Blue Cheer, “Summertime Blues” from Rocks Europe (2013): Exclusive stream

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The seasons haven’t officially changed until you’ve cranked up a favorite version of this warm-weather classic. An epic live retelling of “Summertime Blues” by Blue Cheer – available above as an exclusive stream – should do the trick.

Recorded for Rockpalast on April 11, 2008, Rocks Europe finds Blue Cheer in full flight, just a year before bassist/vocalist Dickie Peterson passed. You hear, all over again, how the group laid the groundwork for punk, metal and grunge back in the late 1960s, powered then as now by Peterson and drummer Paul Whaley.

They recorded steadily through 1971, then only issued three new albums into the 2000s. Blue Cheer’s last live project before Rocks Europe, due on May 28, 2013, via Rainman Records, was from 2005.

The trio, rounded out then by guitarist Andrew “Duck” MacDonald, simply storms through a 10-song set at Bonn, Germany, that includes four tracks from Blue Cheer’s titanic 1968 debut Vincebus Eruptum (which propelled their take on “Summertime Blues” to No. 14 on the singles chart), three more from the sophomore effort Outsideinside and three cuts from their 2007 comeback album What Doesn’t Kill You.

The double album Rocks Europe is rounded out by two previously unreleased studio tracks, “She’s Something Else” and “Alligator Boots.”

Something Else!