It`s a kind of subjective thing, but for me, Iron Butterfly with "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" is the essence of what heavy metal would become. That iconic, heavy signature riff, the menacing vocals, the screaming guitar and drum solo are all pure metal in an early form. It`s 17 minutes of music I never get tired of. Have to pick up Martin`s book.

Ritchie blackmore's guitar solo in I am so glad from the first Deep Purple MK 1 album was heavier than anything at that time.

John Kay is way underrated as a singer. His voice was made for rock

Where are The Pretty Things? In 1964 Rosalyn was the punkiest song and they instigated glam by swapping gender pronouns. They influenced Jimi, The Who, The Stones, Iggy, Bowie and Led Zep. Joey Ramone said they invented garage bands with LSD/Roadrunner and created proto-heavy metal like Balloon Burning/Old Man Going for the first rock opera in 1968, with John, George and Ringo watching the recordings during The White Album.

Going earlier in time, Howlin Wolf is heavy and evil for the 50s. For me Johnny Burnette and Link Wray round out the key heavy metal "seeds".

Pete Townshend invented the power chord and distortion. Their early stuff can be traced to what we know as heavy metal. Your top is speculative.

Atomic Rooster was one for me. A combination of heavy metal / prog rock IMHO.

Steppenwolf at your birthday party has some real heavy stuff on it. Listen to the lead guitar on "Don't cry". Just sayin

Link Wray's 'The Rumble' from 1958 could be seen as the first heavy song, far more menacing than 'You Really Got Me'. Jimmy Page has credited it as a big influence.

Amboy Dukes - Prodigal Man was arguably the Hardest Rock Heavy Metal song up until Black Sabbath - Children of the Grave. It really sounds the closest to what Heavy Metal would sound like in the 1980s. For 1969 it was way ahead of it's time, but the rest of the Migration album was all over the place with everything from goofy 1950s style Rockabilly type of songs to acoustic ballads. Jefferson Airplane - House At Poohneil Corners, and the Doors - Not to Touch the Earth definitely captured the pre Black Sabbath Doom Metal style back in 1968. In 1969 Coven did a song called Black Sabbath, while certainly not as Heavy as the Black Sabbath debut song that shares the same title, it was arguably even scarier and creepier sounding. Black Sabbath by Coven, along with Bloodrock - DOA , Alice Cooper - Black Ju Ju , and I Love the Dead remain some of the best Halloween songs

Population II by Randy Holden is a hidden gem. Getting good psych, spacy, even a cream vibe too. A must listen.

Another great topic!

This was the era in which I had just graduated middle school and was "discovering" music. Someone about 5 years older then myself (who later did a tour in Vietnam, and lived to tell the stories) turned me on to the Easy Rider soundtrack, along with Iron Butterfly and Steppenwolf, among others. My innocence started turning into rebellious fervor. In my eyes, this was one of the best videos you have done. As good as heavy metal had developed, I go back to this time continuously.

Love the channel and all you do but your chats with Martin always my favourite! Could listen to you two talking about music all day and this was a really fun and great topic!

I think you can even go back as far as Gustav Holst Mars The Bringer of War of 1918. You can hear so much of the classic later chugging heavy metal rhythm in that song.

2 Big influencers to what would become heavy metal guitar are Link Wray & Dick Dale. Link for distortion and Dick for tremolo picking. Rumble and Miserlou.

Great topic guys!! Being 14 in 1970, you guys named the bands that we thought where the heavy duty bands of the day. Great pics!!

Amazing discussion from Pardo and Poppof. Another one. Each week It got better. Just great and mandatory for every heavy music lover.

A great conversation, I love this theme because you can find influences all over the place. Even in The Beatles in songs like Helter Skelter. A real interresting topic and your knowledge is just amazing. Love your shows.

Thanks for this great video both. Have a lot of the albums you talked about but have to say above and beyond the well known tracks, and having known about them for decades, I haven’t listened to much Steppenwolf, Iron Butterfly or Grand Funk Railroad. Soon about to rectify that by checking out the albums you mentioned!