Quote:
Originally Posted by Flyingpig
Didn't the Beatles invent it with Helter-skelter? I used to think that they made that 'cause they were inspired by Led Zep but then found out it predated the zep sound.
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Helter Skelter was on The Beatles (The White Album), which was released in 1968.
It's got a good, heavy riff, but as for its metal credentials, I've never been convinced - why not "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (1967) - or, if a Heavy riff is all it takes, "Keep on Running" by the Spencer Davis group (1965),
which I posted earlier.
The heavy sound encapsulated by Gibson+Marshall stack is all there in the music of The Who (the first band to actually have a Marshall Stack) from 1965 (and possibly before - again, this was all posted earlier in this thread), and then there's that awesome heavy phrygian mode guitar tremolo of
Dick Dale from 1962 to consider, along with the slightly earlier guitar+drums revolution of Sandy Nelson in 1961.
The Zep sound is rooted in Cream and the Yardbirds (1966 or thereabouts) - Zep aren't really the epitome of Metal, they just inspired a significant part of its development - as I think the rest of this thread shows.
Other heavy acts that predate Helter Skelter include The Doors, Iron Butterfly, Vanilla Fudge, Arthur Brown and Spooky Tooth - all far more credible genre-starters. One could even argue the case for The Troggs, who wrote "Wild Thing" (based on the way older classic, Louie, Louie) or Blue Cheer, of course.
Yet I don't really hear metal in hard rock until around 1971 - I'm pretty sure that Jeronimo (posted above) is the earliest example, with Buffalo not far behind.
Unless anyone knows of anything earlier, though, I think the real credit goes to The Sweet in 1973, who brought the music, attitude and image together for the first time.