BLUE CHEER: THE ORIGINAL HUMAN BEING (1970)
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 In My Bed; 9) Man On The Run; 10)
Sandwich; 11) Rest At Ease.
It seems reasonable to suggest that Gary Lee
Yoder, officially replacing Bruce Stephens as Blue Cheer's resident guitar
player, was a better proposition for this band altogether than his predecessor.
Not only did he contribute Blue Cheer's
funniest song, but somehow, his permanent presence put the band back on track,
so that their fifth album is an acceptable compromise between the chaotic
wildness of old, the established hard rock standards of the day, and a little
bit of chart-oriented pop sensibility in between (The Original Human Being even got the band back into the lower
ranges of the album charts for a brief while).
There is nothing particularly great or awesome
here, but the very attempt to stir up some creative juices is admirable. All of the members are involved in the
songwriting process now, even the drummer, with Peterson and Yoder veering
towards heavy blues, piano guy Burns Kellogg drifting towards roots-rock, and
the drummer actually contributing the weirdest number of all — ʽBabaji
(Twilight Raga)ʼ, which is, so far, the only instrumental composition I know
whose central point is a duet between sitar and Moog synthesizer: an unlikely
combination in general, let alone on a Blue Cheer album! The most amazing thing
about it is that it actually works, a
pretty, cloudy piece of simplistic, but effective lite-psychedelia.
Genrist exercises are, in fact, the talk of the
day. We have some shiny, uplifting, brass-loaded, and catchy jazz-pop (ʽLove Of
A Womanʼ); a rough, partially out-of-tune, but sincere-sounding country waltz
(ʽTears In My Bedʼ); a sleazy, snappy, and quite exciting white-funk jam that
suggests somebody in the camp must have been wooed over by The James Gang
(ʽSandwichʼ); and a sentimental, idealistic, bombastic, gospel-influenced coda
(ʽRest At Easeʼ) that — dare I say it? — sounds suspiciously similar to Dylan's ʽKnockin' On Heaven's Doorʼ, which
would only come three years later. Okay, coincidence. The important thing is: Blue Cheer, the local cavemen of San
Francisco, are telling you to "rest at ease today" and "be
redeemed today", because "all my love is on the way" and
"my heart is open to you, slow down, we can make it". Actually, it
seems that those lyrics are mostly improvised, consisting of «soul clichés» hastily
scrapped together, but there is
something haunting to that piano / organ / French horn mix. The beast done got
soul, and it ain't always cringeworthy or laughable to look at.
On the other hand, The Original Human Being also succeeds in getting back some of the
wild vibe — mainly on dark blues-rock numbers such as ʽGood Times Are Hard To
Findʼ (indeed) and ʽPreacherʼ; more generic 12-bar stuff like ʽPilotʼ or ʽMan
Of The Sunʼ also recovers some extra grit-and-gravel that was missing on the
last two records, although these are probably the most expendable numbers of
the lot. Everything is still quite polished when compared to the original chaos
(short, jam-less, structured), but «nasty» guitar tones, «evil» vocalizing, distortion
and fuzz are all present — the songs are fun to listen to, and warrant a thumbs up.
Altogether, the album is more than the sum of its parts: diversity, and this
curious struggle for survival in an increasingly competitive context, make it
a small chapter worth reading in the musical history of 1970.
Have you noticed the opening "Good Times" sounds sort of like the Spencer Davis Group's "I'm a Man"? At least, the organ blasts are similar.
ReplyDeleteRegardless of any superficial similarities, I'd say the "Good Times" are long departed by this point.
DeleteMerry Christmas, George!
ReplyDeletehi George, first of all, let me thank you, for your blog and for your music reviews, because these reviews taught me to love and respect rock music. Though i was not always agree with you, it was great experience for me. it was like ` Настолная книга` for me, I red your opinion and then i was listening to music and it continued almost 4 years. now they are gone. i cant access the old site. Im new here, making my first post and maybe my question looks very strange, but anyway, please tell me how can I get to your older posts. This is very important to me.
ReplyDeleteSeems like it's down all right, who'd have thought? The Wayback Machine has it archived, though, so it'll never be truly gone. :)
DeleteYou can't get to my older posts because the server has crashed. It should be up again in a couple of days.
Deletethank you George, thank you very much
ReplyDelete