Blue Cheer

[zorrow]

1968 - Are they the true inventors of heavy metal? This material is SOOOOO HEAVY for the time!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wCG5JirihQ

PS: My apologies if someone has already posted about Blue Cheer here.

[Hamerhack]

Yup, their version of "Summertime Blues" is definitely cool!

I remember when that came out.

The original guitarist was rumored to have gone deaf!

[Brooks]

heavy, yes; metal, no.

they are blues based, making them hard rock.

they are predated by a few hard rock bands (cream, hendrix).

black sabbath removed the blues from hard rock,

and added the dark sinister riffs and lyrics,

thus inventing heavy metal.

they were playing some of the tunes on their

1st album back in 69, but didn't release it until early 1970.

[princeofdarkness56]

I have a live cd they made in the late 90's in Japan and it s one of the best and hardest recordings around. Their guitarist just rips through the whole thing. His name escapes me right now, but a monster of a player.

[Willie G. Moseley]

Self-plagiarization: I'd written elsewhere (and may have posted here as well, some years ago) about moments when I imitated Bluto's reaction in ANIMAL HOUSE when the slide of Kent Dorfman appeared on the makeshift screen in the basement of the Delta house when the fraternity was trying to select pledges. It's a nanosecond ahead of everybody else, and is a primeval, bug-eyed yelp of terror and loathing.

I'd written that two examples where I'd had the same reaction in real life were (1) when I saw VINCEBUS ERUPTUM available as a Compact Disc in Tower Records, and (2) when I saw OUTSIDEINSIDE available as a CD in Tower Records.

And, uh, I still own both of 'em...

The first time I ever saw the band's image was in a pull-out poster in EYE MAGAZINE (I'm 87.4% sure it was the very first issue in early 1968). Bought VINCEBUS ERUPTUM as soon as I found it. The original band was Leigh Stephens on guitar, drummer Paul Whaley, and singer/bassist Dickie Peterson.

"Summertime Blues" is the "road kill of cover songs", bludgeoned and re-worked to the extent that it has no discernable resemblance to the Eddie Cochran original other than the lyrics. It was one of the two most brutal songs ever played on AM Top 40 format radio, the other being "Kick Out the Jams" by the MC5.

My band played it in May of '68 at an outdoor performance, the night after I graduated from high school. The bass I used was some kind of Japanese violin-shaped hollowbody.

And how many folks heard Blue Cheer's version before they heard Cochran's version (as a historical song) and therefore relate more to the BC cover? That's true with a lot of classic rock.

Some modern-day magazine (it might have been BASS PLAYER) described Peterson's solo on "Summertime Blues" as a "white boy in suburbia" riff.

Both albums are still interesting to listen to over 40 years later as examples of the raw, brutish power of loud music. The sophomore album, OUTSIDEINSIDE, wasn't as monumental, IMO, but the flanged drums on "Just A Little Bit" (which got a minor bit of airplay) and the cover of "Satisfaction" are intriguing.