Dec 14

Nuggets

Greatly Appreciated

NUGGETS: ORIGINAL ARTYFACTS FROM THE FIRST PSYCHEDELIC ERA, 1965-1968
 
 
Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era  is a groundbreaking compilation album of American garage rock singles released in the mid-to-late 1960’s.  It was assembled by Jac Holzman, founder of Elektra Records, and Lenny Kaye, later lead guitarist for the Patti Smith Group.  The original double album was released on LP by Elektra in 1972 with liner notes by Kaye that contained one of the first uses of the term “punk rock”.  It was reissued with a new cover design by Sire Records in 1976 and more recently as an expanded four-CD box set in 1998.  In 2003, the album was ranked number 196 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 
By 1971, the term “punk rock” had already been applied retrospectively by Greg Shaw as well as Greil Marcus to American bands such as Question Mark and the Mysterians, the Standells, the Seeds, the Shadows of Knight, and the Kingsmen who managed to score some hit songs during the height of the British Invasion.  In 1972, Lenny Kaye popularized the term in the first definitive compilation album that he helped assemble for this music, called Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968; his liner notes are almost as legendary as the double-album itself.  (This music is now referred to as garage rock and psychedelic rock).
 
(April 2010)
 
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Besides the darling cover on The Piltdown Men by the Piltdown Men showing an r&r band of cave men and women plus dinosaurs, I spotted the name “E. Cobb” in the songwriting credits and wondered if that could possibly be Ed Cobb.  And sure enough it was:  As their producer and songwriter, Ed Cobb greatly influenced the musical direction of what had up until then been a conventional rock band called the Standells.  The song that he wrote for the band called “Dirty Water” made it to #11 on the national charts and changed the Standells into true punk rock heroes:  Not for nothing was this landmark garage rock song placed on Nuggets (the very first garage rock/psychedelic rock compilation album, released in 1972) as the second track, right after “I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)” by the Electric Prunes.
 
(October 2010)
 
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Mainstream Records does have some prominent albums to its credit, however, including the first album by Big Brother and the Holding Company (not long after Janis Joplin joined up) and the first three albums by the Amboy Dukes, Ted Nugent’s early band (including their big hit “Journey to the Center of the Mind”). 
 
The Amboy Dukes’ raw treatment of Big Joe Williams’ “Baby, Please Don’t Go” from their first album was included on the original Nuggets compilation album and already features Ted Nugent’s signature guitar licks.  
 
(April 2011)
 
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The Outcasts song “I’m in Pittsburgh (and it’s Raining)” is the opening track on Pebbles, Volume 1, the second compilation album of 1960’s garage rock and psychedelic rock music (after Nuggets).  In the original liner notes, Greg Shaw calls the song “a blistering punk-rocker, which has been compared to the Pretty Things at their best”.
 
(September 2011)
 
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Then I hit Wikipedia and looked up something on the legendary Nuggets collection (full name, and also how it is listed in Wikipedia:  Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968), when what to my wondering eyes did appear but a total list of blue names sans one.  Blue in the Wikipedia world indicates a “wikilink” to another article.

In other words, someone has now written a Wikipedia article on every band on the Nuggets double-album set except one:  the Magicians.  (Actually there are now Wikipedia articles on the great majority of the bands on the entire four-CD Nuggets Box Set).  Oddly enough, the last several times that I have listened to Nuggets, their song “An Invitation to Cry” has really stood out as a highlight.  It is a clever idea for a song that has happened to a lot of people:  getting an invitation to the wedding of a former girlfriend.

I have already praised this album to the high heavens when writing the UARB article on Hacienda (January 2011) nearly a year ago, so I won’t say too much more now.  Back when Wikipedia was just a little over one-third its current size (as measured by the number of articles in the English-language version at least), I spotted a glaring hole in the rock band articles when I tried to look up something on Mouse and the Traps, a wonderful Texas garage rock band that I have long admired.  (At that time, there were articles on maybe half of the bands on Nuggets).  Their Nuggets entry “A Public Execution” sounds a lot like Bob Dylan, so you can imagine the appeal of that to me; as Lenny Kaye's liner notes put it:  “There are some who say that Mouse does Dylan’s Highway 61  period better than The Master himself”.  On that band I found plenty on the Internet, including websites by at least one of the founding members of the group.  Someone in the Wikipedia community even awarded me a Barnstar award for that “long awaited” (as they put it) article, and that sure felt good. 
 
(December 2011)
 
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The Pebbles Series was started in 1978, about 6 years after the Nuggets compilation was released.  
 
