Not to open a can of worms, but I thought this was a funny little gem a buddy of mine found over the weekend.....a compilation from 1974 entitled "Heavy Metal"

Kind of funny what people (at least the guys at this particular record company) considered "heavy metal" back in the day.



The Tracklist
MC5 - Kick Out the Jams
Black Sabbath - Iron Man
Alice Cooper - I'm Eighteen
Jimi Hendrix - Freedom
James Gang - Must Be Love
Deep Purple - Smoke on the Water
T. Rex - Bang a Gong (Get It On)
The J. Geils Band - Give It to Me
Dr. John - Right Place Wrong Time
Led Zeppelin - D'yer Maker
Buffalo Springfield - Bluebird
Faces - Cindy Incidentally
The Doors - Touch Me
The Allman Brothers Band - Ramblin' Man
Delaney & Bonnie - Only You & I Know
Van Morrison - Domino
Eagles - Outlaw Man
Yes - Starship Trooper
a. Life Seeker
b. Disillusion
c. Wurm
Golden Earring - Radar Love
The Grateful Dead - Johnny B. Goode
Foghat - What a Shame
Uriah Heep - Stealin'
War - Lonely Feelin'
Blues Image - Ride Captain Ride

The Grateful Dead!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Doors are so cool that they are welcomed in any comp CD but to call them metal is silly even for 1974!

It is funny, what is included, Dr. John!!!!

I have seen Golden Earring to this very day referred to as a metal band! I guess T. Rex could be considered an influence on metal but he certainly was not a metal artist, at least IMO.

Delaney & Bonnie???? Oh ya, so heavy metal.

Ult says those are all metal.

Glad they included the headbanging sounds of YES. That stuff'll rip your face off.

I don't know. Most of those aren't THAT far from heavy metal - at least not from the original definition. Metal, and mostly the many subgenres of it, have just become more extreme. I'd say a good majority of the tracks and artists featured on that record were close (enough) in sound to the origins of the genre. And the rest are at least somewhat heavier than the popular stuff of 1974.

Gonna find the guys who made this and slap them in the face with a sir lord baltimore album.

I had that compilation back in the day.

No, not all of those bands are considered heavy metal, but it just goes to show that the term "heavy metal" was already in use in the early 70's. That was always my point.

Some of those bands were indeed considered heavy metal back then, but obviously not all of them. In 1974, Black Sabbath, Jimi Hendrix, Alice Cooper, Deep Purple, MC5, Zeppelin, etc. were some of the heaviest stuff out there.

Haha...yeah pretty interesting.

That reminds me of the Auraphon records heavy metal "brainstorm" labeled series of CD presses of street punk and hardcore bands like Circle jerks and Uproar.

LAY DOWN YOUR SOUL TO THE GODS... The J. Geils Band? Waitaminnit....

I can understand most of the choices, but no matter which way I look at it, I can't bring myself to call Van Morrison metal.