Message Board
« Blue Cheer and the San Francisco Sound »

Welcome Guest. Please Login or Register.
Dec 23, 2009, 2:15pm

[Home] [Help] [Search] [Login] [Register]



Message Board :: General :: Blue Cheer - The Home Of The 1% :: Blue Cheer and the San Francisco Sound
Page 1 of 3 » Jump to page   Go    [Search This Thread][Send Topic To Friend] [Print]
AuthorTopic: Blue Cheer and the San Francisco Sound (Read 752 times)
barryhollister
New Member
*
member is offline





Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 1
Blue Cheer and the San Francisco Sound
« Thread Started on Nov 3, 2009, 1:20am »
Flashback to the “1967 Summer of Love” in San Francisco and the Space Age Productions’ summer concert series our family produced in California Hall at Polk and Turk.

The experience was a collaboration of musical influence from all around – from the Bucket of Blood Saloon in Virgina City, Nevada, the blues clubs legacy of Chicago, to New York’s Village folk scene, from the East Bay Area, to an unforgettable, unrelenting voice from Port Arthur, Texas, to a blaring bass and haunting voice from Grand Forks, North Dakota that all coalesced at a special time and in a special place on this planet to be known collectively along with the Greatful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Marin's Moby Grape, East Bays Country Joe and the Fish, and Credence Clearwater Revival, and others as the "San Francisco Sound" we delightfully presented with the newly coined word "Hippie" fans in the Baghdad-by-the-Bay as Herb Caen might say.

Headliners for the Space Age series included among others The Charlatans, Steve Miller Blues Band, The Youngblood’s, Quick Silver Messenger Service, Country Joe and the Fish, Janis Joplin with Big Brother and Holding Company, and also staged before a wall of amps to a hard rock blasting sound was Blue Cheer.

Memories fade overtime but one lasting impression that has rocked and rolled around in my head for over forty years was the impact of when Paul Whaley’s flailing drumming, Leigh Stephen’s hollowing guitar, Dickie Peterson’s pulsating bass and penetrating voice went spiraling into an extended, hard rocking version of “Summertime Blues” the cornerstone of their limited repertoire at the time. The walls and screen were aglow with the swirling flow of colorful paints and oils from a lighted and projected, hand manipulated in rhythm with the music, glass dish from Northern Lights as the crystal shower twirled overhead. Everyone was up and dancing and flying high to the hammering sounds, everyone loved being free as can be as Blue Cheer brought the house down.

This was just the beginning of Blue Cheer's four decade journey with Dickie Peterson out front of an authentic, hard rocking, high spirited, artistic and creative musical stimulus that echoed through time sparking people’s enthusiasm all along the line.

Rock on Dickie Peterson's spirit, Blue Cheer, and the “Summertime Blues.”

Barry Hollister
Producer
Space Age Production’s Summer Concert Series
barry@berkshireharmony.com
http://www.berkshireharmony.com

« Last Edit: Nov 4, 2009, 12:01pm by barryhollister »Link to Post - Back to Top  IP: Logged
ivy
New Member
*
member is offline





Joined: Aug 2006
Gender: Female
Posts: 24
Re: Blue Cheer and the San Francisco Sound
« Reply #1 on Nov 4, 2009, 1:44pm »

Nov 3, 2009, 1:20am, barryhollister wrote:
Summer of Love ... the beginning of Blue Cheer's four decade journey with Dickie Peterson out front of an authentic, hard rocking, high spirited, artistic and creative musical stimulus that echoed through time sparking people’s enthusiasm all along the line.

Rock on Dickie Peterson's spirit, Blue Cheer, and the “Summertime Blues.”

Barry Hollister
Producer
Space Age Production’s Summer Concert Series
barry@berkshireharmony.com
http://www.berkshireharmony.com



Awesome tribute, Barry. Thank you for the generosity of spirit in taking time to share with us.

As I read I remembered Dickie talking about the Merry Pranksters and especially Neil Cassidy. His one statement about Neil: "When he walked into a room it was like no one else was there. He just lit up the place, filling it with his energy"

I stared at Dickie, thinking, do you not know that you have the same affect? Most of the time he did not realize it, truly. Maybe at gigs but not in every day life.

One day he and Jerre and some other freaks and I were ... we were just grocery shopping, probably munchies shopping. When Dickie got to the checker the young woman could barely push the buttons on the cash register. She just stared at him ... later, he asked Jerre: "What's wrong with me? Why did she stare at me like that?"

