I was relaxing at Casa Del Recky the other day (like thats nothing unusual) watching a doco called Heavy Metal Britannica and it expounded forthwith about the bands that "created" the genre we have all come to know as heavy metal...
I thought to myself thats an idea for a bloggaroo, I have included Black Sabbath by the band of the same name, and cudos to them for their creative use of the tri-tone or diminished fifth if you will, Iommi the riff master rules, but I plan to, and will go back before Sabbath and blather on about the bands from both sides of the Atlantic, that came before them.
As I may have mentioned before, I had the great, good fortune to be raised ankle deep in a stack of vinyl that should be envied..so all the bands in the comp I can say with certainty that I had them ringing in my ears from the get go...The first bands included in this blogaroo that I can remember flogging to death was Steppenwolf , blasting out Born to be wild and Magic Carpet ride, and the awesomely loud Grand Funk Railroad and in particular their tunes "Locomotion" and "Were an American band",
but prior to this, good old Uncle Yogi ( for that is how he shall be remembered) waylaid my good self with tunes from Cream , Iron Butterfly, Steppenwolf, Hendrix and The Doors and I added to this myself by playing some Troggs, Yardbirds and the first "heavy metal" trio , Blue Cheer bashing the living shit out of "Summertime Blues"....
much later after some enthusiastic searching of LOUD rock bands of my own, I came to add bands like Mountain and english proto metal band The Edgar Broughton Band to my likes list.
The bands from the very early days of rock music, Ive included here have a touch of the "outsider" to them, meaning that at the time of their release they weren't considered mainstream...
as a matter of fact, many of them were considered long haired hooligans and for example, "The Killer" Jerry Lee Lewis wasn't thought of as a boyscout by any stretch of the imagination.....neither was Little Richard, although he was more of a girl scout...fkn black AND gay in Georgia in the 50's...hmmm, wonder if he could fight?
As you can see , Ive included some acts that came at the beginning of rock'n'roll...like I said, jerry Lee and then there is Jackie Brenston bashing out Rocket 88 and for the blues fans among you, I chucked in some Hooker playing my favourite Hooker tune, his classic "Maudie".......then came bands that I always considered "hard rock" anywhoo... MC5, Mountain and Iron Butterfly, who had an awesome live version of "Ina Gadda Da Vida", hanging around my place, tell you what, if you dig mad drumming, then this is the record for you.......
then comes the bands of the what I call, the second British invasion, that come from the 'rough" end of the pop music spectrum...The Troggs, Yardbirds, The Kinks, and in particular Ray Davies who had the wonderfully original idea of taking a razor blade to there speaker cones which gave them that roaring fuzz in "You really got me" and then there is, The Who...I must say I never really got into Pete Townshend and the boys, probably only two or three songs max, but to be fair, I never really gave them a fair shake, I don't hate 'em, but cant class 'em as a regular listen either....
another guy I can honestly say that I only like a couple of tunes of, is Arthur Brown...one of the original "shock " rockers I dare say...and he has Bruce Dickinson as a hardcore fan, so that makes him o.k by me (slightly)....
and I was a bit confused as to where to put Jimi Hendrix...is he a British act, seeing as how thats were he kicked it into high gear or is he a American act who lit up Old Blighty with his axe skills...I think I will go with the first thought, cause if I put him down as a yank act I would have to put him in with the Doors and Vanilla Fudge and Grand Funk and quite honestly, to me, he doesn't fit in with those I just mentioned
And then there is a band I mentioned earlier, that if your not from Old Blighty, then you more than likely have never heard of them...the Edgar Broughton Band, they started out as a blues band, but seeing the Yardbirds and Cream, they decided to get a bit raucous instead...there was some vinyl laying around the house, Yog's must have got it from an import shop cause I cant imagine these blokes cracking the 2SM Australian top 20 on a weekly basis...there a bit...ummm..proggy, if you will, yeah a touch of the old 20 minute jam feeling going on with these boys, but that's cool...its all good if it makes sense...i thunk.....
So there you go...I firmly believe that all the acts mentioned in some way , shape or form lent something to the beast that we know as Heavy Metal....
Ladies and Gents coming to you from Burwood NSW via sunny, barmy Scotland, may I present, quite possibly, Orstraylia's greatest rock band..the mighty AKKADAKKA....
