Dickie Peterson of BLUE CHEER has died.
10-13-09, 10:02 PM
#1
DVD Talk Platinum Edition
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: West Central Georgia
Posts: 3,512
Likes: 0
Received 4 Likes
on
4 Posts
Dickie Peterson of BLUE CHEER has died.
Dickie Peterson, the bassist/vocalist and founding member of BLUE CHEER, passed away this morning (Monday, October 12) at 5 a.m. in Germany. He was 61 years old.
BLUE CHEER was an American blues-rock band that initially performed and recorded in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and has been sporadically active since. Based in San Francisco, BLUE CHEER played in a psychedelic blues-rock style, and was also credited for pioneering heavy metal (their cover of "Summertime Blues" is sometimes cited as the first in the genre), punk rock, stoner rock, doom metal and grunge.
Throughout his life, Peterson's relationship to music has been all-consuming. He was quoted as saying, "I've been married twice, I've had numerous girlfriends, and they'll all tell you that if I'm not playing music I am an animal to live with. . . Music is a place where I get to deal with a lot of my emotion and displaced energy. I always only wanted to play music, and that's all I still want to do."
Despite the fact that BLUE CHEER was considered a pioneer in many different genres, Peterson downplayed the band's influence, stating in an interview, "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."
Peterson spent much of the past two decades based in Germany, performing with BLUE CHEER and with other groups as well. In 1998 and 1999, he played a number of dates in Germany with the HANK DAVISON BAND and as an acoustic duo with Hank Davison under the banner DOS HOMBRES.
BLUE CHEER was an American blues-rock band that initially performed and recorded in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and has been sporadically active since. Based in San Francisco, BLUE CHEER played in a psychedelic blues-rock style, and was also credited for pioneering heavy metal (their cover of "Summertime Blues" is sometimes cited as the first in the genre), punk rock, stoner rock, doom metal and grunge.
Throughout his life, Peterson's relationship to music has been all-consuming. He was quoted as saying, "I've been married twice, I've had numerous girlfriends, and they'll all tell you that if I'm not playing music I am an animal to live with. . . Music is a place where I get to deal with a lot of my emotion and displaced energy. I always only wanted to play music, and that's all I still want to do."
Despite the fact that BLUE CHEER was considered a pioneer in many different genres, Peterson downplayed the band's influence, stating in an interview, "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."
Peterson spent much of the past two decades based in Germany, performing with BLUE CHEER and with other groups as well. In 1998 and 1999, he played a number of dates in Germany with the HANK DAVISON BAND and as an acoustic duo with Hank Davison under the banner DOS HOMBRES.
10-13-09, 11:19 PM
#3
DVD Talk Legend
Re: Dickie Peterson of BLUE CHEER has died.
For a long time I believed a story I heard when I was young... that Blue Cheer had that hit song and within a couple of years three of the four members of the band were dead from drug (heroin?) overdoses.
That story wasn't true of course, but it did make a nice story. Sorry to see the guy actually die. Was it of a drug overdose by any chance?
That story wasn't true of course, but it did make a nice story. Sorry to see the guy actually die. Was it of a drug overdose by any chance?
10-14-09, 01:22 AM
#4
DVD Talk Platinum Edition
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: West Central Georgia
Posts: 3,512
Likes: 0
Received 4 Likes
on
4 Posts
Re: Dickie Peterson of BLUE CHEER has died.
For a long time I believed a story I heard when I was young... that Blue Cheer had that hit song and within a couple of years three of the four members of the band were dead from drug (heroin?) overdoses.
That story wasn't true of course, but it did make a nice story. Sorry to see the guy actually die. Was it of a drug overdose by any chance?
That story wasn't true of course, but it did make a nice story. Sorry to see the guy actually die. Was it of a drug overdose by any chance?
