First heavy metal song?

Big Ears

Music Lover
Joined
Jul 3, 2011
Posts
5,195
Reaction score
136
Location
Hampshire, England
You Really got Me was among the first of the more refined/developed heavy tracks, even though it was created with a lack of sophisticated equipment. It was also ahead of its time as The Who's I Can See for Miles did not appear until 1967. The Who's song inspired Paul McCartney's Helter Skelter and there is an interesting account of this on Wiki (who are always reliable).
 

Vader

Veteran Of A Thousand Psychic Wars
Joined
Jul 3, 2014
Posts
10,723
Reaction score
17,842
Location
Mother Gaia
Reading people who don't really listen to much Metal ideas on what constitutes an early Metal song is like reading a description of the taste of chocolate by someone who has never tasted it.

It takes more then speed and a bit of distortion on the amp to make a song, Metal.
Metal has a more sinister element / attitude / atmosphere and generally invovles a more down tuned sound. Plus a complexed element of a Progressive Rock , Jazz and Classical nature,
example; Geezer Butler & Bill Ward's almost swing time , Progressive Jazz, rhythm section which, are the back bone of Sabbath's songs. Combined with Ozzy's eerie, sinister, vocal style and Tony Iommi's down tuned, distorted, doom ladened, guitar riffing ....a newly crafted ( at the time ), horrific element was added to Rock & Roll , which combined to give birth to the Genre : Heavy Metal.

There are many musical components that make Metal what it is. It is not just distortion, loudness, and speed ....
Anyone, who doesn't understand these FACTS, is ignorant to what musical elements make up the music form refered to as, METAL.

And this overview hasn't even touched upon the non- conventional strutures that much of Metal incorporates, or the tendency to have a multitude of time changes / sigintures. ...
 
Last edited:

nedkelly

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2017
Posts
4,620
Reaction score
3,766
Location
Australia, working in the EU right now!
I grew up with bands like Sabbath and no-one denies that they are HEAVY METAL to the bone. However, let's not forget the title of this thread......the FIRST HEAVY METAL song....and that means going back beyond Sabbath....they started of as The Polka Tulk Band and played rock blues, later becoming Earth and finally Black Sabbath. Going back beyond BS means the early 1960s, when bands had scarse equipment unlike Sabbath after 1969.
 

Vader

Veteran Of A Thousand Psychic Wars
Joined
Jul 3, 2014
Posts
10,723
Reaction score
17,842
Location
Mother Gaia
Black Sabbath rock-shocked the world when they released their first single Evil Woman, 1969 and It was then that HEAVY METAL took a more defined solid state.


Wrong...Metal, did not exist until Sabbath combined all the elements I outlined above. The stuff you people are talking about are various rock songs that incorporate only a few elements found In Metal, which are also found in other forms of music , as well as Metal, such as Punk, Garage Rock, Blues Rock, Surf Rock etc. all of which are forms of rock which pre-date , Metal.
 

nedkelly

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2017
Posts
4,620
Reaction score
3,766
Location
Australia, working in the EU right now!
Please let's not detour this thread to after 1969.....remember, the FIRST HEAVY METAL SONG, not what came after 1964. I'm not saying that Sabbath copied any other band but that they perfectioned HM as we know It today. Otherwise, this thread should be renamed "The forefathers of Heavy Metal".
 

Vader

Veteran Of A Thousand Psychic Wars
Joined
Jul 3, 2014
Posts
10,723
Reaction score
17,842
Location
Mother Gaia
Please let's not detour this thread to after 1969.....remember, the FIRST HEAVY METAL SONG, not what came after 1964. I'm not saying that Sabbath copied any other band but that they perfectioned HM as we know It today. Otherwise, this thread should be renamed "The forefathers of Heavy Metal".

The only reason this thread needs to be re-entitled " The Forefathers of Heavy Metal" is because you people are confusing rock songs for Heavy Metal songs.
The first truely Metal song was written and performed by Black Sabbath.
They combined ALL the elements which constitutes a METAL song.
Up until then , there were only some songs, that were louder than most Rock songs ,that from time to time Iincorporated distrotion.
That unto itself does NOT make a song Metal. Nor does simply adding speed to that combo make a song , Metal.

You can continue to declare C&W songs to be Classical Music until Hell freezes over , however, that will not make it so. You can even get a lot of other people who confuse C&W for Classical, to declare it is Classical Music, it does not change the facts, that C&W is not and never will be, Classical.


As Joe , a very intricate-ly, knowledgeable , music enthusiasts, already poetically allured to, the definitive answer, Black Sabbath, has already been declared.
By all means, continue on with misinformed answeres until all of your hearts are content.....lol

I won't borther to waste anymore of my time asserting the obvious.
:)
 

Find member

Forum statistics

Threads
30,659
Posts
1,064,936
Members
6,353
Latest member
edmerka

Members online

Top