You have to admit that the 10 pound poms that lobbed on aussie's sunny shores back in the day have a remarkably high proportion of successful muso's among them...Malcolm and Angus Young's older brother George was quite the rock star in The Easybeats...then there was the Barnes/ Swann boys Jimmy and John along with John Paul Young, John Farnham, The Bee Gees and Billy Thorpe ....BUT...we are here to discuss and admire the band whose name came from their sisters vacuum cleaner...the mighty AC/DC.
Malcolm and Angus lobbed into aussie some 12 months after the birth of your faithful blogger...and moved to Burwood in the suburbs of sydney...of AKKADAKKA 2 longest serving members, Malcolm started out first as a muso, playing in a Newcastle band called "the velvet underground"...not to be confused with the yank band...
I reckon that this is where Malcolm first heard of or met Dave Evans who was ACDC first recorded vocalist, you will remember Dave from such wonderful blogs as "ITS RABBIT SEASON" and "THE MANY LIVES OF DAVE EVANS"...
Anyway, after finding Dave, the boys managers booked them into Chequers and Bondi Lifesaver for some gigs...it was around this time that Ang tried various stage personas Spiderman, a gorilla and a parody of Superman called SuperAng...luckliy the boys sister, Margaret after naming them, talked Angus into wearing the schoolboy outfit that was to become the persona that we all love.
So after a few gigs, turns out that Dave Evans suggested going in a more Gary Glitter style and look...The Young brothers told him not to let the door hit him in the arse on the way out ....and after doing a few rehersals with singers, the ex-singer/flutist from Fraternity, one Ronald Belford "Bon" Scott got the gig...and this is where they became part of my life...first time I saw them was Burwood RSL, then I believe the Hordern Pavillion in Sydney...
it was about this time that the boys had travelled on a east coast tour after relocating to Melbourne...they also had a bit of a blue with Deep Purples roadies at one of the last Sunbury festival's within this time period....in '77 the band signed a international deal with Atlantic Record, also around this time Mark Evan's was sacked and Cliff Williams took up the bass spot, which he holds to this day.......
1980....the boys had headed off to and been in Blighty for a while to expand ther experience's, and the poms fell in love with 'em from the off, in a vein similar to Motorhead, both punks and headbangers loved 'em...and Bon and the boys travelled all over Europe to rousing applause...I got a couple of live bootlegs that have the boys roaring through sets in Paris and Amsterdam .....truly rocking gigs.
Then came THAT day...the day that Bon called it quits and passed into Rock'n'Roll history, after a night on the turps with a few mates, Bon had frozen to death and choked on vomit in the back of a mates car...there were some scandalous statements by various band fringe dwellers, that heroin was involved ...but thats has never been proven, plus I don't believe it..Bon done a lot of stuff, but I cant see him doing smack....at this point I should like to announce that my favourite Bon song is, and shall ever be "Big Balls"..a monty python-esque lyrical masterpiece, yeh, so there you go.
SO...the talisman of the band was gone, the boys brought Bon back home to Fremantle for the funeral, and Bons mum told 'em to keep this thing going, Bon would expect no less, so Malcolm and Angus set about recruiting a new singer...various guys tried out, just a few of the names were, Noddy Holder of Slade, Terry Slesser from Back Street Crawler , Buzz Shearman from Moxy and Alan Fryer from Sydney metal band Heaven..
.I personally would of preferred Allan Fryer out of that lot, as much as I like Noddy...he didnt seem to fit...BUT...it was the retired lead singer from rock band GEORDIE that got the gig, the man we come to love called Jonno...to be honest, I was one of the anti jonno brigade for a little while...I mean, Akka D without Bon was un-imaginable...BUT...I soon stopped being a dick about it and Jonno became part of my regular rock n roll listening.
SO...out came Back in Black, Jonno says he could feel Bon in the recording studio, but in a positive way and the album shot straight to the top of the charts...fear of fan revolt avoided.....as a matter of fact, You shook me all night long has become a modern classic....I saw the boys on that tour at the Sydney Ent Cent ...sadly, the anti Jonno brigade was out in force that night and their was many and varied violent entanglements at McDonalds that night...BUT it must be said that Jonno busted his balls and, I think, won over more than he pissed off that night...saw them again at a Donnington also a bonz gig of epic proportions.
