The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal: Volume 1: The Seventies (Paperback)

by Martin Popoff (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
The Collector’s Guide To Heavy Metal - Volume 1: The Seventies is a book of 1162 hard rock or heavy metal record reviews covering the ‘70s, with maybe 60 or so lookin’ in on albums from the ‘60s. Only about a third of these records were reviewed in the original all-decade book from ’97, and even then, those that were have had their reviews considerably overhauled, rewritten and/or expanded. Indeed in general, the reviews are longer than those found in my other books, save perhaps for Southern Rock Review.

Because many of the bands included could only be considered heavy in the context of their times (and many just barely: i.e. Mott The Hoople, Free, Grand Funk, Journey, Humble Pie etc.), I’ve adopted a two grade scale - one for heaviness factor, one for pure merit. Don’t freak… it’s all explained in the introduction.

All the big expected bands are here in detail, as well as a truly sick number of rarities. As an example, here’s the bands that comprise the B section, with almost all having their full catalogs reviewed record by record: The Babys, Randy Bachman, Bachman Turner Overdrive, Bad Boy, Bad Company, Baker Gurvitz Army, Russ Ballard, Banchee, Bandit (US), Bandit (UK), Band Of Joy, Bang, Bastard, Beck, Bogert & Appice, Bedlam, Bel Ami, Bighorn, Bijelo Dugme, Billion Dollar Babies, Birtha, Birth Control, The Biz, Black Cat Bones, Blackfeather, Blackfoot, Blackfoot Sue, Blackhorse, Blackjack, Black Sabbath, Black Sheep, Black Spirit, Blackstone, Blackwater Park, Black Widow, Bloodrock, Blue Cheer, Blue Goose, Blue Oyster Cult, Blue Phantom, Blues Addicts, Blues Creation, Bodkin, Tommy Bolin, The Boomtown Rats, Boot, Boston, Bow Wow, Boxer, The Boyzz, Brave Belt, British Lions, Edgar Broughton Band, Brownsville Station, Budgie, Buffalo, Bull Angus, Bulldog, Bullfrog, Bux, Buzzcocks, David Byron…

You get the idea (and yes, there’s a few punk albums included: Damned Damned Damned is certainly heavier than ANY Alice Cooper album hands down.).

Extras include:

188 album cover thumbnails, many of them very rare. As well, there’s an explanatory intro, plus a special intro by noted historian Rob Godwin, on the invention of metal. Appendix 1: Not Heavy (six pages of bands I’ve left out plus often snide comments about those bands). Appendix 2: Very, Very Occasionally And Slightly Hard Rocky (nine pages of the same thing, addressing bands that might have consistently or routinely received heaviness quotients of 3 or less). Appendix 3: The Heaviest 100 Albums Of The ‘70s. Appendix 4: The Heaviest 100 Obscurities Of The ‘70s. Appendix 5: The Greatest 100 Heavy Metal Albums Of The ‘70s Appendix 6: The Greatest 100 Obscure Heavy Metal Albums Of The ‘70s. Appendix 7: Interview with Peter Jelic of Anjelic Records Includes Bonus CD - A twelve track, 68:37 minute CD sampler of ‘70s rarities from Monster Records

From the Author
It’s a pretty sick book, really, in my opinion, the best source out there for actually figuring out what really did rock hard in the ‘70s, what sorta did, and as importantly, just how heavy all those cool name-dropped bands from the rare end of things really were. So yeah, there’s a lot of pretty tame stuff included, but like I said, I’ve given you a grade, a cold single number, to figure out that side of it! And again, the second number looks at sheer quality of the damn record, with the actual review, of course, waxing poetically about all of that, heaviness, history, relative greatness, personnel, trivia… maybe much more info/factual-packed than you might recognize from my reviews. That’s it… I think you now know whether you need this thing or not!

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Product Details

• Paperback: 344 pages
• Publisher: Collector's Guide Publishing Inc (October 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1894959027
• ISBN-13: 978-1894959025
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #511,195 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Nice try, but it comes up short, July 13, 2004

By A Customer

It's great that someone would love hard rock and heavy metal so much that they'd do a guide like this, and include obscure groups. But this guide also falls short on a number of levels.

Number one, Popoff is not a top-flight rock critic or writer, and these reviews offer little insight into how any of these albums actually SOUND. More often, they're his attempts at creative writing -- usually trying to be clever but sounding contrived. A good rock critic, like say Nick Tosches, Lester Bangs, Dave Thompson, or even Robert Christgau (who I almost never agree with), will be able to not only divulge his opinion, but tell you if you'll like the record. Popoff is not in their league at all.

