I like smoke and lightning, heavy metal thunder

2 fairly big moments in rock occurred in '69 & '70, that would shape much of the music thereafter.

The first, in Jan., 1969, was the release of Led Zepplin. The sprawling muscularity of the music sounded epic at the time, and has held up remarkably, inspiring many musicians and songwriters ever since. The opening chords of "Good Times, Bad Times" still ring as they did then with a delicious tension as each drum fill becomes more intricate until the octave E riff takes over.

The second 'big moment', however, may have been even more important: the release in 1970 of Black Sabbath. While Zepplin was indeed heavy, Black Sabbath was the first album to live up to the phrase immortalized in Steppenwolf's "Born To Be Wild": Heavy Metal.

Here, from their second album Paranoid, is "Iron Man":



And here's Zepplin doing "Dazed and Confused" live on Danish TV in '69: