Hey, everyone. Anthony Fantano here, the internet's busiest music nerd.

It's time to rock. Hard Rock. Specifically from the 1970s.

Yes, this is another addition to our Starter Pack series where I, or I and someone else, get together and make a handful of recommendations in a particular genre to get you guys in the door. And this particular era of rock music I thought would be interesting to have a discussion about because especially with a lot of younger listeners these days, I feel like it's all seen in this very broad stroke umbrella sense, with all of it just being perceived as like, It's classic rock. It's a dad rock.

Of course, like with most things, when you actually get into the nitty-gritty of this era of rock music, and specifically hard rock, you see that there are actually a lot of crazy details and variations and dynamics to albums that came out during this time period, and also get an understanding of how a lot of these records ended up setting the tone for punk music and metal music, especially down the road, which is an important piece of musical progression and history that is sucked out of the conversation when we all just view this music as a relic of a bygone era that came and went.

I'm going to be embarking on these recommendations with my good friend Giggens, whose YouTube channel you can check out via the link here. We hope you enjoy the recommendations. Most definitely check these albums out, which are all listed down below, too. Here we go. Here's the discussion.

Here we are, me, Giggens. Let's start getting into the recommendations.

Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath

Starting off with number one of six. We're going to go with you off the bat. You decided to go with Black Sabbath's classic 1970 debut album. Out of all of the hard rock albums that you could have chosen to give people a sense of what this genre is all about, why go with this one?

G: This thing is just heavy, man. I feel like this album introduced a lot of themes and riffs and atmosphere that would definitely inspire heavy metal. You have to think about the context of pop music. Only a few years earlier, things were like sunshines flowers. A couple of years before that, things were like lollypops and happy stuff.

AF: We're just finally putting the kabash on the hippie era.

G: Yeah, it just completely obliterates it. This thing is just it's eerie, it's creepy, it's cool, it's confident.The riffs on this thing are so imaginative. And Ozzie's voice is from a different world. It sounds like it was recorded in Dracula's cave. It's just so distant. I love the feel of this album. It's something that you don't forget when you hear it for the first time. It really sticks with you. The influence on it is undeniable. It's still to this day as an influential album for people getting into guitars and drums, too. But I feel like this is really a guitar-driven record.

AF: Again, for you, what defines this album as a hard rock record? I mean, it's borrowing elements from classic rock and blues rock. I guess rock and roll music is even older than this. Making it louder, hardening it, making it edgier, making it darker? How exactly in your mind does it go about doing that?

G: I think it's the atmosphere it creates because there was nothing else like that at that time. Things were getting heavier by then, especially with psychedelic music. But by the time you get to Black Sabbath, they allow their songs to grow and stretch, and they used a lot of sound effects. The first track has rain and thunder sounds, unusual for its time. But they set a tone that no one else was touching yet, talking about the evil side of the world or the evil side of the Bible or what can happen if you go to hell. Being like, "You better be good boys and girls, because this is what's going to happen to ya! Ozzy's just going to get mad at ya!'

AF: To your point, there were bands from the psych era, like Jefferson Airplane or The Doors, who were working more with atmosphere and experimenting more with mood and I guess a general sense of heaviness and ambiance in their music. Black Sabbath does push that in their own way on this for sure. Obviously in a fashion that goes on to inspire the entire metal catalog. I think this record is also a really important crossover point for just hard rock and heavy metal in general, because this album isn't maybe quite as defined in that heavy metal sense as some of their later records were, because there are a lot of tracks. I mean, obviously everybody remembers or goes instantly to key and highlight moments like the title track of the record. But there's a lot of tracks on this record that are just straight up blues rock songs. But they're just grooving a little bit harder, and they're just a little bit moodier than what was the standard up until that point.

G: Yeah. The Wizard.

AF: Yeah. No, exactly. So it's not all necessarily doom and gloom from front to back.

G: Yeah, there's love songs on it.

AF: Absolutely. So I mean, again, that to me, is what makes this an important hard rock album, as opposed to just strictly a heavy metal listen, because it's in that transition point. It's bringing us there. It's not fully there yet. It's the initiation. It's a reminder that most changes in music are just incremental and gradual. Rarely do you get anything that just defines a sound straight out of the blue without any transition point bringing us to that spot. And this album is another example of that.

G: Yeah, it's heavy metal's cool Uncle. You go to hang out, he's got that record collection, and you get really inspired. Black Sabbath.

