For the last (for now) installment of Metal Monday we’ll tackle the last three letters of the alphabet. Or we would, if there was any band worth mentioning whose name starts with those letters. Instead, let’s feature a band from the start of the alphabet not yet featured here: AC/DC. More a hard rock band than a heavy metal band, never quite gotten the same kind of respect a Zeppelin or a Priest has had from the critics, but still going strong thirtyseven years on. Here are some of my favourites:
Thunderstruck:
Back in Black:
Whole Lotta Rosie, featuring AC/DC’s original vocalist, Bon Scott:
Moving along to the “V” in our Heavy Metal alphabet, two bands spring to mind that are almost as different from each other as you can get within the metal genre: Van Halen and Venom. Van Halen, the American band of Dutch origin was the first big Hair Metal band, making metal mainstream, while Venom was the founding band of the Black Metal subgenre, which revels in satanism and shocking the bourgeoisie. Both are bands I like a couple of songs quite a lot of, while the rest of their oeuvre leaves me cold.
So, which songs do you think about when Van Halen is mentioned? No you pervs, not “Hot for Teacher” but these two:
Jump:
And “Running with the Devil”:
Venom has never been a, well, a very good band; it’s more the sort of band you put on to shock your mother.
Yet the band does have a certain charm and attraction, as shown here in “Welcome to Hell”:
After a one week break Metal Monday is back and this time it’s “U”‘s turn. There’s little to choose this week: the ülaut might be important in heavy metal, but there are few bands with a name starting with “U”. From the list at BNR Metal Pages there are only two bands I know and like: UFO and Uriah Heep. Neither is what I’d call properly heavy metal, or even hard rock, though they’re both certainly on the heavy side for rock bands.
UFO is of course best known as Michael Schenker’s breakthrough band; Schenker was only 18 when he debuted in UFO. Over the years Schenker has developed a reputation as a petulant manchild and troublemaker, but there was a reason UFO wanted him, as shown on these tracks.
Doctor, Doctor:
Rock Bottom:
Uriah Heep is an English band in the mold of Led Zeppelin, one of those bands that to me define seventies rock. Not very innovative, but straight up rock done very well, a little heavier than most. They’re not a band I turn to when I’m in a heavy metal mood, but I do like them a lot just because they’re so nicely seventies. Case in point: Traveler in time.
In honour of my upcoming wedding (Dutch bureaucracy folded at the first hurdle! Bureaucrats actually turned out to be amazingly helpful and quick! Rightwing myths turned out not to be true!) and S.’s musical taste, no metal today but some serious funky shit. Yes, you can like Metal and still appreciate other musical genres, or actually know more Black artists than just Jimi Hendrix or Ice-T. Personally funk hits many of the same buttons as metal does for me. Somewhat more dancable perhaps and less aggressive, but the same raw power.
first up: Rufus, featuring Chaka Khan, with their best number, the Stevie Wonder composed “Tell me Something Good” — you really don’t need to read the liner notes to suspect this is a Stevie Wonder song, do you?
A Stevie Wonder song can only be followed by the man himself. He may have been somewhat of a joke for those of us who grew up in the eighties, but damn the man is good and nowhere as good as here — “Superstition”:
Sly and the Family Stone proved flower power could be funky too, before moving on to darker stuff as Nixon became president. This is “A Family Affair”, played live in 2008 as after years and decades apart the Family Stone got together again. Incredibly moving in the right mood.
Mention great funk bands and this is what you’re thinking off the Parliament-Funkadelic groove thang:
Now to cool down with some mellow Brothers Johnson instrumental: “Tomorrow”
Followed by some smooth Isley Brothers – “Caravan of Love”:
Finally, let’s end how we started: rauchy with Bette Davis and “Big Freak”:
