New & Original...

New & Original...
Authored By John Nicholson
Some of the most interesting music is those albums which appear to have no root in any other music and are therefore totally original. Remember, they can’t sound like anything before them.
The first album by The Nice, Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack is one such record. Leading the way for ELP and a load of other bands with a classical influence built into a proggy context. They get forgotten about now, but nothing had sounded like The Nice before The Nice, banned in America for burning the stars n’ stripes, of course.
Another original is Music From The Big Pink by The Band. Released at the height of burning hot acid rock. They invented Americana. There was nothing even vaguely like that record and it offered a way out of all the acid-fried madness.
In a totally different genre was Liege And Lief. It expertly developed influences on their first two records and mixed guitar rock with overt folk influences. No one had heard of folk rock until Fairport invented it.
The same could be said for the Jeff Beck Group. No one had contained virtuoso guitar, bass, drums and vocals in a group like this. They were managed by Peter Grant, so no wonder developed Led Zeppelin’s similar sound, especially on the first two albums.
The Mahavishnu Orchestra were another pioneer in 1971 with The Inner Mounting Flame, which invented jazz-fusion. That combo of wild overdriven guitar and jazz drumming was new and original.
Similarly the first Sabbath album appears to have no obvious ancestors in its down-tuned heaviness. In an entirely different genre is Head Hunters by Herbie Hancock, which all but invented jazz-funk. 
Over in Europe, German bands had a lot of past to forget about after the war so they invented electronic music as exemplified by Tangerine Dream on Phaedra.
Because these records were so influential and so many built so much on what they began, we often don’t appreciate their significance.

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