The Stooges - Fun House

AF: Okay, next on the list, and this is a pick that I went with came out the same year, but went on to inspire a completely different institution of music. And that's another important thing to talk about in terms of hard rock. It's not just like this red herring or isolated thing that was just an era that came and went. It was like an inception point for a lot of different things. And that is especially the case for The Stooges' Fun House record, which also came out in 1970. And just like Black Sabbath, features a lot of elements and influences of rock and roll music, of blues rock music. But rather than bringing a mood and an ambiance that is looming and dark and maybe spiritual in a sense. The Stooges are all about just complete lizard brain. Just be completely mild to be completely out of control, which is what makes this record one of many that set the tone for what would be punk music down the road, because it's all about ferocity, simplicity.

Outside of the handful of moments on the record where they're really improvising wildly and just really letting loose across a 10-minute cut and just really getting sweaty, getting improvisational, just letting it go nuts. But Aside from those tracks, direct and hard-hitting cuts down on the street as well as loose, that is literally a hardened, more aggressive, more out-of-control version of pretty much all the rock and roll that you were hearing up until that point, especially garage rock. What do you feel about this album as far as a hard rock pick that's a good introduction to a genre?

G: No, I agree. I was either going to pick this or Raw Power because this is one of those albums that makes rock and roll fun. You hear this album and you want to play guitar, you want to play drums, you just want to join a band and bash away and just have a good time.

You're right, they definitely influence punk because they took things that were wild about the '50s where the music was quick, brief, in your face. Then garage rock in the '60s carried that on a little bit, but got a little bit more far out. But this was definitely the beginnings of what punk became where it was just like, look, a couple of cords, be direct, upfront, zoom through it, and just rock and roll, man. Yeah, hell of an album.

AF: To compare with Black Sabbath again, because we were just talking about them, there's almost certain theatrics to what they were doing. Whereas this record, the songs like "T.V. Eye" also come to mind where it's just getting lost in the groove, getting lost in the rift, and just succumming to to just that primal.

There's something primal about this album, primal about Iggy Pop as well. It's almost like caveman-like. You're going to the Stone Age a little bit with distorted, blaring guitars. Like you said, it's an amplification and it's an intensification of a lot of those rock and roll and garage rock tropes from late '50s throughout the '60s and just making it harder, more extreme. That's what it is. And again, went on to influence many an album that came after.

If you guys end up trying out this record and you like it, Raw Power is obviously something that you want to hear as well. Their debut, too. I just didn't necessarily go with Raw Power because obviously the mix on that is so controversial. It tends to be. I like it. I think it's crazy how distorted and insane it sounds, especially the Iggy remix. But I think there's something to it.

G: I think Fun House is a slightly better choice because it's not as expected. It's obviously one of their most famous albums, but I feel like that's the the underdog out of the two.

AC/DC - Powerage

AF: All right, let's move on to the next recommendation. You went with the 1978 album Powerage from AC/DC, which is a band that I'm sure a lot of people who, if not as familiar with them as they should be, would probably roll their eyes at. Like, "Oh, AC/DC. I know. Don't all their songs sound the same? Don't this and don't that." But the thing is, there's a lot of things about the band and their progression over the years and their songwriting style that I feel like a lot of people don't necessarily appreciate because they're only familiar with the hits.

G: Exactly.

AF: It's just a casual listen for most people. A lot of people don't even know they're from freaking Australia. They think they're an American band.

G: They're from New Jersey.

AF: What made you go with this record and what makes this a defining hard rock album for you?

G: This has always been one of my favorite AC/DC albums, and exactly For me, like you said, people know them for "For Those About to Rock" and "Back In Black.". They know them as predictable.

AF: And "Highway To Hell."

G: Three or four cords and a radio staple that every dad's going to chug a beer to.

AF: Right, exactly. And barbecue to.

G: And BBQ to, just be on the grill. Get a really bad sunburn to outside in the pool. I picked this record in particular because Let There Be Rock, the previous record, was really raw, really messy, really aggressive. Highway to Hell, which came out after this album, is super well-produced. It was the first one laying and really got them on a worldwide level.

AF: The thing is, the hits don't necessarily convey the more raw and wild errors of their career. The thing is, people don't really associate AC/DC necessarily with that feeling of being out of control. It's almost been standardized in a way. As good as those big hits are, they're comparatively a little more tame than something like this or what came out previously.

G: Absolutely. Especially in the '70s, the Bon Scott era, things were more wild, and they were younger, and things were different. Things got a little bit more streamlined when Brian came in. But this record in particular, this is a really transitioning era for them because they're learning how to write more popier songs. They abandoned the messy wildness of Let There Be Rock for, let's try to make something that will get us on the radio so we actually before dinner tonight in a place to sleep, which got to Highway to Hell, which was, of course, one of the most famous albums ever.

