But when everything is heavy, you gots to question just how much of it is real, and how much was just informed by the spirit of the time. And supremely crafted and nailed to the floor it is, too. And I’m only mentioning the truly hairy heavies who struck the esteemed BBC Top 10, motherfuckers! Which is why, in 1970, even the ever career-opportunistic Dave Bowie had still felt it necessary, nay, essential to address the genre with his ‘She Shook Me Cold’ (included herein). Sabbath), balling horny broads (early ‘70s slang for shagging groupies, all you youngsters), investigating the Underworld as a possible future home (Peter Green), or even committing suicide (Vincent Crane of Atomic Rooster). To the dismay of the general public, these were performers whose idea of recreation involved ingesting massive amounts of illegal drugs (J. Every week, perverse cartoon hairies invaded the BBC’s Top of the Pops studios, the show – throughout 19 - featuring such anachronisms as Frijid Pink’s fuzz-fest versh of ‘House of the Rising Sun’ (#6 in the BBC’s Top 40 in May 1970), Peter Green’s swansong/descent into hell with Fleetwood Mac’s ‘The Green Manalishi’ (#10 in July 1970), Black Sabbath’s seminal ‘Paranoid’ (#4 in October 1970), Deep Purple’s sludgy ‘Black Night’ (#2 in October 1970), the recently deceased Jim Hendrix’s ‘Voodoo Chile’ (#1 in November 1970), Deep Purple again with ‘Strange Kind of Woman’ (#8 in March 1971), Family’s Roger Chapman bellowing out the beginnings of ‘In My Own Time’ (#8 in June 1971), and Atomic Rooster doing ‘The Devil’s Answer’ (#4 in August 1971). Indeed, time was – around 1970 and 71 – when Hard Rock/Heavy Rock was so pervasive that every popular musician who was not playing reggae, bubblegum or opera, was inevitably informed somewhat by Hard Rock. Modern people played Rock exclusively, and the harder the better. During that period, the term ‘Rock’n’roll’ was sidelined, used only when referring to the hoary ‘50s originators. Louder and louder and louder it became, until the Beatles’ legendary 1964 Shea Stadium show was eclipsed in summer 1971 by the brute force of the Uber-populist power trio Mark, Mel & Don AKA Grand Funk Railroad. So when electric music took over as the main populist entertainment in the mid-50s, the new amplification was already on the way to allowing rock’n’roll temples to surpass the size of cathedrals, and the music could challenge Christianity at last. Of course, even without the rise of rock’n’roll, those already deeply paranoid religious leaders of the previous two centuries had been barely keeping a lid on us. Anyway, the better the technology got the louder the amps got, and the more we all came closer to barking at the Moon. Iggy Pop, in explanation for his obsession with rock’n’roll performance, once stated: “Speakers push the air, and push me too.” Fuck me, you should share a stage with Sunn0))), Jimmy. Why’d he apply for the job in the first place, etc etc. Indeed, one of the bands on this compilation, Bloodrock, had to stop playing their most famous song ‘D.O.A.’ (included herein) because the new Christian singer was too yucked out by the chords and the death imagery. The dude on the back of the first Bang LP is way scary.… and it scares the shit out of Christians and Muslims because the electric beat pummels your heart-driven (and already pulsating) body, exciting your adrenalin into play, with the immediate effect that your awareness of your animal side has been awakened. HARDROCKSAMPLER (1968-75) was invented by Julian Cope for the purposes of this article.
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