The boys kicked on with much success for a couple of years with the For those about to rock album joining Back in Black as a fan favourite...then came the time just before Flick of the Switch, where Phil Rudd and Malcolm via a gallon of booze and some various chemicals had a rampaging blue Mal sacked Rudd on the spot...Dio drummer Simon Wright eventually took up the drum stool for the tour and a couple of years as well...the brothers Young were producing the albums at this time and Fly on the Wall proved to be a tad tedious....
along came Stephen King who had a book about machines taking over the planet, ACDC did a soundtrack for the flick called Maximum Overdrive calling the album WHO MADE WHO....and unlike most of my mates, I enjoyed the flick and the album....then came the boys brother George and Harry Vanda to produce the next album and save the bands lives and the resulting album "BLOW UP YOUR VIDEO" was a deadset cracker
Also around this time, Mal was having serious problems with his love of Vodka and similar tipples, led him to take an extended leave from the group,before he took a permanent Bon like break from the group..the guys nephew Stevie Young ( their oldest brother Alex's boy) of the Starfighters put his hand up to help out family....other band member, Simon Wright , by this stage had gone back to Dio and Chris Slade had taken up the drum stool...now Sladey had played with Tom Jones, and Manfred Mann's Earth Band...not exactly AKKA DAKKA style's of music BUT Sladey is a world class tub thumper and fit in beautifully....
Jonno was in the midst of a rather grumpy divorce so it was all happening in ACDC world ,....While all the hoo-haa was going on, the Young boys got stuck into writing the next album and got Bruce Fairbairn to produce it...the result was RAZORS EDGE...which produced one of my favourite tunes "Thunderstruck" ...truly a akkadakka classic....
1994 saw the return of Phil Rudd to the drum kit, all bad habits and petty bollocks had been put aside and they all found working together most harmonious, the resulting sessions turned into the album BALLBREAKER produced by Rick Rubin..not a paring I thought would go together, but what do I know.
the guys sorta faded off my radar for a while after Ball breaker...but that can be said of a lotta bands I like, I have fits and starts of band likedness...I was watching tele one day and someone mentioened that the NEW AC/DC clip was forthcoming, so I hung around and once they got the other drivel and malarky out of the fkn way...Stiff Upper Lip hit my earholes and most pleased they were indeed...and a very great double entendre of a song title to be sure...
I was at my local supplier of all things dvd just after the Stiff world tour was done and dusted and found a dvd of a gig in Germany...AWESOME..go get a copy, the most recent dvd filmed at the gig in Buenos Aries River Plate Stadium is also a rocking gig...got that one too..., well, what can I tell ya, concert tix are too friggin expensive in the modern era and I got a broken neck that dont let me do much ...
so concert dvds are just the thing for me nowadays....speaking of all things AKKA-D...I was on the Gold Coast a few ago and found a music store at Pacific Fair, this ginormous mall on the Gold Coast Highway and to my imeasurable delight found a BONFIRE set and a BACKTTRACKS set, all for a reasonble price, so, I did what any sane human would do, I bought the f**kers...Bonfire is just awesome...if you see one grab one, you wont be annoyed.
High Voltage (1975)
(Australia only, internationally re-issued in 1976 as a selection of tracks from the first two albums)
T.N.T. (1975) (Australia only)
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (1976)
Let There Be Rock (1977)
Powerage (1978)
Highway to Hell (1979)
Back in Black (1980)
For Those About to Rock We Salute You (1981)
Flick of the Switch (1983)
Fly on the Wall (1985)
Blow Up Your Video (1988)
The Razors Edge (1990)
Ballbreaker (1995)
Stiff Upper Lip (2000)
Black Ice (2008)
SO..there you go, my thoughts, feeling and opinions on all thing AKKA-D...hope you enjoyed it...SEEYA NEXT TIME
DUNGEONS, DRAGONS, SWORDS...sounds like a blog for King Arthur..dont it ?...WELL, IT AINT...this one is about the most ...ummm...descriptive form of metal, POWER METAL...the songs, as a rule, paint mental pictures about vikings,wizards, templar knights or they do for the most part anyway......and the album art is off the chart...you could hang power metal albums (minus band names) in a gallery and people would go OOOHHH...that's nice
Sam Dunn, him of Banger Films and a sociology major, even did a episode about Power metal on his metal evolution series, it had Dragonforce, Dio, Manowar, Hammerfall, Gamm Ray, Helloween and Iced Earth on it, just to name a couple of the participants....I get the feeling that young Sammy does like Wacken, he keeps filming there.......
He said on the episode about Power metal, that its, by and large , a European phenomena, its the metal genre that guys can bring their girls too and a sing-a-long at any show is a given, let alone a must.
