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07 Apr 2024, 11:3512
Artist: Varius Artists
Release: Blue Explosion: A Tribute To Blue Cheer
Genres: Doom Metal,/Stoner Rock/Psychedelic Rock/Stoner Metal
Country: Various
Bitrate: 256 kbps
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VARIOUS – Blue Explosion : A Tribute To Blue Cheer (1999)
Black Widow Records BWRCD 035-2
https://www.discogs.com/release/2650845 ... Blue-Cheer
BLUE CHEER was an American rock band that initially performed and recorded in the late 1960s and early 1970s and was sporadically active until 2009.
Based in San Francisco, Blue Cheer played in a Psychedelic Blues Rock or Acid Rock style. They are also credited as being some of the earliest pioneers of Heavy Metal, with their version of "Summertime Blues" sometimes cited as the first in the genre.
They have also been noted as influential in the development of genres as disparate as Punk Rock, Stoner Rock, Doom Metal and Grunge.
Jim Morrison of THE DOORS characterized the group as "the single most powerful band I've ever seen" and ERIC CLAPTON cited them as "the originators of Heavy Metal".
Blue Cheer was also widely recognized as the loudest band ever at the time when they emerged. Billy Altman reported that at a 1968 concert the band was "So loud, in fact, that within just a few songs, much of the crowd in the front was fleeing."
"Blue Cheer" was the name of a variety of LSD made by chemist and GRATEFUL DEAD patron Owsley Stanley and the band was probably named after that. The name actually existed earlier, as a brand of laundry detergent after which the LSD variety itself was named.
Blue Cheer were formed in 1966 by Dickie Peterson. Peterson had previously been with the Davis-based band THE OXFORD CIRCLE along with future Blue Cheer members Paul Whaley and Gary Lee Yoder. The original Blue Cheer personnel were singer/bassist Peterson, guitarist Leigh Stephens and Eric Albronda as drummer. Albronda was later replaced by Whaley, who was joined by Peterson's brother Jerre (guitar), Vale Hamanaka (keyboards), and Jere Whiting (vocals, harmonica). Albronda continued his association with Blue Cheer as a member of Blue Cheer's management, as well as being the producer or co-producer of five Blue Cheer albums.
The band was managed by Allen "Gut" Terk, a former member of the Hells Angels. Early on, it was decided that the line-up should be trimmed down. It has been said that Blue Cheer decided to adopt a power trio configuration after seeing JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE perform at the Monterey Pop Festival. Hamanaka and Whiting were asked to leave. Jerre Peterson did not want to remain in the group without them, so he departed as well, leaving Peterson, Stephens and Whaley as a trio.
“Blue Cheer...run for your lives!” That is how Steve Allen introduced the holocaust-fuzz trio when it performed it's version of Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues" on his TV talk show in 1968 through a Jericho wall of Marshall cabinets.
This was the song released as the 1st single from their debut album 'Vincebus Eruptum' (1968). It peaked at No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, their only such hit, and the album peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard chart. In Canada, the song peaked at No. 3.
The group underwent several personnel changes, the first occurring after the 1968 release of the 'Outsideinside' LP when Leigh Stephens – who never used drugs – was asked to leave the band after criticizing his bandmates' behaviour.
He was replaced by Randy Holden, formerly of Los Angeles band THE OTHER HALF. On 1969's 'New! Improved!' there were different guitarists on side 1 and side 2 (Randy Holden and Bruce Stephens) due to Holden's unanticipated departure from the band. Following Holden's departure the band's line-up initially consisted of Dickie Peterson (bass), Tom Weisser (guitar), and Mitch Mitchell (drums), before Whaley returned and Bruce Stephens joined the band. Later, Ralph Burns Kellogg joined the band on keyboards.
Blue Cheer's style now changed to a more commercial Hard Rock sound à la STEPPENWOLF or IRON BUTTERFLY. By their fourth album, 'Blue Cheer', Paul Whaley had been replaced by Norman Mayell, and following the release of the LP Bruce Stephens also left the band, succeeded by Gary Lee Yoder who helped complete the album.
The new line-up of Peterson, Kellogg, Mayell and Yoder in 1970 released 'The Original Human Being', followed by 1971's 'Oh! Pleasant Hope'. When the latter album failed to dent the sales charts, Blue Cheer temporarily split up in 1971.
In 1974, Blue Cheer reformed under the name PETERBILT with Dickie Peterson and brother Jerre Peterson and three guitars in the band's lineup. By May of that year, they had switched the name back to Blue Cheer and the Petersons were co-writing new songs.