Jerre: {I mean, first of all, you really had to know Jerre. His delivery was impeccable so I hope I can capture it} " There's nothing wrong with you, man" <beat> "LOOK at you" "We are in Sacramento" {meaning cultural outer darkness apparently} "I don't know why we don't just get arrested and get it over with"

Think the Peterbilt era Dickie ... his hair was an even more wild lions mane than the SF days; his bell bottom pants and probably either satin dress shirt or some sort of tie-dye or madras flowing shirt added to ... he just exuded wild man crazy coolness. And at the same time, totally unaware of his effect on people. Just like Neil Cassidy.

It's fun remembering one last time ...
Link to Post - Back to Top  IP: Logged
ericalbronda
Junior Member
**
member is offline





Joined: Nov 2006
Gender: Male
Posts: 75
Re: Blue Cheer and the San Francisco Sound
« Reply #2 on Nov 4, 2009, 2:42pm »
How funny Ivy--"Lets get arrested and get it over with....."
When I met Neil C. for the first time it was with Dickie way back with 6 pieces, me playing drums sometime in 1966-7.
was in the basement of Gut's store " Yoynt Ventures " a head shop he owned on 24 Th street I believe . Anyway Ken Kesey , Neil Cassidy and Ken Babbs, early prankster came down stairs and totally blew us all away and visa versa.
Anyway two distinct differences between Neil c. and Dickie P., Neil constantly took out his vile of liquid methadrine with a dropper and squirted it into his mouth and second he was a dancing fool ---Dickie did not have a vile and I do not think I ever saw Dickie dance once, except with himself on stage.
Cheers,
Eric
.
Link to Post - Back to Top  IP: Logged
ericalbronda
Junior Member
**
member is offline





Joined: Nov 2006
Gender: Male
Posts: 75
Re: Blue Cheer and the San Francisco Sound
« Reply #3 on Nov 4, 2009, 4:12pm »
Just off the phone with Norman Mayall-seems he just found out about Dickie and we talked for awhile , shared many memories and I am glad that Norman is doing well and happy ---he lives off of royalties from music as he had a piece of "Spirit in the Sky " which still sells many world wide and from "Hello Hello" , Sopwith Camel. Norman maintains the Sopwith Camel website ---sopwithcamel.com
Cheers,
Eric
Link to Post - Back to Top  IP: Logged
FeedbackLourde
Administrator
*****
member is offline





Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 552
Re: Blue Cheer and the San Francisco Sound
« Reply #4 on Nov 4, 2009, 6:39pm »
OK, I have to be bad for a second and ask, did you guys talk about the Dickie & the brown rice incident? :) Actually, we don't hear too many stories about Norman's time with BC. Are there any you would like to tell us Eric? How did he get picked to play drums after Paul left?
« Last Edit: Nov 4, 2009, 6:40pm by FeedbackLourde »Link to Post - Back to Top  IP: Logged
ericalbronda
Junior Member
**
member is offline





