Customer Reviews

The Original Human Being

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Blue Cheer exploded upon the scene with absolutely no apologies, covering Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues" from the vital initial "Vincebus Eruptum" . This pivotal and groundbreaking album forged new territory in San Francisco Bay Area rock which introduced heavy metal and experimental guitar sound that was the blueprint for its entire genre. The "power trio" of Dickie Peterson, Leigh Stephens and Paul Whaley founded a style of experimentation that ushered in daring and HEAVY SOUNDS for decades to come.

Enter, on "The Original Human Being", guitarist Gary Yoder -bringing his creative genius from the excellent groups Oxford Circle and KAK - to the forefront of Blue Cheer. Forging ahead with totally new musical design on every album they created, Blue Cheer never needed to repeat themselves musically!

Gary Yoder so well understood the psychedelic scene that he was able to compose an entirely innovative dimension to Cheer with founding member Dickie Peterson; in addition, utilizing the talents of Norman Mayell and Ralph Burns Kellogg who contributed so much instrumentally and composition-wise, i.e. "Babaji - Twilight Raga" (a gorgeous sitar rock number that is amazing indeed). This is at once a hard rocking, sensual, melodious, funky, & well executed record that deserves serious study.

This well crafted and representative project displays an epitome of San Francisco psychedelia.

Blue Cheer is best understood by appreciatang each respective album viewed as its own entity, and appreciated as music that ranks among the most innovative of every style presented.

Dynamic!!!!!!

'Babaji' is transcendent & maybe the best ever example raga rock fusion. I love indian music and sing some everyday. Back in the 70's I bought this album and wore out the Babaji track which morphs from the preceding track which ends with feedback ....... its devotional its sincere and sadly it only lasts some 3 minutes! However of its type you may never hear better. Where did this piece come from? The album is still musical enough but mostly heavyish (for the time, pre Black Sabbath etc) then all of a sudden this emerges and takes one someone else, whoever composed, envisioned it knew the genre well and like the rest of the album they play with conviction. One of my favourite ever tracks. Thanks Blue Cheer for helping me become an Original Human Being.
Narada
Scotland

I'm not going to sit here and say the Original Human Being is some kind of original or groundbreaking hard rock album, because it's obviously not. However, it IS a pretty solid album songwriting-wise.

Also, despite the fact it's a really good album, do NOT under any circumstances pay the extremely high price it's going for across the internet. I'm sure there's other places where it can be sold much much cheaper.

"Babaji" is repetitive because it never progresses past that one simple sitar riff, but it's a pretty good experimental instrumental piece that sounds unique for its time, so it's an easy highlight. Actually when it reaches the halfway point, it reminds me of something from the early 80's such as Flock of Seagulls or Kim Wilde. "Make Me Laugh" sounds like a Grand Funk Railroad/Bloodrock bluesy/hard rock track, typical of the American rock scene of the day. Actually the vocals remind me of early Jefferson Airplane a little bit. It's highly memorable too.

"Rest at Ease" is a beautifully written sad track reminiscent of the Allman Brothers song "Please Call Home". Regardless what it resembles, it's a song that definitely touches me on a deep emotional level. I really love when the singer hits the high notes during the "Make up your mind" part because it resembles someone crying alone in the dark as they try to straighten out their problems.

"Pilot" is a really solid heavy rocker with a magnificent chorus and unusual-sounding instrumental break in the middle because of the way the guitar solo seems to fade in and out. It's a cool effect. "Preacher" contains some saxophone work in between the vocal melody, and while I love the saxophone normally, I could probably do without it here. It's alright though. The bluesy vocals remind me of early Blue Oyster Cult. "Man on the Run" is probably the most straight ahead blues song here. It's pretty awesome, especially the way the vocal melody chugs along to the rhythm. The lyrics are really appropriate too and fit perfectly with the steady pacing of the rhythm.

Overall, a quality album by a forgotten hard rock band. Well, *almost* forgotten. Some of Blue Cheer's work is still being remembered today thankfully, it's just unfortunate the Original Human Being is not one of the albums being remembered because it most certainly should be.

Led Zeppelin could change their sound, try new things, and get away with it. Blue Cheer couldn't! For the simple reason that everyone could count on Led Zeppelin having the same personnel and still playing the rockers that made them famous. The guys who replaced Leigh Stpehens, Randy Holden, and Paul Whaley were native Friscoids who were just too wimpy to play with loud stacks backing them up. A lot of factors contributed to this. One is that drugs ran off all those previous members of the band who rocked--either because the other guys in the band were taking too many, or like Paul Whaley, they were too hooked to play. The other thing was, as Randy Holden alluded to in an interview, management was cutting back on the amount of amplification they could use. Third, Dickie Petersen, like Eric Clapton did around the same time, fell for the old, "I-gotta-be-hip-like-the-critics", and started liking Bob Dylan and The Band. Led Zeppelin did, too, but unfortunately for Dickie, Zeppelin could write better "folk"-influenced songs. Lastly, it was the San Fransisco culture itself that mellowed them out. I'm sorry, but you can't play as many gigs, as they did, with the likes of Quicksilver Messenger Service, Moby Grape and The Charlatans, and not start feeling left out because you don't!
Now how all this translated into live performance, since the band built its reputation as a "live" band, was they didn't! I looked over their tour itenerary during the 1970-71 period and noticed how many gigs were cancelled, and how few there were, PERIOD. It didn't surprise me. How do you explain to kids that come expecting to hear "Parchment Farm" and see the Marshall stacks that they're not that kind of band, anymore? That part must have been REALLY difficult! You can't expect a subdued, studio-trained musician like Norm Mayell to play "live" the way Paul Whaley did! And Gary Yoder was anything BUT a heavy metal guitar player.
But Dickie learned his lesson from this period. And that is, don't mess with a winning formula! Just like Coca Cola when they tried to swtich to "New Coke", most people will rarely be willing to substitute for the 'real thing'. And the 'real' Blue Cheer to them was "Vincebus Eruptum". If you like Moby Grape, stick with Moby Grape. Blue Cheer could not be Moby Grape.

Highly recommendable for mini lp fans and collectors, really a great Universal Japan reissue!

SONG LIST :

1. GOOD TIMES ARE SO HARD TO FIND
2. LOVE OF A WOMAN
3. MAKE ME LAUGH
4. PILOT
5. BABAJI(TWILIGHT RAGA)
6. PREACHER
7. BLACK SUN
8. TEARS BY MY BED
9. MAN ON THE RUN
10. SANDWICH
11. REST AT EASE