Art, a band that influenced Sabbath...

[carnut]

Since a while I had the idea of checking out where Black Sabbath got their "doomy" kind of sound from. I guessed there must have been other bands that influenced Sabbath to create that unique dark and heavy sound from the first album... After some surfin' and debating in different forums I got a golden tip from a guy that told me Geezer Butler mentioned "Art" as an important influence. So I got myselve the CD version of the Art album (Supernatural Fairy Tales) and was quit suprised by the first tunes. The opening song clearly has alot of Sabbath in it, even the vocals are kinda Ozzy-ish. Other songs are different, about 3 or 4 have the dark, doomy undertone that Sabbath took to a whole new level ("Metal"). I uploaded a song, you can get it here;
http://www.salonpatricia.be/oldschool/art.mp3

The album pre-dates the first Sabbath with about 3 years !!
You can get the full album from me through SS if wanted (and a bunch more of real obscure 60-70's hardrock !!)

oops, gotta go, and find some bands that influenced Art

 

[SouthernTrendkill]

So in your knowledgable opinion, do you think Sabbath got the metal sound from Art, or is there still an obvious difference between the heaviness of Art and the definitive metal sound of Sabbath? I.o.w. does Art sound anything like Blue Cheer?

 

[Hawk]

So in your knowledgable opinion, do you think Sabbath got the metal sound from Art, or is there still an obvious difference between the heaviness of Art and the definitive metal sound of Sabbath? I.o.w. does Art sound anything like Blue Cheer?

Why don't you download the track and judge for yourself?

 

[SouthernTrendkill]

'Cause I don't like downloading. I'm on a limited allowance of download ability due to my uni line.

 

[thisisaformicatable]

Not especially heavy compared to other pre-Sabbath stuff, I'd be interested to see the Geezer quote mentioning them. Kind of Jethro Tullish, maybe. Their metal influence is apparent beyond Sabbath in any event (Priest covered them).

 

[Wyvern]

Thanks for the hint Carnut. Actually I never thought about it since Earth and Polka Tulk (pre-Sabbath encarnations) were basically blues bands.

Sounds like a primitive Pentagram without vitamins Something that could have come out of Irish Coffee or The Amboy Dukes but stianed with a light doom vibe. I guess today it could be considered stoner rock.

P.S. Salon Patricia? Here will be hte name of a hairdresser place

Not especially heavy compared to other pre-Sabbath stuff, I'd be interested to see the Geezer quote mentioning them. Kind of Jethro Tullish, maybe. Their metal influence is apparent beyond Sabbath in any event (Priest covered them).

Interesting you quote Jethro Tull. Tony Iommi played ten days with them before Barymore Barlow took over the guitar spot. If anyone has seen The Rolling Stones Rock'N'Roll Circus movie can see that line-up of the Tull and the only recording known with Tony at the guitar.


NP: Amaran's Plight - Incident At Haldeman's Lake

 

[ElectricWiz]

Definitely a Jethro Tull-like sound there (to mirror what someone else said). It's cool for sure. Sometimes it seems to me that being successful is based a lot on the throw of the dice. It's funny, but this could be the band that everyone talks about these days, "Yeah, well...it all started with Art." No doubt there is talent with a band like Sabbath, which is why they did make it. But I just love hearing stuff like this that I never knew about.

Cool track.

 

[carnut]

Thanks for the hint Carnut. Actually I never thought about it since Earth and Polka Tulk (pre-Sabbath encarnations) were basically blues bands.

Yeah, I guess the combination of a blues based background and some early psychedelic dark rock formed the unique Sabbath sound. I really would like to sit down with all members of a band like Sabbath, and ask them wich bands exactly influenced them at that time, sure there will be a lot more interesting stuff.
I wonder if the dark doomy sound even originated from the slow melancholic blues. Well , all rock kinda originated from blues I guess. Although I think that the slightly doomy sound of bands like ART and Blue Cheer more originates from that "psychedelic" feeling. Probably there even was some RnR in this style mid 60's or so, but very hard to find out...

P.S. Salon Patricia? Here will be thee name of a hairdresser place

Well, close...my wive has a little beauty "salon", the reason I keep looking better and better these days (...NOT!)

