Blue Cheer - Outside Inside (Acid Rock 1968)

Blue Cheer is a San Francisco-based rock group of the late 1960s and early 1970s, who helped to pioneer heavy metal music. According to Tim Hills in his book, The Many Lives of the Crystal Ballroom, "Blue Cheer was the epitome of San Francisco psychedelia. The band was rumored to have been named for a brand of LSD and promoted by renowned LSD chemist and former Grateful Dead patron, Owsley Stanley. Another rumor is that the Blue Cheer was a blend of heroin and methamphetamine with just a pinch of arsenic "for an extra glowly feeling", taken intravenously. A "blue cheer" is also obscure and somewhat archaic British slang for a fart.

The band's sound, however, was something of a departure from the music that had been coming out of the Bay Area: Blue Cheer's three musicians played heavy blues-rock, and played it very loud.

Original personnel were singer/bassist Dickie Peterson, guitarist Leigh Stephens, and drummer Paul Whaley. 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 categorise, but was definitely blues-based, psychedelic, and loud. The group underwent several personnel changes after the 1968 release of Outsideinside, and then 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 ‡ 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.


Outsideinside is the second album by Blue Cheer, released on PolyGram in August 1968. This album features writing contributions from all members along with two covers: "Satisfaction" by the Rolling Stones and "The Hunter" by Booker T. & the M.G.s (also covered by British rock band Free). The album was produced by Abe Kesh and engineered by Eddie Kramer, who had worked with Hendrix, The Rolling Stones and would later work with Led Zeppelin and KISS among others. The cover painting is by "Arab" and design by "Gut," legendary Hells Angel.

01. "Feathers from Your Tree" (Peterson, Stevens, Wagner) - 3:29
02. "Sun Cycle" (Peterson, Stevens, Wagner) - 4:12
03. "Just a Little Bit" (Peterson) - 3:24
04. "Gypsy Ball" (Peterson, Stevens) - 2:57
05. "Come and Get It" (Peterson, Stevens, Wagner) - 3:13
06. "Satisfaction" (Jagger/Richards) - 5:05
07. "The Hunter" (Booker T. Jones) - 4:22
08. "Magnolia Caboose" (Peterson, Stevens) - 1:38
09. "Babylon" (Peterson) - 4:22

Post by ChrisGoesRock