# What was the first heavy metal song? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 4, 2012, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-heavy-metal-song/639825 "2012-11-04T05:28:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![GovernmentMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e9c0ed/32.png) [@GovernmentMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GovernmentMan)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2012, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-heavy-metal-song/639825/61 "2012-11-05T08:55:39Z")
First heavy metal album would be Talk Talk - Spirit of Eden or maybe The Colour of Spring ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2012, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-heavy-metal-song/639825/62 "2012-11-05T09:52:02Z")
> [@GovernmentMan](#): > > First heavy metal album would be Talk Talk - Spirit of Eden or maybe The Colour of Spring You have one of the strangest notions of what comprises Heavy Metal that I have ever run across. Your ideas intrigue me, however, and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2012, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-heavy-metal-song/639825/63 "2012-11-05T10:28:39Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > You have one of the strangest notions of what comprises Heavy Metal that I have ever run across. Your ideas intrigue me, however, and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter. Maybe he was on the Grammy committee that gave Jethro Tull the heavy metal award one year. (I’m a huge Tull fan, but even their heaviest stuff, like Cat’s Squirrel or Hymn 43 or the heavy part of Minstrel in the Gallery, was never _metal_.) ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2012, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-heavy-metal-song/639825/64 "2012-11-05T10:37:22Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > Maybe he was on the Grammy committee that gave Jethro Tull the heavy metal award one year. (I’m a huge Tull fan, but even their heaviest stuff, like Cat’s Squirrel or Hymn 43 or the heavy part of Minstrel in the Gallery, was never _metal_.) No, but it was nice to see Ian and Martin get a Grammy. I’d love to see Mark Hollis get a Grammy as well, but since he’s pretty much pulled a salinger I doubt it will ever happen in any category. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2012, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-heavy-metal-song/639825/65 "2012-11-05T11:21:26Z")
Since “You Really Got Me” has been mentioned over and over again, I thought it might bear mentioning that Pete Townshend cited that specific song as the inspiration for the Who’s first single, [I Can’t Explain.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3h--K5928M) Which surely isn’t metal by any definition, but which contains elements that would come to define the Who’s sound and their contributions to proto-metal. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2012, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-heavy-metal-song/639825/66 "2012-11-05T11:22:37Z")
I just remembered that Black Sabbath’s guitarist Tony Iommi (sp?) was a member of Jethro Tull, for about a month (December 1968)…so maybe hanging out with Ian, Glenn, and Clive really did plant a seed in Tony’s skull that would bear fruit as the first undisputed heavy metal riffing just about a year later…so, just maybe, that Grammy wasn’t so silly after all ;). As for Mark Hollis… I remember being 12 years old, turning on MTV, and being impressed that someone had figured out how to make a video label\* consist of the same word repeated six times. \*You know, those three lines of text – artist, song (in quotes), album – which would appear on the screen for about eight seconds, twice – about five seconds after a video started, and about thirteen seconds before a video ended. ---
**Author:** ![Coustralee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Coustralee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coustralee)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2012, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-heavy-metal-song/639825/67 "2012-11-05T12:05:42Z")
Bach - Toccata and Fugue in D Minor \m/ ---
**Author:** ![tomcar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tomcar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomcar)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2012, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-heavy-metal-song/639825/68 "2012-11-05T13:03:25Z")
> [@Daddypants](#): > > I think we need to make a distinction between hard rock and heavy metal. Hard rock goes back as far as Jerry Lee Lewis or Little Richard. Heavy Metal, which is really a sub-genre of hard rock, started with Black Sabbath. Hard Rock is like Rock’n’Roll. The scope, boundaries and the factors that make it are too nebulous and ill-defined to really hash out what it is. If you look up Hard Rock on Wiki, you will see that everything and the kitchen sink falls under its title. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Doom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@Dr\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Doom)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2012, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-heavy-metal-song/639825/69 "2012-11-05T15:18:41Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > But the band wasn’t simple-minded enough to be a Heavy Metal Band. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2012, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-heavy-metal-song/639825/70 "2012-11-05T15:23:17Z")
> [@Dr\_Doom](#): > > :rolleyes: Yeah, I just ignored that comment. I’m not a big heavy metal guy (though I do like it, especially 80s thrash stuff, and the very early stuff like Sabbath), but “simple-minded” the music ain’t. A lot of it (I’d say most) is quite complicated musically and requires a level of technique that you don’t need in many other popular music forms. And the lyrical content, although often heavy-handed and overwrought (IMHO), is certainly not “simple-minded,” either. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2012, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-heavy-metal-song/639825/71 "2012-11-05T16:24:42Z")
No love for _John Henry was a Steel-Drivin’ Man?_ ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Ed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Just\_Ed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Ed)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2012, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-heavy-metal-song/639825/72 "2012-11-05T16:29:19Z")
