Heavy Metal music between definition, labeling, misconceptions, myths, rumors - Part One
I come from an environment of pain, passion, intense emotions, struggle, characters of resistance, rage, overwhelming emotions, I come from the Land of the Cedar, Lebanon, a nation of fight for survival, a nation of conflict of causes, where the dominant environment has always been, the environment of: “The survival of the fittest”
Therefore, it is natural that heavy metal music has found large popularity and vast ground inside Lebanese youth from all directions
Heavy Metal is so often regarded as the music of the revolutionary youth, even in some extreme forms the music of the rebellion, sometimes uprising, it is an open means of expression, it is expressed as outburst in many forms, directions,
What makes it special is that no ideology, whether political, cultural, racial, ethnic can claim exclusive ownership, everyone can express his/her ideas through this music
It can be about anything, most often it is about love, sometimes ecstasy, pain
But even though it has no single ideological direction, still, there is a direction that was dominant, it was the direction of the Antiwar Peace movement, and to this day heavy metal is marked as the music of the left, the anti-racist, Anti-war, and this emerged and became very clear the Vietnamese war, where heavy metal reached it’s peak during the famous Woodstock, which became a meeting point for the left
Let me consider all this as introduction, the information about heavy metal is so large and overwhelming, and I myself sense overwhelmed with emotions whenever I think about or discuss heavy metal, because for decades and decades it became my window of releasing my frustrations, stress and heavy metal singers were the poets of my pains, dreams, passions, longings, expectations
Not only they became the poets expressing my inner world, they also became the poets of expressing their own visions, through poetic lyrics, accompanied with intense music
Origins of Heavy Metal,
There is no clear concrete absolute data or band that may be pointed out as the first ever of heavy metal, but all stories indicate that it all started in Great Britain, in the 1970’s
There are even suggestions that it started long before
https://www.britannica.com/art/heavy-metal-music
“Mid-1960s British bands such as Cream, the Yardbirds, and the Jeff Beck Group, along with Jimi Hendrix “
As far as I know, Jimmy Hendrix was American, but most successful heavy metal bands were British
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jimi-Hendrix
“(born November 27, 1942, Seattle, Washington, U.S.” https://www.britannica.com/facts/Jimi-Hendrix
Heavy metal started to emerge in the 1970’s, in Great Britain,
Three most popular bands back then (of course among others) were
Ledd Zepplin (Arguably, the most popular band in history), Black Sabbath, Deep Purple
Of course this list is not exclusive, but these three are beyond doubt among the most popular
Heavy metal bands in general are characterized and have a reputation of being extremely controversial, for a numerous number of reasons
Among which there moody behavior, constant internal fights with each other, suddenly the fans were confused and surprised, band members split up, and band suddenly stopped singing
One such famous case was that Led Zepplin suddenly stopped performing and halted its musical career, after the death of its drummer
In an interview, the rest of the band members said that after the death of the drummer, the band would never be the same again, until this day it is quite unclear how come one of the most successful, if not the most successful band, could not find another drummer, while it’s fame and glamour would have attracted the best drummers in the world
Another aspect is the strange lifestyle of heavy metal bands, Ledd Zepplin guitarist, Jimmy Page, for example lived in a very notorious strange house, there are a lot of rumors that he practiced occult
http://rockandrollgarage.com/what-jimmy-page-said-about-living-at-the-haunted-aleister-crowley-house/
“What Jimmy Page said about living at the haunted Aleister Crowley house”
“Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page was interested in the occult and bought in 1973 the house in the Loch Ness that belonged to the famous occultist Aleister Crowley. In an interview with Rolling Stone Magazine back in 1975 the musician talked about the bad energy the place had and the spirits that supposedly haunted the manor.”
Jimmy Pages case is not an isolated case, heavy metal has been linked through rumors, speculations, sometimes myths, to occult, dark spirituality, Satanism
One of the major controversies is Led Zeppelins song: Stairway to heaven, it is beyond doubt one of the best songs ever in the history of heavy metal, it is run in three stages, it starts very slow, then gradually it speeds up until it becomes semi fast, until it erupts from the soft rock nature to super-fast, intense and loud, then it gets back to the first stage until reaching stages 2 and three,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkF3oxziUI4 (Led Zeppelin - Stairway To Heaven (Official Audio))
It is beyond doubt that there is a touch of genius in this song, but the song also carried a controversy, a debate and argument that went on decades, and this one song in particular was the number one song that represented the argument of religious leaders who labeled and accused rock music as diabolic
There is this idea that if you play this song backwards, it produces some hidden secret messages, I have listened to this backward version over and over again, one can judge either way, it is never clear if there are expressions suggesting subliminal message calling for worshipping the devil, one can never verdict either way
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNE75XznfIE Stairway to Heaven Backwards (With FULL Lyrics)
There are a lot of opinions about this song, and it went on for decades
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eBIhAqFtGo The Satanic message of Stairway to Heaven
The controversy of Led Zeppelin is not an isolated case, in fact, the quite opposite, most of the famous historical bands were linked to Satanism, but no one can give a decisive verdict if heavy metal is in fact truly linked to Satanism, or this is some sort of fake charlatan trick for commercial motives
I for one do not buy it, I think this is all part of a commercial scam
One such extremely famous case is the story of Ozzy Osborne, the lead singer of Black Sabbath, in a lot of Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osborne album covers they did use very horrifying images of supposedly the devil, not only the Album covers, song lyrics, song titles, Album covers
Although almost 2 of the band members were constantly on drugs, including Ozzy Osborne, which prevented them from writing songs after initial success, which eventually led to the other band members to tell Osborne sorry, we have to let you go and although a lot of their lyrics were Satanic, Ozzy Osborne makes a remarkable song, ridiculing the notion and ideas that he warships the devil
https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/ozzyosbourne/rocknrollrebel.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtV4tHEjHJg
Ozzy Osbourne - Rock 'N' Roll Rebel
Ozzy Osbourne Lyrics "Rock 'N' Roll Rebel"
“They couldn't see what I thought would be so obvious … I'm just a rock 'n' roll rebel I'll tell you no lies They say I worship the devil They must be stupid or blind I'm just a rock 'n' roll rebel “
"I'm just a rock 'n' roll rebel
I'll tell you no lies
They say I worship the devil
They must be stupid or blind
I'm just a rock 'n' roll rebel
"
Now this rock legend, sings a prayer to Christ, which one should we believe
https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/whitesnake/blindman.html
“I was dreaming of the past, Why do good times never last Help me Jesus, show the way I can't hold on another day Be my friend, be my brother, Be the piper, play the call Across the seven seas of wonder Be the guardian of my soul”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gjCUfVjsKM Whitesnake – Blindman
To Be Continued
