Ozzy. Then Metal.

[pcdocstl]

Link Wray invented it, but Al Gore took credit.
It must be true, I wrote it on the Internet.

This is the way, or should I say the WRAY! I will never forget as a preteen back in the late 70's being extremely saddened by the fact that there was nothing (that I'd heard at the time) as HEAVY as Black Sabbath. I would sit for hours with my Teisco Del Ray that I traded my bicycle for at the local pawn shop, listening to those early albums and trying to reproduce them without much luck because I didn't have an amp yet! But I did memorize each and every one of them.

Little did I know then what was about to happen to my ears, and my life. Nazareth, Judas Priest, Scorpions (Uli!), UFO, MSG, Iron Maiden, Slayer, Metallica (a band Ozzy introduced me to!), too freakin' many bands throughout the late 70's and early 80's when each one was harder than the last. Those were great times that got even better when Grunge came to town (SoundGarden, AIC, Nirvana). By that time I had made a pretty good name for myself in the local music scene and could play everything I wished I could that sad day with Sabbath and the Del Ray. I honestly wouldn't change the time I grew up in as I feel the music itself changed for the better, and also changed everything around us just like the Beatles did and Elvis before that.

Helter Skelter? Nah, that's a punk song if anything!
I Am the Walrus is the only Beatles song that could be considered Metal!
Go out and search for my friends BEATALLICA, you will not regret it!

 

[VintageSG]

This is the way, or should I say the WRAY! I will never forget as a preteen back in the late 70's being extremely saddened by the fact that there was nothing (that I'd heard at the time) as HEAVY as Black Sabbath. I would sit for hours with my Teisco Del Ray that I traded my bicycle for at the local pawn shop, listening to those early albums and trying to reproduce them without much luck because I didn't have an amp yet! But I did memorize each and every one of them.

Puberty and X-Ray Spex & Poly Styrene hit me at the same time.
One record; 'Identity' and that was it.
Punk, funk, rock and metal became my world.
John Peel ( UK DJ ) had a lot to answer for.
BBC Radio One daytime was hot garbage during weekdays and weekend mornings, but evenings and weekend afternoons? well worth it.

We had a fantastic lending library in town. Being under 18, I couldn't book records out, but my mother could. I heard 'N.I.B' and was hooked.

She did -not- like the cover of 'Black Sabbath' one little bit. She booked it out for me, and I made a 'backup copy', backed with 'Paranoid'; whose cover she thought was hilariously bad. A fat bloke in his grundies, wielding a play sword in the woods.
I didn't know at the time, but our library's copy wasn't a standard UK release. It had what became my favourite Black Sabbath song ending side two;'Wicked World' Dan dan daa dandandandan dan daa.

Link's 'Rumble' came on the radio. It sounded modern and heavy as heavy can be to my ears. ..'From 1958, Link Wray & His Ray Men...'
1958?
I thought 'Rumble' was fairly modern. I've associated Link as a progenitor since.
Probably John Peel or another UK DJ, Bob Harris, got me into Black Sabbath and Link Wray.

I still have my vinyl Black Sabbath and Link Wray. All replicated with CD pressings too and now ripped to FLAC for our house streamer.

The first six Black Sabbath albums are golden. 'Technical Ecstasy' & 'Never Say Die' have gems among them too.

There's a lot of wibble about the birth of heavy metal. I'd posit 'Rumble' as a key influence.

 

[sadfield]

I got a buddy who always says that basically wherever you go in popular music, the Beatles were either there first or they did it better than anyone.

He's probably right. You are ignoring one simple fact though. Being influencial partly relies on exposure and people actually hearing you.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_music_artists

Scroll down this list and look for Blue Cheer, Buddy Holly, Little Richard or Chuck Berry.

Hint: You won't find them.

Ozzy and Tony and the boys put the whole thing together and in just a couple years they put out three monstrously heavy metal records that laid down the blueprint.

Explain Judas Priest. They formed before Black Sabbath was released, so clearly the blueprint for metal was already established. No single act creates a genre, genre is retrospectively applied after multiple bands bring together the similar influences.

 

[somebodyelseuk]

Explain Judas Priest. They formed before Black Sabbath was released, so clearly the blueprint for metal was already established. No single act creates a genre, genre is retrospectively applied after multiple bands bring together the similar influences.

Status Quo didn't always do what they're best known for.
Just because JP are known as a metal band, doesn't mean they started out as a metal band.
As a Birmingham resident, the whole Ozzy hyperbole is a bit over the top - they're petitioning to have the airport named after him FFS.
Maybe it's time his first wife contacted the media...?

 

[ChXpensiveVintage]

“Boxes” means rules and there ain’t no rules in rock ‘n’ roll, which everyone with a modicum of reasoning and at least one working ear knows is where metal originated/evolved from.

 

[sadfield]

Just because JP are known as a metal band, doesn't mean they started out as a metal band.

Neither did Sabbath. Even Ozzy and Iommi say that. None of them did, metal didn't exist, which is my point it evolved through multiple bands within a time frame through the late 60's and early 70's. From odd track here and there, albums that featured several tracks to full metal albums.

Yes. I've definitely heard Quo use a fourth chord.