U.S. American rock band, established in 1966 in San Francisco. Considered by some commentators to be the first heavy metal band, with particular reference to their version of "Summertime Blues."
Blue Cheer was the name of a popular laundry detergent at the time, and also a variety of potent LSD.
Blue Cheer might have been named after a particular batch of LSD produced by Haight Ashbury acid guru Owsley Stanley, but they were unlike any other San Francisco band to emerge in the 60s. They were the sound of the Jimi Hendrix Experience filtered into an elongated, deafening, primitive howl; they were Motörhead 10 years before Motörhead. And in 2009 the band told Classic Rock their story.
They were the bellowing Gods Of Fuck. There were no big ugly noises in rock’n’roll before Blue Cheer. They created sonic brutality, coiling their teenage angst into an angry fist of sludge and feedback and hurling it at stunned, stoned hippies like a wave of mutilation. Everything about them was badass.
They had a Hell’s Angel for a manager, they were despised by the other bands in their scene, and they played so loud that people ran from them in fear. Proto-punk, proto-metal and proto-rehab, Blue Cheer took acid, wore tight pants, cranked their walls of Marshall stacks and proved, once and for all, that when it came to all things rock, excess was always best.
Blue Cheer was at first a gangly, six-piece blues revue with much teenage enthusiasm and little
direction. After seeing Jimi Hendrix perform for the first time, the band’s prime movers – Peterson, drummer Paul Whaley and guitarist Leigh Stephens – thinned the line-up and discovered their sound, a wall-shaking throb of low- end beastliness that sounded exactly like the world ending.
Anchored by a sweat-soaked, hell-for-leather cover of Eddie Cochran’s teenage lament Summertime
Blues, Blue Cheer’s definitive sonic manifesto Vincebus Eruptum arrived in 1968. It was the blues defined by acid-fried biker goons, and it changed the world. Two years later, the band was effectively over, its members shell-shocked, disillusioned, ripped-off and super-freaked. And it would take 40 years for them to put all the pieces back together.
BLUE CHEER - OUTSIDEINSIDE 1968
Outsideinside is the second album by American rock trio Blue Cheer. Philips Records released the album in August 1968, only seven months after their debut LP, Vincebus Eruptum. The album was
recorded both outdoors and indoors—hence the title of the album. Captures the psychedelic side of their musical personality with greater clarity than the blunt approach of the debut; Outsideinside doesn't sound trippy so much as righteously buzzed, and the speedy roar of this the music is big enough that the legend that parts of this were so loud they had to be recorded outside seems not just plausible, but perfectly reasonable.
Blue Cheer – Outsideinside
Label: Linam Records – LMCD 9.51076 X, Line Records – LMCD 9.51076 X
Format: CD, Album, Reissue
Country: Germany
Released: 1991
Genre: Rock
Style: Hard Rock, Psychedelic Rock
TRACKS
01. Feathers From Your Tree 3:29
02. Sun Cycle 4:12
03. Just A Little Bit 3:24
04. Gypsy Ball 2:57
05. Come And Get It 3:13
06. Satisfaction 5:07
07. The Hunter 4:37
08. Magnolia Caboose 1:38
09. Babylon 4:32
LINE - UP
Leigh Stephens – guitar
Dickie Peterson – bass guitar, vocals (September 12, 1946 – October 12, 2009)
Paul Whaley – drums (January 14, 1947 – January 28, 2019)
Guest musician
Ralph Burns Kellogg – keyboards, organ, reeds
Flac Size: 223 MB
BLUE CHEER - Bc #5 THE ORIGINAL HUMAN BEING 1970
The Original Human Being is Blue Cheer's fifth album. It was released in 1970 and shows Blue Cheer
exploring a more psychedelic and laid‑back rock and roll with horn sections on a few of the songs. This album features a very unusual, and different, song for Blue Cheer: "Babaji (Twilight Raga)", which features extensive use of sitar and synthesizer. These instruments were only used one other time in the song "I'm the Light" on the album Oh! Pleasant Hope.
