Echoes and dust

"Three stoned acid crazed bikers, self confessed drug addicts,managed by an Hells Angel and who play to an audience of undesirables'.

According to the liner notes of the rereleased 'OutsideInside', this is how one music paper described Blue Cheer, a band who have been criminally overlooked by all and sundry in the metal fraternity. By the time ‘Led Zeppelin 1’ was released in March 1969, Blue Cheer were on their third (yes third) album, yet they are rarely referred to when discussing the origins of metal. If you want to see the real roots of bands like Mudhoney, Kyuss, FuManchu, QOTSA, The Sword, etc don't simply look toward Sabbath and Zeppelin, look beyond that and at Blue Cheer.  Ok, so first album 'Vincebus Eruptus' could be seen as a heavier interpretation of Cream, but still it was blisteringly loud compared to what the British blues rockers were doing. However, it was with 'OutsideInside' that they really started to turn up the heat. In fact, it is rumoured that the title originates from the fact that they were too loud for the studio, so half the LP was recorded outside! How much heavier do you want to get?

'OutsideInside' moved away from the blues of the previous album and more towards a unique sound that Dick Peterson (bass / vocals) now attributes to the band being 'very young men' who 'wanted to explore music, we added more and more amps!' However, there was one track that still displayed their roots - 'The Hunter' a cover of the Booker T Jones composition. Although one of the weaker songs on the album, it was still heavier than anything that had gone before. It was also indicative (as is the other cover here '(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction') of the sexual atmosphere that presides over the whole album - 'I've got you in the sights of my love gun'.

Instead of the prominence of the blues, Blue Cheer made an unholy racket filled with sexual tension that must have awakened even the most dormant libido upon listening. No more is this apparent than in the grunts of Peterson. See the end of 'Feathers From Your Tree', where his animalistic screams see his voice on the edge of breaking. Whereas Osbourne and Plant used vocal hysterics that were poached by every metal band from Saxon to G’n’R and beyond, Dickie Peterson had a more understated approach that can be seen in the grunge and stoner bands of the 90's. Listen to the cries at the end of 'Babylon', which possess the spirit of a male Janis Joplin, despite the claims from Peterson that she wasn't an influence ('Janis Joplin probably influenced Paul. She just pissed me off' he said in 2005).

Throughout, the album exploits stereo sound with the heavily distorted wah-wah guitar flying back and forth between the speakers, as if Leigh Stephenson was playing a question and answer solo with himself. Some may say that this effect is over used and they may be right, but you can't argue with the sonic overload that it creates on 'Come And Get It', a song that is akin to being in the middle of a nuclear holocaust, and one that makes no attempt to hide how they spent their downtime - 'Been running all night trying to make a score'. Lyrics like these, the overt sexuality and the sound that was at odds with everything surrounding them, all point to a band that was raising a middle finger, not just to the establishment, but to those wannabe hippies who thought that peace was not an unobtainable ideal.  For Blue Cheer the world was one of war, terror and sex not peace and love.

'Sun Cycle' and 'Just A Little Bit' are both sleazy grooves that resemble nothing else from that period. The drums pulse and snap, as the bass relentlessly carries you forward, all the time sounding as if they are on the brink of coming to a messy end. This is sludge rock and it wasn't for the feint hearted. Follow this by 'Gypsy Ball' and you wouldn't be blamed if you thought you were being visited by the horsemen of the apocalypse. I admit by today's standards it doesn't sound that shocking, but imagine being a suburban teenager in the ‘60s, just coming to terms with your sexuality and the confusion surrounding it, and then you hear these tracks like predators, stalking relentlessly out from your record player!  

However, it's the final two tracks on 'OutsideInside' that leave a permanent scar. The instrumental, 'Magnolia Caboose Babyfinger', is messy, loud and boasts the most bass heavy riffing to come out of the ‘60s, but is just a warning for what is to come - 'Babylon'. The intro starts slowly, building and growing, a sense of uneasiness surrounding you when... all the noise drops out and you're alone, with a single guitar, phased between both speakers and leading the way for the gargantuan riff that follows. It's loose, sloppy and funky as hell - put a cowbell on it and it could be a slowed down James Brown cut. This slow grind is so consuming, it's like strong under-current dragging you along, until Peterson screams 'Just let it take you away child!' and all hell breaks loose. Stephens' guitar finally wrangles free of the rhythm section and takes flight, Peterson's voice sounds like a man on the edge of oblivion facing his demons and Paul Whaley seems intent on smashing everything in his sight. The slow dirge reappears obliterating this all too brief frenzy, again pulling you further under, and then.....nothing. It comes to an abrupt finale, with what seems like an ending recorded three weeks later and tagged on for good measure - a major anti climax.

Ahead of their time they most certainly were. The sound, the attitude and even the lyrical content - the sexual references and fantasy (' A gypsy wizard rattled his battered and broken tambourine' - 'Gypsy Ball'), predate Zeppelin. Released a year later, and it would be regarded as one of the seminal metal / punk albums of the sixties, along with Zeppelin, Stooges and Sabbath. Instead they will be consigned to the small bin of artists who truly were ahead of their time.