The Origins Of Hard Rock And Heavy Metal

Often when there's talk about the origins of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal, it's the British bands (and not undeservingly so) that are mentioned. I received clear proof of that myself when I started making a list of albums from 1970, which is a pretty good year to start with, ending up with records like 'Very 'Eavy... Very 'Umble' (Uriah Heep), 'III' (Led Zeppelin), 'In Rock' (Deep Purple), 'Trespass' (Genesis), 'Black Sabbath' and 'Paranoid' (Black Sabbath), 'Time And A Word' (Yes), 'Benefit' (Jethro Tull), plus the self-titled albums from Hawkwind, Wishbone Ash, and Emerson, Lake & Palmer. All British bands.

How correct is this image though? Part I'd say. We need to turn to the other side of The Atlantic as well to get the complete picture, with bands like Vanilla Fudge, Blue Cheer, Iron Butterfly and Dust. They were pioneers also and are often forgotten in the discussion, albeit, as we shall see, they took a slightly different path.

Among the heavier British bands, apart from being influenced by blues rock acts such as Cream and The Yardbirds, and where Black Sabbath (and perhaps Deep Purple) went furthest, developing a proto-metal sound, the folk influences were always strong. There were lots of acoustic guitars and a kind of Roy Harper 'folklorish' feel to it all, plus there were also the progressive influences from the Canterbury Scene, with bands like Caravan, Gong and Soft Machine.

The American heavy rockers on the other hand had their roots in the psychedelic compartment, with bands like Jefferson Airplane, The Doors, Grateful Dead and others. Vanilla Fudge and Iron Butterfly of course had their belongings in that genre as well, but they became heavier, and could ultimately be seen as a bridge between the American Psychedelic Rock and Hard Rock scene.

To conclude things, one could say that early British heavy music had more of a folk/progressive/proto-metal flair, while the American bands all from the start had a more explicit Hard Rock sound, a difference that de facto continued to exist throughout the 80's and beyond, where British bands always seemed to be more traditional Heavy Metal and less Hard Rock than their American counterparts and vice versa. This is of course the generalized, and perhaps even by media and record companies dictated picture, and few people would say that Metallica weren't heavy... On the other hand, they were inspired by British bands and so on. So, of course influences went over the Atlantic, in both directions; Elvis Presley, the old blues icons and Jimi Hendrix 'probably' had a thing or two to do with the musical climate in Britain as well, but when we talk about the origins of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal, when things start to happen around 1970, I think it's fair to say that the American bands were more explicit Hard Rock, while the British were more folk/progressive/proto-metal.

Ultimately, what we shouldn't forget, is that we can't look on one side of the pond only when tracing the early days of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal. There were stylistic differences, but they were all part of the same musical development.

P.S. Watch out for the upcoming Mix Of The Month, where I'll be focusing on some of the bands just discussed. D.S.