Just A Little Bit

"Just a Little Bit" is one of two Blue Cheer singles to break the Billboard 100, and the only of their originals to do so (the other was their remake of Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues"). Blue Cheer will never be mistaken for poets with "Just a Little Bit" lyrics like: You have a strange desire When you walk across the ground Then you set the world on fire But poetry was never the band's calling card. Blue Cheer was all about volume, and "Just a Little Bit" stands as a proud testament. The song comes right out of the gate with distortion, frenetic drumming, and Dickie Peterson's snarling vocals. There's no softening or fade out at the end, either. It ends as it began, a sonic assault way ahead of its time.

The reliance on noise in this track wasn't always appreciated. In a particularly harsh review from the era, Mike Jahn of Pop Scene Service (November 1, 1968) wrote of Outsideinside, "Dick Peterson plays bass as though it was made out of a wash-tub and sings very much like an asthmatic frog... Blue Cheer is just not to be taken seriously, not by real musicians and certainly not by those who buy records." Despite the critics' feelings, Blue Cheer won their place in music history as one of the formative influences of the heavy metal genre. "Just a Little Bit" stands as one of their landmark songs.

In 2004, Rush made an album of covers titled Feedback. On that album, they did a version of "Summertime Blues" that combined the Who's version with Blue Cheer's, closing with the drum pattern from the latter.