But this one, as far as a streamline as they're trying to make it, they still explore. Like, "Down Payment Blues" is a long, cool song. "What's Next on the Moon" is one of the most catchiest choruses they ever came up with. "Sin City" slivers along. Then once you punch at the end of "Kicking the Teeth" and "Up to My Neck in You," those two songs are just like, they're raw, they're focused. They're not going to be on the radio, but they sound that they could be, and I feel like they're getting to that point. For me, if you're going to hear one AC/DC record, check this one out because it's got more left turns than you would expect, and they do more things with the guitar and different cords than you would also expect to hear from them.

So, AC/DC, Powerage.

AF: Yeah, it's not nearly as one note as some people might presume it to be.

G: Exactly.

AF: Because, again, I think, obviously, they hit a point in their career where they understood what worked in terms of that radio appeal and that radio formula.

G: Yeah, they found it.

AF: And unfortunately, they got so good at that that they've written at least a couple albums worth of songs that have been proven to be radioworthy. I think as a result of that, people feel like they've heard the entire AC/DC catalog. It's just not true. You just heard what they gained a knack for later in their career. As far as all their hits goes, probably the biggest outlier being like, "I've got big balls!"

G: I knew you were going to say it.

AF: I don't hear that as much on the radio anymore.

G: In high school, we heard it all the time.

AF: All the time.

G: It was always on.

AF: It's so funny because you still hear AC/DC on the radio, but I do not hear that song.

G: No, they dropped that one, man.

AF: I don't know what radio programmers are on. It's like, since when are we not listening to "Big Balls?"

G: It's about ballroom dancing.

AF: Yeah, I know what you're saying.

G: It's a very clean song. It's very clean.

AF: Also, I think a lot of people need to appreciate and understand about AC/DC, about that track specifically is like, they operated and existed in within a certain era of censorship in popular music and radio music. And I mean, they're not the only band, too. But that was certainly one of the most prominent examples of 'What's a cool, cheeky way that we can get around this?' and make a hit song, but simultaneously say something that's like, nudge, nudge, wink, wink. And that track was a really creative workaround to do that. And again, with that being out of rotation in terms of radio play, I feel like some history there has been lost.

G: , that thing was played all the time, man.

AF: All the frigging time. It was hilarious.

G: Yeah, it made you laugh when you were 14. You know?

AF: Yeah, exactly. You want to hear songs about big balls.

G: Come on!

AF: The thing is, it's not like 14-year-olds don't want to hear jokes about big balls today.

G: Yeah. Still funny after all these years.

Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti

AF: All right. Next. When I was assembling my recommendations here, I had a very go big or go home moment, and I just decided I had to, screw it, Physical Graffiti. I knew what it was to put Zeppelin on there somewhere.

G: Yeah, there's got to be at least some Led Zeppelin on there.

AF: The thing is, as good as their debut is and as much as I like III and so on and so forth, I just feel like, just go all the way, man. Just go all the way. I mean, out of all the recommendations that we're making, I wouldn't say, this is the first one you should listen to.

G: It's a lot. It's two albums.

AF: It's a lot. It's a double album. The songwriting is big and ambitious and indulgent and massive. The production is layered and heavy. I mean, this this is hard rock elevated. Artistically and instrumentally, I feel like as well as it possibly could be for this era. And on top of it, you're talking about one of the greatest drummers in the genre, one of the greatest singers in the genre, one of the greatest guitarists and lead guitarists in the genre, as well as bassists and multi-instrumentalists all coming together. Really at the peak of all of their performance capabilities all at once. You don't always get the stars aligning in the way that you do on this record where everybody's literally at their best all at once.

G: Well said. I agree.

AF: Again, on top of it, the songwriting was triple on point, the production was quadruple on point, and it just resulted in this masterpiece of an album that I think is like, clears everything else the band has ever done. I don't say that disrespectfully. It's not like there's a great gap in quality between this and everything else, Led Zeppelin ever did. But it clears everything else that the band ever did, what most artists did in hard rock for this era. '

It's just a really epic, defining album, in my opinion, and absolutely should be recommended in a list like this, just as an example of how far you could take hard rock without necessarily turning it also into some of the stuff that came later down the road from here, really glitzy, big production, adult-oriented rock type stuff. I don't really think you get some of those big showy rock productions of the '80s, for example, without records like this. I don't think you get all of that hard rock excess of the '80s without records like this, setting the tone and setting the standard. Out of all the albums we've talked about so far, maybe this one is responsible for some of the worst trends in rock music to come after.

