Dec 14

Highs in the Mid-Sixties Series

HIGHS IN THE MID-SIXTIES SERIES

 
The Highs in the Mid-Sixties series  is a group of 23 compilation albums of garage rock and psychedelic rock recordings that were issued by AIP Records in the mid-1980’s.  This series is a companion to the Pebbles series of similar music.  The title sounds like it might have come from a weather report, although “Highs” intends to mean “the best” (and is also an apparent drug reference), while the recordings on these albums were originally released in the mid-1960’s.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 
Other dreams that went by the wayside were to collect all of the garage rock and psychedelic rock compilation albums.  There were too many of them also; I remember going into a record store once and seeing a rack with several dozen different comp albums – just overwhelming for my little budget.  As an alternate dream, I determined to purchase all of the Pebbles Series albums (LP’s and CD’s) including the Highs in the Mid-Sixties Series records that had been released by Greg Shaw and Bomp! Records – that’s more than 60 albums right there.    
 
(April 2012)
 
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Greg Shaw’s Pebbles output also included a vinyl-only series called Highs in the Mid-Sixties – which was nearly as long as the original Pebbles series and focused on particular states and regions – plus a subset of Pebbles called The Continent Lashes Back that put the spotlight on music from continental Europe.  The Netherlands in particular has a rich musical scene that rivals the UK. 
 
(January 2013)
 
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I have collected most or all of the albums in several of the various series of garage rock and psychedelic rock compilation albums that Greg Shaw has released in the past few decades, including Pebbles, Rough Diamonds, Highs in the Mid-Sixties, English Freakbeat, and Electric Sugar Cube Flashbacks.  Pebbles in particular is often cited as one of the chief inspirations behind the punk rock movement of the mid-1970’s – even more so than the better-known Nuggets album.  Thus, even Greg Shaw’s historical albums have helped direct the future of rock music. 

 

(May 2013)

 

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One of the other garage rock bands that I wrote about is the Outcasts.  They won the statewide Battle of the Bands contest in 1966, the high water mark of the garage rock era – furthermore, they won in Texas, which probably had the highest concentration of 1960’s garage rock and psychedelic rock bands in the nation.  The AIP Records series Highs in the Mid-Sixties concentrates on regional musical scenes rather than groupings of obscure songs from across the nation, and 5 of the 23 albums in that series are on Texas bands. 

 

(September 2013)

 

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This CD by the Holy Ghost Reception Committee #9 reminds me of stock liner notes that appeared on several of the compilation albums in the Pebbles Series and in the Highs in the Mid-Sixties Series, which collected obscure 1960’s garage rock and psychedelic rock songs.  The concluding paragraph applies to this music, in a slightly different connotation:  “Truly, this was the pinnacle of rock & roll, and until something comes along that can match it, these obscure artifacts of a vanished golden age stand as a reminder of just how great innocence can be!”  

 

(August 2014)

 

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That “jukebox” orientation can be a problem with some of the 1960’s revival bands that I have heard. Covering obscure garage-rock and psychedelic-rock songs taken, for example, from the Highs in the Mid-Sixties Series and later albums in the Pebbles Series is fine for people who are not familiar with them; but for people like me who already know all of those songs, I am often reminded about how much fresher the original versions were.  
(June 2017)
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Anyway, once Kill City broke the ice, Bomp! Records and their affiliated labels like BFD Records, Voxx Records, AIP Records, Mohawk Records, and others began pressing LP’s by the truckload almost immediately.  The label’s first compilation album, The Best of Bomp, Volume One was originally released in 1978.  The Pebbles Series of 1960’s garage rock and psychedelic rock songs that number nearly 100 albums in all began shipping in 1978; besides Pebbles, the various series (both LP’s and CD’s) include the Highs in the Mid-Sixties Series, The Continent Lashes Back, Best of Pebbles, Great Pebbles, etc.  Their other reissues of 1960’s music include the English Freakbeat Series, the Rough Diamonds Series, and the Electric Sugar Cube Flashbacks Series. 
 
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In series such as The Iguana Chronicles – it was true of the Pebbles Series and the Highs in the Mid-Sixties Series as examples – Bomp! Records tends to release albums in batches rather than one at a time.  Along with the inconsistent catalogue numbers, trying to decide the order that the albums were released is very difficult.
 
(December 2017)
 
Last edited: March 22, 2021