By Artist Blue Cheer Live in Japan
Live in Japan
Thursday, 09 April 2009 11:36 | 
Author: The Grouch | 
Before Black Sabbath (or Earth), before Zeppelin and before there was anything as pretentious as "Progressive" Rock there was Blue Cheer.
That fact alone makes this a worthy addition to any collection. Some music ages well. Cheap Trick at the Budokan moves me now as much as it did in 78. Some music ages poorly. (Deep Purple, I'm talking about you.) Then some music doesn't age at all, it simply is.
Blue Cheer
Here they are live in Tokyo and Osaka, Japan February 11 and 13, 1999.
The e-music biography of Blue Cheer says this:
"San Francisco-based Blue Cheer was what, in the late '60s, they used to call a "power trio": Dickie Peterson (b. 1948, Grand Forks, ND) (bass, vocals), Paul Whaley (drums), and Leigh Stephens (guitar). They played what later was called heavy metal, and when they debuted in January 1968 with the album Vincebus Eruptum and a Top 40 cover of Eddie Cochran's hit "Summertime Blues," they sounded louder and more extreme than anything that had come before them. As it turned out, they were a precursor of much that would come after."
When I think of Blue Cheer I think of Spinal Tap. Actually I like Blue Cheer - although I can't say they are really good musicians - they certainly have ATTITUDE. This is the music of every pissed off kid in a garage with an old guitar and an amp. In one word: Loud. In two words angry loud - you got to love the attitude. This isn't that peace and love crap that San Francisco is famous for. I like that while the hippies were singing Kumbaya around a drum circle, Blue Cheer was screaming F you as loud as they could.
Onto this album:
I'll be brief. Musically there are two tracks I really like. Track 4 Blue Steel Dues is a great example of killer old school Blues. The man can play guitar. Ironically a lot of the nicest leads on this track are clean and without distortion.
Track 8 a cover of Summertime Blues by Eddie Cochran. They blow the roof off with this one. It is nothing short of bombastic!
The rest of the album is OK - the required loud riffs and ear piercing feedback is in abundance. Unfortunately at times its also really sloppy. During the drum solo the drummer seems to get off beat and at one point stops the solo before coming back with a lame little beat. He tries to make it seem planned, but I have my doubts.
All in all I'm glad I have this album, it fits nicely into the historical representation of rock and roll. If you take it for what it is, its good. And what is that? Some dudes that a long time ago, did some stuff that was ballsy and cool as hell. Anytime you can scare the man it is pretty cool, when you can scare hippies as well, that truly deserves a nod of approval.
Grouch rating:
2 scowls out of 5