Where does "heavy metal" come from?
Reynaldo S Dalisay
: Then I thought, hmm.... "Iron Man" perhaps? That's on the
: "Paranoid" album (and others I believe).
There's Led Zeppelin and Iron Butterfly, both with heavy metallic
elements used in their names. But I haven't heard them being referred
to as "heavy metal" groups.
My guitarist buddy's Kill 'Em All (Metallica) tablature book has an
introduction that attempts to historically organize metal music. I
don't know if Wolf Marshall, the writer of that intro, was talking out
of his ass, but I think he started the line with Led Zeppelin and
Black Sabbath. I thought I saw Cream in there too. In any case, he
doesn't say where and when the term originated.
So, any other ideas?
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Reynaldo S. Dalisay Electrical Engineering Class of 1994 |
| "Another day, another death" Moore School of Electrical Engineering |
+----------------------- University of Pennsylvania ------------------------+
| Electronic mail address: dal...@eniac.seas.upenn.edu |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
DOUGLAS W HIGGINS
other night, and I suddenly had a thought.
They say that Black Sabbath was the original heavy metal band,
and so it set me wondering: where did the term "heavy metal"
come from?
Then I thought, hmm.... "Iron Man" perhaps? That's on the
"Paranoid" album (and others I believe).
Any thoughts?
Doug
Philip Wang
I thought I heard someone say something to the effect of "heavy metal" being
taken from the lyrics of a Steppenwolf song...
###############################################################################
CICATRIX E:MAIL: pw...@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu
Only Heisenberg can unequivocally confirm my claims in the above.
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Ric Wilson
5ea8ma...@vms.csd.mu.edu
>I think Steppenwolf might get some credit for the line "heavy metal thunder" in born to be wild. I keep thinking (dangerous, I know) that I read somewhere that a music writer coined the phrase while describing very early Zep. I might be way off though, as has been known to happen.
I think Steppenwolf was influential in the use of this term. I once
heard, however, that the term "heavy metal" was used in some late 50's
or early 60's movie to refer to "torture," and some writer used it
to describe some band's music that he found to be torture to the ears.
Also, I do think Blue Cheer was perhaps the first band to have this term
referred to them, but Black Sabbath is the first band to play what could
clearly be called heavy metal.
Interestingly, when I was a kid I had a compilation album called
Heavy Metal with several bands on it (from 1973, I believe). Some of
the bands legitimately qualify, others are a stretch, and others I doubt
ever received this description. For example, it has Black Sabbath, Alice
Cooper, and Deep Purple (70's metal, I'm willing to grant), but also
Golden Earring's Radar Love (a stretch), some Hendrix (no as much
of a stretch), and MC5's Kick out the Jams (not that much of a stretch,
either). Others that clearly didn't belong were the Doors, War,
Buffalo Sprinbgfield, The Faces, and several others I don't
recall for the moment (it also had Zeppelin on it, which would have
been justifiable, if it hadn't been the song "Dy'er maker").
Just reminiscing (or am I doing etymology?) Eric M.
Arnoud Helmantel
>DOUGLAS W HIGGINS (ica...@titan.ucs.umass.edu) wrote:
>: Then I thought, hmm.... "Iron Man" perhaps? That's on the
>: "Paranoid" album (and others I believe).
>There's Led Zeppelin and Iron Butterfly, both with heavy metallic
>elements used in their names. But I haven't heard them being referred
>to as "heavy metal" groups.
>My guitarist buddy's Kill 'Em All (Metallica) tablature book has an
>introduction that attempts to historically organize metal music. I
>don't know if Wolf Marshall, the writer of that intro, was talking out
>of his ass, but I think he started the line with Led Zeppelin and
>Black Sabbath. I thought I saw Cream in there too. In any case, he
>doesn't say where and when the term originated.
>So, any other ideas?
I think maybe the phrase "heavy metal thunder" in Steppenwolf's 'Born To Be
Wild'... just a wild guess..
Mjollnir.
