Metal Evolution - "Early Metal UK"
Sam Dunn
VH1 Classic
All Access Review: A-
Demo in hand, Jim Simpson shopped
Black Sabbath’s first
recordings to 14 record labels, and not one of them had the foresight to sign
this fearsome foursome. Not one to hold grudges, especially all these years
later, Simpson understood their reticence. As he tells filmmaker Sam Dunn in
the “
Early Metal UK” episode of the “Metal Evolution” documentary series, why
would any A&R representative with a cozy job at some British record label
jeopardize his or her career by signing somebody who sounded like that? There
was nothing on the charts that sounded anything remotely like Sabbath, recalls
Simpson. And, as Simpson points out, label executives have never really gone
out of their way to seek out fresh, new sounds. They want something safe,
something marketable that bears some resemblance to songs they know will sell.
The A&R representative who likes his or her job and wants to keep it will
then, predictably, not risk it on four soot-stained lost souls from an
industrial hellhole like Aston, Birmingham whose ghoulish sonic menace couldn’t
possibly sell more than a handful of records.
Impenetrably dark and truly demonic, Sabbath was playing the
devil’s music, even if the charges of Satanism leveled at Sabbath would never
stick. Just when it seemed that nobody loved them, along came Olav Wyper.
Working for Phillips Records, Wyper saw something in Sabbath, and signed them
to the recording giant. One of the unsung heroes of heavy metal, Wyper
shepherded Sabbath through the maze of Phillips subsidiaries, finding them a nest
at Vertigo. And the rest is history, thanks to Wyper … and Simpson, too. After
all, were it not for Simpson’s diligence as manager in the service of his
client, Sabbath might have returned to the factories and labored in obscurity
until death.
Wyper and Simpson are not exactly Jimmy Page and Robert
Plant. The guitar legend and the golden god turned down requests for interviews
for “Metal Evolution” because they felt Led Zeppelin was no more a heavy metal
act than The Rolling Stones. And maybe they’re right. Producer and sound
visionary Eddie Kramer, famed for his work with Jimi Hendrix and Aerosmith,
agrees when discussing the matter with Dunn during “Early Metal UK.” Though
undoubtedly pioneers in the realm of heavy music and hard rock, Zeppelin’s expansive
oeuvre encompassed so many genres – including a strong foundation in the blues
– that pigeonholing them in a box marked “heavy metal” would be a sin. The
presence of Page and Plant are not required, however, for Dunn and his partner,
Scot McFayden, to craft an engrossing, informative and curious study of the
role such bands as Zeppelin, Sabbath and Deep Purple – not to mention the
contributions of glam-rock upstarts Sweet and T. Rex – played in the
development of heavy metal in the early to mid 1970s.
With eyes wide open,
Dunn, fresh off exploring the impact of American bands like KISS on early U.S.
metal, seems giddy about the prospect of meeting rock icons from Sabbath and
Deep Purple, two sides of the British proto-metal triangle. After a brief, but
detailed, study of the British blues boom – with John Mayall sharing his
memories of the scene’s explosion and vintage black-and-white live footage of
the Yardbirds’ slamming through “Train Kept A-Rollin” – and how slowing things
down, as Cream so vividly illustrates during a particularly heavy, psychedelic
reading of Willie Dixon’s “Spoonful” onstage in rich video unearthed from the
vaults, led to a U.K. metal awakening. Zeppelin’s transformative reinventing of
the blues and its influence on metal is thoroughly debated (Dunn makes it into
the offices of Plant’s manager, but that’s as close as he gets to him), before
Dunn runs headlong into Sabbath, who, as Kramer says, is the definitive metal
band.
Heady, punishing live footage of Sabbath pounding away in
concert gives way to Bill Ward and Geezer Butler talking about the barren,
dismal and violent existence of Birmingham, England in the ‘60s. Of keen
interest is Ward’s discussion of how his drumming helped thicken the gloomy
atmosphere of the title track to Black
Sabbath – in particular, it was the funereal march of his toms that did the
trick, the vintage live performance of the track providing the incontrovertible
evidence of the fact. But, it’s how deftly Dunn pieces together the story of
Sabbath’s early search for a record label, stringing together segments of
Butler humorously relating the story of A&R reps abandoning a Sabbath gig
two songs in and Wyper’s incisive initial impressions of the band, that speak
to the respect he and McFayden show for the material and their ability to
communicate it in interesting ways. The fact that Dunn spends so time with
Wyper and Simpson, without dwelling on their contributions too long, is
indicative of his willingness to go the extra mile, and it is appreciated.
Sharing top billing on “Early Metal UK,” Deep Purple and its
metamorphosis from progressive-rock hopeful to proto-metal force of nature – as
told by Roger Glove and Ian Paice – is dealt with on a scale equal to its
legendary status. Def Leppard’s Phil Collen indulges in a bit of Ritchie
Blackmore worship as he recounts seeing Purple live as a defining moment in his
young life. An in-depth assessment of Deep
Purple In Rock follows the touchy subject of Purple dispatching of singer
Rod Evans and bassist Nick Simper in favor of Ian Gillan and Glover,
respectively – Paice reiterating that it was a necessary housecleaning that had
to take place for Purple to become the powerful, muscular rock engine that
would drive such classic LPs as In Rock,
Machine Head and Fireball. Of course,
Deep Purple would fracture due to internal friction, most of it having to do
with Blackmore. Gillan and Glover departed eventually, their shoes filled by
the soulful tandem of David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes.
The transition was a rocky one, as Paice tells it. Though
Coverdale and Hughes bonded instantly, Blackmore, as has been told time and
time again, wasn’t on board with the more R&B-inclined direction of Purple
and disavowed Mark III’s first foray,
Stormbringer. All of this makes for great drama and fodder for Dunn, as he
ties together the seemingly disparate histories of all versions of Deep Purple
and shows how all of it did, indeed, shape the future of heavy metal. And that
includes Mark IV.
Sabbath’s deterioration is dissected without pity, as Dunn
digs into the disastrous Rick Wakeman experiment and the band’s prodigious drug
use. Purple was also savaged by substance abuse, creative differences and
personnel shuffling. Then along came glam. England was reeling from economic
despair and labor unrest, and with the working-class heading to the pubs for a
good time, bands like Sweet stepped into the void. The Zeppelins, Sabbaths and
Purples of the world had become unapproachable millionaires – and their work
was suffering, although in the case of Zeppelin, it was John Bonham’s tragic
death that did them in – and the people wanted something different. “Early
Metal UK” chronicles the fall of metal’s birth parents and glam-rock’s glittery
stomp to the top with aplomb. Always easy and relaxed, but with the inquisitive
restlessness of a detective obsessing about a cold case, Dunn and company again
weave richly filmed, incendiary period live footage with wide-ranging
interviews. And though they play a small role in “Early Metal UK,” the recollections
of Simpson and Wyper are essential to Sabbath’s story, and they provide some of
the most fascinating commentary of the series. They may not be stars, but Dunn
has elevated their level of importance to metal’s growth, and it’s one of the
gratifying surprises that Dunn and company plant throughout “Metal Evolution”
as if they were Easter eggs, even if some of the stories and photography aren’t
always of the rare and never-before-seen variety.
- - Peter Lindblad
Metal Evolution - Early Metal UK
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