Joined: Nov 2006
Gender: Male
Posts: 75
Re: Blue Cheer and the San Francisco Sound
« Reply #5 on Nov 5, 2009, 5:21am »
No we did not talk about the brown rice incident --almost, however --Norman ,lets say is not a huge fan of Bruce Stephens given the royalty issues of the past --in the lightest sense for purposes of civility., so I avoided the issue .
I will bring it up next time and see what happens--or better yet someone from this board needs to email him on the camel website and include the words ---Whiskey a Go Go, Tropicana Motel, Carrot Juice and see what he says --besides he would love the contact , I think---apparently as he just told me his band The Sopwith Camel were ostrosized from the Hip hiarchy of the time because they had a hit record early on---"Hello Hello" ( Name of tune)
He told me that at one gig at California Hall with The Grateful Dead the Dead unplugged there equipment half way through their set just to mess with them----now this is the second time I have heard a similar story about the
Dead. I experienced it myself at the Shrine Auditorium once as when we showed up to set up our equipment the Dead had all of their equipment arranged perfectly to record but left no space for anybody else so I told Peter and Doug to move their shit out of the way-----When they showed up I could hear them yelling in an empty hall so I ducked out of the Dressing room and walked past them yelling because they were to much in the clouds to know who I was anyway......................
Now when I returned to the USA from England the only way to get some more albums out of Mercury records for BC
was for me to do it myself so I played drums , Dickie on Bass, Ralph on Keyboards and bass sometimes and Bruce Stephens on guitar. Mercury was rather hesitant to continue with Blue Cheer because now they had a devil of a reputation as far as Golden Arms etc.. So they only way to get on a pay schedule --weekly I submitted a budget including cat food etc so we all could get paid ---and for the recording the union members got scale which was pretty good. the budget also included a weekly allowance to get Dickie's bass out of hock---the king needed his bass right???
So I was the drummer again and Bruce and Ralph liked the spontaneous way I played Dickie on the other hand was frustrated because I made his job harder by being so demanding and simple --but then again he was comparing me to the master--Whaley. So when it came time to record the president of Mercury records said to me . Eric you can play drums or Produce but not both. I said I would produce and did ------Norman Mayall was a known drummer in and around San Francisco and known for being reliable without any major bad habits so Bob Sarempa head of A and R
for Mercury recruited Norman and he fit ---read his musical history on the Camel website --pretty impressive really
starting way back with Michael Blumefield (SP) So again I stopped playing drums ----I had my time early playing drums since the 2 nd grade through the 7 th grade in bands orchestras , etc.--percussion --could read drum music
and sort of knew too much if you will to be in a Dickie come lately rock band like Blue Cheer . Also you have all heard stories of their tours at the time which were major disasters . One quote on the Camel site calls Blue Cheer a "Disaster Band "---I rather like that title !!!!!
Cheers,
Eric
Link to Post - Back to Top  IP: Logged
eio
1%er
***
member is offline





Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 193
Location: Buffalo, Minnesota
Re: Blue Cheer and the San Francisco Sound
« Reply #6 on Nov 5, 2009, 4:27pm »
Eric, Ivy, all....I sent off an email a year or so ago to Zane Kesey, Ken's boy, and asked him if he could find out if the Pranksters had filmed BC performing. I know the Pranksters got a kick out of filming just about anything but maybe they had slowed down a bit by 67-69....Anyways, I got no response. Maybe we could check with Babbs as he may be a better source than Zane.......Also thanks for the above Eric...great history.
Link to Post - Back to Top  IP: Logged
featheredfish
Junior Member
**
member is offline





Joined: Apr 2006
Gender: Male
Posts: 95
Location: Scotland, UK.
Re: Blue Cheer and the San Francisco Sound
« Reply #7 on Nov 5, 2009, 7:46pm »
Uncle Eric The way I heard it about Norman Mayell was that after Randy quit and Paul got the equipment van and Dickie got THE NAME, and a few months later, Dickie got together with Bruce and Ralph out of Mint Tattoo, they were driving down the highway (we just call them roads over here in Scotland) in their automobile ( we call them cars) and there was this hippie dude (we don`t call anyone a `dude`) thumbing it (hitching) and they supposedly stopped for him, and they found out that he was a drummer, and as they were looking for a drummer to reform Blue Cheer, they asked him if he would be interested in joining them. And that was seemingly how Norman joined the band - allegedly. Or so I heard in some interview with Dickie that someone recorded and sent to me much, much later. You don`t mind me calling you `Uncle Eric` I hope. After all, you are the daddy of the band, no disrespect intended. Your reminiscences are most enlightening.
Link to Post - Back to Top  IP: Logged
FeedbackLourde
Administrator
*****
member is offline





Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 552
Re: Blue Cheer and the San Francisco Sound
« Reply #8 on Nov 5, 2009, 8:36pm »
FF-

When I was backstage at Chetfest, Dickie kept referring to Mr. Albronda as "Uncle Eric."

FBL
« Last Edit: Nov 5, 2009, 8:36pm by FeedbackLourde »Link to Post - Back to Top  IP: Logged
rowenafair
1%er
***
member is offline





Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 203
Re: Blue Cheer and the San Francisco Sound
« Reply #9 on Nov 5, 2009, 11:02pm »
that says alot about eric when you realize he is about the same age as all the others...and i mean that as a compliment!
Link to Post - Back to Top  IP: Logged
ivy
New Member
*
member is offline





Joined: Aug 2006
Gender: Female
Posts: 24
Re: Blue Cheer and the San Francisco Sound
« Reply #10 on Nov 6, 2009, 1:30pm »

Nov 5, 2009, 7:46pm, featheredfish wrote:
Uncle Eric The way I heard it ...


Featheredfish, and I say this with great affection ... the one thing you will learn about the history of Blue Cheer is that, in a sense, history belongs to the teller. And after a while that becomes okay ... it's part of the 'charm' of the Cheer. Listening to Dickie's stories over a long period of time ... things changed a bit, depending on where he was with himself ... but again, it's okay because it's funny, in it's own way ... you begin to feel for the essence more than the details.

The one person who I most trust to represent what happened accurately is Uncle E ... and even he is a bit tilted you know :D :P but he doesn't lie. Eric does not lie ... he and Duck have that in common.

You know, Dickie did not sit around talking about his musical career in every day life. He only started talking about the Merry Prankster years because we were watching some sort of PBS special. Same with Eric ... when did any of you remember him saying that he was originally the drummer, not only for the six piece but in the incarnation above. I heard the six piece drummer thing only one time and that in conjunction with a story about how Paul joined BC ... never just braggin' on himself.

To me, more than a whole lot of other good things one could say about either man, is one of the marks of a truly great person. As I believe they both are. So not needing to remind anyone of who and what you did and talking about it only when it helps others fill in some pieces (or Dickie needed interview material ... which is business not brag).

Okay, so much more to say but .... CHEERS!

OH! by the way:

1%
Still Loud/Still Proud
Uncle E

All created in that eclectic cosmos of far out people know as the Blue Cheer BB

Dickie was right on ... the 'fans' are a member of the band as no other can claim.

Pretty cool, huh?
Link to Post - Back to Top  IP: Logged
ivy
New Member
*
member is offline





Joined: Aug 2006
Gender: Female
Posts: 24
Re: Blue Cheer and the San Francisco Sound
« Reply #11 on Nov 6, 2009, 1:32pm »
PS:

dp and I "went dancing" one time ... he moves like a stick with bowed legs. :D No, he was absolutely no dancer :D :D
Link to Post - Back to Top  IP: Logged
festoonedpiglips
New Member
*
member is offline





Joined: Mar 2007
Gender: Male
Posts: 42
Location: The Center Of Your Mind
Re: Blue Cheer and the San Francisco Sound
« Reply #12 on Nov 6, 2009, 6:32pm »

Nov 6, 2009, 1:30pm, ivy wrote:

Nov 5, 2009, 7:46pm, featheredfish wrote:
Uncle Eric The way I heard it ...


Dickie was right on ... the 'fans' are a member of the band as no other can claim.



Well, that depends.....some Blue Cheer members were more important than others ;)
Link to Post - Back to Top  IP: Logged
Ever get the feeling you've been cheated? Goodnight!
ivy
New Member
*
member is offline





Joined: Aug 2006
Gender: Female
Posts: 24
Re: Blue Cheer and the San Francisco Sound
« Reply #13 on Nov 9, 2009, 2:50pm »
You know, folks, on a slow day you can go to Google News and type in either Dickie Peterson or Blue Cheer ... many newspaper articles or online articles will pop up ... keep things moving ... much more interesting that poor FPL constant need to affirm his own presence ;D

By the way, if you take the time to go there you will see that Duck was kept very, very busy being interviewed. One of the several 'nice' things I can honestly say about him is that although he of course has a monster rock n roll guitarist ego, he was so very good at pointing the interest to Dickie (business reasons I am sure) as well as looking out for Paul's interests. It's just a cool thing to be able to say about anybody but especially someone in the music business.

How he did all that he did and still played the gigs with that energy is amazing ... I hope somehow he gets his just rewards ...
Link to Post - Back to Top  IP: Logged
FeedbackLourde
Administrator
*****
member is offline





Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 552
Re: Blue Cheer and the San Francisco Sound
« Reply #14 on Nov 9, 2009, 3:52pm »
Duck's Da Man! That's all that need be said....
« Last Edit: Nov 9, 2009, 3:53pm by FeedbackLourde »Link to Post - Back to Top  IP: Logged
Page 1 of 3 » Jump to page   Go    [Search This Thread][Send Topic To Friend] [Print]

Google
Webbluecheer.proboards.com
Click Here To Make This Board Ad-Free


This Board Hosted For FREE By ProBoards
Get Your Own Free Message Boards & Free Forums!