(Credits: Far Out / Showtime Documentary Films)
Black Sabbath are often credited with being the originators of heavy metal, and rightly so, for while there may have been some bands making heavier-sounding rock music before Sabbath had united and released their debut, it was them who really made this sound popular.
The guitar style, the pounding rhythm, and Ozzy Osbourne’s screeching vocals led to them making a kind of music which was borderline tormented, but that people loved.
Ozzy once credited The Beatles with showing the world that it was okay to have fun, even when living in a post-war depression. Well, Black Sabbath did something different in showing the world that it was okay to be frustrated and anti-mainstream, and to healthily channel those feelings in a way that would sell records and connect with the public en masse.
Of course, when you look at heavy metal, you don’t just look at the doom and gloom of it, but you also consider the way the genre represented the fact that people could branch out, expand the parameters of rock, and continue achieving something special. There were already bands doing this, one of which was Cream, who were a precursor to prog and were steadily showing rock music fans that the genre didn’t just have to exist within what they were already listening to.
Steve Van Zandt once said that Eric Clapton was one of the most important guitarists in the world because of how brilliantly he combined different styles of music, noting, “Eric Clapton is the most important and influential guitar player that has ever lived, is still living or ever will live. Do yourself a favour, and don’t debate on this.”
When justifying his assessment, he said that Clapton, “introduced the essence of Black electric blues: the power and vocabulary of Buddy Guy, Hubert Sumlin and the three kings, BB, Albert and Freddie, to create an attack that defined the fundamentals of rock and roll lead guitar.”
Given he had an innate ability to understand how you could step outside of the parameters of a set genre, Clapton liked to listen to bands who were doing something similar, and while he no doubt likely recognised the authority of Black Sabbath, he said he believed there were some bands championing that heavy metal sound before Ozzy and co came along, and one of those bands was a long forgotten outfit called Blue Cheer.
While you might not be too familiar with their work, the guitarist credited them with introducing that heavy metal style of music to listeners, as they made rock music that strayed from the standard blues sound and instead leaned on making noise. Clapton said that the band didn’t have a mission, but that lack of a mission is what led to them catching people’s attention: it was controlled chaos, and he has a point, as these are the elements atop which heavy metal was originally built.
“There was a band called Blue Cheer, who I think were probably the originators of heavy metal,” explained Clapton, “because they didn’t really have traditional roots in the blues. They didn’t have a mission. It was just about being loud.”
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