Blue Cheer

San Francisco's Blue Cheer debuted in January, 1968, ahead of its time and destined to enjoy just barely its allotted 15 minutes of fame. A trio of 'skinny guys' Dickie Peterson, Paul Whaley, and Leigh Stephens, the band's brand of cacophony would later be christened 'heavy metal' by those in the business of naming genres, and Vincebus Eruptum contained a thunderously loud remake of Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues" that many regard as the first true, heavy metal record. Blue Cheer was named for an especially high-quality brand of LSD brewed by Augustus Owsely Stanley III, the primary provider of LSD in the Haight's heyday and sometime Grateful Dead sound man. After five albums and four years, the band's already reworked line-up disbanded. Original members Peterson and Whaley, however, appeared from time to time through the '90s in new versions that appealed mainly to die-hard, and forgiving, Blue Cheer fans.