I have a list of alleged power metal acts on the 'puter and to be honest it's chokka's with bands I never would of picked..Iron Maiden, Saxon, Judas Preist..I guess, if you think about it, a goodly percentage of Maidens subject matter is a dungeons and dragons, Its just "Run to the Hills" aint exactly full of dragons and demons and thus I didn't make the link and of course Judas Priest released an album called Nostradamus...should of been a dead give away by rights...mind you "Judas Rising" aint exactly about cracking a beer in the car park , now is it.
I've listened to Dio for ages, I think we all have given Ronnie a more than fair listen...for example, his work with Rainbow (Kill the king) and Sabbath (Neon Knights) and his solo gig ( Last in Line) all ended up on playlists, to be honest I didnt even know I was listening to power metal at the time..
HELL, I thought I was listening to normal run of the mill metal but with a bit of fast guitar, till I tried Dragonforce's "through the fire and the flames" on Guitar hero and then googled 'em and they came up under said subject heading....
POWER METAL MUSO'S
The musicianship is...ummm...complicated, detailed, awesome, all of the above.... I think, if you like a guitar break with a zillion notes then, for the most part, power metal is for you...of course the playing of that many b.p.m's has to make sense or your just listeneing to a monkey slap a gibson, so you know there is some seriously talented players in the genre...
a couple of guitarists that come to mind straight up are..Herman Li and Sam Totman from Dragonforce, Oscar Dronjak from Hammerfall and Kai Hansen formerly of Helloween, awesome players one and all...
One player who leaps to mind is Marco Heitala, the musical genius behind Nightwish and speaking of Nightwish lets talk singers, former Nightwish belter, Tarja has a set of pipes that will crack your bi-focals..as does Joacim Cans from Hammerfall and Marc Hudson from Dragonforce, formner Dragonforce singer Z.P Theart has a set of wicked pipes as well...and then there is Ronnie...nuff said...
.and there is the ivory ticklers for the various acts out there ...Vadim Pruzhanov from Dragonforce is awesome, Tuomas Holopainen from Nightwish is out there as well and Alex Staropoli of Rhapsody of Fire seems to have 3 arms with 11 digits on each hand sometimes...
and it could be argued that the godfather of all these players is Jens Johansson from Yngwie Malmsteen's group in 80's.......and finally, lets think about the tri-athletes of music for moment, the lads up the back....your basic 10,000 bpm's power metal drummer....BLOODY HELL...I've seen Dragonforce and I reckon Dave McIntosh done about 9,000 miles that night..FARK MOI...and Anders Johansson from Hammerfall wasnt far behind him
.
One thing I will say about power metal bands, they do put on a helluva show and that, in my humble , is an awesome thing....and also the bands that I've got into,in the genre, go out of their way to stick out, also a good thing trust me, take Alestorm for instance, these blokes think their bloody pirates from the 17th century and write their tunes accordingly, if you like your metal rollicking and rousing, then them's the fella's for you..
Iced Earth is a damn fine band as well..then there is them mad bloody Italian's from Rhapsody of Fire..awesome players, with a decided barouque feel to their subject matter...and then there was a band that i'd listened too in the 80's then they sorta slipped off my radar...Manowar...would it be wrong to suggest, that these blokes have over-dosed on homo eroticism...frigging loin clothes, broadswords and baby oil are all there in abundance...AND..their songs are just phenomenally cheesy, even cheesier than most power metal subject matter...but, brilliant just the same and the video's produced by bands in the genre...good lord, watching, say a, Rhapsody of Fire video, your gonna get bombarded with stuff that looks like the promo for either the tv series Merlin or Russell Crowe's version of Robin Hood, knights, swords, ladies in waiting, all concepts used in your "by the books" power metal video....
POWER METAL VIDEO'S
Speaking of video, I picked up a copy of Classic Rock a few years back and it had a dvd of the Metal Hammer awards night and it also had a stack of "battle metal" videos on there...various acts played at the awards show..Dragonforce was foremost on the show and the italian metal legends, Lacuna Coil also put in an appearance...BUT...the collection of videos on the dvd were the eye openers for mine, Hammerfall's Blood Bound was, in my humble, the best vid on there...there was a bunch of dudes in animal skins grunting that did nothing for me...there was also Kamelot on there that wasn't too foul and Sabaton was also on there, them lads are the latest german monsters got some of there stuff, they do like a war story or two
SO...there you go, my skew whiffed thoughts on Power Metal..oh, by the way, the whole time I was putting this together, I was listening to Helloween playing "Keeper's Trilogy" on loop...yeh, baby I'm hardcore...
