Blue Cheer - Vincebus Eruptum
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Artist: Blue CheerBrand: Mercury
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 1993-04-06
Music Label: Island / Mercury
Soundtracks:
- Summertime Blues
- Rock Me Baby
- Doctor Please
- Out Of Focus
- Parchment Farm
- Second Time Around
Music reviews of Vincebus Eruptum
Music Review: 'Controlled' Chaos?? Not Quite!!
Rating: 5 Stars
Some groups' debut albums are straight from the garage: Raw, gritty, unrestrained, and yet to be tamed by success. Aerosmith's debut album was that way, as was Velvet Underground's, and The Stooges'. This debut album by Blue Cheer, called "Vincebus Eruptum" (Latin for "Controlled Chaos"--or in this case, lack thereof!) defintely fits that mold. The producer simply flipped the switch and let'em bang out the tunes as hard and as crude as they wanted to--possibly in one take! A lot of the "Blue Cheer sound" was in the equipment they used and the way they used, or abused, it. Certainly, what strikes me the most on this album is the guitar playing of Leigh Stephens. He was to the "whammy bar" what Stooges' guitarist Ron Asheton was to the "wah-wah pedal". When describing the Stooges' first album, one critic called Asheton the bands' "wah-wah pedaler". I will thus refer to Leigh Stephens here as this bands' "vibrator". His specialty was to find more ways to use and abuse one part of a guitar more than anyone else ever thought about doing, and that "whammy bar" was his toy on this album! Another thing about Stephens' playing is that it doesn't sound like he used a whole lot of Fuzztone. he just had his Marshall amp cranked, and when he played rhythm, you could tell he was hitting the strings hard to get natural amp distortion (unlike, say, Tony Iommi or Leslie West, who didn't hit the strings as hard, but it came out hard, because of the Fuzztone.) Leigh Stephens guitar solos are a little better than Ron Asheton's, but then he decides to overdub his solos with some completely off-kilter solos on a few songs like "Out of Focus", "Doctor Please", and "Second Time Around", and the way he overdubs them, it comes out sounding like an all-out, sonic blitzkrieg assault!! Far from the "Controlled Chaos" the album title promised! Then there is the drummer, Paul Whaley--one of the few American drummers of his day to own a double-drum kit--with his drum sticks all nicely filed down for a blunter sound, and his bass drums exposed!!(no pillows, no cover, no nothin'--just microphones. If you saw the photo of them on stage on the inside sleeve of their second album, "Outside/Inside", then you'll see what I mean.) If there is a weak link to all of this, perhaps it's Dickie Petersen--only there because every power trio needs a singing bass player. And when it comes singing bass players, Jack Bruce, he ain't. But, hey. At least he could write songs! And, of course, on the liner credits, the 'props' going to "Jim Marshall Ltd. of London, for the amplification." And there you have it. But I can't say enough guitarist Leigh Stephens, the real standout musician here. He wasn't the most gifted guitarist in the world, but he was unique. It's a shame he gave up rock music altogether after Blue Cheer's second album (because, as he said, "It was getting too violent"--yeah, right. As if he didn't have a lot to do with that!!). His "New Improved", more technically-proficient replacement on guitar, Randy Holden ended up having some kind of guitar-virtuoso career after Blue Cheer-however, not on the same level with a Jeff Beck or a Steve Vai. Blue Cheer was originally from Boston, but I think they would have thrived better in a place like Detroit, than in San Fransisco. Their brand of anarchic, heavy-blues with an attitude would have been better appreciated in the "Motor City" that spawned the likes of Alice Cooper, Ted Nugent, Iggy Pop, MC5, and Grand Funk Railroad. I think San Fransisco mellowed them out, and made them too much like the Grateful Dead. And hiring laid-back, native Friscoids to replace original members only made things worse (of course, Frisco has come a long way since then, with the likes of Metallica.) But I digress. If you like a good, raw first album, this one's for you.
Description of Vincebus Eruptum
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