Post by soonerbillz on Jan 28, 2024 3:02:21 GMT
Buck, was this one of your influences?
It sure was mine.
JANUARY 1968 (56 YEARS AGO)
Blue Cheer: Vincebus Eruptum is released.
Vincebus Eruptum is the debut studio album by Blue Cheer, released in January 1968. It reached #11 on the Billboard 200 Top LP's chart and their cover of Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues" reached #14 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The album was the first to feature the band's classic lineup of vocalist and bassist Dickie Peterson, guitarist Leigh Stephens and drummer Paul Whaley. It is lauded as one of the first heavy metal albums.
Vincebus Eruptum, Blue Cheer’s landmark 1968 debut, is widely regarded as Ground Zero of the heavy metal explosion. The album, featuring the classic Blue Cheer lineup of guitarist Leigh Stephens, bassist/vocalist Dickie Peterson and drummer Paul Whaley, includes the trio’s mind-melting reading of Eddie Cochran’s “Summertime Blues,” which became a Top 20 single, along with such raw, overdriven originals as “Doctor Please” and “Second Time Around” and distinctive reworkings of the blues standards “Rock Me Baby” and “Parchment Farm.”
The album was recorded in 1967 at Amigo Studios in North Hollywood, California. In an interview with StonerRock.com, frontman Dickie Peterson explained that "Some songs I wrote have taken 20 years to really complete. And there are other songs like “Doctor Please” or “Out of Focus” that I wrote in ten minutes." On "Doctor Please" in particular, Peterson explained that "when I wrote the song (in 1967), it was a glorification of drugs. I was going through a lot of “Should I take this drug or should I not take this drug? Blah, blah, blah.” There was a lot of soul searching at the time when I wrote that song, and I actually decided to take it. That’s what that song was about and that’s what I sang it about, sort of a drug anthem for me." On the band's cover of Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues", Peterson noted that "We kept changing it around and adding/taking bits away. It also has to do with large doses of LSD."
Blue Cheer looms large in the annals of hard rock, laying down the sonic foundations of heavy metal, and serving as a crucial influence on the birth of punk, grunge and stoner rock. While the rest of the rock world was mellowing out and embracing the spirit of the Summer of Love, the seminal San Francisco power trio was churning out ballsy blues-rock anthems whose fuzz-heavy, adrenaline-charged intensity helped to alter the course of contemporary music.
__________
REVIEW
Mark Deming, allmusic
Rock & roll had grown louder and wilder by leaps and bounds during the '60s, but when Blue Cheer emerged from San Francisco onto the national rock scene in 1968 with their debut album, Vincebus Eruptum, they crossed a line which most musicians and fans hadn't even thought to draw yet. Vincebus Eruptum sounds monolithically loud and primal today, but it must have seemed like some sort of frontal assault upon first release; Blue Cheer are often cited as the first genuine heavy metal band, but that in itself doesn't quite sum up the true impact of this music, which even at a low volume sounds crushingly forceful. Though Blue Cheer's songs were primarily rooted in the blues, what set them apart from blues-rock progenitors such as the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds was the massive physical force of their musical attack. Jimi Hendrix, the Who, and the MC5 may have anticipated the sound and fury of this music, but Blue Cheer's secret was not just being louder than anyone else, but staying simple enough to give each member the space to do damage both as individuals and as a group. Paul Whaley's drumming combined a crashing dustbin tone with a constant, rolling pummel that suggested Ginger Baker with less finesse and more bludgeoning velocity. Dickie Peterson's basslines were as thick as tar and bubbled like primordial ooze as he bellowed out his lyrics with a fire and attitude that compensated for his lack of vocal range. And guitarist Leigh Stephens may have been the first genius of noise rock; Lester Bangs once wrote that Stephens' "sub-sub-sub-sub-Hendrix guitar overdubs stumbled around each other so ineptly they verged on a truly bracing atonality," and though that doesn't sound like a compliment, the lumbering chaos of his roaring, feedback-laden leads birthed a more glorious monster than many more skillful players could conjure. Put them together, and Blue Cheer's primal din was an ideal corrective for anyone who wondered if full-on rock & roll was going to have a place in the psychedelic revolution. From the opening rampage through Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues" (which miraculously became a hit single), to the final one-two punch of "Parchment Farm" and "Second Time Around," Vincebus Eruptum is a glorious celebration of rock & roll primitivism run through enough Marshall amps to deafen an army; only a few of Blue Cheer's peers could come up with anything remotely this heavy (the MC5's Kick Out the Jams and side two of the Velvet Underground's White Light/White Heat were its closest rivals back in the day), and no one could summon so much thunder with just three people. If you want to wake the neighbors, this is still the album to get, and it was Blue Cheer's simplest and most forceful musical statement.
TRACKS:
Side one
1. "Summertime Blues" (Eddie Cochran, Jerry Capehart) - 3:47
2. "Rock Me Baby" ( B.B. King, Joe Josea) - 4:22
3. "Doctor Please" (Dickie Peterson) - 7:53
Side two
1. "Out of Focus" (Peterson) - 3:58
2. "Parchment Farm" (Mose Allison) - 5:49
3. "Second Time Around" (Peterson) - 6:17
#bluecheer
It sure was mine.
