The classic rock band that was “too much” for Eric Clapton to bear
Many artists and bands have claimed to be the pinnacle progenitors of heavy metal over the past five decades.
Black Sabbath and Deep Purple can safely claim to be among the first to embrace and define the genre, while Led Zeppelin pose as an intermediary between metal and prog-rock. As for the source, The Kinks’ Dave Davies allegedly discovered metal distortion after breaking his amp at age 17, but legendary guitarist Eric Clapton also has a stake to claim.
Davies’ claim that 1964’s ‘You Really Got Me’ was at the top of a family tree that eventually spawned heavy metal isn’t entirely inconsistent with Clapton’s. “I think [Cream] was one of the early heavy metal bands probably, without knowing it,” the guitarist said in a 1991 interview for the documentary Strange Brew. “Because when we disbanded Cream, and we weren’t around anymore, Led Zeppelin filled that void. They became the first kind of official heavy metal band. So maybe Cream was forerunner of that.”
Cream formed in 1966 and, though they only stuck around for two years, proved to be a pivotal pillar in the Hall of Rock. Their heavy blues style was treated to the influence of the hippie era’s drug of choice, LSD. Alongside Pink Floyd and The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Cream built a foundation for the progressive and heavy rock styles that burgeoned through the 1970s. If The Kinks took the first step, Cream certainly took the next.
That progression is what makes tracing the origins of heavy metal such a murky exercise. Rather than one defining moment, it feels more like a relay race, with each band adding weight, volume and attitude before passing it on to the next generation. By the time Led Zeppelin entered the picture, the groundwork had already been laid, but they amplified it to a level that felt entirely new.
Clapton’s hesitation about that shift says just as much about his own musical philosophy as it does about Zeppelin’s direction. Rooted deeply in blues tradition, he valued nuance and restraint, whereas the emerging metal sound was beginning to prioritise sheer force and spectacle. It wasn’t necessarily a rejection of what came before, but it was a clear divergence, one that would split rock music into increasingly distinct identities as the decade wore on.
In Led Zeppelin’s The Definitive Biography, Clapton was quoted discussing Led Zeppelin as the next step in metal evolution, chiefly because of the decibels. “They were very loud. I thought it was unnecessarily loud,” Clapton opined. “I liked some of it; I really did like some of it. But a lot of it was just too much. They overemphasised whatever point they were making, I thought.”
While admitting that Led Zeppelin took the next steps towards metal, Clapton wasn’t particularly thrilled with the trend they set. “There was a band called Blue Cheer, who I think were probably the originators of heavy metal,” Clapton told Uncut in 2012. “Because they didn’t really have traditional roots in the Blues. They didn’t have a mission. It was just about being loud.”
“Cream were very loud, too,” he continued. “We got caught up in having huge banks of Marshall amps just for the hell of it. But we had a really strong foundation in blues and jazz. Led Zeppelin took up our legacy. But then they took it somewhere else that I didn’t really have a great deal of admiration for.”
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