Blue Cheer - Vincebus Eruptum

[Riffster]

Went to the library with my wife last night and to my surprise the music section had a lot of good stuff, some CDs I never replaced from vinyl so it is good to get them on digital form for free.

 

I picked up an EP by Blue Cheer called Vincebus Eruptum

 

I have heard of them in Heavy Metal documentaries, but dang!!! these dudes were playing metal in 1968!! it is a crude sound but holy cow!

 

Has anybody heard this record?

[Shnate McDuanus]

One of my favorite albums, that and their second one Outsideinside.

 

Glad to see you enjoyed it. Modern audiences seem to have mixed responses to it.

[Blackie]

............did'nt they do that WHO song that was kind of orrible ?

[stevef]

This one Blackie?

[YOUTUBE]

[/YOUTUBE]

[milod]

Well...

 

I don't know if that was a "Who" song, but Eddie Cochran did it in 1958.

 

Hmmmm.

 

"Blue Cheer" was, as I recall, also a synonym for LSD and amphetamines taken simultaneously. I dunno since I figured that even were I to have been interested, there were certainly less distressful modes of suicide available even in the late 1960s prior to doctor kervorkian.

 

<grin>

 

Anyway, it was a different era.

 

I always liked "Summertime Blues" and in another thread there was discussion and, as I recall, general concurrence that Cochran's version was quite popular at least among young males of the era.

 

The Blue Cheer version was okay, but always seemed to me to lack the greater degree of "authenticity" Cochran gave it with a simpler arrangement. On the other hand, heck, I already was kinda old in '68, give that I was over 21. <grin>

 

m

[Blackie]

................come on now Mr Milod..........you know ta zactly what this pharmaceutical concoction was bein there back in the day....hmmmm

...of course your longevity speaks to an inteligent course through such things.................spark it up.......?

[stevef]

Milod.. I got "yelled at" a couple of times in the "worst cover version" threads for my opinion of Blue Cheer's rendition of Cochran's Summertime Blues. (nice Bass runs, otherwise in true music critics' lingo FOOOOOEEEEEEYYYYY).

 

As for Timothy Leary's favorite pasttime.. I don't remember that variety ever coming East..

[milod]

Blackie...

 

Given that there were a number of variations of slang terms for various drugs, one might not always be certain what a given concoction was supposed to be, let alone what it really was.

 

All kidding aside, there were four factors kept me away from drugs - even semi-legal prescription stuff - and even overdoing booze.

 

First, I was already working regularly around cops enough to see what was going on with those who didn't realize how dumb they were being with booze and drugs. Saw way too much blood.

 

Second, my senior year in high school a kid really went over the top with just "mama's diet pills." No thanks.

 

Third, from a bit of travels in spite of looking like I was 12, I had a deep, deep distrust of illegal drug and similar illegal pipelines and proponents. That would have kept me away from stuff even were I interested in trying this or that. I even stayed away from various uppers available at truck stops if you knew a bit of the language of truckers of the day. I also went through early teen years hanging out with adults in places they'd not let someone under 21 into nowadays. That meant hearing tales of this 'n' that in ways a lotta folks now under 40 never had the opportunity to hear. As in "war stories" told by folks I had reason to trust and believe and who held respect among their peers.

 

Finally - in my line of work I saw too many good people with real booze problems. It was "how it is" in those days.

 

So... being a distrusting cynic <grin>, I stayed far away from a lotta stuff friends and ... other persons I knew ... did at the time.

 

Besides, I had beaten most of them into Zen and variations of it by something around 8-10 years. I figured an artificial version was silly and expensive - not to mention potentially dangerous. My driving habits likely were more than dangerous enough.

 

m

[tazzboy]

I agree there milod that Blue Cheer didn't do a good job on Summertime Blues. I like Eddies version first follow by Brain Setzer's version

[Riffster]

I was talking about the entire album rather than a cover version of one song though.

[milod]

Actually I tended to like Blue Cheer's stuff "in the day."

 

Run the turntable through that Deluxe Reverb amp and crank it up a bit. <grin>

 

I took the advice of a Paul Butterfield album that literally recommended that the volume be turned up to the threshold of pain and... <grin>

 

m

[Blackie]

..............Milod you were old for your years when you were young...........and now you are young for your years while older.........

...........I know all you say is the truth.......what a long strange trip it still is........aint it....................rock on

[milod]

Blackie...

 

I think you're likely pretty close to it.

 

One lady friend - I was 19 - told me I was old, old, old, for pretty much the reasons you did... She was 20. Never made it to 21 since she got into a car wreck when she caught a ride with a family friend to visit her folks to show them a new guitar.

 

And now? Hey, just 'cuz somebody has a 3-D map where they used to have a face doesn't mean they have to be dead before they're planted, right?

 

It is a long, strange trip indeed. Each of us has his or her own path to take and each in ways is equally strange. All of us have his or her own stories, struggles and little victories - and questions whether we did well enough or not...

 

The bad thing about youth, I think sometimes, is when we are that age, we don't realize well enough that we're nothing much more or less than the old people we will become - if we make it that far.

 

The true rebellion of youth perhaps isn't so much against the older generation, but rather a denial that we ourselves will be the next "older generation" and that we don't know how, or if, we're going to get there.

 

<chuckle> Of course, some of us are just somewhat contrary by birth and early training, too. Hmmm.

 

m

[jaxson50]

Ah, Blue Cheer, I saw them in 1968, they put on a hell of a show then, they had started out as a six piece band but they became one of the first American power trios. They are considered one of the first heavy metal bands and they are still doing shows. **** Peterson the bass player and singer of the band passed away Oct 2009.

 

 

 

http://www.bluecheer.us/home.html

[DiamondJig]

One of my fav to cover is Blue Cheer's "Out of Focus"

[Izzy]

Thanks for posting this, StiffHand.

You're so right on the metal feel.

Here I thought only the Sabbath had that down way back...love getting school by ya'll.

[grampa]

Blue Cheer was kind of a "house band" for a lot of bikers here in NorCal back in the late 60's. Where Blue Cheer was, so were the bikers. Really pure and driving rock and roll.