BANGING HEADS: MY TOP 5 SEVENTIES HEAVY ROCK TRACKS

Regular readers of Moonbase Central will know I am a hard rock fan and occasionally discuss this weighty subject on these pages. Having grown up during the Sixties and Seventies baby boomers like me witnessed the birth of rock and were blessed with bearing witness to its first hardening.

So when I embarked on forming a list of my top 5 heaviest heavy rock/ heavy metal tracks of all time I fully expected to find  a slew of Seventies rock acts filling other fans' online lists like those peppering You Tube: bands like Budgie, Rush, Zep, Montrose, Jefferson Airplane, ACDC, Skynyrd, Deep Purple, Cream, Uriah Heep and Rainbow.

I couldn't have been more mistaken. Online rock lists seem to completely bypass the Seventies as it if never happened, skipping over it as a mere footnote whilst rock clambered bandana'd into the posing Eighties. The only exception to this myopia is the seemingly universal adoration of Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osborne as the founders of hard rock, with which I won't argue.

Now obviously everything comes down to definitions. When I say heavy rock I mean tracks dominated by pounding guitars, thromping bass, no-nonsense vocals and copious distortion. For me heavy and hard rock are the same thing but I prefer the term heavy. I don't mean soft rock and I don't mean prog.

Now having recently listened to shed loads of Eighties new 'heavy' Metal and modern thrash and deathmetal I willingly acknowledge that the founders of these sub-genres: Van Halen, Slayer, Anthrax, Metallica et al, were themselves pioneers like Sabbath and Zep two to three decades earlier.

However I do feel I need to put the record straight. The Kerrang- MTV generation have got it wrong. The Seventies was THE defining decade of heavy rock and graced with hundreds of mightily hard rock bands. I can safely say what followed were mere posers, screeching, shredding and growling on a bandwagon toward total parody.

OK, I'm biased I know. I grew up with blues-infused heavy rock I hear you say, but the complete omission of Seventies acts from today's rock lists has got me riled.

So, here's my list of the top 5 heaviest rock tracks of  'all time'. OK, the Seventies! Here you will NOT find any Metallica, Pantera, Iron Maiden, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Van Halen, Queensryche, Slipknot, Slayer and most definitely no Avenged Sevenfold.  I'm not after pretty riffs and catchy tunes, just full-on electric resonance. Ignore the adverts and enjoy some You Tubery of the hardest kind!

5. Mr. Big by FREE 1970

At the start of the Seventies Free were one of the biggest rock bands in the world and the singles All Right Now and Wishing Well became their famous signature tunes. But Free are much more than two old chestnuts and Mr.Big is taken from their Fire and Water album. With unpretentious rock swagger, Free were incredibly talented and ridiculously young. The late great Paul Kossoff, lead guitarist, was only 19 when he laid down the sizzling heavy blues in this six minute fretburner and paves the way for the heaviness to come. 

4. Beneath, Between and Behind by RUSH 1975

This face melter is from Canadian power-trio Rush's mid-Seventies album Fly By Night. To be honest there are at least two other tracks from the same record that could easily fill this slot: Anthem and By Tor and The Snow Dog. My parents got me this LP Christmas '75 when I'd just turned 15 and it blew the fairy off the tree I played it so loud on the music centre! Rush were a revelation and along with Lynyrd Skynyrd became the North American rockers of choice for me and my headbangin' pals. Beneath, Between and Behind is an explosion of distorted chords, riffs and guitar-drum pounding and with its fantasy-infused lyrics, amply shows off the giant talents of the young Axmeister Alex Lifeson, vocalist and bassist Geddy Lee and drummer/ lyricist Neil Peart.

3. 21st Century Schizoid Man by KING CRIMSON 1969 / 
In a Gadda da Vida by IRON BUTTERFLY 1968

OK, I'm cheating slotting two tracks into the number three spot but I can't ignore these grand swipes of heavy fuzz from hard rock's origins in the late 1960's. Of course I could wedge pioneers like Jimi Hendrix [and I probably should tbh], Steppenwolf, Blue Cheer and High Tide from the birth of the heavy but I'd really be cheating then and might as well list a top twenty!

King Crimson were gargantuans of Brit prog and gave us their magna carta, In the Court of the Crimson King, upon whose regal grooves we find the incinerating 21st Century Schizoid Man. With Robert Fripp's roasting guitar and lyrics like 'Iron Claw', its an unforgettable slab of ironmongery. Even more influential were The Iron Butterfly from California, whose first album in 1967 was even called HEAVY! In A Gadda Da Vida is a 17 minute long sonic skirmish with your senses and for me defines the very essence of heavy rock. This is the short version!

2. After Forever by Black Sabbath 1971

Black Sabbath - Ozzy, Tony, Geezer and Bill - probably invented heavy metal as we know it today: grinding guitars, growling vocals, fuzzbox overload, lethal bass and seismic drumming. I could have picked any track from their first four classic albums in the early Seventies and many rock lists do, where they focus on famous fare like Iron Man and War Pigs. After Forever is off their 1971 Master of Reality album, a searing track of dark tar and slag typically preoccupied with death and decay, but the whole album is like the best day you could ever have in the land of heavy metal. Listen to it all and weep weighty tears of joy. Should you wish to explore the netherworlds of Sabbath's musical legacy, read about Stoner Rock and Doom Metal.

1. Homicidal Suicidal by Budgie 1971

Whilst Ozzie and the boys were breaking the mould in the Black Country, over in Cardiff, Wales, a power trio called Budgie were equally busting to define the heavy metal sound, which they did in spades. Like Sabbath's back catalogue, I could have picked any Budgie track from their first six classic albums for the number one spot. They are all deliriously heavy but the heaviest are probably to be found on their 1971 ground-shaking debut album simply called Budgie. Homicidal Suicidal is an skull dissolving salvo of distortion and is considered the heaviest of the heavy in the Budgie's cage. Shamefully under-rated in their day and lacking the commercial success they deserved, Budgie's legacy includes everything that followed. They were at the beginning and totally blew me away.

What do you think of them and would your five heavies be readers?