Blue Cheer - Original Human Being


Year of Release: 2001
Label: Akarma Records
Catalog Number: AK 150
Format: LP
Total Time: 44:23:00

Blue Cheer always kept it going no matter what changes came down, they just kept making music. The changing of musicians continued with the release of the Original Human Being in 1970. It was a solid release with a good variety of styles offered for listeners that may have been disgruntled with all of the lineup changes. Founding member Dickie Peterson was the only one left standing on this album.

There is a real surprise at the end of side one that's perhaps an overlooked gem. "Babaji (Twilight Raga)" is an instrumental psychedelic San Francisco flavored rock piece complete with sitar injected throughout. It's something George Harrison would have loved to play when The Beatles went through there drug influenced stage. That one track separates itself from the entire album. I think that it would have been interesting if the group explored that sound more in depth. This was a group peaking regardless of the unsettling nature that the changing of the guard brought on with every album. They delve into the blues as well on the tracks "Preacher" and "Tears In My Bed." Horns are used in an effective way, and surely they influenced many more rock oriented groups to combine brass with their sound.

Blue Cheer was a group with a ton of talent but no focus or consistency from album to album. It's too bad that they couldn't have stabilized, they could have chosen any path they wanted and been successful. This LP is a fine example of the different directions they could go when they went in the studio to record and get down to business.


Tracklisting:
Side One: Good Times Are So Hard to Find (3:22) / Love Of A Woman (4:34) / Make Me Laugh (5:04 ) / Pilot (4:49) / Babaji (Twilight Raga) (3:47)

Side Two: Preacher (4:03) / Black Sun (3:30) / Tears By My Bed (2:04) / Man On The Run (3:52) / Sandwich (5:02) / Rest At Ease (5:36)

Musicians:
Burns Kellogg - keyboards
Norman Mayell - guitar, drums, producer
Dickie Peterson - bass, guitar, vocals
Gary Yoder - guitar, harmonica, vocals

Discography:
Vincebus Eruptum (1967)
Outsideinside (1968)
New! Improved! (1969)
Blue Cheer (1969)
Motive - Blue Cheer (Ger only) (1969)
Original Human Being (1970)
Oh! Pleasant Hope (1971)
The Beast Is Back (1985)
Louder Than God: The Best Of Blue Cheer (1986)
Blitzkrieg Over Nürenberg (1989)
Good Times Are So Hard TO Find: The History Of Blue Cheer (1990)
Best Of Yesteryear (1990)
Dining With Sharks (1991)
Highlights And Lowlives (1996)
Live And Unreleased, Vol 1: '68/'74 (1996)
Live And Unreleased Vol 2: Live At San Jose Civic Centre & More (1998)
Hello Tokyo, Bye Bye Osaka - Live In Japan 1999 (1999)
Live In Japan (2003)
Bootleg: Live - Hamburg - London (2005)
What Doesn't Kill You (2007)

Genre: Rock

Origin US

Added: April 21st 2002
Reviewer: Keith "Muzikman" Hannaleck
Score:
Artist website: www.bluecheer.us
Hits: 3446
Language: english

  

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