The origin of Hard Rock

Wyvern

Wyvern

Master of Disaster
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Nov 24, 2002
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Carnut and I are amidst a research/debate regarding when hard rock started. When the line between old blues/rock'n'roll took a heavier path? Was Led Zeppelin or before? Was Cream, The Yardbirds, Wishbone Ash?

Please let's keep this one a mind-bending thread, everybody feel free to comment and add info.

I have checked Wikipedia for info and some it is interesting but I feel something is missing and both Carnut and I want to pinpoint the turnover point exactly as can be.

Rock on then.

NP: Irish Coffe- 'Witchy Lady'
 
So ... if you know an early song that you concider to be the earliest hardrock song, let us know !! off course exactly dated stuff only :)

Just been checking about the whole Yardbirds catalogue, and haven't found a real "hard" song to my ears yet....
up till now I go with Led Zeppelin "communication breakdown" (october '68)....Who got an earlier one ?
 
Depends on what you deem "hard" rock. I always thought the Beatles were the first, although it's hard to notice because the guitars were buried in the production.

The first song I can think of that actually sounded hard was The Who - My Generation. I think that was 1965 or 66.

NP: Conception - Parallel Minds
 
Don't have anything to contribute, just wanted to say great thread idea. It will be interesting to see what people have to say.
 
I'd say Blue Cheer. Vincebus Eruptum.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...1/104-9157846-3803166?s=music&v=glance&n=5174

Before that, I'd say the true inception was, seriously....

The Dave Clark Five. Specifically the album Glad All Over.

Before that even, I'm a firm believer that Buddy Holly's galloping rhythms are the root of the root of heavy metal. I'm not a big fan of his, but I do like Blue Cheer, and I went through a Dave Clark 5 phase, small such as it was.
 
ElectricWiz is right on the money I think. Blue Cheer was the first as far as I know. Others mentioned here experimented with a more heavy sound but it was Blue Cheer who went all the way with it.
 
Yep, there are some songs on that Blue Cheer I indeed would call "hardrock", different than harder blues and Rock'n'roll bands around from that era. That record goes back to January 1968, predating the Zeppelin about 9 months...Who's got some earlier stuff ?
 
carnut said:
okay, have been looking into Cream now...well, on their november '67 record "Disraeli Gears" is the song "Sunshine of your love" that has a hardrock-feeling, it bends the blues a bit towards hardrock .
Click to expand...

That's a good one. '67 - '68 is when it all happened, IMO. That's when the transition from Blues/Rock to Hard rock happened. There's one site I read that pointed to the Kinks' "You Really Got Me" as the start of the heavy riff and "Sunshine" "brought it of age". Hard to argue that. Here's that site:

http://twtd.bluemountains.net.au/cream/disraeli.htm

Another interesting thing from that site is the engineer on that album: Tom Dowd. He is THE MAN when it comes to engineers. He revolutionized the entire recording process. He gave us binaural stereo recording and the eight track console. If you get the chance to see the documentary on him -- Tom Dowd and the Language of Music -- you should check it out. It's pretty damn cool. I haven't seen it for a while so it's prolly time to see it again.
 
Me personally can't see "hardrock" in "You really Got me" of the Kinks... It tends more towards the rock the Rolling Stones brought, not really hardrock in my opinion. So , FOR ME PERSONALLY, it's still that one Cream song...
 
Although Blue Cheer is generally accepted as the first, there's really no questions that the Stones' "Satisfaction" was the first really hard rock song, in my mind. It was released in 1964.

Of course, the Kinks "You Really Got Me" is also there, but the Stones riff was just much heavier and deadlier, really.

The Who's My Generation is also balls-out hard rock.
 
Well, as said, it's all in persons ears how to define the difference between music genres...In reply to Soundmaster I should say I don't think The Who and Stones ever really made "hardrock"..they made a kind of harder rock music but I guess it also never was defined as "hardrock"... Their guitar sound, attitude and style could very well be the basic foundations for the hardrock sound...to compare: kinda the same to tell U2 plays Metal...they do play harder guitar rock music but never have been labeled "metal" either...Hard to compare but it's kinda the same feeling I get with the Stones and Who regarding to hardrock...
Of course everyone it's own opinion !! (and I wanna hear more of them :)
 
Outside of Blue Cheer, I still go with The Dave Clark Five. When I was a kid reading Hit Parader and all that, everybody from Paul Stanley to Angus Young to George Lynch named them as a life changing experience. Some few years on I went out and found a copy of Glad All Over, and I really believe it is the first hard rock album. It didn't sound like anything else at the time. Especially the tracks Bits and Pieces and the title track. Loud, gruff scream/yell vocals, and even galloping guitar lines (especially in Glad all Over...the song). If you haven't heard them you might be surprised.

Glad all over came out in 1964.

Short of that, there are songs sprinkled here and there in other band's catalogues that might serve as first. Helter Skelter is definately a hard rock song I think (1968). Though that was in answer to a Who song, though I can't remember which one. That is, an attempt to make the loudest, raunchiest rock track out there. And to that end, though a few years later, I want you (she's so heavy) is proto-metal for sure, though Blue Cheer and Zep had happened by then.

Seriously, Dave Clark Five.....
 
Great post so far. Blue Cheer has a definitive vibe still I hear a lot of blues in it, I guess the trasnition was not an abrupt cut but a flow from pure blues to what BS and DP would play at the dawn of the 70's.

And like everybody pointed all bands has a song that was hard rock or proto-metal (cool call EW). In anycase Carnut and I were wondering of an album that can be called the first in line for the genre. Any proposals?

NP: Carnivore - 'Thermonuclear War'
 
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