The tracks that paved the way for heavy metal!

[Foxhound]

While doing my game changers for rock music selections in this thread:

https://www.crf2.com/showthread.php?t=70057

I touched upon several tunes that were formative influences for the heavy metal genre. Here now is a baker's dozen of proto-metal tracks that predated the 12 January 1969 release of Led Zeppelin's first LP from which the heavy metal genre can arguably be dated:


You Really Got Me - Kinks



Wild Thing - Troggs



Over Under Sideways Down - Yardbirds



Devil with a Blue Dress On/Good Golly Miss Molly - Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels



Beck's Bolero - Jeff Beck



Purple Haze - Jimi Hendrix Experience



Sunshine of Your Love - Cream



Summertime Blues - Blue Cheer



Fire - Crazy World of Arthur Brown



Born to Be Wild - Steppenwolf



In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida - Iron Butterfly



Five to One - Doors



Helter Skelter - Beatles




Thoughts? Suggestions? Complaints?

[dr wu]

[Foxhound]

That's a good one! It's also proto-prog.

[Foxhound]

Here now is my selection of the half dozen tracks that served to not only get the heavy metal genre really moving but gave it continuing strong momentum through 1969:

Communication Breakdown - Led Zeppelin




Dazed and Confused - Led Zeppelin




Blood of the Sun - Leslie West




Kick Out the Jams - MC5




21st Century Schizoid Man - King Crimson




Whole Lotta Love - Led Zeppelin

[Foxhound]

Here's a track that would have made the list with which I started this thread had I allowed two selections by the same band:

Voodoo Child (Slight Return) - Jimi Hendrix Experience

[Foxhound]

Here now is a lucky selection of seven heavy metal hits from 1970 when the heavy metal genre really started rolling along:


House of the Rising Sun - Frijid Pink



Mississippi Queen - Mountain



The Green Manalishi (With the Two-Pronged Crown) - Fleetwood Mac



Black Night - Deep Purple



Paranoid - Black Sabbath



Immigrant Song - Led Zeppelin



I'm Eighteen - Alice Cooper

[Foxhound]

In compiling my initial list above I really wanted to limit my selections to the tracks which could be said to have been "immediate" formative influences for heavy metal. I therefore didn't want to go back even five years before early 1969 let alone into the 1950's. I would have to say though that this track is one of the very best examples of proto-metal that can be found before the metal genre exploded onto the rock music scene:

I Put a Spell on You - Screamin' Jay Hawkins

[Foxhound]

I selected the tracks above simply on the basis of memory which reflects what I've learned from being a rock music enthusiast for 58+ years. Some of what I've learned of course has been from reading other members' posts on this very forum since the very early years of this century.

Here though is a Youtube video dealing with the very same proto-metal subject:

[Foxhound]

Here is another account of how heavy metal evolved from early rock n' roll and then psychedelic rock: