Spooky Tooth are fairly clearly a strong root of metal, it doesn't matter how they're classified on Wikipedia - as I noted above, there are many borderline cases and overlaps in all types of music.
Wikipedia is notoriously awful when it comes to its music definitions generally, as it frowns heavily on Original Research, and the links are mostly to fansites who present opinions which are far removed from fact.
This thread is intended as an exploration for amusement, research (and possibly education), not as a direct challenge to the status quo (
sic).
Spooky Tooth's second album "Spooky Two" is particularly interesting to me as proto heavy metal. It's not a Prog Rock album at all, it's blues based rock that, for the time, is very heavy, features high voices, and musical aspects that can be heard not only in Black Sabbath, but also other bands of the time, such as Blue Oyster Cult (who formed in 1967, while the Spookies, as a band, formed and toured years earlier), and probably Uriah Heep.
To have influenced those three giants should not go overlooked, IMHO.
This post concentrates on the album "Spooky Two", but their earlier work provides even stronger evidence that this band not only influenced the most influential bands of early/proto metal, but coined the term "Heavy Metal" in the first place. More on that later;
Spooky Two opens with "Waiting For the Wind", a heavy organ drenched riff fest, that has clearly made a break from the blues, and plays about a bit with the structure.
The heavy drum opening is the first unusual feature - remind you a little of Zep?
When the organ kicks in, there are hints of Uriah Heep (Heep were another important proto-metal band... don't believe what you read, and don't get misled by the Roger Dean Covers, Heep were never a Prog Rock act!) and possibly early Yes, with that fat rolling bass sound (again, Yes, in their early days, were a heavy sounding pop group, not Prog like King Crimson!).
Mike Harrison's vocals are very similar to the popular blues rock style singers of the time; Stevie Winwood, Steve Marriot and later Paul Rodgers or even Joe ****er, and the lyrics are decidedly "down", but notably different from the blues;
Lonely is the night
Now that darkness has fallin'
Nothing seems right
And the world is callin'
"Feelin' Bad" is the next track, apparently continuing the "down" theme, but in fact is an uplifting gospel/blues song, strongly reminiscent of The Small Faces, with some proggy and psyche vibes, and "I've Got Enough Heartaches" is another uplifting blues based song, rich in harmony that is quite obviously not even vaguely related to metal.
However, "Evil Woman" (didn't Sabbath record a song with the same name?) is contender for first Metal song, with its long, snaking riffs and ridiculously high voices. that remind me of some of Rob Halford's worst moments. The main riff is suspiciously similar to "Sweet Leaf";
"Lost In My Dream" evokes Prog and Space rock - and I've definitely heard the riff in Blue Oyster Cult's "Before the Kiss, A Redcap" from their debut album.
"That Was Only Yesterday" is another blues number with an uplifting backing, but "Better By You, Better Than Me" is legendary - the main thing that's "wrong" with it is that it lacks the heaviness of "Evil Woman" or "Waitin' For The Wind".
The album is wrapped up with "Hangman, Hang My Shell Upon a Tree", continuing the darker edge of the Spookies music.
No, it's not a pure proto metal album at all, but one or two songs are clear roots and direct influences. I see these as seeds, given their straight tie-ins.
It's not like Van Halen covering "Dancing in the Streets", or Deep Purple adapting "Bombay Calling" by It's a Beautiful Day to create "Child in Time" - Spooky Tooth demonstrably wrote heavy music that other bands probably carried with them in their subconscious rather than making a direct rip-off, and created entire albums or carreers from the offshoots of a single track.
These are the kind of "seeds" I'm looking for, not superficial passing resemblances, incidental covers or hearsay, but stuff we can listen to and acknowledge as part of the growth of metal.
The Spookies history with Heavy Metal goes back further than this album too - most sources cite it as having been released in 1969, but I think that's the US import. The UK edition (or at least, mine!) has 1968 on the label. But there's even better stuff than this in their back catalogue, if you're not already aware of it...