G: Oh, for sure. And some of the best.

AF: Some of the best, but some of the worst, too.

G: This is one of those albums, The Ramones and the Sex Pistols heard, and they were like, 'God damn, let's do something the complete opposite.' You Know?

AF: Exactly. This album is part of the impetus for certain artists to be like, Let's get back to what makes rock music, rock music. You know what I mean? It doesn't need to be this indulgent. Fair point there. Fair point, absolutely. But it's not like every other record that we've talked about so far, you have especially those blues rock and those rock and roll influences. It's all amplified, it's distorted more, it's more explorative, it's more out there, it's hardened, as it were. That's what makes this record an essential one in the genre.

Do you have anything else to add about Physical Graffiti?

G: I agree with everything you said. What's cool about physical graffiti is that it's an album you can take your time with and to go back to and jump in here and there with it because it is a lot to digest in one sitting. There's a lot that they perform on this album, everything from blues rock to radio rock to just exploring. I mean, "Cashmere" is playing on the radio constantly still. That's the most on radio song ever, and it works. They found a niche, and they knew how to produce a song to be accessible but also be adventurous at the same time. But yeah, I like some of the more popular moments on it for sure, but I like the weird stuff, too. It's not the album I go back to you for Zeppelin, but I really appreciate it for what it is. You can't deny its impact.

AF: Yeah, it's not easily digestible, that's for sure, as an overall listen, and it does cover a really wide range of things.

G: It's long.

AF: Yeah, and ust like you brought up with Cashmere, that song is such a interesting mold-breaking moment as far as mainstream rock music, because there's not really anything that-

AF:It's a dirge.

G: Yeah, it's a dirge, and there's not really anything before it that sounds quite like it. Much in the same way. To me, that record is almost like a cool, almost like Beatles moment, where it's really heavily dependent on the production, taking it to another level.

G: And they're confident.

AF: It's wildly experimented and out there, but simultaneously, there's super sticky leads and rift bits and so on and so forth. It really breaks the mold. Just incredible record, amazing record. Maybe out of all the recommendations, save this one for one of the last because it is a lot. It is a lot to listen to and take in.

G: Start with Iggy in the Stewardage and work your way up.

Start simple.

G: Start light.

The Who - Live at Leeds

AF: All right, next in the list, you picked The Who's Live at Leeds, which I love that you went with The Who, and I love that you went with this record specifically. I think this album is important because obviously The Who were a hard rock band, but they were also a group who had a bit of a reputation reputation for being wilder live than they were in the studio.

G: For sure.

AF: You didn't necessarily get that sense of how extreme and out there they could be just by listening to, especially a lot of their earlier albums. Obviously, things got more big production and epic and ambitious down the road during the Who's Next era and so on and so forth. But Live at Leeds really shows you how wild the band was willing to in a live setting. So what outside of that made you go with this record?

G: Exactly for what you said. These guys really proved that, especially at this point in their career, this is after Tommy came out, and that's the record that got them worldwide known. They were big in England, but everywhere else, they weren't super huge. This tour, they were really hungry and focused and determined to prove who they were, but they were expanding their sound a lot. Pete Townshend was doing more solos. Roger Daltrey was discovering his voice that would basically give him the tools he needed for the rest of his career.

What's cool about this record, too, is that it was styled to look like a bootleg at the time. They were going for esthetic points. They were reaching an audience that maybe didn't think they were cool. All of a sudden, here's this record you could buy that looks like a bootleg, stuffed a lot of cool stuff on the inside.

Sound-wise, it's the most raw, fun, energetic album you could possibly put on. Every single time I hear it, you get sucked into that world of like, you know they're feeding off the audience. You know they're having a great time. You know that they're just stoked that they're finally getting recognition. The energy on it, I think, is what's the most attractive thing for this album.

You're right, everything else they did was very... I mean, Pete Townshend is a studio genius, so he's very particular about sounds and getting things to work a certain way. But live, they were just having good, messy fun. This album I've loved for over 20 years now. It's something I put on and I feel like I'm in high school again. It's one of those moments where you want to play the drums again. You want to play guitar again. This is the album that really made me be like, 'I need to be in a band.'

Its impact, I think, is undeniable in terms of just rock and roll, man.

AF: That's interesting about its background. I Are you necessarily familiar with the fact that it was designed in such a way to where it was supposed to be presented as a bootleg. Were vinyl bootlegs popular or in high proliferation to the point where people had stumbled across live recordings of random albums that were just pressed in an under-the-radar fashion?

G: Yeah, it was starting by that point, by the late '60s. There were a couple of Who bootlegs by that point. The album from The Beatles, the "Get Back" era stuff. There's a really famous video of Neil Young going to a record store in '70 or '71, seeing all these bootlegs of his albums and being like, 'Uh, what?' It was cool to go to a store and se

AF: Bootlegs of his literal studio albums or home recording?

G: Live stuff.

AF: Live stuff. Got it.

G: Yeah, like unofficial releases, I guess you can call it. But yeah, I know that era is when all the bootleg stuff started. So I think they were just jumping on the bandwagon of like, 'Hey, we're with it, guys. We're cool.'

AF: Yeah, it's almost like a precursor to System of a Down, Steal This Album.

G: Exactly. And on the label of the record, it says crackly noise is okay, don't correct. They were really going for the whole feel.

AF: That's really funny. That's hilarious. Nice little play there on The Who's part.

AF: Yeah. All right. Final and last recommendation I'm throwing into the mix is going to be Motörhead's Overkill, the youngest album of all in the bunch. I didn't want to do Ace of Spades because it was a 1980 record, and we agreed we're going to do '70s. I feel like this record is also probably a better pick for this as well because it's also like the first Black Sabbath album, it's a bit of a transitional moment.

Obviously, the speed and intensity of everything going on with Ace of Spades makes it more of, I think, more of just a direct heavy metal experience, really like a speed metal type experience, whereas the pacing on Overkill is a bit more easygoing. Lemmy hasn't fully and completely leaned into his super trademark gruff vocal style. There's a looseness to a lot of the songs on this record. I don't know if it was just the drinking, the cocaine, whatever it was on the next record that made them like, 'Okay, the tempos need to really go crazy on this next record.'

On Overkill, the ferocity and the nastiness is still there, but it's just a little slower. It's a bit spacier as well. I feel like the band was experimenting a bit with effects on this record that they couldn't necessarily implement on Ace of Spades with everything being as fast as it was. Some of the choruses and some of the wetness of the songs on this record wouldn't have necessarily worked at that intensity, I don't think.

There's like a bluesiness to also a lot of the guitar work and riffs on this record as well. Again, just like with everything else, we're taking blues rock, we're taking hard rock, and we're just intensifying it, or making it darker, or making it meaner, or making it wilder, or making it nastier, or making it louder. In this case, just like with everything else, this is borrowing from that and also in its own way, passing the baton onto artists down the road that would take inspiration from it. Specifically with Motörhead, a lot of heavy metal and speed metal artists. You don't get a lot of the general heavy metal and speed metal catalog without records like this, without records like Ace of Spades, without Motörhead in general.

And also in the case of Motörhead Punk, too, because a lot of punk bands were borrowing from Motörhead as well.

G: I'm glad you brought that up.

Motörhead is definitely an all-arounder type group in terms of the various bands and styles that they influenced over the course of their catalog, maybe more so than everybody else who we've talked about in this video so far. The punks were heavy into them, the metalheads were heavy into them, just like everybody was paying attention to what they were doing. If they were in the know, obviously, at this point, were not as big as a band like Led Zeppelin. But if you were a music fan, music fan's music fan, you knew who Motörhead was. They had an appeal about them where it was like a little something for everybody. If you were looking for something aggressive, loud, fast, and in your face.

Those are my thoughts on this record. Do you want to add anything else?

G: I agree. Dave Grohl famously said one time, You could be a punk but have a Motörhead patch in your jacket, and that was accepted. It wasn't an exclusion to one specific genre or type of music. But, I agree.

They were still holding on to some of their roots on this album before things got a little bit more streamlined with Assa Spades and what came next. You appreciate records that came out after this more because of what they did with this album, because they really were, I don't want to use the word expanding, but they were trying some different things that weren't necessarily what they became known for, famously in the albums that come.

AF: Right, exactly. This album is a versatile one for them.

G: Yeah. They tried some new things and it works really well, but that's a very unexpected choice. Yeah, I'm digging it.

AF: Oh, really?

G: Yeah. I was not expecting you to saw Motörhead. Very cool.

AF: Okay.I feel like it was a must, honestly. All right, those are going to be our six recommendations as far as trying to lead you guys to the hard rock stream. Hopefully, now you drink from it and drink deeply.

G: Have a second cup.

And there you have it. A nice, fat, stacked hard rock starter pack for you. Not all of the albums that obviously you could be listening to in this genre, but some good and pivotal ones that are most certainly worth your time and should get you started.

Anthony Fantano, Hard Rock, Forever.