San Francisco-based
Blue Cheer was what, in the late '60s, they used to call a "power trio":
Dickie Peterson (b. 1948, Grand Forks, ND) (bass, vocals),
Paul Whaley (drums), and
Leigh Stephens (guitar). They played what later was called
heavy metal, and when they debuted in January 1968 with the album Vincebus Eruptum and a Top 40 cover of
Eddie Cochran's hit "Summertime Blues," they sounded louder and more extreme than anything that had come before them. As it turned out, they were a precursor of much that would come after. Unfortunately,
Blue Cheer itself didn't get much chance to profit from its prescience. Shortly after its breakthrough, the group was wracked by personnel changes.
Leigh Stephens was replaced by
Randy Holden after the release of the second album, Outsideinside (August 1968).
Holden left during the recording of the third album, and
Bruce Stephens (b. 1946) (vocals, guitar), and
Ralph Burns Kellogg (keyboards) joined to finish New! Improved! Blue Cheer (March 1969). Then
Whaley quit and was replaced by
Norman Mayell (b. 1942, Chicago), leaving
Peterson as the only original member.
Bruce Stephens quit during the recording of the fourth album, Blue Cheer (December, 1969), and Gary L. Yoder joined to complete it.
Peterson,
Kellogg,
Mayell, and
Yoder then made The Original Human Being (September 1970), and Oh! Pleasant Hope (April, 1971) before
Blue Cheer broke up.
Dickie Peterson reorganized a new version of the group in 1979, and in 1985,
Peterson,
Whaley, and guitarist Tony Ranier released a new
Blue Cheer album, The Beast Is Back... ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
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What Doesn't Kill You...