--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Arnoud Helmantel I "Jesus bloody Christ," She mouthed, "this
arn...@stack.urc.tue.nl I is a dream. This has got to be a dream..."
s40...@nw.hse.nl I
(Mjollnir On IRC) I Mike Grace - Tongue In Cheek
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DOUGLAS W HIGGINS
I think that's because in 1973 the record company just put all
music that they considered irritating under the "heavy metal"
label, and sold it as such. But I'm just theorizing (but I'd
bet real money on it).
I actually have a 1984 "heavy metal" compilation album that was
formed almost definitely with this sort of thought in mind, because
the damn thing was packed full of Punk and even one Rap song (albeit
a rather loud one, but rap no less). I have no doubt whatsoever
that the record company just threw together a bunch of relatively
well-selling music that the considered to be similarly irritating.
And I was hoping for something better, I was trying to expand my
horrizons and looking for bands other than AC/DC and Iron Maiden
to listen to. That stupid album found me zip. Then I went to
college, and found alt.rock-n-roll.heavy-metal :-) No, actually
I just went on listening to AC/DC and Iron Maiden, and added Black
Sabbath after hearing a few songs that sounded appealing to have
on a permanent basis.
The moral: never buy something that says "heavy metal" on it.
Doug
Rob Sumner
: They say that Black Sabbath was the original heavy metal band,
: and so it set me wondering: where did the term "heavy metal"
: come from?
: Any thoughts?
: Doug
Here's a few.
Mercury is a heavy metal. Mercury translates to "quicksilver," which is
generally regarded as being fast.
Or maybe heavy metal refers to the strings of the guitar. Metal strings
played on in a heavy way to produce a heavy sound.
Rob
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Dmitry Roytenberg
Reynaldo S Dalisay <dal...@pixmap.seas.upenn.edu: wrote:
:DOUGLAS W HIGGINS (ica...@titan.ucs.umass.edu) wrote:
:
:: Then I thought, hmm.... "Iron Man" perhaps? That's on the
:: "Paranoid" album (and others I believe).
:
:
:There's Led Zeppelin and Iron Butterfly, both with heavy metallic
:elements used in their names. But I haven't heard them being referred
:to as "heavy metal" groups.
:
:My guitarist buddy's Kill 'Em All (Metallica) tablature book has an
:introduction that attempts to historically organize metal music. I
:don't know if Wolf Marshall, the writer of that intro, was talking out
:of his ass, but I think he started the line with Led Zeppelin and
:Black Sabbath. I thought I saw Cream in there too. In any case, he
:doesn't say where and when the term originated.
:
:So, any other ideas?
As far as the origin of the term "heavy metal" one can point out many
conflicting sources. One of them is a book by William Burroughs (forgot
the title) which has the words "heavy metal" in it, and then there is the
line "heavy metal thunder" from teh Steppenwolf song " Born To Be wild"
which, incidentally, can't be properly called a heavy metal song.
As for the originators of heavy metal _music_, there were three. Two of
them have already been mentioned: Led Zeppelin (a bit of a stretch,
though - they never played heavy metal) and Black Sabbath, but nobody's
mentioned Deep Purple. Their 1970 album "In Rock" had every attribute of
heavy metal: high-pitched vocal screamings, machine-gun staccato
drumming, powerful crunching guitar chords, superfast solos and a
general intensity unequaled at the time. I'll venture to say that the
music on In Rock was even more intense and fast paced than on the first
two Sabbath albums which was more slow and ponderous.
So I'd say those three defined the style, but they were by no means
alone: there were some lesser bands like Uriah Heep, Trapeze, Blue
Oyster Cult and Nazareth.
If you want to know more, read Encyclopedia Metallica, it's available in
music stores worldwide.
D.R.
Stephen Konstantin Kalandros
Iron Butterfly's name in part came from its being described as "heavy".
The term refers to the "heavy bottom sound" in their music. A
music critic later used the term "heavy metal" in an article. I
do not recall the specifics, but Deena Weinstein discusses this
topic in her book "Heavy Metal: A Cultural Sociology." If
you're really interested, that's where you should look.
Stevie K.
Michael J. McClure
The term "heavy metal" originally came from the lyrics to Steppenwolf's
"Born to be Wild" ('heavy metal thunder') way back in 1968.
