Basic Metal History 1970-75
Black Sabbath the godfathers of hardrock
Black Sabbath was formed in the heavy gritty industrial city of Birmingham,England. The blues based band Earth discovered that they had to change name because there was already a band called Earth . A cross the street from their rehearsal room there was a cinema showing the horror film "Black Sabbath" so Earth changed their name to Black Sabbath. After the name change the band tuned down the guitars and started to include occult lyrics. They wanted to be musical equivalent of a horror film. During the process of writing the title song they used the musical tritone "Devils Interval"
On Friday the 13th February 1970 Black Sabbath released their self titled debut album. The Ghostly album cover features a depiction of a old watermill standing in front of the mill is a woman dressed in black.The 1973 album Sabbath Bloody Sabbath contains some of Black Sabbaths finest moments from the iconic album cover to the title track.
Black Sabbath "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" musicvideo
Led Zeppelin released their debut album 1969 (the front cover shows a black-and-white image of the burning hindenburg airship). Many of Led Zeppelin´s early songs were based on american blues standards. The guitar-driven heavy sound of Led Zeppelin made them one of the progenitors of hardrock. Led Zeppelin album IV features one of their most famous songs "Stairway To Heaven" other Zeppelin gems are "Rock n´ Roll","Immigrant song" and "Kashmir". During the 70ths Led Zeppelin climbed to new heights and got their own airplane it was nicknamed Starship (Boeing 720). Led Zeppelin became infamous for trashing hotel suits, throwing tv sets out of the windows and driving motorcycles through hotel corridors.
Led Zeppelin "Whole Lotta Love" musicvideo
1972 album Schools Out titel track became a monster hit and to this day is played all over the world when students graduate. 1973 album Billion Dollar Babies is Alice Coopers finest hour with killer tracks like "No More Mr Nice Guy", "Elected" and the haunting title track.
Alice Cooper "Billion Dollar Babies" musicvideo
Out from Hannover Germany came Scorpions. In 1970 vocalist Klaus Meine and Rudolf Schenkers younger brother Michael (who was a guitar hero in the making) joined Scorpions. During a tour opening for the band UFO guitarist Michael Shenker got a proposal to join the headliner UFO. Michael took the offer and became the new lead guitarist for UFO and Scorpions had to continue the tour with another guitarist . Back home in Germany Scorpions drafted guitar virtuoso Uli Jon Roth. With their 1975 release In Trance Scorpions took a huge leap forward and started their own unique Scorpions heavy metal formula with songs like "Dark Lady", "Top of the bill and the title track.
Scorpions "Fly To The Rainbow" musicvideo
"Bad Boys of Boston" Aerosmith debuted in 1973 with their self titled album featuring "Dream On" that became their first national hit. Singer Steven Tyler and lead guitarist Joe Perry got the nickname "The Toxic Twins" due to their rampant use of drugs on and of stage. Aerosmith magnum opus "Toys In The Attic" was released in 1975 and took Aerosmith to another level with songs like the title track, "Sweet Emotion"and "Walk This Way"
Aerosmith "Sweet Emotion" musicvideo
From the streets of New York came a band like no other. The band's members kept their identities secret with makeup and costumes that symbolised their alter egos. With strong hardrock songs and a over the top performance and stage show. They blew the headliners of the stage so many times that no bands wanted KISS opening for them.
KISS was one of the hardest touring bands and built up an loyal fanbase through years of touring. After three strong studioalbums it was the live album KISS "ALIVE" that catapulted KISS through the stratosphere from rockstars to superstars. To this day KISS "ALIVE" is one of the most sold live albums of all time.
