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RE: The roots and rise of heavy metal in the UK and Australia [Metal Tree: 4]
There were bands earlier that played what could be called metal precursors. Pink Floyd began before the Beatles and veered away from their heavy roots when Syd Barrett left. Another was a group called Santa Barbara Machine Head (not to be confused with Machine Head). Also Blue Cheer had a heavy sound. Great post! Upvoted!!!
Blue Cheer and U.S. acts were in Metal Tree post: 3 that I wrote yesterday.
I hadn't heard of "Santa Barbara Machine Head"... if they were based out of Santa Barbara they would have been in yesterdays post as well. This post focused just on UK and Australian acts.
Thanks for the info though... I need to check out that Santa Barbara Machine Head act.
They were from the UK...The only place I've seen them was on an album I had called The Beginnings of British Blues (go figure lol)
Well you gotta figure... Heavy Metal wasn't called that initially. Music was just getting louder, embracing fuzz pedals and later distortion pedals, adding more and more drums, and as it became heavier Heavy Metal essentially was born from a fusion of what a lot of different people were doing.
The label is negatively viewed by some, which is too bad as it is just a label. They'll say "I'm not a metal musician", "I'm Hard Rock", or something like that. It is a very fine (usually blurred an non-existent) between Hard Rock and what would become Heavy Metal.
It has of course gotten much more extreme and evolved to many different places over time. That is what I hope to explore in this series.
You're doing a fine job and Sam Dunn is a good resource...He got his PhD in metal. I loved his movie Metal Around the World. That's where I heard Melechesh, who I think is excellent. If you want any input let me know...always glad to help.
Yep that documentary is called Global Metal and was indeed good.
Blue Cheer was from California..... definitely going to check out Santa Barbara Machine Head though. :)
Do you have a recommended Pink Floyd song you think is pre-1980s that would fit well with this post. I've heard a lot of Pink Floyd and I had friends who loved them. My parents also played them some, but I never really got into them. I wouldn't mind including them in the series, but I don't know what Song might fit.
Interstellar Overdrive From Pipers At The Gates Of Dawn (their first...1964, I think) or anything from A Saucer Full Of Secrets (1968) Both had Syd Barrett...he left after the second album.
Edited... added Pink Floyd, Santa Barbara Machine Head, and another Australian Act (The Master's Apprentices).
Also, if you want to trace the roots of metal, you might check bands like the MC 5...Aorta...Listening (if you can find any of their stuff, they only had 1 album) Also, you might look into what they called "experimental music"- it was pretty non-traditional...bands like the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band. I'll dig through my head a little tonite and see what I can remember...I have a good memory, it's just like the rest of me- old and slow.
Yeah MC5 is U.S. They were in yesterdays post. :)
I have been tagging these all with METALTREE tag so if you are interested and click on that tag you'll see the posts. I can edit these things for up to a month before they get locked down so I welcome further input.
I was born in 1970 and first got into what would become metal around 1976. I came from a very musical family.
I was born in 1945 and was playing metal in the late 60's when it was called "noise" lol. I had a metal band called Glass...I had some big 200 watt Sunn amps and some pedals (a fuzz tone & a Guild copycat that did playback) NOBODY wanted to hear it.
I hope you were able to find Santa Barbara Machine Head. Did you add Metal Church?" They were another early band.