Blue Cheer was arguably the most-notorious band to emerge from San Francisco’s psychedelic scene within the late ’60s, its decibel-drenched assault steamrolling the “peace and love” stereotype of the hippie motion.

Based by bassist/vocalist Dickie Peterson in 1966, the band took its identify from a batch of LSD made by San Francisco chemist/acid king Owsley Stanley. It went via personnel adjustments earlier than arriving on the basic lineup that additionally included Leigh Stephens (guitar) and Paul Whaley (drums). Supervisor Allan “Intestine” Terk was a former Hell’s Angel.

The band rapidly turned a sonic juggernaut, abetted by a backline of enormous and new-to-America Marshall amplifiers and speaker cupboards. Some cite Blue Cheer as the primary U.S. band to recurrently gig with the British-made rigs, and whereas the phrase “wall of sound” figured into the band’s press push, the idea wasn’t unique to Blue Cheer.

“Is determined by what you imply by ‘wall of sound,’” stated Jorma Kaukonen, lead guitarist for his or her Bay Space contemporaries in Jefferson Airplane. “I had 4 Twin Reverbs, (Paul) Kantner had two Twin Showmans, and for some time, (Jack) Casady had amps on either side of the stage.”

Stephens’ main guitar with Blue Cheer was an SG Customary, however he additionally performed Stratocasters. Peterson performed a sunburst Jazz Bass.

Blue Cheer’s first album, Vincebus Eruptum (Latin for “managed chaos”), was recorded at Amigo Studios in North Hollywood and launched in January of ’68. One piece of publicity that accompanied it was a pull-out journal poster exhibiting the band sans devices, surrounded by textual content in the identical psychedelic font that appeared on the back and front of the album (the latter together with a free-verse poem by Owsley).

Vincebus Eruptum’s six tracks are 32 minutes and eight seconds of aural ferocity, divided between cowl songs and Peterson originals. And “managed chaos” is an correct description of Stephens’ guitar type, which typically straddled a line between music and very loud white noise. His snarling SG purveyed indignant tones as he interpolated suggestions as a part of a number of preparations.

The three covers – Eddie Cochran’s “Summertime Blues,” B.B. King’s “Rock Me Child,” and Mose Allison’s “Parchman Farm” (listed on the album as “Parchment Farm”) – had been radically reworked with various intros and outros in addition to shifting time signatures that featured Whaley’s livid exercises on percussion. The preparations and sounds weren’t in the identical realm as Vanilla Fudge, however the two bands shared a invoice on the Fillmore West in September of ’67.

The opening observe, “Summertime Blues,” is a definitive transmogrification; the upbeat 1958 hit rearranged to nearly unrecognizable apart from the lyrics. Its signature C-F-G-C chord riff between the strains of every verse was supplanted by a howling, overdriven lick from Stephens, and whereas every musician performed a quick solo, Peterson’s bass was derided by one critic as a “white boy in suburbia” effort.

Of the unique songs, “Physician Please” is probably the most noteworthy, lending a frenetic perspective on habit. In contrast to commentaries reminiscent of “Heroin” by the Velvet Underground or Hoyt Axton’s “The Pusher” (popularized by Steppenwolf), Blue Cheer’s rendition (which clocks in at 8:50) presents Peterson’s raspy shrieking as a junkie’s determined supplication to a drug seller (“Stick it to me, physician!”).

The reception to Vincebus Eruptum was combined, but it surely peaked at #11 on Billboard whereas “Summertime Blues” hit #14. The band performed rock venues and festivals to help it, however not everybody thought-about their high-volume method an attribute.

“They had been certainly the loudest band I’d ever heard, as much as that point,” Kaukonen stated. “I don’t imply to be condescending, however (quantity) was their most-distinguishing characteristic.”
Classic-guitar seller/repairman and surf guitarist Steve Soest caught a Blue Cheer present on the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles in July of ’68.

“It was loud, in fact,” he recalled. “Nevertheless it was out of tune, too. The vocals had been undecipherable, probably as a result of the PA system was severely underpowered. For an 18-year-old child like me, it was only a head-splitting wall of noise.”

The band recorded a second album, OutsideInside, after which Stephens departed. It additionally turned the primary group cited by the Guinness Ebook of World Information as “world’s loudest rock band,” and different (less-successful) albums that featured Peterson had been recorded within the ensuing a long time. One other cowl of “Summertime Blues” that alluded to the Blue Cheer model appeared on Rush’s 2004 EP, Suggestions (their reside model is on R30). The late Neil Peart was a Paul Whaley fan.

A decent reside efficiency by Peterson, Whaley, and guitarist Andrew “Duck” MacDonald is on the CD/DVD Blue Cheer Dwell at Rockpalast 2008. Peterson died the next 12 months, and Whaley handed away in ’19.

Within the pantheon of rock music historical past, Blue Cheer is hailed as a founding father of heavy steel. As a comparability, Black Sabbath’s first album, additionally thought-about seminal within the style, was launched greater than two years after Vincebus.

If MC5’s Kick Out the Jams was the most-brutal reside album ever recorded (VG, Might ’19), Vincebus Eruptum simply stands out as the most-brutal studio album.

This text initially appeared in VG’s August 2024 situation. All copyrights are by the creator and Classic Guitar journal. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.