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Japan 24-Bit Remaster

Blue Cheer, the fourth album, is the perpetual group in transition once again rolling with the punches. A vast improvement over New! Improved! Blue Cheer, the sound here is more contained, consistent, and identifiable. Rather than cover Eddie Cochran, as they did with their hit "Summertime Blues" off Vincebus Eruptum, the outside material is tellingly by Delaney Bramlett and MacDavis, a wonderfully laid-back "Hello L.A., Bye-Bye Birmingham."

By this time they were sounding more like the Band than the first disc's monstrous musical onslaught, which resembled a naïve Cream or precursor to Grand Funk. Bruce Stephens decided to exit during this recording, but that didn't hamper things the way some of the New! Improved! Blue Cheer record suffered. Stephens' vocal performances are placed right in the middle of everything, tracks two and four on side A, tracks two and four on side B, he writing or co-writing three of the titles, and doing a fine job singing on keyboard player Ralph Burns Kellogg's "Better When We Try." The trading of vocals between founding member Dickie Peterson, who handles the other six titles, was a plus for this group, and as songwriter Gary Yoder contributed the opening and closing tracks, "Fool" and "The Same Old Story," his presence would make itself more valuable when he became guitarist on B.C.#5: The Original Human Being. Bruce Stephens' "Saturday Freedom" is a delicious slice of psychedelic blues and the more musical direction this aggregation was seeking began to really develop on Blue Cheer, this fourth chapter in their storied career. Positioned to be a major cult phenom, these albums represent a unique vision different from Quicksilver Messenger Service, the Steve Miller Band, the Jefferson Airplane, and other California musicians, though elements of all find their way into the grooves.

"Ain't That the Way (Love's Supposed to Be)" is an absolute West Coast rave up, showing Peterson in complete control of his project, no matter how many stones were fired at them. His other two compositions, "Natural Man" and "Rock and Roll Queens," have a groove and are entertaining. While Mott the Hoople was mixing grunge and hard rock with their "Rock & Roll Queen," this band from the other side of the world put a different spin on the same topic, utilizing pretty much the same title. Peterson may have not been the personality that Ian Hunter is, and Blue Cheer never reached the point of performing on Broadway as Mott with Ian did, but Blue Cheer shows creative flashes that puts them in league with other innovators, and makes the band truly worth studying.

Soon after the release of "New! Improved!", also founder drummer Paul Whaley quits the group and, presumably music biz at all being replaced by Norman Mayell, a perfect percussionist who had previously spent a long time with Frisco band Sopwith Camel. With the defection of Leigh Stephens and later that of Randy Holden, the use of scratching distorsor and that "hendrixous" wah-wah was forever lost. Dickie Peterson, voice and bass, the last surviving original member, had smoothed his raw noisy style down to meet more "disposable" soundings. The eretic 1,000,000 watts group had been beaten. At any rate, it will not be a radical steering in the direction of an implosive style, and Cheer's sound will stand at a good level without too many conservative nor "Amerikan" compromises. The real test of facts comes with the fourth omonymous album released by Philips by the end of 1969 and led to success by trailer "Hello L.A., Bye Bye Birmingham" (a cover of a classic by soul group Delaney & Bonnie). Now "Blue Cheer" presents a line up eventually settled around Dickie Peterson (bass, vocals), Bruce Stephens (guitar, vocals), Ralph Kellogg (keyboards) and Norman Mayell (drums). Here and there, in composer's guise, appear the traces of Gary Yoder, formerly guitarist with KAK.

Packed up to Heaven the heavy electric equipment, including related decibels, the group changes the old sonic nirvana of primeval obsessive and metallic 'psyche' blues into some harsh and bright hard-rock that, in those times certainly couldn't be identified as 'main stream'. Dickie Peterson's voice displays a mature tonal development and the wild rough fury evoked in early albums seems to be so pretty far in time. The actual sound in the record, opened up by a tasty "Fool" flows liquid and appealing rich with armonic and convex shapes which can even win the attention of several West Coast purists. Plenty of the blues appeal comes from "Saturday Freedom" as well as from the above mentioned "Hello L.A. ..." both pervaded with lightning guitar zigzags and peculiar armonics that confirm Bruce Stephens being a real eclectic musician, but "Ain't That the Way", also on side one, brings into a magic hard-rock with fluorescent keyboards ready to spray the listening with colourful sonic lightshows. The B side of "Blue Cheer" (an album which comprises 9 original compositions within a total of 10 tracks, duly credited in turn to each group member) is a real guitars-keyboards festival devoted to supply the nerve to the vocal parts, leaving on the field some excellent rocksongs like "Rock & Roll Queens" and "Lovin' You's Easy", sometimes a bit conformist, and the beautiful progressive surprise titled "Better When We Try" in which Ralph Kellog's organ snatches chords from the students of Canterbury School.

