Make The List (And Why):


Black Widow - Sacrifice

This thing is a cult classic, and falsely thought of as a metal album. That's because of the evil as hell lyrics, the group being Satan worshipers. Well, at least according to their music, I don't know if they really practiced it. But considering the notoriety of the band for the rituals they did live, they probably were (or were damn convincing) - Seriously creepy stuff. The music is actually a hippie-pop sound, even equipped with flutes! A weird, if fun collectible, but not even rock and roll. More like a pop version of Jethro Tull (if the Tull worshiped Satan in their lyrics).

UFO - UFO 1

UFO would become an incredibly influential band in the hard rock and metal scene, Michael Schenker would be sited as a major influence by anyone who was someone in the 80's. In fact, many of your "Bay Area Bands" would meet up at the man's shows while building their own reputation in the early 80's. But this album was before his time, and honestly the album (while not necessarily bad) just doesn't fit the bill of what we are discussing. Not even up to par in my mind. Several more albums and one hoop of MS from the Scorpions to UFO and then we'll be talking (and in fact we will soon). I'm sure I just cheesed some UFO fans off…


Atomic Rooster - Atomic Rooster

People like to throw this bands name about as an early force for metal, but nuh-uh. Good music and the songs structures would be great metal… If a guitar was playing them instead of the organ. Fun stuff but not close.


MC5 - Back In The USA

A lot of noise has been made about this band being proto-metal, and not to knock these guys as I can certainly understand how they have become a cult classic sensation, but they don't come close to metal. Proto-punk is the real story for these guys from Detroit. Now, Kick Out The Jams (from 68) is a fun debut (and boldly live!) and a loud beast for its time, but this album is almost retro in its 50's sensibilities. Fun throw-back album, but not even close to heavy metal - Not even as close to the punk promise of their first album. More collectible curiosity wrapped around a few fun covers and a few other strong tracks.


Led Zeppelin - III

While Immigrant Song is truly the bands first metal song proper, and this has some good rock cuts (plus is just a great album), the softer folk, blues, and acoustic experimentation of the album places it outside of this column. I went back and forth on this, and I'm sure someone will yell, but I can't in good conscious call this even close to a metal album or even fully hard rock.



And now… On with the best metal (and hard rock) of 1970!

As with the last two columns, I'll be doing this in order for rarest album to most popular - Taking into account perception for the time and now through historical lenses. This list does not neccessarily reflect my order of preference, but I will say that they all rate as good albums. Lots of cult classics this week, and here's to hoping a few make you "want list" to check out.

You do have a "want list"... Right? Every music fan should have a want list! Hell, mines a notebook that grows by two for every one I cross off!

We return you to your scheduled broadcast...




Lucifer's Friend – Lucifer's Friend





Man oh man; this comes close to being one of the founding albums of metal. A little consistency and perhaps someone actually hearing of it back in the day, and history might have been a little different. Seriously, "Ride the Sky" opens the album and the guitar structure combined with that horn blaring is a piece of fine German engineering, early metal at its finest. Some of the songs have the same metal integrity; others are still finely tuned hard rock; and finally some is still rock ahead of its time. Add in some wandering song construction (not jamming so much as that early 70's guitar rock noodling around, if you know what I mean). But when this cooks, it cooks well and as one of the finest early metal/hard rock platters. Sadly, this flew under the radar back in the day, the band themselves doing well enough over seas but never really getting out of the gates overall. It's a cult classic now amongst old-school hard rock/metal aficionados. Be warned, modern reprints have bonus tracks from the bands late 70's recordings that, while good, are more pop oriented (and with horns!) and will be jarring after the more proto-metallic album proper.

Overall, really good stuff; if you like the proto-metal of the early 70's you'll dig this well tuned Germanic version of guitar rock.



Sir Lord Baltimore – Kingdom Come





Some people like to link this to the first metal albums, but it honestly qualifies as proto-metal as well. Actually, stylistically it is closer to Led Zeppelin I or II, being blues, rock, or psychedelic rock that is played on burned amps and as loud as possible. Except while Zeppelin had variety and dynamics, Sir Lord Baltimore just goes straight for 10 on the dial and stays there. I mean… Damn. This thing is an exercise in crashing through songs, the philosophy being when in doubt… make it heavy. But that being said, it's not metal proper and almost not hard rock if you can get by the sheer volume. Think Blue Cheer covering Hendrix tunes, then turned up without rhyme or reason until the microphone fries. Big style points for going there, however.





Bloodrock – Bloodrock




Another band that really went nowhere, and I can't figure out why, their first albums being examples of some damn fine fist pounding hard rock/proto-metal. Actually, it's the massive power chords that do it, a few songs going places with power chords uncharted at the time. Still, not metal, more psychedelic hard rock, as if Iron Butterfly stumbled into a Deep Purple concert. German rock at its finest, at times dated and others ahead of the curve, full points for being over the top. Lost my record years ago, need to get this on CD soon if for no the reason than to catch "Melvin Laid An Egg", that one fires on all pre-unleaded era cylinders...





