THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,020) Blue Cheer — “Pilot”
From the “louder than God” Blue Cheer, comes a song that “is innovative, cosmic, intellectual — just well-threaded rock ‘n’ roll. . . . If the lyrics . . . are deficient, the music is distinct and original”. (Joe Viglione, https://rockasteria.blogspot.com/2015/05/blue-cheer-original-human-being-1970-us.html) Intellectual?! Tell that to mrkyussman, whose reaction to the song is “My GOD. This is [still] HELLA-F*CKIN-BALLS-TO-THE-WALL AWESOME”. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCT9p2EdnjA) Lyrics deficient?! “Put on my travelin’ shoes!”
Of Blue Cheer, Ken McIntyre writes:
They were the bellowing Gods Of F*ck. There were no big ugly noises in rock’n’roll before Blue Cheer. They created sonic brutality, coiling their teenage angst into an angry fist of sludge and feedback and hurling it at stunned, stoned hippies like a wave of mutilation. Everything about them was badass. They had a Hell’s Angel for a manager, they were despised by the other bands in their scene, and they played so loud that people ran from them in fear. Proto-punk, proto-metal and proto-rehab, Blue Cheer took acid, wore tight pants, cranked their walls of Marshall stacks and proved, once and for all, that when it came to all things rock, excess was always best. Formed by singer/bass player/mad visionary Dickie Peterson in San Francisco in 1966, Blue Cheer – named after the band’s favourite brand of LSD – was at first a gangly, six-piece blues revue with much teenage enthusiasm and little direction. After seeing Jimi Hendrix perform for the first time, the band’s prime movers – Peterson, drummer Paul Whaley and guitarist Leigh Stephens – thinned the line-up and discovered their sound, a wall-shaking throb of low- end beastliness that sounded exactly like the world ending. Anchored by a sweat-soaked, hell-for-leather cover of Eddie Cochran’s teenage lament Summertime Blues, Blue Cheer’s definitive sonic manifesto Vincebus Eruptum arrived in 1968. It was the blues defined by acid-fried biker goons, and it changed the world. Two years later, the band was effectively over, its members shell-shocked, disillusioned, ripped-off and super-freaked.
https://www.loudersound.com/features/cult-heroes-blue-cheer-the-band-who-invented-heavy-metal
Mark Deming gives us some history:
The hard rock group Blue Cheer were often referred to as being “louder than god” and no band of their era more richly earned that title. Often cited as the first heavy metal band, they were inarguably heavy on albums like 1968’s Vincebus Eruptum and Outsideinside, playing raw, blues-based rock with a bludgeoning impact and monolithic guitar sound that inspired hundreds of bands to turn up their amps and summon mountains of noise. . . . Dickie Peterson, who had previously played with a group based out of Davis, California, Andrew Staples & The Oxford Circle. After relocating to San Francisco, [he] wanted to form an electric blues band, and recruited guitarist Leigh Stephens and drummer Eric Albronda for the project. When Albronda dropped out, he invited his Oxford Circle bandmate Paul Whaley to take his place. For a while, Blue Cheer expanded to a sextet . . . . [but] after seeing the Jimi Hendrix Experience . . . Peterson was won over to the idea of a primal guitar, bass, and drums trio, and the new additions were sent packing. . . . The group . . . began playing the burgeoning West Coast psychedelic ballroom circuit. Their overloaded, guitar-driven music turned heads, and six months after making their debut, Blue Cheer was signed by Phillips Records. . . . “Summertime Blues[]” . . . became a surprise hit upon its release in late 1967, rising to number 11 on the Top 100 Singles chart . . . . January 1968 saw the release of their debut album, Vincebus Eruptum, which made it to number 11 on the Top 200 albums chart, and made them one of the most talked-about bands on the West Coast rock scene . . . . Owing to the group’s massive stage volume and huge array of amplifiers, parts of the [their second] album [OutsideInside] were recorded outside, the tale being that they were simply too loud for any recording studio. [It] didn’t live up to the sales expectations set by the first album, and by the end of 1968, Leigh Stephens had left Blue Cheer . . . . He was replaced by Randy Holden . . . . Midway through the sessions for Blue Cheer’s third album, 1969’s New! Improved! Blue Cheer, Holden quit, and the band became a quartet . . . . [T]he group’s fourth album, 1969’s Blue Cheer, which moved them into a more conventional boogie-blues format, but Paul Whaley had quit . . . leaving Peterson as the only original member in the band. Gary Lee Yoder [who cowrote and sings on “Pilot”] who had been a member of the Oxford Circle with Peterson . . . became a full member of the band for 1970’s The Original Human Being [from which “Pilot” is taken], taking over as guitarist . . . . 1971’s Oh! Pleasant Hope was an unexpectedly rootsy album with touches of folk and country . . . . By this time, by his own admission, Dickie Peterson was struggling with a dependence on hard drugs, and he only sang lead on three of the album’s songs; after it came and went with little notice, Blue Cheer broke up.
Blue Cheer sound positively slick (at least by their standards) on 1970’s The Original Human Being. [It] is the most polished and professional album of [their] career, and there’s a lean but muscular proto-boogie groove that infuses most of the album’s 11 songs, and the performances sound tight and well-focused throughout. However, tightness isn’t what made Blue Cheer a memorable band in the first place, and the cleaner approach doesn’t always flatter this music. . . . [I]t’s most pleasing when the players forget trying to impress us and just go for what feels right.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/blue-cheer-mn0000059537#biography, https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-original-human-being-mw0000619048
’71 single version:
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