Blue Cheer was an American rock band that was formed in 1967 who 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 style, and is also credited as being pioneers of heavy metal (their cover of "Summertime Blues" is sometimes cited as the first in the genre), punk rock, stoner rock, doom metal, experimental rock, and grunge. According to Tim Hills in his book, The Many Lives of the Crystal Ballroom, "Blue Cheer was the epitome of San Francisco psychedelia." Jim Morrison of The Doors called the group "The single most powerful band I've ever seen" and Eric Clapton defined them as "probably the originators of heavy metal". The band is said to have been named after a street brand of LSD and promoted by renowned LSD chemist and former Grateful Dead patron, Owsley Stanley.
Links To Peel []
Peel discovered the band when their debut album Vincebus Eruptum appeared in late 1967, some time after the early LPs by the main San Francisco bands of the era - Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Moby Grape and Country Joe & The Fish - but with a very different musical style, emphasising high volume. He recommended the LP in March 1968 in his International Times column: "You should hear "Vincebus Eruptum" (it's all right, it's legal now) by Blue Cheer at the highest volume available to you" [1]
A fan of the album, Peel would often play tracks from it in later years, calling it the first rock or heavy metal LP. However it seems Peel never played any of the band's later material.
On 12 October 1999, he commented:
"People of course argue and will do for the rest of recorded time about which was the first rock LP, but those of us who were around at the time know it was Blue Cheer's 'Vincebus Eruptum'"
On 03 November 1999 he selected Blue Cheer's track "Summertime Blues" as one of his picks for the Peelenium 1967. He also stated that he thought Blue Cheer were the first-ever heavy metal band on 31 July 2003, "regardless of whatever anyone else tells you."
Peelenium[]
- Peelenium 1967: Summertime Blues
Shows Played[]
Blue Cheer - Summertime Blues-0
A cover of Eddie Cochran's 'Summertime Blues'
- 1968
- 25 February 1968: Summertime Blues (single) Philips
- 1972
- 25 August 1972: Summertime Blues (LP - Vincebus Eruptum) Philips
- 1978
- 31 July 1978: 'Parchman Farm (LP-Vincebus Eruptum)' (PolyGram) (JP: "I don't think I'll play any more from that. That's the third track I've played from it. You can have just so much nostalgia and that's enough.")
- 1984
- 23 April 1984: Summertime Blues
- 1986
- 12 April 1986 (BFBS): Summertime Blues (LP-Vincebus Eruptum) (Philips)
- 1989
- 30 May 1989 (Radio Bremen): Come And Get It (album - Outsideinside) Philips
- 1997
- 06 November 1997 (BFBS): 'Rock Me Baby (LP-Vincebus Eruptum)' (Philips)
- 1999
- 12 October 1999: Out Of Focus (LP-Vincebus Eruptum) (Philips)
- 17 October 1999 (BFBS): 'Out Of Focus (LP-Vincebus Eruptum)' (Philips)
- 03 November 1999: 'Summertime Blues (LP-Vincebus Eruptum)' (Philips) (Peelenium 1967)
- 2003
- 31 July 2003: Summertime Blues (7") Philips
- August 2003 (FSK): Summertime Blues (7") Philips
- 23 September 2003: 'Rock Me Baby (LP- Vincebus Eruptum)' (Philips)