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Vincebus Eruptum
Studio album by
ReleasedJanuary 16, 1968 (1968-01-16)
Recorded1967
StudioAmigo Studios, Hollywood, California
Genre
Length32:08
Label Philips
Producer Abe "Voco" Kesh
Blue Cheer chronology
Vincebus Eruptum
(1968)
Outsideinside
(1968)
Singles from Vincebus Eruptum
  1. " Summertime Blues"
    Released: 1968

Vincebus Eruptum ( /vɪŋˈkbəs ɪˈrʌptəm/; pseudo-Latin) is the debut album of American rock band Blue Cheer. Released on January 16, 1968, [1] [2] [3] the album features a heavy-thunderous blues sound, which would later be known as heavy metal.

A commercial and critical success, Vincebus Eruptum peaked at number 11 on the Billboard 200 albums chart and spawned the number 14 hit cover of Eddie Cochran's " Summertime Blues". Being an example of hard rock, [4] it is also lauded as one of the first heavy metal albums. Spin magazine placed it at number 22 on their list of the 40 greatest metal albums. [5] [6]

Background and history

Blue Cheer's debut album was recorded in 1967 at Amigo Studios in North Hollywood, California. [7] In an interview, frontman Dickie Peterson explained that "Some songs I wrote have taken 20 years to really complete. And there are other songs like 'Doctor Please' or 'Out of Focus' that I wrote in ten minutes." [8]

On "Doctor Please" in particular, Peterson explained that "when I wrote the song (in 1967), it was a glorification of drugs. I was going through a lot of 'Should I take this drug or should I not take this drug? Blah, blah, blah.' There was a lot of soul searching at the time when I wrote that song, and I actually decided to take it. That’s what that song was about and that’s what I sang it about, sort of a drug anthem for me." [8] On the band's cover of Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues", Peterson noted that "We kept changing it around and adding/taking bits away. It also has to do with large doses of LSD." [9]

Reception and legacy

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic [10]
Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal6/10 [11]
Pitchfork9.0/10 [12]
Rolling Stone(negative) [13]

Blue Cheer's debut album has widely been held in high regard by critics. Writing for music website AllMusic, Mark Deming described Vincebus Eruptum as "a glorious celebration of rock & roll primitivism run through enough Marshall amps to deafen an army", praising the band's "sound and fury" as one of the founding movements of heavy metal. [10] Pitchfork reviewer Alexander Linhardt gave the album nine out of ten points, noting that the album was less structured than its successor, Outsideinside. [12] It has been described by Billboard as "the epitome of psychedelic rock", [14] while VH1 called it an " acid rock masterwork". [15] Martin Popoff was less enthusiastic in his review and called the music "derivative" and "equating closer to acid-washed loud and slurring renditions of '60s rock" than heavy metal, judging the album "a howling mess." [11]

Online music service Rhapsody included Vincebus Eruptum in its list of the "10 Essential Proto-Metal Albums", suggesting that the band "not only inspired the term ' power trio,' they practically invented heavy metal." [16] In 1998, The Wire included Vincebus Eruptum in their list of "100 Records That Set the World on Fire (While No One Was Listening)", calling it a "seminal" album that "snarled rabidly in the face of hippy innocence and soon became a Hells Angels party stomper." They also note the strong influence the album had on 1990s Japanese noise trios such as High Rise and Musica Transonic. [17]

Track listing

Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1." Summertime Blues" Eddie Cochran, Jerry Capehart3:47
2." Rock Me Baby" B.B. King, Joe Josea4:22
3."Doctor Please" Dickie Peterson7:53
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
4."Out of Focus"Peterson3:58
5." Parchment Farm" Mose Allison5:49
6."Second Time Around"Peterson6:17
Total length:31:54
2003 remastered reissue
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
7."All Night Long" Ralph Burns Kellogg2:06
Total length:34:00

Personnel

Blue Cheer

Additional personnel

Remastered version

  • Bill Levenson – production
  • Ellen Fitton – remastering

References

  1. ^ "JAN. 16, 1968: THE RELEASE OF BLUE CHEER'S 'VINCEBUS ERUPTUM'". Arthur Magazine. Joshua Tree. Retrieved July 28, 2015.
  2. ^ "Celebrating the 45th birthday of Blue Cheer's mighty Vincebus Eruptum…". Classic Rock Magazine Facebook Fanpage. Retrieved July 28, 2015.
  3. ^ Woodstra, Chris; Bush, John; Erlewine, Stephen Thomas (2007). All Music Guide Required Listening: Classic Rock. ISBN  9780879309176.
  4. ^ Various Mojo Magazine (2007). The Mojo Collection: 4th Edition. Canongate Books. p. 137. ISBN  978-1-84767-643-6.
  5. ^ "The 40 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time". 30 October 2019.
  6. ^ Chris Smith (2009). One Hundred and One Albums that Changed Popular Music. Oxford University Press. p. 56. ISBN  978-0-19-537371-4.
  7. ^ "Blue Cheer – Vincebus Eruptum (Vinyl, LP)". Discogs. Retrieved September 25, 2010.
  8. ^ a b "Blue Cheer interview, Dickie Peterson". StonerRock.com. Archived from the original on September 28, 2011. Retrieved September 25, 2010.
  9. ^ "Interview with Dickie Peterson of heavy metal hard rock band Blue Cheer". Get Ready to ROCK!. Retrieved September 25, 2010.
  10. ^ a b Mark Deming. "Vincebus Eruptum > Review". AllMusic. Retrieved September 25, 2010.
  11. ^ a b Popoff, Martin (October 2003). The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal: Volume 1: The Seventies. Burlington, Ontario, Canada: Collector's Guide Publishing. p. 52. ISBN  978-1894959025.
  12. ^ a b Alexander Linhardt (October 7, 2003). "Blue Cheer: Vincebus Eruptum / Outsideinside". Pitchfork. Retrieved September 25, 2010.
  13. ^ Michael Geary. "Vincebus Eruptum > Review". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on March 6, 2013. Retrieved August 24, 2012.
  14. ^ Nielsen Business Media, Inc. (March 2, 1968). Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. p. 52. ISSN  0006-2510. {{ cite book}}: |author= has generic name ( help)
  15. ^ McPadden, Mike (August 17, 2015). "10 Hard Rock + Heavy Metal Cover Songs Better Than the Original". VH1. Archived from the original on May 20, 2022. Retrieved May 26, 2020.
  16. ^ Justin Farrar (June 22, 2010). "Classic Rock Crate Digger: 10 Essential Proto-Metal Albums". Rhapsody. Archived from the original on September 20, 2012. Retrieved September 25, 2010.
  17. ^ "100 Records That Set the World on Fire (While No One Was Listening)". The Wire. No. 175. September 1998.