Dickie Peterson - bass, vocals
Ralph Burns Kellogg - keyboards
Bruce Stephens - guitar
Norman Mayell - drums

01. Fool (Grelecki/Yoder)
02. You're Gonna Need Someone (Mayall/Stephens)
03. Hello L.A., Bye-Bye Birmingham (Bramlett/Davis)
04. Saturday Freedom (Stephens)
05. Ain't That the Way (Love's Supposed to Be) (Kelogg/Peterson)
06. Rock and Roll Queens (Kellogg/Peterson)
07. Better When We Try (Kellogg)
08. Natural Man (Kellogg/Peterson)
09. Lovin' You's Easy (Stephens)
10. The Same Old Story (Grelecki/Yoder)
11. All Night Long (Bonus)
12. Fortunes (Bonus)
13. Fool (Alternate Version)
14. Ain´t That The Way (Remix)

Japan 24-Bit Remaster

Blue Cheer, the fourth album, is the perpetual group in transition once again rolling with the punches. A vast improvement over New! Improved! Blue Cheer, the sound here is more contained, consistent, and identifiable. Rather than cover Eddie Cochran, as they did with their hit "Summertime Blues" off Vincebus Eruptum, the outside material is tellingly by Delaney Bramlett and MacDavis, a wonderfully laid-back "Hello L.A., Bye-Bye Birmingham."

By this time they were sounding more like the Band than the first disc's monstrous musical onslaught, which resembled a naïve Cream or precursor to Grand Funk. Bruce Stephens decided to exit during this recording, but that didn't hamper things the way some of the New! Improved! Blue Cheer record suffered. Stephens' vocal performances are placed right in the middle of everything, tracks two and four on side A, tracks two and four on side B, he writing or co-writing three of the titles, and doing a fine job singing on keyboard player Ralph Burns Kellogg's "Better When We Try." The trading of vocals between founding member Dickie Peterson, who handles the other six titles, was a plus for this group, and as songwriter Gary Yoder contributed the opening and closing tracks, "Fool" and "The Same Old Story," his presence would make itself more valuable when he became guitarist on B.C.#5: The Original Human Being. Bruce Stephens' "Saturday Freedom" is a delicious slice of psychedelic blues and the more musical direction this aggregation was seeking began to really develop on Blue Cheer, this fourth chapter in their storied career. Positioned to be a major cult phenom, these albums represent a unique vision different from Quicksilver Messenger Service, the Steve Miller Band, the Jefferson Airplane, and other California musicians, though elements of all find their way into the grooves.

"Ain't That the Way (Love's Supposed to Be)" is an absolute West Coast rave up, showing Peterson in complete control of his project, no matter how many stones were fired at them. His other two compositions, "Natural Man" and "Rock and Roll Queens," have a groove and are entertaining. While Mott the Hoople was mixing grunge and hard rock with their "Rock & Roll Queen," this band from the other side of the world put a different spin on the same topic, utilizing pretty much the same title. Peterson may have not been the personality that Ian Hunter is, and Blue Cheer never reached the point of performing on Broadway as Mott with Ian did, but Blue Cheer shows creative flashes that puts them in league with other innovators, and makes the band truly worth studying.

Soon after the release of "New! Improved!", also founder drummer Paul Whaley quits the group and, presumably music biz at all being replaced by Norman Mayell, a perfect percussionist who had previously spent a long time with Frisco band Sopwith Camel. With the defection of Leigh Stephens and later that of Randy Holden, the use of scratching distorsor and that "hendrixous" wah-wah was forever lost. Dickie Peterson, voice and bass, the last surviving original member, had smoothed his raw noisy style down to meet more "disposable" soundings. The eretic 1,000,000 watts group had been beaten. At any rate, it will not be a radical steering in the direction of an implosive style, and Cheer's sound will stand at a good level without too many conservative nor "Amerikan" compromises. The real test of facts comes with the fourth omonymous album released by Philips by the end of 1969 and led to success by trailer "Hello L.A., Bye Bye Birmingham" (a cover of a classic by soul group Delaney & Bonnie). Now "Blue Cheer" presents a line up eventually settled around Dickie Peterson (bass, vocals), Bruce Stephens (guitar, vocals), Ralph Kellogg (keyboards) and Norman Mayell (drums). Here and there, in composer's guise, appear the traces of Gary Yoder, formerly guitarist with KAK.

Packed up to Heaven the heavy electric equipment, including related decibels, the group changes the old sonic nirvana of primeval obsessive and metallic 'psyche' blues into some harsh and bright hard-rock that, in those times certainly couldn't be identified as 'main stream'. Dickie Peterson's voice displays a mature tonal development and the wild rough fury evoked in early albums seems to be so pretty far in time. The actual sound in the record, opened up by a tasty "Fool" flows liquid and appealing rich with armonic and convex shapes which can even win the attention of several West Coast purists. Plenty of the blues appeal comes from "Saturday Freedom" as well as from the above mentioned "Hello L.A. ..." both pervaded with lightning guitar zigzags and peculiar armonics that confirm Bruce Stephens being a real eclectic musician, but "Ain't That the Way", also on side one, brings into a magic hard-rock with fluorescent keyboards ready to spray the listening with colourful sonic lightshows. The B side of "Blue Cheer" (an album which comprises 9 original compositions within a total of 10 tracks, duly credited in turn to each group member) is a real guitars-keyboards festival devoted to supply the nerve to the vocal parts, leaving on the field some excellent rocksongs like "Rock & Roll Queens" and "Lovin' You's Easy", sometimes a bit conformist, and the beautiful progressive surprise titled "Better When We Try" in which Ralph Kellog's organ snatches chords from the students of Canterbury School.

Dickie Peterson - bass, vocals
Ralph Burns Kellogg - keyboards
Bruce Stephens - guitar
Norman Mayell - drums