Mike
Misha Eriksson
DOUGLAS writes:
>They say that Black Sabbath was the original heavy metal band,
>and so it set me wondering: where did the term "heavy metal"
>come from?
Oh well, this question pops up ever so often - let's set the record
straight once and for all. The term 'heavy metal thunder' first
appeared in Steppenwolf's Born To Be Wild-tune - this song was the
main theme of the excellent movie Easy Rider (see it - it's the best
damn road movie ever made) featuring Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper.
The twisted fellas from Steppenwolf didn't make up this term
themselves. They took it from the decadent book Naked Lunch (recently
filmed by David Cronenberg), by William Burroughs, one of the writers
of the 50's beat generation.
The term 'heavy metal' gained widespread use in the early 70's, along
with bands like Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple - you name
it. Nowadays young metal twits seem to get highly offended if you call
anything except grindcore-thrash-death-metal 'heavy metal', and take
great joy in making up thousands of titles for different
'metal-schools'. I say screw them - I call anything heavier than
Status Quo heavy metal, that's how the big public cathegorizes it
anyway.
--
Cheers,
Misha
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Timothy M. Hazelton
If any one is interested in reading another book on Heavy Metal, a
professor at Dartmouth College, Robert Walser, wrote a book called
"Running With the Devil". I beleive that the topic of where Heavy
Metal came from is in there too.
Tim
--
Tim
t_ha...@oz.plymouth.edu
Shannon Bell
>
> The term "heavy metal" originally came from the lyrics to Steppenwolf's
> "Born to be Wild" ('heavy metal thunder') way back in 1968.
>
> Mike
Well um no, the term does not come from there. The term has been used to
describe military forces, like tanks, cannons, etc for quite a long time. I
think were trying to find out when the term first was a description of a style
of music.
Anyway, Iron Butterfly were termed 'heavy metal' before 1968. Their first
album was called 'Heavy' and was released in 1967!
Just doing my bit to help. ;)
--
Shannon Bell Internet: sb...@alsvid.scu.edu.au Phone: +61 66 203
Southern Cross University, Northern Rivers (Lismore) NSW Australia
lvovich vadim f
>They say that Black Sabbath was the original heavy metal band,
>and so it set me wondering: where did the term "heavy metal"
>come from?
>Then I thought, hmm.... "Iron Man" perhaps? That's on the
>"Paranoid" album (and others I believe).
>Any thoughts?
>Doug
It came from 1972 conceptual article in one of the US rock
magazines, dedicated to the latest Black Sabbath tour. It
contained at expression something like "that was not a music,
that was a sound of heavy metal crushing". At least that
particular phrase was qouted by Terry Butler as the
first ever introducing the term "Heavy Metal". If you
need a more specific reference, I can check in my files.
Vadim
Matt J. Osickey
>>Any thoughts?
>>Doug
I beg to differ. The phrase heavy metal appears in steppenwolf's
born to wild and was supposedly first coined by blue oyster cult's
manager in the sixties (probably before he became their manager).
matt
lantz moore
>>> so it set me wondering: where did the term "heavy metal" come
>>> from?
>> at expression something like "that was not a music, that was a
>> sound of heavy metal crushing". At least that particular phrase was
Matt> I beg to differ. The phrase heavy metal appears in
Matt> steppenwolf's born to wild and was supposedly first coined by
Matt> blue oyster cult's manager in the sixties (probably before he
Matt> became their manager).
i agree that this could be the first time that the phrase "heavy metal"
was used in a pop song; but i'd say that "heavy metal thunder" is
referring to roaring motorcycles. it still could be where the term was
adopted from. i don't think that steppenwolf was describing music as
"heavy metal thunder."
sabbath is probably the first definitive heavy metal group, but blue cheer
would definitely be on the proto-metal bandwagon.
-lantz (but maybe it was helix who coined the term, uh, yeah)
John P. LaRocque
of a musical form more pleasing to his divine ears, it can only come
from Gawd!
--
|----\___ John P. LaRocque (lar...@gaul.csd.uwo.ca)
********]|-----|___\__________
********]|_______>___________/ "There are those who believe
|_____ / that life here began out there..."