But from a more selfish standpoint, I have to wonder if this guy likes '70s hard rock much. He implies that Captain Beyond (debut album = classic) is overrated, but praises corporate wimps like Foreigner (yeah, they rock REALLY hard). He underrates cool bands like Earth Quake, Toad, Coloured Balls, Marcus, and Blue Cheer. He leaves out some great hard rock bands, like Damnation and Chicken Shack and others (too many to list, actually), saying they're "not heavy," yet includes pop like Artful Dodger and Nick Gilder, Coven (a terrible Midwest bar band), plus more AOR crap.

But on a more positive note, he knows his stuff, and this book could be useful as a discography for beginners. And indeed, a project like this is a difficult task given the breadth of material to cover. It's WAY better than that egocentric waste of pulp by Chuck "I'm Smarter than You" Eddy, 'Stairway to Hell.' If Popoff proves anything in the long run, however, it's that knowledge and fandom will only get you so far. You also have to have something compelling to say, and too often, he doesn't.

Given its subject matter, I wanted to like this book more, but unlike Dave Thompson's guide to funk (highly recommended), this doesn't really offer a lot of insight or tell me much that I don't already know. There are just too many undigested opinions and unresolved tangents.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The definitive guide to seventies hard rock, April 5, 2004

By	Todd M. Pence (Fairfax, VA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

What can be said? Martin Popoff has written not only the greatest and most comprehensive guide to seventies hard rock, but also one of the greatest and most comprehensive record guides in any genre period. There have been a handful of books in recent years published about the history of metal (Ian Christe's, for one) and after the superficial research and lack of knowledge about metal's early days which characterize those tomes, it is refreshing to have a work like this.
I am a huge Uriah Heep fan, and so I was pleased to see that Popoff finally gives them the credit they deserve as being one of metal's most important founders along with Purple, Sabbath and Zeppelin.
The most impressive thing about this book is the scope. It has everything - and I mean everything. There probably wasn't a hard-rock record released during the period that isn't covered here. I was pleased to see the inclusion of such Heep-related rarities and unknowns such as The Gods, Toe Fat, and even-the ultra-rare Weed album Ken Hensley did under a pseudonym (the Weed album even has a photograph of the cover image - wow!) Even Hensley's solo albums, which are extrememly mellow and cannot be considered metal by any stretch of the definition, are included.
Another of my favorite unknown bands Popoff covers is Stray. I was suprised to hear that he didn't review the first Stray album because he couldn't find a copy. I was amazed by this because Stray's debut is the ONLY Stray album I've been able to find a copy of, seeing as how it was released as a bonus disc to an anthology which was availible a couple of years ago. I would have loaned Popoff my copy for free.
Yes, there are indeed albums and bands included in here that are so rare and obscure their very existence borders on the mythical. I wouldn't have been the least bit surprised to see a review for Spinal Tap's "Brainhammer" or "Intravenus De Milo" here.
Although I disagree with some of Martin's assesments of certain albums (for one thing, I think he is far too rough in his treatment of the post '73 Heep catalog and there are a couple of albums I consider classics of the era which he treats lightly) these are small, minor, quibbling points. I bow to his knowledge of the era and genre like Wayne before Aerosmith. This guy knows his stuff.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Questionable inclusions and exclusions, too many holes, June 16, 2006

By	S M - See all my reviews

This is basically a cut and paste from his previous books, a Collectors Guide and Riffs Rule, which I prefer as they cover the artist's entire catalogue up until publication date.

I love his delightful descriptions, certainly not boring to read.

Please note, the man has no love for live albums, likes greatest hits, he loves punk ala the Stooges, but hates progressive metal like Hawkwind, Fates Warning, Rush, Queensyche etc.

His exclusion of bands then considered heavy metal like Wishbone Ash, Savoy Brown, Sensational Alex Harvey band etc are a major disappointment, especially when he includes other bands no longer considered metal like Mountain, or includes bands like Sonic Youth, which no one in the 1980's considered Heavy Metal.

Likewise, Progressive Rock was loved equally by heavy metal fans where bands like ELP, Jethro Tull and Yes were featured in other heavy metal reviews, but excluded here, yet he includes progressive rock bands like It Bites.

Similarly, southern rock ala Black Oak Arkansas and Lynyrd Skynrd were then considered metal, yet left out, but Blackfoot is left in.

You can't please everyone, but the questionable inclusions and exclusions and too many holes that don't justify such inclusions and exclusions result in a less than possitive review.