On December 14th Universal Music released a set of CD "Mimi-L.P.'s" out of Japan of the first 6 Blue Cheer LP's. The SMH-CD series features a new 2016 re-mastering, and each Mini-L.P. faithfully replicates it's U.S. first pressing L.P. design, and even replicates the original obi that accompanied the original Japanese issues. Includes a lyric and description sheet as well.
I'n not to sure how "Limited" these limited editions are, but it seems they're beginning to disappear already, even commanding higher than retail prices from some sources . The releases also take the form of a boxed set, but these are apparently "promo" pieces. and spendy. At roughly $25-$30 a cd, a full set would run around, let's say $150. However, all 6 mini-L.P.'s, with the box, will set you back to the tune of $230-$250. That's one spendy cardboard box. Other boxes are available as well. I've come across two variations of a Vincibus Eruptum box, as well as an Outside Inside variation, leading one to believe that the boxes are available separately with a "carrying case" type purpose in their own right.
One varient of the "Vincibus Eruptum" box
In that respect, it's fairly difficult to tell whether they are in fact "promo's" or their own product. Either way, $$$.
If you're not familiar with SMH cd's the abbreviation stands for "super high material", meaning that it's an improved compact disc product with the greatest change being a polycarbonate material that allows more precise physical representation of stored bits during pressing, and less laser scattering during reading. These improvements aim to facilitate playback by producing fewer errors and, potentially, better sound quality. SMH-CD's are played through regular CD players.
Outside Inside "pill-box"
The Japanese mini L.P. has quite a following of it's own. These miniature paper/cardboard clad releases do a pretty good job a recreating old records. I've even come across a few blogs devoted solely to the mini-L.P. scene. Maybe you knew that already. I didn't. I am also not in any big hurry to replace all my "standard" sized record either. I'll be sticking to the actual L.P. as my primary medium. But these are really cool.
I'm reminded of "Chu Bops", those mini L.P's of the 1980's that contained little bubble gum "records"? You can still find lots of them for sale on ebay. (I wouldn't recommend eating them) However I didn't buy many of them when I was a kid. Seems they never had any mini Iron Maiden or Alice Cooper records. Woe is me.
A set of Rolling Stones "Chu Bops." I wonder how long it will be before I start adding these to my collection.
After his departure from Blue Cheer in 1969, Leigh Stephens went on to form Silver Meter with Pete Sears on bass. Sears played on the classic Rod Stewart albums Gasoline Alley, Every Picture Tells A Story, (which was listed high in Rolling Stone Magazine's top 500 albums of all time), Never A Dull Moment, and Smiler. He also played on the hit singles Maggie May and Reason to Believe, and was with Jefferson Starship (1974 to 1984) and it's offspring Starship (1985 to 1987). Micky Waller occupied the drums and Jack Reynolds supplied vocals.
The group recorded one album, at Trident Studios in London, England and it was released on National General Records, produced by their manager, FM rock radio pioneer Tom Donahue.
His 1971 album, And A Cast of Thousands featured among other musicians his fellow band members from the above mentioned band, together with the power trio Ashton, Gardner, and Dyke, together with the two sax players from If, Dave Quincey, Dave Morrissey, and Jethro Tull bassist Glen Cornick.
1971 also saw the formation of Pilot, consisting of Bruce Stephens, Leigh Stephens, Micky Waller, and Neville Whitehead. The band came about while Micky Waller was on a trip to California, where he met and played with Bruce Stephens who had just completed playing with Blue Cheer as lead guitarist / vocalist. Mickey returned to England and met with Martin Quittenton. They formed the band and stayed together until 1973. During that time they released two albums for RCA: Pilot (1972), and Point of View (1973), along with one single Rider / Miss Sandy.
He was ranked 98 on Rolling Stone Magazine's list of the 100 greatest guitar players of all time.
Just A little Bit first appeared on Blue Cheer's 2nd album of 1968 Outsideinside. It's their second song to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at # 92. In 2007, the band re-recorded a more current version of "Just a Little Bit", and it was featured on the album What Doesn't Kill You.
Rush Drummer Neil Peart added the opening drum beat to Rush's version of "Summertime Blues,"
One of my favorite BC tunes and I frequently play it myself on my guitar and drums. (because it's fun as hell!).
While Vincibus Eruptum was cut in a simple straight forward forum with minimal overdubs, Outsideinside found the band embracing the possibilities of the recording studio.
Basically Blue Cheer decided to see how much polish they could add to their formula without the skull-crushing force of their live attack. This can not be said, however, of their 2007 version which finds them brutal as ever.
1968 version
2007 version
I feel a good sensation
And I been lifted child by your soul creation
Don't you stop just to look away
I want you to listen, child, to what I say
Don't you drift away too far
Out out of sad times, of just exactly where you are
'Cause it's just too much the way I feel
I just can't believe that it's so for real
You have a strange desire
When you walk across the ground
Then you set the Earth on fire
I feel a good sensation
And I've been lifted, child, by your soul creation
Don't you stop just to look away
I want you to listen, child, to what I say
C'mon, c'mon , won't you please, just a little bit
Their Biggest Hit and Finest Moment... Right Out of the Gate.
Blue Cheers first hit, a cover of Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues" form their debut album: Vincibus Eruptum (1968), cruised all the way up to No.14 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart, their only such hit, and the album peaked at No.11 on the Billboard 200. In Canada, the song peaked at #3 in the RPM Magazine chart, and No.1 on the Dutch singles chart for one week in 1968.
The "Summertime Blues" single was backed with Dickie Petersons original song "Out of Focus."
While not as regularly played or recognized as much as The Who's version, it's hella more distorted. This Version was ranked #73 on the "100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time" of Rolling Stone. This version omits the responses and instead, each band member does a quik "solo."
This was the first heavy metal song to ever make the pop charts, beating both "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" and "Born to Be Wild" by months!
Geddy Lee and Eric Clapton, among many others, have cited Blue Cheer as the first metal band.
Also, if you listen, the main riff to "Foxy Lady" has been inserted in various parts of this version.
Rush drummer and Blue Cheer fan Neil Peart wrote the following in memory of singer/bassist Dicky Peterson who died after a battle with liver cancer on October 12th, 2009
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.
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.
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)
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