Blue Cheer – Bc #5 The Original Human Being
Label: Linam Records – LMCD 9.51079, Line – LMCD 9.51079 Z
Format: CD, Album, Reissue 1991
Country: Germany
Released: 1970
Genre: Rock
Style: Blues Rock, Acid Rock, Hard Rock
TRACKS
01. Good Times Are So Hard To Find 3:22
02. Love Of A Woman 4:34
03. Make Me Laugh 5:04
04. Pilot 4:49
05. Babaji (Twilight Raga) 3:47
06. Preacher 4:03
07. Black Sun 3:30
08. Tears By My Bed 2:04
09. Man On The Run 3:52
10. Sandwich 5:02
11. Rest At Ease 5:36
LINE - UP
Dickie Peterson – bass, guitar, lead vocals (tracks 2, 3, 9)
Gary Lee Yoder – guitar, harmonica, vocals, harp, lead vocals (tracks 1, 4–8, 10–11), producer (January 25, 1946 – August 7, 2021)
Ralph Burns Kellogg – organ, piano, synthesizer, bass (August 2, 1946 – June 19, 2003)
Norman Mayell – drums, guitar, percussion, sitar, producer on track 1
Flac Size: 299 MB
BLUE CHEER - THE HISTORY OF BLUE CHEER: GOOD TIMES ARE SO HARD TO FIND 1990
Blue Cheer's massive contribution to the early evolution of American heavy metal exists entirely on their first two 1968 releases, Vincebus Eruptum and Outsideinside. While those initial releases charted
admirably, critics largely ignored the band's loud, bluesy, psychedelic-tinged hard rock. The touchy-feely summer of love lasted a lot longer than three months and building heavy metal momentum in the States was a difficult affair. There resulted some lineup shifts, minor stylistic excursions, brief creative flourishes, more lineup changes, solo projects, half retirement, and reunion retreads.
Some decent songs were recorded during that long descent and fortunately many of them were picked to grace the track list of Good Times Are So Hard to Find. Chief among them is the title cut and "Pilot"
from 1970's Original Human Being. Other tracks from the group's eponymous release and 1971's Oh! Pleasant Hope have a boogie-down and MOR feel respectively that, while competent, contains hardly any of the group's original fire. Of course there are a few 1968 classics like the splendid "Out of Focus," "Parchment Farm," and the band's first (and only) big hit "Summertime Blues."
Blue Cheer – The History Of Blue Cheer Good Times Are So Hard To Find
Label: Mercury – 834 030-2
Format: CD, Reissue, Compilation
Country: Europe
Released: Oct 25, 1990
Genre: Rock
Style: Psychedelic Rock
TRACKS
01. Summertime Blues 3:45
02. Out Of Focus 3:56
03. Parchment Farm 5:47
04. Feathers From Your Tree 3:30
05. The Hunter 4:30
06. Babylon 4:22
07. Peace Of Mind 7:02
08. Fruit And Icebergs 6:03
09. Fool 3:32
10. Hello L.A., Bye Bye Birmingham 3:17
11. Saturday Freedom 5:56
12. Good Times Are So Hard To Find 3:17
13. Pilot 4:46
14. Preacher 3:56
15. Hiway Man 4:18
16. I'm The Light 5:39
LINE - UP
Backing Vocals – Paul Whaley (tracks: 1 to 6)
Bass – Dickie Peterson
Dilruba [Delruba] – Norman Mayell (tracks: 15, 16)
Drums – Paul Whaley (tracks: 1 to 8)
Drums, Percussion – Norman Mayell (tracks: 9 to 16)
Guitar, Lead Vocals – Randy Holden (tracks: 7, 8)
Guitar, Vocals – Bruce Stephens (tracks: 9 to 11), Gary Yoder (tracks: 9 to 16), Leigh Stephens (tracks: 1 to 6)
Harmonica [Harp] – Gary Yoder (tracks: 12 to 14)
Keyboards – Ralph Kellogg (tracks: 9 to 11)
Lead Vocals – Dickie Peterson (tracks: 1 to 6)
Organ, Reeds – Ralph Kellogg (tracks: 6)
Piano, Organ, Bass – Ralph Kellogg (tracks: 12 to 16)
Sitar – Norman Mayell (tracks: 12 to 16)
NOTES
Tracks 1-3 from "Vincebus Eruptum", Jan. 1968 [Philips PHS 600 264]
Tracks 4-6 from "Outsideinside", Aug. 1968 [Philips PHS 600 278]
Tracks 7 & 8 from "New! Improved! Blue Cheer", Mar. 1969 [Philips PHS 600 305]
Tracks 9-11 from "Blue Cheer", Dec. 1969 [Philips PHS 600 333]
Tracks 12-14 from "The Original Human Being", Sept. 1970 [Philips PHS 600 347]
Tracks 15 & 16 from "Oh! Pleasant Hope", Apr. 1971 [Philips PHS 600 350]
Flac Size: 450 MB
