The origin of metal

I find learning about the roots of heavy metal incredibly interesting.  As a music lover, I came into the genre after all the conflict between punks and metal fans occurred.  Waksman’s book, “This ain’t the summer of love”, illustrates this conflict in the introduction, going into detail about the exchanges in Creem magazine in the late 1970’s.  That revelation came as a surprise to me.  I had no idea that a conflict ever existed between the two fan bases.  Growing up, I always went to punk shows (the Sex Pistols, Iggy Pop, and The Damned) and metal shows (Anthrax, Slayer, and Judas Priest).  My friends were also into both genres of music, even though a few leaned heavier in on direction or the other.  I always thought that punk and metal were related and blended together well.  One can see a distinct overlap in the two music scenes, and the influence they have upon each other. 

A prime example of this can be seen in the band the Misfits.  Started in the late 1970’s, they were considered “horror” punk.  They created a unique style for themselves and are very well known, as is their logo.  The lead singer of the band was Glenn Danzig, who left to form a well-known heavy metal band called Danzig.  Whenever I go to a Danzig show, there is always a mix of punks and heavy metal kids, rocking out together.  I believe that the rift between the two cultures is not as wide as it once was.  

I would also like to commend Waksman on some of his seminal music choices.  Iggy Pop would never have crossed my mind as being a progenitor  of punk rock, even though, upon reflection, he is quintessentially punk.  However, the use of Grand Funk Railroad, I believe is a bit of a stretch.  Maybe it is because I don’t like them, but I just don’t feel that they are really a proto-metal type group.  The sound is all wrong and they just have the metal “aura” about them that other earlier bands had.  That is not to say that they didn’t influence the music at all, but so did Mozart, in a way.  

My opinion of Grand Funk Railroad may be influenced by the concept of order versus disorder.  In my view, Grand Funk is not chaotic enough, at least not in the ways that I need for them to be, to be cool enough to listen to.  While they remind me of the noodling, jam band music, they do not evoke any feelings of rebellion or euphoria in me. Therefore, they do not satisfy my need for the disorder, the escapism which is the reason why I listen to that kind of music.