Blue Cheer – New! Improved! Blue Cheer

Peace of mind and Fruit & iceberg worth to own the album, heavy psych sound, loud bass, fuzzy guitar lick with a solid vocal. Side 2 is the main thing on this album. Stereo seperation is great, its sounds reaply good.

A lot better than you might expect. Blue Cheer replaced their guitarist twice during the making of this album, after the departure of Leigh Stephens. Bruce Stephens (no relation to Leigh) is the guitarist on side one (tracks 1-6), while Randy Holden (ex-The Other Half) is guitarist on side two (tracks 7-9). The band also varies its lineup with the addition of pianist Burns Kellogg, who would remain in the group until its first dissolution in 1972 (and who would go on the produce the Minutemen in the 1980s). The band tones down the sheer volume of their debut and abandons some of their quirkier devices from their sophomore album, playing with more finesse if not subtlety. The Stephens side is more boogie oriented, while Holden's side is more in a proto-metal vein. Perhaps the most well-known song on the album is Holden's epic "Fruit and Icebergs", which is one of those pre-Stairway to Heaven songs that seems to point in that direction; it was so good, he wound up re-recording it for his solo debut the following year. Stephen's material is in an entirely different, hookier mode, but it's pretty good too, a highlight being "When It All Gets Old" and a heavy Dylan cover. Fans of early heavy rock and proto-metal would dig this, as would fans of post-Haight/Ashbury jam-rock. If nothing is really first-tier on the album, nothing is really bad, either. Stephens would contribute to the band's eponymous fourth album, which saw them moving in a softer direction. Is this a lost 60's classic? No, not really, it is kind of a jumble and except for Fruit and Icebergs, nothing is especially memorable. Is it at least a fun listen? I'd say yes.

Peace of Mind is a total killer heavy psych track.

Bit of chalk and cheese here, but side 2 does it for me, with "new" guitarist Randy Holden from the Other Half, what a soaring psych guitar sound never bettered, and I know my early guitarists, as i am that old !!

Is it possible to know what's written on the run out? I got the same noticed on the unofficial release but i think should be the same (PHS 600 305 M1 etc.).

great reissue in this series of the third blue cheer record from 1969, the us lp replication is not perfect but almost and the disc sounds amazing as the shm remastering brings a lot out, this comes with a really nice booklet with everything in both english and japanese printed.....

Not Blue Cheer's best but this is still a very good album. Heavy Psych Rock at it's best. Love it! 70/100