Cactus – Cactus






The band was originally going to be a Supergroup that included Jeff Beck and Rod Stewart with the Vanilla Fudge rhythm section, but Beck had a car accident that took him out and Stewart ended up signing on with another band. That's probably why the band sounds like Vanilla Fudge, even if that is Vanilla fudge joined by Mountain for a few jams played raw and rough, pounding out riffed up blues. Heavy on the drums and the singer sounds like a biker from the lands the group takes its name after; blasting loud and raw with a few proto-speed metal tunes, but a lot of blues and folk from the 60's done with 70's guitar rock sensibilities. Considering the inspiration and bands referenced, not as dated as one might expect.




Mountain – Climbing!





A bunch of cowbell cracks and then one of the heaviest riffs of 1970 hits you courtesy of "Mississippi Queen". Several songs on this crunch well, while the rest jams and wanders in 70's guitar (hard) rock lands, most tracks not as heavy and focused as the first song, but still an enjoyable listen. Actually, their next album, Nantucket Sleighride is the better musical construction truth be told, but this album is closer to its proto-metal promise, and of course the aforementioned song being the bands most recognizable track. Ultimately, this was more influential on hard rock, but when it bruises, it bruises well, as the even heavier "Never In My life". Talk about some bottom end rumble. This is a treasure of the early hard rock movement, with moments of brilliant metal to proto metal chunks. Have a few drinks, grow some sideburns, and headbang liberally.




Uriah Heep – Very 'eavy... Very 'umble





"If this group makes it I'll have to commit suicide. From the first note you know you don't want to hear any more." – Melissa Mills in Rolling Stone

Well, if Rolling Stone says that, you know it's good. Underrated and underappreciated, this is the album that some critics single out as helping to create heavy metal. This is due to a few key cuts that are just amazing when stacked up against the year in music. "Gypsy" and "Bird of Prey" being hands down metal goodness, the tracks being classic monsters of sizable proportions. But that doesn't stop there, "Walking in your Shadow" and "Real Turned On" also add to the cannon being forged this year. I can see why people have made the case for this album, a couple of listens to those tracks and the work ethic put into them, and you start to become a believer. The fact this has the better production of the other two land mark albums (see below) also helps the cause, even if suffering from that distant coolness so many 70's albums seemed to get saddled with.

This band was in realty just influenced by, and influenced in the future prog, rock, hard rock, and even jazz and psychedelic vibes, but the metal is also hiding in there, popping out of the bands arsenal at times in its regal career, and a chunk of this album made a believer out of me.






Deep Purple – Deep Purple In Rock





If Black Sabbath put the "Heavy" in heavy metal, then this put the "Metal" into it. The guitars are let loose and open up new vistas that would influence arena bands, hard rockers of the 80's and on, plus the genre the band would actually distance itself from – Heavy metal. But its here, its here in spades; sharp forward thinking power chords extraordinaire that whip up and deliver the reaction of a band dripped in talent and chemically balanced into the purest money shot rock delivery system of 1970. The immortal Ritchie Blackmore delivers his classically constructed guitar work, even if plugged into high voltage, on newcomer Ian Gillian's voice, be it soaring or working the low end. Glover and Paice single handedly establish the arena rocker rhythm section, or at least evolving what Zeppelin started. Finally, Lord's keyboards are part melody, part texture, at times a benediction on the whole affair.

The difference between Black Sabbath/Deep Purple and the rest of the music scene, the metal difference in this year is that the other bands really qualified as hard rock (at best). You'll notice a common musical description running through this thread for many albums, and that is the presence of blues, rock, psychedelic, and even jazz. Bands flirted around the edges of metal, but didn't go the whole way. It took Sabbath to give it the heavy and Purple to give it the power.

Just sit back and listen to this album and think about it being released in 1970. "Hard Lovin Man" is practically power metal for gods sake! "Speed King", "Into The Fire", and Bloodsucker" could be release from one of those retro-metal bands now, and that is meant in a good way to show the music for its worth then and forward thinking. "Child In Time" is the classic that would define MK II of the band (starting with this album), and the concert staple for years to come – All with its long non-stop artistry in motion.

This thing is pure state of the art, and even if not necessarily the best Purple Album (an amazing statement into itself), is still great for what it did then and how it holds up today. Indeed, the five men should be enshrined on Rushmore as the cover shows…





Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath





The shot heard around the world, and ground zero for what would become metal. Deep Purple had a large influence on metal, and the overall riff-goodness of In Rock being a first metal record in its own right, but that was a worldly type of metal, power chords and guitar slinging that would fill arenas in a decade. This was a different creature, the kind of beast that would propagate itself and imprint its heaviness through generations to come, in many ways the soul of metal itself. Blues, jazz, psychedelic, rock, and smoke-filled-room jamming all played a part of this jarring debut (for a group and a genre!), but the DNA is here. There is no mistaken the components in the title track, "Black Sabbath" scaring the pop culture right out of every wrought note; critics damning the thing simply because they couldn't wrap their brains around the history going down.