JANUARY 1968 (56 YEARS AGO)
Blue Cheer: Vincebus Eruptum is released.
Vincebus Eruptum is the debut studio album by Blue Cheer, released in January 1968. It reached #11 on the Billboard 200 Top LP's chart and their cover of Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues" reached #14 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The album was the first to feature the band's classic lineup of vocalist and bassist Dickie Peterson, guitarist Leigh Stephens and drummer Paul Whaley. It is lauded as one of the first heavy metal albums.
Vincebus Eruptum, Blue Cheer’s landmark 1968 debut, is widely regarded as Ground Zero of the heavy metal explosion. The album, featuring the classic Blue Cheer lineup of guitarist Leigh Stephens, bassist/vocalist Dickie Peterson and drummer Paul Whaley, includes the trio’s mind-melting reading of Eddie Cochran’s “Summertime Blues,” which became a Top 20 single, along with such raw, overdriven originals as “Doctor Please” and “Second Time Around” and distinctive reworkings of the blues standards “Rock Me Baby” and “Parchment Farm.”
The album was recorded in 1967 at Amigo Studios in North Hollywood, California. In an interview with StonerRock.com, frontman Dickie Peterson explained that "Some songs I wrote have taken 20 years to really complete. And there are other songs like “Doctor Please” or “Out of Focus” that I wrote in ten minutes." On "Doctor Please" in particular, Peterson explained that "when I wrote the song (in 1967), it was a glorification of drugs. I was going through a lot of “Should I take this drug or should I not take this drug? Blah, blah, blah.” There was a lot of soul searching at the time when I wrote that song, and I actually decided to take it. That’s what that song was about and that’s what I sang it about, sort of a drug anthem for me." On the band's cover of Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues", Peterson noted that "We kept changing it around and adding/taking bits away. It also has to do with large doses of LSD."
Blue Cheer looms large in the annals of hard rock, laying down the sonic foundations of heavy metal, and serving as a crucial influence on the birth of punk, grunge and stoner rock. While the rest of the rock world was mellowing out and embracing the spirit of the Summer of Love, the seminal San Francisco power trio was churning out ballsy blues-rock anthems whose fuzz-heavy, adrenaline-charged intensity helped to alter the course of contemporary music.
__________
REVIEW
Mark Deming, allmusic
Rock & roll had grown louder and wilder by leaps and bounds during the '60s, but when Blue Cheer emerged from San Francisco onto the national rock scene in 1968 with their debut album, Vincebus Eruptum, they crossed a line which most musicians and fans hadn't even thought to draw yet. Vincebus Eruptum sounds monolithically loud and primal today, but it must have seemed like some sort of frontal assault upon first release; Blue Cheer are often cited as the first genuine heavy metal band, but that in itself doesn't quite sum up the true impact of this music, which even at a low volume sounds crushingly forceful. Though Blue Cheer's songs were primarily rooted in the blues, what set them apart from blues-rock progenitors such as the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds was the massive physical force of their musical attack. Jimi Hendrix, the Who, and the MC5 may have anticipated the sound and fury of this music, but Blue Cheer's secret was not just being louder than anyone else, but staying simple enough to give each member the space to do damage both as individuals and as a group. Paul Whaley's drumming combined a crashing dustbin tone with a constant, rolling pummel that suggested Ginger Baker with less finesse and more bludgeoning velocity. Dickie Peterson's basslines were as thick as tar and bubbled like primordial ooze as he bellowed out his lyrics with a fire and attitude that compensated for his lack of vocal range. And guitarist Leigh Stephens may have been the first genius of noise rock; Lester Bangs once wrote that Stephens' "sub-sub-sub-sub-Hendrix guitar overdubs stumbled around each other so ineptly they verged on a truly bracing atonality," and though that doesn't sound like a compliment, the lumbering chaos of his roaring, feedback-laden leads birthed a more glorious monster than many more skillful players could conjure. Put them together, and Blue Cheer's primal din was an ideal corrective for anyone who wondered if full-on rock & roll was going to have a place in the psychedelic revolution. From the opening rampage through Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues" (which miraculously became a hit single), to the final one-two punch of "Parchment Farm" and "Second Time Around," Vincebus Eruptum is a glorious celebration of rock & roll primitivism run through enough Marshall amps to deafen an army; only a few of Blue Cheer's peers could come up with anything remotely this heavy (the MC5's Kick Out the Jams and side two of the Velvet Underground's White Light/White Heat were its closest rivals back in the day), and no one could summon so much thunder with just three people. If you want to wake the neighbors, this is still the album to get, and it was Blue Cheer's simplest and most forceful musical statement.
TRACKS:
Side one
1. "Summertime Blues" (Eddie Cochran, Jerry Capehart) - 3:47
2. "Rock Me Baby" ( B.B. King, Joe Josea) - 4:22
3. "Doctor Please" (Dickie Peterson) - 7:53
Side two
1. "Out of Focus" (Peterson) - 3:58
2. "Parchment Farm" (Mose Allison) - 5:49
3. "Second Time Around" (Peterson) - 6:17
#bluecheer