Metal?

ultmetal wrote:

kmorg wrote:

The phrase heavy metal was also used in the book "Naked Lunch", if I am not mistaken, a whole 2 years before Steppenwolf used it to describe the sound of a motorcycle! So they were not talking about a musical genre.

I think heavy metal used to describe music was first used by a New York reporter in a Led Zeppelin concert review. But what year that was eludes me at the moment.

That's how I always understood the term came to be as well. Though I think Steppenwolf's use of the term may have also spread the popularity of the term in the 70's.

I actually had a compilation album in the 70's called "heavy metal". It had Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath, Golden Earring, Jimi Hendrix, and a bunch of other hard rock and rock bands. Wish I still had that record. Not all the bands were actually heavy metal, but it was one of those early compilations that showed that the term was being used. I think that compilation had the Grateful Dead, The Doors and Yes on it too, so obviously it wasn't exactly a well defined genre or compilation.

I used to have that as well. It was a 2-record, gatefold set. Had Starship Trooper by Yes on it, pretty sure Uriah Heep's Stealin' was on there, it was actually a pretty cool compilation.

As to the "debate", I'm too old to debate. The term I remember hearing the most in the 70's was "hard rock", usually just as a way to describe radio stations...there were "soft rock" and "hard rock" stations. I also remember hearing the terms "heavy rock" and "acid rock". The radio stations I remember listening to in the late 70's...it wasn't out of the ordinary to hear Ted Nugent, Kansas, ELO, Eddie Money, Steely Dan & Led Zeppelin back to back.

The first time I remember seeing the term "Heavy Metal" was the fantasy magazine, didn't know it actually described a musical genre until later. But, I didn't really read music magazines until around 1983 or so, I was a book nut before then.