Blues, Psychedelic, Progressive, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal or Just Plain Eclectic 1969-1971 Part 1.
Nearly all the bands featured on here so far, have either come under one or two of the above categories, but the one thing they had in common was their ‘heavy leanings’ qualifying them for this journal if their albums were good enough. Now here like in the “Hard, Heavy and a Classic” section are a selection of artists and albums, that come under primarily non-heavy labelling, but they still put out an album or two that was heavy in its feel. These bands are joined by a couple of eclectic choices that simply didn’t fit into a genre or two. This list could be endless with albums and is therefore open to interpretation. I’ve included some that I think need to be mentioned, whilst others have been brought to my attention on here, but all are worth a mention.
For example, Just looking at the components from the demise of Cream, both Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker went onto form their own projects, with Eric Clapton going onto the most acclaim. His work with Blind Faith and Derek & the Dominos are all examples of borderline stuff that could have been included but hasn’t. The same could be said for the Who, whose discography is full of epic rock tunes all highly influential on a lot of the bands that will be featured.
The amount of blues rock bands around at this time was simply staggering and for that reason I’ve only included in the thread those with the heaviest inclinations or those that would go onto embrace hard rock per se. So blues rock bands in the style of Canned Heat, Ten Years After, Jethro Tull and Fleetwood Mac are not going to qualify, while other bands such as Savoy Brown, The Killing Floor, Toe Fat, Blodwyn Pig and the future Foghat, Rory Gallagher and ZZ Top could for either an album or two, depending on your subjective opinion. At the heavier end Grand Funk Railroad, Humble Pie and Free all qualified with ease and of course Led Zeppelin represented the heaviest end of the whole blues rock spectrum.
Blues based artists with heavy leanings worth listening to, starts off with Wishbone Ash. Now Wishbone Ash as far as I’m concerned are one of the finest and most talented bands to have ever come out of the UK. Britain's answer to the Allmans but with a much heavier slant and they were one of the first British bands to master the art of the dual guitar attack, which of course would go onto become a pillar of metal and hard rock in the shape of Judas Priest, Thin Lizzy, Iron Maiden and far more recently with Machine Head. Wishbone Ash mixed their dual guitar attack in with harmonious leads, gentle vocal tendencies, first rate songcraft, experimentation, heavy jamming and unforgettable licks. They could go from heavy and energetic songs, to dreamy and distant sounding tracks in the blink of an eye. They would go on to find their true calling on the prog classic
Argus, but their first album saw them at their heaviest, with their second
Pilgrimage 1971 and its more more experimental feel, seeing them move into a more progressive rock direction. Their superb debut of which I’ve put two of its stunning cuts below, is a must listen to, along with one from
Pilgrimage.
Wishbone Ash Wishbone Ash 1970 (Decca)
Blues Rock
I'm wondering why your face no longer shines.