Search - Various Artists :: Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968

Golden Nuggets

Thomas Magnum | NJ, USA | 11/01/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Nuggets was originally released in 1972 as a double album. It celebrated the garage rock music of the mid 60's with future Patti Smith guitarist Lenny Kaye providing dead-on liner notes. The band's featured on the album laid the blueprint for such bands as The New York Dolls, The Stooges and Patti Smith as well as the punk movement. The songs are no nonsense, crazed out rockers with some psychedelia and dance tracks thrown in. Rhino Records has done an amazing job expanding the original double album into a four cd set. Some of the songs like The Kingsmen "Louie, Louie", Sam The Sham & Pharaoh's "Wooly Bully", The Outsiders' "Time Wont Let Me", The Human Beinz propulsive "Nobody But Me", The Musical Explosion's "Little Bit O' Soul", The Count Five's "Psychotic Reaction", The Castaways' "Liar, Liar" were all top ten hits with The Strawberry Alarm Clock's "Incense & Peppermint" going all the way to number one. For the most part, the collection is made up of obscure songs that were minor national hits and regional hits around the country. Songs like The Cryan Shames' searing "Sugar & Spice", The Barbarians' earnest "Moulty", The Lollipop Shoppe's pulsating "You Must Be A Witch", The Sonics' "Strychnine", Kim Fowley's spooky "The Trip", Rare Breed's (who became American Breed and scored a top ten hit with Bend Me, Shape Me) r&b flavored "Beg, Borrow & Steal", Richard & The Young Lions' stellar "Open Up Your Door", The Bees' buzzing "Voices Green & Purple" and The Palace Guards' bubble gummy "Falling Sugar" are all basically unknowns. But they all show an immense amount of heart and soul and the classic three chords and a dream philosophy of most bands out there. Some well known bands show up with some lesser known hits like The Turtles, Captain Beefheart and Paul Revere & The Raiders whose "Just Like Me" is an absolute rave-up. Some famous artists appear in their first or lesser known groups like Todd Rundgren with The Nazz on "Open Our Eyes, Ted Nugent on two songs from The Amboy Dukes, ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons with The 13th Floor Elevators and Creedence Clearwater Revival shows up under their original moniker, The Golliwogs, with the chooglin "Fight Fire". Other great songs include some semi-famous tracks like the frat rock classics "Double Shot (Of My Baby's Love" by The Swinging Medallions and The Premiers "Farmer John", The Standells' "Dirty Water", The Strangeloves "I Want Candy" which Bow Wow Wow would turn into a new wave staple, Love's influential "7 And 7 Is" and the Tex-ex stylings of The Hombres' "Let It Out (Let It All Hang Out)". Nuggets is an essential collection for any fan of rock to have in their collection."

One Listener's Take

running_man | Chesterfield Twp., MI | 02/04/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The title of 'Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From the First Psychedelic Era, 1965 - 1968' would seem to imply that the four discs included are replete with classic acid-rock tracks. While there are a fair share of psychedelic numbers, when one lists this box set for sale on ebay, the genre is identified as 'garage & surf'. There are other genre's, such as mainstream pop and country-rock that also find space on these discs, so diversity is one triumphant chord for 'Nuggets'. The liner notes also reveal that the producers sought to cull material from the rich netherland of obscure, local releases which deserved better than they got in the highly competitive world of rock and roll in the glorious 1960's. I believe this set scores on all counts, and in fact only errs by digging too deep into the proverbial barrel, where some deserving dregs (thought to be nuggets) should still be residing. But even this miscalculation is forgivable, because most people will find they have a penchant for those tracks that were local to them in the late 1960's, rather than tracks that were only popular in some far off metropolis. Also, given that there are 118 tracks offered here (almost 30 per disc, on average), this ultimate compilation could never have completely pleased anyone. What it does do is to serve as a library, a cultural time capsule, encompassing the attitude, sound, and peculiarities of the hippie generation.



I categorized the 118 tracks into five groups. The easiest group to single out were the big hits. There are eighteen songs, pretty much evenly divided over the four discs, that charted at least number 17 or higher nationally, nine of them in the Top Ten. There is only one that rose to number one, and it isn't 'Louie Louie'. It's 'Incense and Peppermints'. Each and every one should be readily recognizable to anyone who lived through the decade and held an interest in pop music. While most are readily attainable on less expensive compilations, some are fairly rare, such as 'Dirty Water' by the Standells, 'Little Girl' by the Syndicate of Sound, 'Let It All Hang Out' by The Hombres, and 'Journey To the Center of the Mind', perhaps the quintessential Nugget, by the Amboy Dukes.



Secondly, I listed songs that are definitely deserving of inclusion on these discs, but which made a far more modest impression on the pop charts of the day. Some, such as 'Tobacco Road' by The Blues Magoos and 'Baby Please Don't Go', again by the Amboy Dukes, had no chance of chart success because they were either too lengthy (over four minutes) or too drenched in the blues. I counted seven such tracks on discs one, and another seven on disc four, among them 'Lies' by the Knickerbockers, 'I Live In the Springtime' by The Lemon Drops (perhaps the only song on all four discs with no percussion instruments), and 'Love Gone Bad' by The Underdogs, a band near and dear to me from Grosse Pointe, Michigan. Disc three offers 'Fight Fire' from The Golliwogs, who would soon change their name to Creedence Clearwater Revival (wait till you see John, Tom, Stu, and Cliff in their bright white fright wigs). Scary!



