LITM Extra - Heavy Metal Falling from the Sky pt.1 [excerpt]

Love is the Message: Dance, Music and Counterculture

This is an excerpt from a patrons-only episode. To hear the full thing and a whole lot more, go to Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

In this patrons-episode Jeremy raises a devil’s horn salute to the gods and demons of heavy metal. He explores the etymology of the genre term, excavating its shared roots with acid rock, and explaining how heavy metal compliments our story here on LITM. With reference to Easy Rider and the misconceived ‘end of the ‘60s’, we hear about how biker culture, the legacy of the blues and changing regimes of accumulation contributed to the anguished intensity expressed in the music of Led Zeppelin, King Crimson and Iron Butterfly.

Jeremy also explores noise, feedback and distortion as the new aesthetic tools of metal, questions why people in the late 60s would want to explore occult and black magic ideas, and finishes with a deep dive on Black Sabbath, asking: was heavy metal an expression of the blues for white guys who’s dad’s worked in the car factories of Birmingham?

Join us next time for pt. 2.

Produced by Matt Huxley.

Books and Films:

Easy Rider
Robert Walser - Running with the Devil: Power, Gender and Madness in Heavy Metal Music

Tracklist:

Steppenwolf - Born to be Wild

Blue Cheer - Summertime Blues

The Who - My Generation (Live 1968)

Led Zeppelin - Dazed and Confused

Led Zeppelin - Whole Lotta Love

King Crimson - 21st Century Schizoid Man

Iron Butterfly - Easy Rider (Let the Wind Pay the Way)

Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath

Black Sabbath - Paranoid

Black Sabbath - War Pigs