 

[carnut]

Definitely a Jethro Tull-like sound there (to mirror what someone else said). It's cool for sure. Sometimes it seems to me that being successful is based a lot on the throw of the dice. It's funny, but this could be the band that everyone talks about these days, "Yeah, well...it all started with Art." No doubt there is talent with a band like Sabbath, which is why they did make it. But I just love hearing stuff like this that I never knew about.

Cool track.

Well, there's tons of late 60's, early 70's hardocking stuff to discover. I've been searching (and finding) alot of the early stuff lately. I just need to find time to listen to all of it, but there surely are some great records that with a little more luck could have become big sellers... Art by the way later became a band called Spooky Tooth, but I also don't know them They recorded 7 albums so probably were more or less "known" in that era.

NP: Andromeda ; Turn to dust (from ST LP, 1969, awesome !!)

Edit: one song of this Andromeda album "Return to Sanity" has VERY alike intro riffs of "Am I Evil" !!!
check it out on;
http://www.famouderits.be/oldschool/andromeda.mp3
(song takes 20 secs or so to start of..)

 

[Mythos Inibri]

fucking cool.I can see how the lyrics seem Ozzish.
Great stuff:Smokin:

(I think I'm going weird)

 

[PsychoTronn]

metal sound

 

[SoundMaster]

Art by the way later became a band called Spooky Tooth...

spooky Tooth is/was an AWESOME band. They're the band to write and record "Better By You, Better Than Me" which priest, of course, covered.
Great, great blues/soul rock band.

Their vocalist was the man who wrote & recorded the 70s radio-rock anthem "Dream Weaver" after the band split & he went solo. That track, however, is nothing like Spooky Tooth's music. Think a heavier, and more soulful version of Humble Pie.

 

[Wyvern]

Art by the way later became a band called Spooky Tooth, but I also don't know them

My fault because I always read big post diagionally (thanks to SM for pointed it out).

Spooky Tooth was indeed a great classic band and all metalheads specially old schoolers have to known them if at least because of the Judas Priest cover of 'Better By You, Better Than Me'.

NP: Evil Masquerade - The Devil's Last Temptation

 

[razoredge]

That Andromeda song seems more "metal" than the Art song, especially the into. The Art song reminds me of Eric Burdon, the Andromeda a bit too. I cant place the era of Eric Burdon, maybe his later stuff was influenced by these bands. Burdon was a bit more radical than most of the older generation of popular artists in the 60's.

I dont have much knowledge prior to the 70's wave of hardrockers. Here in the States, going by what became popular radio play I would have to point towards songs like "Fire" - '68 by The Crazy World of Arthur Brown and of course In A Godda..., other songs by that Iron Butterfly had a dark sound hidden behind the mask of phsyodelica. I still think it all boils down to The Stones, like "Paint it Black" - 1966, a very dark song.. Sure they played all kinds of "stuff" but they were like the origional bad boys of rock that didnt always portray a happy "lets party and screw message". Somehow I just cant get past the image of Keith Richards modestly grinning and saying little when interviewed for VHI's History of Metal series. Im not saying they were metal nor am I really a fan, I dont own a single album but somehow I think the pedigree of hardrock & metal has The Stones at its root.

The people that were a bit older than me in the 70's would mention that Spooky Tooth and I recall an album floating around but cant recall listening to it. If it was played I probably felt it sounded "old" compared to Zep, Sabbath, Heep, Tull, Atomic Rooster, and Deep Purple. It is also interesting that the so often "forgot to mention" Ted Nugent was right in the middle of the whole thing too with the Amboy Dukes but he wasnt the dark sound. None the less "Journey to the Center of the Mind" - '68 had that hard driving pedal riff that became standard for metal. Its been said the band "Free" had a big influence in England.

Last winter I started chasing down popular songs I felt werent metal or even hard rock but very important in the feel later found in some heavy metal. Or old songs that I thought would be great metal covers. Fire and Green Eyed Lady were two of them.

The cronology of the whole thing could drive a man crazy because many bands had a song that was important but albums that were insignificant.