Dickie Peterson is one lucky guy. Back in the late 60s, he played bass and sang for a blues rock band, one of literally thousands at the time. With nothing more than a generic love for bluesy roots music, an equally typical Hendrix/Stones fetish, a cheerful indulgence in the many chemical additives available in the San Francisco area and more enthusiasm than skill, his band, Blue Cheer, somehow managed to create a fuzzy, wah-happy, supercharged, bare-bones explosion of somewhat shambolic hard rock that has since come to be thought of as an important influence on metal, rock and especially the stoner genre.
 

Dickie Peterson’s also lucky to still be alive and well, and able to jam with guitarists who have a slightly better grasp of scalar integrity than the original Blue Cheer guitarist Leigh Stephen possessed when they released their initial albums, Vincebus Eruptum and Insideoutside. While this has made for arguably more standard-sounding hard rock albums at times, with the right accomplices it means that a latter-day Blue Cheer album will give fans of that sound a slab of music that is firmly in the tradition of their classic music, but with better production values, musicianship that doesn’t make you cringe and a guitarist who does that freewheeling wah-soaked blues thing with acceptable phrasing and the ability to stay in tune. Basically, the simple, visceral pleasures of Blue Cheer in a listenable, somewhat time-matured format.
 

On What Doesn’t Kill You, Blue Cheer’s first studio album in 16 years, Peterson is joined by guitarist Duck McDowell, a long-time collaborator who is back in the band after a gap. The drums are either played by Joe Hasselvender, who was their drummer when recording started, or original drummer Paul Whaley who has since re-joined the band. The songs are your usual grab bag of several fast songs, a couple of surprisingly well-executed slow songs, and some covers, including a new take on material they’ve previously covered.
 

 ‘Rollin’ Dem Bones’ is a great album opener, rocking with the same daredevil urgency that made their take on ‘Come And Get It’ on Insideoutside such an enduring gem. Dickie Peterson points out that ‘I’m a stoner in the first degree!’, in one of the most defining opening lines on any album in a while, and his voice, too, shows how time has been kind to him – it’s improved with age, becoming a more craggy, throaty wail as opposed to the rather reedy keening it used to amount to. ‘Piece O’ The Pie’ is a strong follow-up, with some brooding slow riffing and Peterson engaging in a sort of call-and-response with himself, using his regular voice and this OTT, gravelly, furniture-chewing roar that would probably endanger his life if employed more extensively, but is a nice addition on this song. ‘Gypsy Rider’ is another strong song with some rock-solid mid-tempo chugging. ‘Young Lions In Paradise’ is a countryish ballad, a sort of retrospective of Blue Cheers’ early days that is perfectly decent, but sounds a bit like a ‘Sticky Fingers’ era Rolling Stones outtake at times. ‘Maladjusted Child’ stands out for its seriously fuzzy bass grooves, and ‘No Relief’ ensures that the album closes on as strong a note as it began – it’s a seriously creepy slow blues that ZZ Top in their mellower moments might have been happy to call their own.
 

That leaves a handful of fairly nondescript tracks on the album, including the rather by-the-numbers blues jam on ‘Born Under A Bad Sign’, but there’s enough compelling material on this album to signify that it was worth the effort for Peterson and his cohorts to dodder back into the studio after such a long hiatus. I suspect that this album is at least partly a pretext for Blue Cheer to embark on some more of the constant touring that seems to keep dino second-stringers in the moolah, but their hearts are still in the right place musically and I can’t grudge them trying to set something aside for the pension fund.

Year of Release: 2007
Label: Rainman