Blue Cheer

Haight-Ashbury

Dickie Peterson formed Blue Cheer in 1966. He had played in the Davis band the Oxford Circle with two future members, drummer Paul Whaley and guitarist Gary Lee Yoder. The first line-up put Peterson on bass and vocals beside guitarist Leigh Stephens and drummer Eric Albronda, and for a time grew to include Peterson's brother Jerre on guitar, Vale Hamanaka on keyboards and Jere Whiting on vocals and harmonica. Albronda moved into management and later produced or co-produced five of the band's albums. Their manager was Allen "Gut" Terk, a former Hells Angel.

Whaley took over the drum stool and the group trimmed itself to a trio. Whaley said the band saw Jimi Hendrix at the Monterey Pop Festival and decided to become a three-piece, and that within six months they were signed to Mercury Records. The albums came out on Philips. Neil Peart later recalled seeing them on television in front of a wall of Marshalls, and their volume became their reputation.

The loudest band

Vincebus Eruptum was recorded in 1967 at Amigo Studios in North Hollywood and appeared in early 1968. Classic Rock reports it was recorded in three days with very little mixing. It reached number 11 on the Billboard 200, and Summertime Blues reached number 14 on the Hot 100 and number 3 in Canada. Peterson wrote Doctor Please and Out of Focus in about ten minutes each, and Second Time Around gave Whaley a drum solo. A Pitchfork review of the 2003 reissue called the album "all catharsis and psychedelic mayhem".

The hit put them on television. Peterson recalled American Bandstand, where Dick Clark did not like them, and Steve Allen introduced them with "Blue Cheer, run for your lives." Peterson said other musicians thought the band a detriment to the scene, and that Mike Bloomfield told him at the Avalon Ballroom, "You can't do that." Billy Altman reported that at a 1968 concert much of the crowd in the front section fled.

Outsideinside followed in August 1968. Part of it was recorded outdoors, including on a pier in New York, and the rest in studios in New York and San Mateo. It reached number 90, and its single Just a Little Bit number 92. Stephens then left, and Randy Holden took his place.

Changing line-ups

New! Improved! (March 1969) was made by two different groups. Bruce Stephens, no relation to Leigh, played guitar on side one with keyboardist Burns Kellogg, while Holden wrote and sang side two before he too left. It reached number 84. Whaley left, and Peterson, with a seven-album contract still to fulfil, assembled new line-ups with Kellogg, drummer Norman Mayell and Yoder for The Original Human Being, which reached number 188. Oh! Pleasant Hope followed in 1971. When it failed to chart, Blue Cheer temporarily split.

Peterson revived the name several times. A group called Peterbilt played in Sacramento in January 1974 before taking the Blue Cheer name back, and a 1978 line-up with guitarist Tony Rainier recorded an album that was released in 2012 as Blue Cheer 7. In 1984 Peterson, Whaley and Rainier made The Beast Is Back for Megaforce. The band toured mainly in Europe from 1989 to 1993, and Peterson and Whaley moved to Germany. With guitarist Andrew MacDonald they resumed touring in 1999 and made What Doesn't Kill You... in 2007.

Afterward

Peterson died on 12 October 2009 in Germany. MacDonald wrote on the group's website that Blue Cheer was done and would never become a viable touring band again. Whaley died in January 2019.

Eric Clapton told Uncut in 2012 that they were "probably the originators of heavy metal". Geddy Lee of Rush called them one of the first heavy metal bands in the documentary Metal: A Headbanger's Journey, and Rush included a version of Summertime Blues on their 2004 EP Feedback that combined the Who's arrangement with Blue Cheer's. Neil Peart wrote that he was nearly sixteen in summer 1968 and that Vincebus Eruptum was one of twelve LPs on his bedroom shelf. Mark Arm of Mudhoney said that hearing the band was almost as important to him as hearing the Stooges, and that Blue Cheer was part of Mudhoney's blueprint. Spin placed Vincebus Eruptum at number 22 on its list of the 40 greatest metal albums.