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Blue Cheer

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San Francisco, United States (1968 – 1971, 1988 – present)

Blue Cheer is an American blues rock group of the late 1960s and early 1970s, who helped to pioneer heavy metal music. Based in San Francisco, original personnel were singer/bassist Dickie Peterson, guitarist Leigh Stephens, and drummer Paul Whaley. A power trio, the band was named after a variety of LSD promoted by underground chemist and Grateful Dead backer Owsley Stanley. This variety of LSD took its name from a popular laundry detergent. Their first hit was a cover version of Eddie Cochran’s “Summertime Blues” from their debut album Vincebus Eruptum (1968). The single peaked at #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, their only such hit, and the album peaked at #11 on the Billboard 200 chart.

The group’s sound was hard to categorize, but was definitely blues-based, psychedelic, and very loud. The band has been subsequently acclaimed as an influence on garage rock, punk rock, heavy metal, and grunge. Julian Cope has written, “In 1968, nothing but nothing in America and Britain sounded as brutal as Blue Cheer except for The Velvet Underground.”

The group underwent several personnel changes after the 1968 release of Outsideinside, and then through yet more changes during and after 1969’s New! Improved! Blue Cheer (different guitarists on side 1 and 2). After Leigh Stephens was replaced by Randy Holden, formerly of Los Angeles garage rock band The Other Half, in 1968, Blue Cheer’s style changed to a more commercial hard rock sound à la Steppenwolf or Iron Butterfly. For the fourth album Blue Cheer, Holden, who had left during the third album, was subsequently replaced by Bruce Stephens. Stephens later quit and was replaced by Gary Lee Yoder, who helped complete the album.

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psychedelic rock, hard rock, classic rock, psychedelic, blues rock
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Vincebus Eruptum
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Outsideinside
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Outside Inside
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Good Times Are So Hard to Find
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Top Tracks

1	Summertime Blues full track	625
2	Out of Focus full track	238
3	Doctor Please full track	232
3	Rock Me Baby full track	232
5	Parchment Farm full track	189
6	Second Time Around full track	181
7	The Hunter full track	148
8	Babylon full track	116
9	Just A Little Bit full track	107
10	Come And Get It full track	100
11	Sun Cycle full track	93
11	Feathers From Your Tree full track	93
13	Gypsy Ball full track	85
14	Magnolia Caboose Babyfinger full track	62
15	(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction full track	52

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veyita_88 wrote:
Friday evening

R.I.P Dickie,Blue Cheer was great.

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RandyRhoadsRIP wrote:
14 days ago

One on my fav. Bands

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Ozzman_Cameth wrote:
15 days ago

R.I.P. Dickie :[

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ValtielXIII wrote:
22 days ago

R.I.P. Dickie :(

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Jack_A_Lynn wrote:
26 days ago

The bass player, singer and leader for over 40 years of one of the world's most influential, pioneeristic and underrated bands in the whole history of rock and roll passes away silently, and I discovered it by accident, because no one said anything... why all this fuss about Micheal Jackson? Dickie, thanks for the pages you've written in the book of Rock 'n' Roll, I'll never forget it!

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miikargh wrote:
29 days ago

Vincebus Eruptum and Outsideinside are AMAZING! Sad that Dickie passed away. He was a great musician!

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haneater wrote:
last month

stoner!!!

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Rondo_Wayne wrote:
last month

R.I.P. Dickie! Btw: Try Live in Japan 1999 (Hello Tokyo, Bye Bye Osaka), if you not already haven't. Freaking loud one! :)

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leo64 wrote:
last month

R.I.P. grande Dickie!

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RandyRhoadsRIP wrote:
last month

Just fkn' underrated, Dickie was a pioneer of Metal, wtf happens with this people

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Donniegambler wrote:
last month

R.I.P

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RandyRhoadsRIP wrote:
last month

R.I.P Dickie

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rafaelwho wrote:
last month

R.I.P. Dickie :(

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crownanchor wrote:
last month

RIP DICKIE :(:(....till we meet again one day over the ocean...rock on :(

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Chuvachek wrote:
last month

RIP

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DoomMantia wrote:
last month

R.I.P. Dickie. You will be deeply missed!!!

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Slaja wrote:
last month

R.I.P.

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Verdelo wrote:
last month

RIP Dickie Peterson... Thanks for the Great Music! You'll be always in our memories

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popluhv wrote:
last month

RIP

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Coat_Of_Arms wrote:
last month

farewell dickie. thank you for everything.

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Recent Activity

Alfanomg tagged Blue Cheer with ‘seen live’. 3 hours ago
donovanpday and warface666 added Blue Cheer to their libraries. 4 hours ago
Hippie_Scum tagged Blue Cheer with ‘heavy psych’. yesterday morning
mathiha added Blue Cheer to mathiha’s library. Saturday afternoon
ACDC-fan tagged Blue Cheer with hard rock, psychedelic rock and heavy psych. Friday evening
DustDevil65, Ghigigi and Frodrum666 added Blue Cheer to their libraries. Friday afternoon
RagsNbones84 tagged Blue Cheer with ‘seen live’. Thursday evening
kirkpearson and Lorna83 added Blue Cheer to their libraries. Thursday evening
haneater tagged Blue Cheer with ‘drugs’. Thursday afternoon
Putznastic tagged Blue Cheer with ‘heavy metal’. Wednesday evening