Another band that has to be mentioned in the evolution of Hard Rock has to be Black Sabbath. Ironically, another band formed to play the American Blues that would influence millions from over in England.

As with all of the Hard rock bands coming out of the 70's (Yes in some cases they came out in the 60's but I didn't hear them until the 70's so that is all that matters)the influence came from my siblings as we resided in Southern California...whether I liked it or not, I was force fed.

It's a shame that Black Sabbath does not even seem to get full credit for many of their songs. Ozzy Osbourne's later popularity as a solo artist brought attention to many of the songs and some people don't know that they go back further. Anyway, we know, right?

You can certainly see the influence their live show had on thrash in the live Iron Man video below.

Paranoid 1970


Iron Man (Live in Paris 1970)


tag: Black Sabbath, Ozzy, Paranoid, Iron Man, Video, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal

After all these years the song remains the same doesn't it? I won't get into arguments of whether or not Led Zepp is responsible for Hard Rock. The certainly are significant and they were the introduction to me.

My first taste of Led Zeppelin came while lying on a couch in Rowland Heights, California in 1978. My brothers and sisters were having a party and the radio was blaring "Stairway to Heaven." I remember this being a scary thing as I looked at the steps going upstairs in the condo.

When it was decided that hard rock was going to be my thing in the early 80's I revisited the works of Led Zepp. What was awesome about discovering a new thing (in this case a music genre) is that you have all this material to go back and have a look at. Records that were 10 years-old were new to me. Sure I knew the hits but in most cases there were at least eight songs I had not heard.

I find it funny that they are looked at as such an inspiration for an introduction to a new wave of music when they saw themselves as a Blues band inspired by American Blues.

So now we have a look at some of the early work of Hard Rock...

Immigrant Song (Live 1972)



Stairway to Heaven (Live-The Song Remains the Same)




tag: 70's, Led Zeppelin, Music, Hard Rock, Rock, Video, Stairway to Heaven, Immigrant Song, Live

Led Zeppelin Official Site

The initial purpose of this blog was for me to babble about bands and experiences from my youth. I have decided to throw a little structure (just a little) in the whole thing every once in a while.

It's really not fair to jump right into the 80's without mention of some of the bands that the 80's rockers pointed to as their inspiration. Hard Rock Evolution will look at some of the important bands from the 70's to present day.

The title includes, "...According to me" because this isn't going to be a history lesson. I'm not going to talk about or spend time on anyone that I don't really care for. Years will be out of order, some bands that people think are important won't be there...it will basically be a mess. Despite all that we will give some recognition to some of Hard Rock's founding fathers and hear some good jams along the way.

tag: 80's, 90's, 2000's, Hard Rock, Music