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| 1948-2009 |
Originally published in Rolling Stone Magazine.
In the summer of 1968 I was going on 16, living in a small city (St. Catharines, Ontario), and had been playing drums for a couple of years. I owned a small set of Rogers drums, a plastic AM radio that I would play along to, a tiny mono record player, and 12 L.P.'s. On the bookshelf in my room, I stacked those L.P.'s with the covers facing outward, rotating different ones to the front.
Both fans and haters of my future work with Rush would find those L.P.'s telling, and nod their heads or roll their eyes accordingly: The Who's My Generation, Happy Jack, and, The Who Sell Out; Are You Experienced? and Axis Bold as Love by the Jimi Hendrix Experience; the Greatful Dead's and Moby Grape's eponymous debuts; Jefferson Airplane's Surrealistic Pillow; Fresh Cream and Disraeli Gears; the first album by Traffic (called Reaping in a Canadian only variation, with the cover showing the band posing on a Massey Ferguson combine); and Vincibus Eruptum, the first album by "the worlds loudest band, " Blue Cheer.
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| L to R: Dickie, Leigh, Paul. 1968 |
Tiny articles in early rock magazines said Blue Cheer were so loud they had to record outdoors -- part of their seccond album, Outsideinside, was recorded on a San Francisco peer -- and the drummer, Paul Whaley, played so hard he had to wear golf gloves, connonades of drums, forests of hair, were managed by a former Hells Angel named Gut (who described the band as: "They the air into cottage cheese"), and they hated grown ups and rock critics alike. Of course I loved them!
Blue Cheer's version of "Summertime Blues" was a good sized hit that summer of '68, and their two albums that year, Vicibus Eruptum and Outsideinside, galvanized my friends an me. When TV Guide listed Blue Cheer as guests on Steve Alans late night TV show, I was wildly excited (rock bands on TV were rare in those days), I tuned in to watch what I remember as a comicdal period-peice: Steve Allen, in his black suit and tie, thick rimmed glasses, and Brylcreemed hairdo, sitting at his desk and saying something like, "the loud noise you are hearing is just the hum of the amplifiers." Then "Blue Cheer -- run for your lives!"
Cut to a wall of Marshals, a massive set of Rogers drums, and three long haired guys crashing into "Summertime Blues." I had our family TV turned down low, trying not to disturb Mom and Dad, but the speaker was still overwhelmed with static and distortion. Drummer Paul Whaley thrased at the symbols with both arms, Leigh Stephens was a dark haired menace grinding out thick guitar riffs, and Dickie Peterson wailed through a pyramid of blond hair with his bass guitar hung low.
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| Dickie 1974 |
I loved those first two Blue Cheer albums, and even the third, New! Improved!, though it was a major departure (not as loud). In 2004, my band mates and I celebrated our thirteenth anniversary by recording an album of covers, Feedback, to pay tribute to our early influences. We combined The Who's and Blue Cheer's versions of "Summertime Blues" and it ended with me playing the innovative drum pattern from Blue Cheers "Just a Little Bit" from Outsideinside, which I had never forgotten.
So Blue Cheer made an enduring impression on this once young drummer, and definitely played their part in shaping Rush's beginnings -- a loud power trio with a fortress of amps, cannonades of drums, and a bass players high voice trying to pierce the darkness, That would be my bandmate, Geddy, who remarked that Blue Cheer might well have been the first heavy metal band.
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 echos in a thousand other bands in the coming decades, thrilling some, angering others, and disturbing everything -- like art is supposed to do.
A later anthology of Blue Cheer was hilariously titled: Louder Than God, and whever your beliefs, it is certain that death, alas, is louder than God. Given a little ironic licence, pehaps it becomes a fitting epitaph for Dickie Peterson.
Because it sure would look cool chiseled in granite...
(from Rolling Stone)
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| 2000's |
Interview with Dickie Peterson Feb. 18, 2008
Interview with Dickie Peterson #2
Interview with Dickie Peterson #3
New York Times Obit.
L.A. Times Obit.
I was lucky enough to catch Blue Cheer in 2008 when they came through Minnesota to a small venue in Minneapolis for the "What Doesn't Kill You" tour. I had the pleasure of exchanging a few words with Dickie, who was very eager to answer questions and shoot the shit about music with a fan. I only wish I had this blog at the time. It would have been a fine excuse to sit with the man and interview him. -Moth
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