Blue Cheer’s Dickie Peterson 1948-2009 R.I.P.

Blue Cheer bassist had carried the torch for uncompromising skronk, biker metal and "ultra blues" since the ‘60s...

By Blurt Staff

We got back from a road trip to learn the sad news that Dickie Peterson of Blue Cheer had passed away on Monday. The band had recently issued a live concert DVD, Blue Cheer Rocks Europe and was additionally planning a tour to support it when the bassist was diagnosed with cancer.

BLURT's Rev. Keith paid tribute to Peterson at his About.com Blues blog (follow the link, as he has also posted video clips of the band), and we are reprinting it below. Peterson will be missed....

***

By Rev. Keith A. Gordon

Founding Blue Cheer bassist and vocalist Dickie Peterson passed away on Monday, October 12, 2009 in Germany. Although no cause of death has been released, Peterson had been fighting a long battle with prostrate and liver cancer. He was thought to be 61 years old at the time of his death, although the artist's MySpace page lists his age as 63.

Peterson formed Blue Cheer in San Francisco in 1966 with guitarist Leigh Stephens and drummer Paul Whaley. Taking amplified blues-rock to its logical extremes, the band was one of rock's original "power trios," and they played louder and heavier than any of their contemporaries. Blue Cheer scored a hit with a cover of Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues" from its 1968 debut album, Vincebus Eruptum. Subsequent Blue Cheer albums, which combined psychedelic rock with a healthy dose of electric blues, would help write the blueprint for heavy metal during the 1970s and grunge during the '90s.

Blue Cheer broke up during the early-1970s, although Peterson would put together new versions of the band in 1979 and again in 1985. In 2007, Peterson reunited with drummer Whaley in a revived Blue Cheer, recording the band's final album, What Doesn't Kill You with guitarist Duck McDonald. During the years in between, Peterson recorded two solo albums, including the 1999 blues-rock barn-burner Tramp, which was only released in Japan.

In a 2005 interview with StonerRock.com, Peterson is quoted saying, "people keep trying to say that we're heavy metal or grunge or punk, or we're this or that. The reality is we're just a power trio and we play ultra-blues, and it's rock 'n' roll. It's really simple what we do."