Everything about Blue Cheer totally explained
Blue Cheer is a
San Francisco-based rock group that initially performed and recorded in the late
1960s and early
1970s, and again from the mid-
1980s to the present. They are credited as being pioneers of
heavy metal music. According to Tim Hills in his book,
The Many Lives of the Crystal Ballroom, "Blue Cheer was the epitome of San Francisco psychedelia. The band was rumored to have been named for a brand of
LSD and promoted by renowned LSD chemist and former
Grateful Dead patron,
Owsley Stanley.
History
The band's sound was something of a departure from the music that had been coming out of the Bay Area: Blue Cheer's three musicians played heavy blues-rock, and played it very loud.
Original personnel were
singer/
bassist Dickie Peterson,
guitarist
Leigh Stephens, and
drummer Paul Whaley.
Their first hit was a
cover version of
Eddie Cochran's "
Summertime Blues" from their debut album
Vincebus Eruptum (
1968). The single peaked at #14 on the
Billboard Hot 100 chart, their only such hit, and the album peaked at #11 on the
Billboard 200 chart.
The group's sound was hard to categorise, but was definitely
blues-based,
psychedelic, and loud.
Summertime Blues was backed with Dickie Petersen's original song Out Of Focus.
Petersen also contributed the eight-minute Doctor Please and Second Time Around, which features Paul Whaley's frantic drum solo. Filling out the album, the band cranks out blues covers Rock Me Baby and Mose Allison's Parchement Farm.
The group underwent several personnel changes after the 1968 release of
Outsideinside, and then yet more changes during and after
1969's
New! Improved! Blue Cheer (different guitarists on side 1 and 2). After Leigh Stephens was replaced by
Randy Holden, formerly of
Los Angeles garage rock band
The Other Half, in
1968, Blue Cheer's style changed to a more commercial hard rock sound à la
Steppenwolf or
Iron Butterfly. For the fourth album
Blue Cheer, Holden, who had left during the third album, was subsequently replaced by Bruce Stephens. Stephens later quit and was replaced by
Gary Lee Yoder, who helped complete the album.
The new line up of Peterson, Ralph Burn Kellogg, Norman Mayell, and Yoder in
1970 saw the release of
The Original Human Being and then
1971's
Oh! Pleasant Hope. When
Oh! Pleasant Hope failed to dent the sales charts, Blue Cheer temporarily split up.
From 1988 to 1993, Blue Cheer toured mainly in Europe. During this time, they played with classic rock acts as well as then-up-and-coming bands:
Mountain,
Outlaws,
Thunder,
The Groundhogs,
Ten Years After,
The Yardbirds,
Danzig,
Mucky Pup and others.
On the Nibelung Records label they released several albums. 1989 saw the release of Blue Cheer's first official live album,
Blitzkrieg over Nüremberg. This album was recorded on Blue Cheer's first European tour in decades. The drum chair was then taken by
Dave Salce; bass by Dickie Peterson; guitar by
Duck McDonald.
1990 saw the release of the
Highlights & Lowlives studio album, composed of blues-based hard rock, sometimes reminiscent of Aerosmith and the Rolling Stones, and several ballads. The album was produced by notable grunge producer
Jack Endino. The line-up was Peterson on bass and vocals, Paul Whaley on drums, and Duck McDonald on guitars.
Blue Cheer followed up "Highlights" with the much heavier
Dining with the Sharks. McDonald was replaced by German ex-Monsters guitar player Dieter Saller. Peterson was on bass and vocals again, and Paul Whaley was again on drums. Also featured is a special guest appearance by Groundhogs guitarist Tony McPhee. The album was produced by Roland Hofmann.
In the early
1990s, Peterson and Whaley re-located to Germany. Whaley still lives there while Peterson has since moved back to California. Guitar work has been handled by Duck MacDonald since that time. Blue Cheer are still active as of
2008. Peterson reunited with Leigh Stephens and performed with drummer Prairie Prince at the
Chet Helms Memorial Tribal Stomp in San Francisco's
Golden Gate Park in Fall of 2005, and their lively performance drew old rockers like Paul Kantner and others from backstage to observe. They did some recordings in
Virginia in Winter 2005 with Joe Hasselvander of
Raven and
Pentagram on drums. Paul Whaley has since returned to the band as drummer. The group's
2007 CD, "What Doesn't Kill You...", features contributions from both Whaley and Hasselvander.
Blue Cheer's video for
Summertime Blues made an appearance in
2005 documentary, where
Geddy Lee of
Rush referred to the group as one of the first heavy metal bands.
The band have also been regarded as the godfathers of
stoner rock bands like
Kyuss,
Fu Manchu,
Nebula and
Monster Magnet have cited their "
heavy-fuzz rock" as a massive influence on them.
Discography
Further Information
Get more info on 'Blue Cheer'.
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