cover image Heavy Metal Thunder: The Music, Its History, Its Heroes

Heavy Metal Thunder: The Music, Its History, Its Heroes

Philip Bashe. Doubleday Books, $12.95 (213pp) ISBN 978-0-385-19797-7

Writer-musician Bashe, managing editor of International Musician and Recording World and a contributor to The Rolling Stone Rock Almanac, dissects this anarchic musical style in a well-researched, authoritative study. He cites at least two sources for the origins of the ""heavy metal'' label (William Burroughs's Naked Lunch and Steppenwolf's 1968 song ``Born to Be Wild'') while tracing the sound from Link Wray's 1954 guitar distortions to ``the first true heavy-metal single,'' the Kinks' 1964 ``You Really Got Me.'' After more history, Bashe discusses 10 metallic groups (Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Scorpions, Rush, AC/DC, Van Halen, Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Quiet Riot and Motley Crue), concluding with a chronology and a discography for metalhead collectors. November