My third category are those songs that in some way should have been better. I was very disappointed to find that 'I Need You' by The Rationals, one of my favorite 1960's Detroit bands, was a cover of a Kinks b-side, rather than their number one hit (in Detroit) by the same name. And while I'm at it, although The Vagrants did feature Leslie West, their version of 'Respect' takes a third place to Aretha Franklin's version, AND the version parlayed into a hit by The Rationals before either one of those artists laid a hand on it. 'Hey Joe' by The Leaves pales not only to Jimi Hendrix's version, but also to The Byrds take. And how come we get 'I See the Light' by the Five Americans rather than 'Western Union', and 'Steppin' Out' by Paul Revere and the Raiders rather than 'Kicks' or 'Good Thing'? Surely The Turtles strummed up better than 'Outside Chance', even though Johnny Barbata is featured on drums here. And I could be wrong, but isn't there a sturdier version of 'Farmer John' around other than this version by The Premiers?



Fourth, there are some Great Finds here on Nuggets. The ones I knew about, but that people from other parts of the country may need to discover, include 'Pushin' Too Hard' by The Seeds, 'Who Do You Love' by the Woolies (out of Lansing, Michigan), 'Open Up Your Door' by Richard and the Young Lions, and the ultimate fuzzy guitar track, the disc four closer, 'Blue's Theme' by Davie Allen and the Arrows. I was pleasantly surprised by 'Follow Me' from Lyme (actually Warren Zevon) & Cybelle, 'You Burn Me Up and Down' by We the People (who come off sounding like the prototype for The Stooges), and 'Beg Borrow and Steal', a completely unpretentious redeux of 'Louie Louie' by The Rare Breed, featuring a great set of new lyrics. Add to that 'Open My Eyes' by an young Todd Rundgren and his band Nazz.



Finally, there are those songs that were, for the most part, interesting to listen to once, but I could never imagine wanting to hear again. Some are so bad I wonder why anyone even considered including them, such as The Mojo Men doing an awful cover of Buffalo Springfield's 'Sit Down I Think I Love You' (which wasn't even one of Buffalo Springfield's better songs). I count 63 such tracks, more than half of the songs offered. That's about 30 too many. Not that they're all bad. In fact, some, such as 'Talk Talk' by the Music Machine, and 'Laugh Laugh' by the Beau Brummels, were Top Twenty hits. I just don't have any use for them. Some feature star performers, in most cases prior to their heyday, such as Al Kooper and The Blues Project performing 'No Time Like the Right Time', and Sly Stone producing 'She's My Baby' for The Mojo Men. Some songs, such as 'Optical Sound' are interesting for their experimental sounds and recording techniques, or again as a local interest story (for me, The Unrelated Segments were a Detroit band I was curious to check out, but their 'Story of My Life' basically sucks). The longest stretch of weak songs occurs on disc four, with tracks eight through eighteen, excepting tracks nine and eleven, unworthy of being recycled here, in my opinion.



The entire 'Nuggets' package is impressively accompanied by a 95 page information booklet which is printed on heavy, glossy photo paper. It features background on the performers and their performances, as well as photographs of some of the more interesting bands. The four discs are ensconced in color coded jewel cases, which sit in a molded plastic frame, which sits in a heavy cardboard box, with psychedelic graphics gracing the cover. The discs themselves are designed to be reminicent of some of the more popular, vintage labels from the era, such as Laurie Records, home of The Music Explosion, among other bands. It is clearly a labor of love, and something any person with an interest in the music of the 1960's should take at least one look at, and for many of the tracks, more than one listen to. Save up, buy, and enjoy."

Its a nugget if you dug it

09/08/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In the summer of 1976 a friend played for me two albums that forever changed my music collecting life. The first was "The Ramones" and the second was the Sire edition of "Nuggets" which is now Volume 1 of the amazing 4 CD set. Over the next 20 years I avidly collected every known American mid 60's band and have assembled a 2,000 plus collection of the "Nugget" bands plus all the vinyl compillation series that 'Nuggets" spawned such as "Pebbles", "Flashback', "Back from the Grave" etc. This collection is hands down the finest single collection of mid 60's American Punk, Psycedelic and Garage bands both known and obscure. If the music appeals to you it will either become a fantastic starting place for futher collecting or if you are already a fan a perfect 4 volume summary with outstanding sound. Of course this set has the must have classics by the Elevators, Standells,CWB, Wailers etc. However, this set also has many songs thar are new to my collection and truly fantastic including "Journey to Tyme" by Kenny & the Kasuals and "Open up You Door" By Richard and the Young Lions. Great liner notes by the people who originaly uncovered most of these songs including Lenny Kaye and Greg Shaw and great mono sound not artificial rechanneled stereo. A couple of missing songs such as the Moving Sidewalks "99th floor" ? & The Mysterions' "96 Tears", The Magic Mushrooms "I'm Gone" and The Grains of Sand "Thats when Happiness Began".All in all perfection. Enjoy!!!! M"