In December 1974, Blue Cheer played a festival at The Greek Theatre in Los Angeles alongside VAN HALEN and JUDEE SILL, followed by a three-night run of appearances at The Whisky A-Go-Go.
Kim Fowley then produced an album for Blue Cheer, with sometime Steppenwolf member Nick St. Nicholas co-producing. The lineup included the Peterson brothers on bass and guitar, along with ex-HOLLYWOOD STARS members Ruben De Fuentes on guitar and Terry Rae on drums. Although this album was never released, six tracks from this period were later included on the 'Live and Unreleased '68/'74' album (1996).
Dickie Peterson left the band in 1975 with Nick St. Nicholas briefly replacing him on bass/vocals, leaving the band with no original members as they completed their live commitments.
In 1978, Dickie Peterson began rehearsing with guitarist Tony Rainier, younger brother of Peterson's high school friend (and sometime Blue Cheer soundman and bodyguard) Larry Rainier. Michael Fleck was auditioned as drummer. The reformed Blue Cheer recorded an album at Army Street Studios which was initially shelved, and only latterly received official release in 2012 by ShroomAngel Records as 'Blue Cheer 7'.
In 1984, Peterson returned with Whaley and Rainier on a brand new album 'The Beast Is Back', released on Megaforce Records. In 1988, the line-up changed once again, being now composed of Dickie Peterson (bass), with Andrew "Duck" MacDonald (guitar) and Dave Salce (drums).
1989 saw the release of Blue Cheer's first official live album, 'Blitzkrieg over Nüremberg' which was recorded during Blue Cheer's first European tour in decades.
From 1989 to 1993, Blue Cheer mainly toured in Europe, playing with many classic rock acts such as MOUNTAIN, THE OUTLAWS, THE GROUNDHOGS & TEN YEARS AFTER.
1990 saw the release of the 'Highlights And Lowlives' studio album. The album was co-produced by notable grunge producer Jack Endino and producer Roland Hofmann. The line-up was Peterson, Whaley on drums and MacDonald on guitars.
In the early 1990s, Peterson and Whaley re-located to Germany.
Blue Cheer followed up 'Highlights And Lowlives' with the far heavier 'Dining With The Sharks' in 1991. Duck MacDonald's place was taken by German guitarist Dieter Saller & the album featured a guest appearance by Groundhogs guitarist Tony (T.S.) McPhee.
After Peterson came back to the U.S. in 1994, Blue Cheer was dormant again until 1999 when Peterson and Whaley got back together with guitarist MacDonald to resume touring as Blue Cheer. This band configuration remained largely constant until Peterson's death in 2009.
Later in the year Blue Cheer was the subject of a tribute album, 'Blue Explosion – A Tribute to Blue Cheer', released by the Italian Black Widow Records label on CD & double vinyl. It featured bands from all over the world covering BC classics, including PENTAGRAM, INTERNAL VOID, NORRSKEN, HOGWASH, LOS NATAS and THUMLOCK.
Blue Cheer made recordings in Virginia in Winter of 2005 and the resulting CD, 'What Doesn't Kill You...', released in 2007, featured Paul Whaley & RAVEN/PENTAGRAM man Joe Hasselvander splitting the drum duties.
This new LP garnered some of the best reviews of the group's career, with Rolling Stone magazine hailing the band as "still “louder than God" in David Fricke's review. A concert on April 11th 2008 in Bonn, Germany, was filmed for the long running 'Rockpalast' music TV show. Their 1 hour 20 minute set broadcast proved to any doubters that they had lost none of their onstage power over the decades.
On October 12, 2009, Peterson died in Erkelenz, Germany, at the age of 63 from liver cancer, after prostate cancer spread throughout his body. He was survived by his second wife, his former wife, a daughter from his first marriage, and his six year old grandson.
Neil Peart, the drummer for RUSH, said in tribute to Peterson:
"Dickie Peterson was present at the creation — stood at the roaring heart of the creation, a primal scream through wild hair, bass hung low, in an aural apocalypse of defiant energy. His music left deafening echoes in a thousand other bands in the following decades, thrilling some, angering others, and disturbing everything — like art is supposed to do."
After Peterson's death, long-time Blue Cheer guitarist Andrew MacDonald wrote on the group's website that "Blue Cheer is done. Out of respect for Dickie, Blue Cheer [will] never be a touring band again."
In 2018 the band's original 1967 KSAN studio recordings were released digitally & on blue vinyl for Record Store Day as 'The '67 Demos' EP.
Drummer Paul Whaley died of heart failure in January 2019, two weeks after his 72nd birthday.
art & txt included
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