Blue Cheer - Summertime Blues (1968)

The origin of this band is rather messy. Three friends from Davis, California, who desired to be a part of the 1960s music scene, moved to San Francisco where it was "all happening." Once there, they got together with other artists and intended to create a blues rock band. However, after seeing Jimi Hendrix perform at the Monterey Pop Festival in the summer of 1967, there was a desire to become a power trio. What eventually resulted was Dickie Peterson, Leigh Stephens, and Paul Whaley naming themselves after a street brand of LSD created by Owsley Stanley, called Blue Cheer. (You can hear a song about Stanley by the Grateful Dead here).

The group’s first album, Vincebus Eruptum, featured a hard psychedelic rock fused with blues, which would later be noted as one of the first-ever heavy metal albums. Although personnel in the band began to shift as early as 1969, the band didn’t officially break up until 1971, only to regroup in multiple incarnations since. Now, the band is historically remembered as being pioneers of the heavy metal genre as well as influencing the grunge genre of the early ‘90s.

Co-written and originally recorded by rock and roll pioneer Eddie Cochran in 1958, this song has been notably covered by The Who, Alan Jackson, The Beach Boys, and others. The version by this band, recorded in 1967 and released in January 1968, has been argued as the very first heavy metal song, beating Iron Butterfly’s “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” and Steppenwolf’s "Born to Be Wild" by six months. It’s also remembered as being the first heavy metal song to ever make the pop charts, reaching number fourteen in the US, three in Canada, and two in the Netherlands. It appeared on the band's first album, Vincebus Eruptum and omitted the "response" lyrics found in the original for solos.



Blue Cheer - Summertime Blues (1968)

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Lyrics:

Well, Lord, I got to raise a fuss, Lord, I got to raise a holler
About a'workin' on Sunday just to try to earn a dollar
Well, Lord, I try to call my baby 'bout tryin' to get a date

Sometimes I wonder what I'm a'gonna do
Lord, there ain't no cure for the summertime blues

Well, my mom my poppa told me, "Son, you gotta make some money"
Well, "If you wanna use the car to go ridin' next Sunday"
Well, Lord I didn't go to work, I told the boss I was sick
He said

Sometimes I wonder what I'm a'gonna do
Lord, there ain't no cure for the summertime blues

I've got to take three weeks, I've got to have a fine vacation
I've got to take my problem to the United Nation
I done told my Congressmen and he said, quote
Dig this, boy

Sometimes I wonder what I'm a'gonna do
Lord, there ain't no cure for the summertime blues

I've got to take three weeks, I've got to have a fine vacation
I've got to take my problem to the United Nation
I done told my Congressmen and he said, quote
Dig this, boy

Sometimes I wonder what I'm a'gonna do
Lord, there ain't no cure for the summertime blues

Woah! Ain't no cure