> [@Daddypants](#): > > I think we need to make a distinction between hard rock and heavy metal. Hard rock goes back as far as Jerry Lee Lewis or Little Richard. Heavy Metal, which is really a sub-genre of hard rock, started with Black Sabbath. This is one of the things I both love and hate about subjects like this; they’re all so . . . _subjective_. To wit: I love early Rock and Roll, from Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard to Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, and hell, even the Everly Brothers (who I would say are closer to Pop than Rock if you’re making a fine distinction). But there’s no way I would classify any of that music as Hard Rock. Hell, personally I make a distinction between Rock and Roll (that early '50’s and '60’s music) and Rock (the late '60’s forward). I’d be much more comfortable positing The Kinks (and The Beatles, and The Rolling Stones, and The Who, and The Jeff Beck Group, and The Faces, and The Yardbirds, and Led Zeppelin, and Cream, and Jimi Hendrix et al.) as the progenitors of the “hard” sound that later came to be defined in the '70’s by some of those same bands on Album Oriented Rock Radio with albums from Led Zeppelin, The Who, and The Rolling Stones supplemented later by bands like Aerosmith, AC/DC, Van Halen, et al. And then there are the fine distinctions one can make between Rock and Roll, Rock, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Pop, and endless subcategories. This is the kind of stuff we used to argue about in high school. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![42fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/b487fb/32.png) [@42fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/42fish)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2012, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-heavy-metal-song/639825/73 "2012-11-05T17:31:30Z")
Just to throw this out for discussion: From \*The New Book of Rock Lists \*by Dave Marsh and James Bernard Heavy Metal Ore: The Records That Dug the Pit from Which Metal Was Mined (All records predate the first chart appearance of Black Sabbath in August 1970) 1. “How Many More Years,” Howlin Wolf (1951) 2. “I’m a Man,” Bo Diddley (1955) 3. “Rumble,” Link Wray and His Ray Men (1958) 4. “Boom Boom,” John Lee Hooker (1962) 5. “I Want Candy,” The Strangeloves (1965) 6. “Psychotic Reaction,” The Count Five (1966) 7. “Mystic Eyes,” Them (1966) 8. _Are You Experienced?_ The Jimi Hendrix Experience (1967) 9. _Journey to the Center of Your Mind_, The Amboy Dukes featuring Ted Nugent (1968) 10. “Yer Blues,” The Beatles (1968) 11. _Vincebus Eruptum_, Blue Cheer (1968) 12. _Wheels of Fire_, Cream (1968) 13. _In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida_, Iron Butterfly (1968) 14. \*Led Zeppelin \*(1969) 15. \*Deep Purple \*(1969) 16. _On Time_, Grand Funk Railroad (1969) 17. \*Frijid Pink \*(January, 1970) 18. “Mississippi Queen,” Mountain (March, 1970) 19. _Live at Leeds_, The Who (May, 1970) 20. _Cactus_ (July, 1970) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2012, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-heavy-metal-song/639825/74 "2012-11-05T17:52:51Z")
“I Want Candy”? As a forerunner to heavy metal? Really? I’m not hearing it… ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Ed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Just\_Ed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Ed)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2012, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-heavy-metal-song/639825/75 "2012-11-05T18:11:51Z")
Yeah, there’s a couple of “out-of-left-field” picks on that list. But the early blues stuff is right on, in my opinion - especially as we’re talking about the early progenitors. That’s the kind of stuff I was thinking of when I said “dark and brooding atmosphere of the most desolate of the blues” earlier - that and Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters. But there’s also stuff there that I would say are legitimately Heavy Metal, and not just “ore” - like songs from _Led Zeppelin_ (I’d mentioned their “How Many More Times”, which is a reworking of the Howlin’ Wolf “How Many More Years”). ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2012, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-heavy-metal-song/639825/76 "2012-11-05T18:15:16Z")
[At this point, they were still more than 30 drummers away from true heavy metal divinity.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-BYzaDwNoE) ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Doom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@Dr\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Doom)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2012, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-heavy-metal-song/639825/77 "2012-11-05T18:47:41Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > [At this point, they were still more than 30 drummers away from true heavy metal divinity.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-BYzaDwNoE) At 1:12 of that clip we see the first example of [crip-walking](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SGw4XoeSv4), also. Not a distinctly heavy metal dance movement, to be sure. Zounds! ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2012, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-heavy-metal-song/639825/78 "2012-11-05T20:50:33Z")
It’s also missing Vanilla Fudge, whom I usually see on these proto-metal lists. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2012, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-heavy-metal-song/639825/79 "2012-11-05T21:11:13Z")
> [@Just\_Ed](#): > > Full disclosure: my teen years were the early 80’s, but I grew up sharing a room with an older brother who was deeply into Black Sabbath. The sound I always associated with heavy metal was therefore obviously Black Sabbath, but also Deep Purple and _some songs_ of Led Zeppelin. Jimmy Page himself would probably tell you that Zep were not a metal band, but the sound they promulgated with songs like “How Many More Times”, “Whole Lotta Love”, and “Heartbreaker” back in 1969 was seminal (part of what made Zep great was that they didn’t limit themselves to one specific sound template). Whether or not they might qualify retrospectively now, to my recollection in the late 60s and early 70s Led Zepplin was regarded as being among the heavy metal groups (not the least because of the heavy metal pun in their name), although they played more than just metal. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Ed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Just\_Ed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Ed)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2012, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-heavy-metal-song/639825/80 "2012-11-05T21:29:59Z")
> [@ultrafilter](#): > > It’s also missing Vanilla Fudge, whom I usually see on these proto-metal lists. Didn’t catch that, but you’re right; the Vanilla Fudge sound was very much metal. > [@Colibri](#): > > Whether or not they might qualify retrospectively now, to my recollection in the late 60s and early 70s Led Zepplin was regarded as being among the heavy metal groups (not the least because of the heavy metal pun in their name), although they played more than just metal. Oh, I’m not saying they shouldn’t be (or weren’t) classified as Heavy Metal, just that they weren’t _specifically_ and _only_ Heavy Metal (though many songs in their catalogue can be classified that way). The band members (well, specifically Page and Plant, to my knowledge) would resist a categorical classification into anything more specific than Rock, from what I’ve read. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-heavy-metal-song/639825.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-heavy-metal-song/639825.md?page=5)