The Rock and Roll Trio - Train Kept a-Rolling (1956).
Note guitar distortion.
Yes, I know it’s rockabilly, but it’s also the true birth of metal in that it’s the earliest (to my knowledge) deliberate use of an overdriven/distorted electric guitar amp. And an overdriven guitar amp producing a distorted guitar sound is the basis of metal.
In a way you’re right, except
and it was more melodic, less thrashing, and it didn’t have the Dave Davies / Hendrix / Townsend fuzzy distortion like early metal did.
You could go all the way back to the first people who beat on rocks with sticks as the pioneers of metal if you want to follow that argument to its ridiculous conclusion.
Seriously, power chords are a staple of heavy metal. Maybe Bo doesn’t know what a power chord is? I don’t mean that as snark–it’s just that saying that power chords aren’t key to heavy metal is akin to saying the Beatles didn’t really employ much vocal harmony, or the that folk music doesn’t really rely much on acoustic instruments. Um, yes they do.
I never played much heavy metal when I played in bands, but you really can’t play it properly without power chords. It would sound like mud.
Personally, I credit Donny and Marie Osmium.
For me the pinnacle of trajectory toward heavy metal is defined by two major songs that belong to hard rock - in Oct 1969 “Whole Lotta Love” by Led Zeppelin and in Jun 1979 “Speed King” Deep Purple. Other bands crossed the line - like Black Sabath - while these two stayed within boundaries of hard rock. Afterwards, genre was established on its own by Scorpions, Judas Priest and later Motorhead.
It’s funny actually − I know I didn’t answer the question exactly b/c I never crossed the line into heavy metal. Perhaps just wanted to make sure term “hard rock” is being observed.
the Metal Evolution documentary series had an episode on this topic, all highly debatable and subjective… you coudl find elements in Cream, Hendrix… even wild thing by the troggs. I like Black Sabbath as an example… for subject matter and doominess. And Speed King by Deep Purple - arguably the first speed metal song.
There’s really no argument here. What everyone is saying is:
The Kinks were the first to popularize the sound that later became heavy metal in “You Really Got Me.” No one called it that back then, and the Kinks did far more than just heavy metal, but “You Really Got Me” was the work that those who later created heavy metal would usually cite as an influence. Note that “You Really Got Me” and “All Day and All of the Night” did not immediately spawn imitators; it was thought of as the time not as a musical genre but as the sound of the Kinks (which quite quickly changed to other sounds).
Other groups — the Beatles, Jeff Beck, Led Zeppelin, the Who – tried their versions of that sound. They didn’t call it “heavy metal,” but an occasional song would include that sound.
Steppenwolf first used the term “heavy metal” in “Born to Be Wild.”
Iron Butterfly and Blue Cheer both took over the sound and made it their centerpiece. But neither group spawned the genre and both groups flamed out quickly.
Black Sabbath finally turned the music into a genre.
Like most music, there isn’t a single creator or first song. There probably were dozens of others who recorded a song or two that could be considered heavy metal, and it’s pointless to try to figure out which song is the first. It’s a process of evolution, not a single, “Let there be metal!” moment.
Also in early 1968, **The Amboy Dukes **put out a song called *Journey To The Center Of The Mind *that while not Heavy Metal, had a screaming guitar solo that really caught my 11 year old ears. I hadn’t heard anything like it at the time and I think it was certainly pointing the way to heavy metal lead guitar.
It’s ironic that The Kinks were in the forefront of the ‘Mod’ scene, precursors of (original) skinheads and Northern Soulboys, while their rivals the ‘Rockers’ became associated with the music that developed into heavy metal…
True, Some musical Creationalists take The Korrang too literally…
I know all the arguments for “You Really Got Me” as the original metal song. I think the first Hit Parader magazine I got in my early teen years listed it as such.
I have never liked the assertion and here is why:
For something to be the first metal song, it has to be a metal song. Putting it simply:
If you took the song “You Really Got Me” and put it on an album in the 70’s through today, nobody would call it Heavy Metal. It would be called Garage Rock, Punk, or Power Pop.
If a band put an album together of songs like “You Really Got Me” and “All Day and All of The Night,” it would not be considered a Metal album, nor at any point in time would someone call it metal.
Whereas if I made an album of songs like “Born to Be Wild” and “Speed King” it would still be considered Metal, Protometal, or Early Metal.
So sure “You Got Me” was a very important song, and influenced the Heavy Metal genre, I wouldn’t consider it the 1st Metal song because it isn’t Heavy Metal.
I think a good deal is owed to Vanilla Fudge and since this came out in 1967 it predates quite a lot of the stuff mentioned here
You’d have to put Spencer Davis group as one of the serious influences.
You can see from these early influences the blues roots of heavy rock.
If you’re counting “Born to Be Wild” as protometal, I don’t understand how you wouldn’t count “You Really Got Me.”
For me, heavy metal really becomes recognizable as heavy metal today with Black Sabbath. But what is labeled “metal” has been a bit amorphous historically. Led Zeppelin, for example, were considered heavy metal at one time, although today, I’d consider them “hard rock.”
“Born” has chugging down stroked power chords. It also guitar riffs. Those are both hallmarks of metal. “Got Me” doesnt chug. The quickness and lightness of the the chord pattern is more punk…
But i could certainly agree Sabbath is ground zero for metal. I am much more comfortable calling Sabbath the first metal music.
Meaningless. If you took a look at the Wright Brothers’s Flyer, would you say it wasn’t an airplane, because no airplanes look like that nowadays?
The point is the “You Really Got Me” is a song that people who made heavy metal often point to as the sound they were trying to replicate. Heavy Metal has evolved, from its origins, too, and what is called metal 40 years ago is not what people would consider metal today.
Not only do genres change, but the definitions change retroactively. I’ve seen people here on this board describe the Grateful Dead as “country rock,” a label that anyone back in the 70s would scoff at.
“Born to be Wild” was not heavy metal. You might as well say the Rolling Stones were heavy metal. Where’s the darkness, madness, suicide, minor keys, all that “wicked evil” stuff?
ETA - could Judas Priest have done it? They were founded same year as Black Sabbath
Nobody would say the Wright bros didnt have an aeroplane. We would say it isnt a 747.
What genre is the song “Dire Wolf?” “Mississippi Half Step?”
And I agree, that Sabbath really made the first complete metal music (darkness, madness, etc)
Yeah, as far as I’m concerned, a band isn’t heavy metal unless they -
a) have at least one song about evil fairies or goblins
b) were dragged into court for encouraging some delinquent to hang himself
I’ve always said You Really Got Me is the first punk rock song.
Any comments from the more musically educated re: Love’s 7 and 7 is from 1966-67? No claims from me that it is the absolute first et al., but I’ve heard it brought up in this context before as another prototype.