Osbourne, while not the greatest actual voice in the world, was a front man through and through, and his emotive wail adding to the horror show in directions rock wasn't meant to go. Geezer adds a heavy amount of bottom end, and lyrically combines into the soul of heavy metal proper. Bill War, part percussionist, part unsung musical genius takes things on a left had turn from rock and roll into the chilled autumn night. But the piece de résistance is Tony Iommi, whose signatures guitar sound and riff construction is the single most recognizable event in the creation of heavy metal. Yes, think about that – The man invented heavy metal. I mean - DAMN.

Now, the reality is that this is a good album, but not a masterpiece of performance. The band still struggling through its sound and direction, the wheel a little square and dated, but damn that just doesn't endear this hopeless yet hopeful pile of evil idiosyncrasies to the ear.



Black Sabbath – Paranoid




Later the same year, despite critics and apathy, Sabbath releases their sophomore album and what is the world's first true metal album proper. Where Deep Purple conquered with power and par excellent song construction, Sabbath just crushed you with heaviness, choking you with Iommi's riffs of simple but planetary orbit changing weight. This had a rhythm section in Ward and Geezer, but Butler seemed destined to also prop up Tony's guitar to keep the mass in motion, while Ward is part time drummer, part time percussionist (something he's incredibly underrated for) in just beating the beast into rolling along. Seriously, he doesn't keep beat for a song, he just beats the song along, and with his fills and patterns that is a thing of beauty my friends. Now don't get me wrong with the Purple comment, this brings the songs, it's just that you get into them after recovering from bucket of iron smacked up your head. No one went here in 1970. No one else went here for years after 1970.

Their debut had metal, but also other hard rock and psychedelic conventions as well, while here they are forced under the metal sheen of a band more focused on their signature sound. Whether it's the classic war drumming of "Warpigs" (original album title until the label got cold feet – that's why the album cover doesn't match the actual title of the album), or the proto-speed of "Paranoid", or the shell-shock explorations of "Iron Man", this album is the defining force of what makes Black Sabbath the godfathers of the whole damn scene. Sure, "Planet Caravan" is an acid trip, until you hear the fuck it attitude of the lyrics with their apathetic vision of giving up on this world and starting over! "Hand of Doom" brings revelations to your door, and incidentally also creating the doom subgenre of metal (the name doom comes from the title of this song). That's right, Sabbath couldn't just create the metal riff and help birth heavy metal – they had to start influencing subgenres right out of the gates. And finally, what can be said about "Fairies Wear Boots"; it rocks, rolls, gallops, riff construction at its trail blazing finest, Ozzy delivering visions at the burnt edges of reality.

Yes, these tracks have been played to death, and I don't visit this album as much these days due to sheer overload, but there is no mistaking its greatness, historical relevance, and grandiose gravitas in the great schemes of things. It is everything the marquee says – Believe the hype.




Encore:

Well that wraps up a look at the turn of the decades, and despite the state of music some of the great albums released. I hope you enjoyed this fun look down memory lane and at some great music…

…and we're going to do it again! I slid 1970 in last for a reason, because it is more than just a decade of great music somewhat lost to the events around it – It was a historical year for metal as well. In this case, it's the year metal was born, and the grandfathers of the sounds and ideas entered the stage. But metal is now approaching its 40th year (!), and in its illustrious and infamous history there was other years that held signature moments, albums that shaped metal into the force we hear today. Those years and albums did what Deep Purple and Black Sabbath did in 1970. From here we'll go forward and look at the albums and years those genre shaping events took place.

Next stop: 1776 – The year metal was unified!


Tales from the Pit
Reader Feedback, what's on your playlist, and the great gigs you've seen.

I didn't have a chance to respond to a comment from Zakk in last week's column:

" This is a great article, and i'm really enjoying the series, if it does in fact
become that.

Just a slight note in case people were a bit confused, i think he was trying to
say that alex destroys his drum kit, not anthony, in the Van halen section.

Otherwise great stuff"

First of all – Thanks!

Next – You are absolutely right on the Alex FUBAR on my part. Funny story actually, while writing the column I was talking to my wife about Van Halen (The first album for each era of the band - Dave and Sammy that is - being her favorite summer albums ever), and she was talking about how she really didn't want to see the band when they come to Michigan because Anthony isn't with them. After all, if Eddie and Dave can make amends, why couldn't they get their bass player back? Anyway, she was simply disappointed by the whole thing. Then I wrote that part up and just kept good old Michael on the brain evidently. Anyway, my bad and good catch. That's what I get for having conversations while working a deadline for this column.

And if your reading this, you'll be happy to note I've got a few of these columns planned for the future – But this time we'll be going forward to land mark years!




Final Thoughts

Keep it real and pay the music you love, even if it's almost 40 years old and most people never heard of the cult albums you spin on vinyl. If someone bitches, turn it up to 10.