(August 2012)
 
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American teenagers (mostly white suburban kids) were also invigorated by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and all the rest; and they responded by launching a counter-assault, when seemingly every kid in America wanted to be in a band.  This era is now known as the garage rock era (that was the most available practice space for most of these would-be rock stars, hence the name); this time period also saw the beginnings of the psychedelic rock movement on both sides of the Atlantic.  I didn’t know exactly what I was hearing at the time, but the music by bands like the Seeds, Blues Magoos, the Electric Prunes, Question Mark and the Mysterians, the Standells, Count Five, and Strawberry Alarm Clock (among many other bands) was grabbing me almost immediately.  I don’t know that I even realized immediately how bizarre many of these American band names were, as compared to those of British Invasion bands like the Animals, Freddie and the Dreamers, and the Dave Clark Five. 
 
Thankfully, in 1972 (though if I’m not mistaken, the album was actually not released in the US until 1976), Lenny Kaye – later the guitarist for the seminal Patti Smith Group – helped assemble hit songs by all of these diverse bands plus plenty more into what is now regarded as one of the greatest compilation albums of all times:  Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968.  It remains one of my favorite records, and I have spoken of it several times before in these posts. 
 
But Nuggets turned out to be just the beginning.  Many other Nuggets compilation albums would follow that concentrated on the better-known American bands of the garage rock era. 
 
Though punk rock had already begun to take off, many critics argue that Pebbles, even more than Nuggets helped launch the raw sounds that kept the movement going into the 1980’s and beyond.  Besides launching a 4-disk Nuggets Box Set covering the original double-LP and other songs of that period, a second Nuggets box set covering lesser known British and continental European music was also released, called Nuggets II: Original Artyfacts from the British Empire and Beyond, 1964–1969; many of these songs originally appeared on the Pebbles albums.  There was also a third box set – Children of Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the Second Psychedelic Era – 1976-1995 – highlighting the bands (mostly from the 1980’s) that were inspired by the Nuggets and Pebbles music to develop their own sounds.  Perhaps, in response to the Garage Rock Revival, there might be a Grandchildren of Nuggets box set in the future. 
 
(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. 

 

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I was born a couple of years later than Greg Shaw, so I turned 14 in 1965.  By then, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones were old news; and while I was still paying attention, what was really grabbing me at the time were American artists and bands.  First and foremost was “Like a Rolling Stone” by Bob Dylan; that song – plus the flip side “Gates of Eden” that was nearly as long and every bit as good – captivated me in a way that I just couldn’t keep quiet about.  Other great folk-rock sounds of that period included the release of the cover of Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man” by the Byrds and the revamped “The Sounds of Silence” by Simon and Garfunkel.  Bob Dylan himself preferred the Byrds’ cover to his own recording of “Mr. Tambourine Man”; but in my usual contrarian way, I preferred Dylan’s original – it was a lot longer for one thing. 

 

These songs were followed closely by the glorious sounds of garage rock and psychedelic rock that were then in their infancy.  Songs like “Pushin’ Too Hard” by the Seeds, “We Ain’t Got Nothin’ Yet” by Blues Magoos, and “I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)” by the Electric Prunes really made an impression on me.  It wasn’t until I picked up the Nuggets collection and then the numerous Pebbles albums that I plumbed the depths of this scene, but it was by no means brand new to me either. 

 

(May 2013)

 
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To some extent, I think that Providence guides my hand as I am writing.  For example, in the post about the UARB Hacienda (one of the few current bands that I have written about), I started out talking about the Premiers in an examination of Hispanic rock bands and artists.  Their song “Farmer John” – which Neil Young covered much later – is the next-to-last song on the classic compilation album Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968 and also the oldest, dating from 1964.  As I struggled with how best to describe their sound – having been dissatisfied with the descriptions I had read in reviews and other places, including their own label’s promotional material – I realized that Hacienda’s music was actually quite similar to this song by the Premiers. 

 

(June 2013/2)

 

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The first Pebbles album came out in 1978, in a modest release that was apparently distributed mostly among top record collectors.  The label name was Mastercharge Records; most of you likely remember that as being the original name for what is now called Master Card, so I suspect that the release was financed by credit card advances.  Greg Shaw had big plans for the series, and even this first edition was called “Volume 1” (though the one on BFD Records was not so marked).  The album was subtitled “Original Artyfacts from the First Punk Era”, a takeoff on the subtitle of the legendary compilation album Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968 that had come out six years earlier. 

 

In 2008, on the 30th anniversary of the original Pebbles release, Bomp! Records put out a special reissue on clear vinyl complete with the pink xeroxed sheet with Greg Shaw’s liner notes that had been included with the 1978 album. 

 

(July 2013)

 

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Mouse and the Traps was one of the first bands that I wrote about; they were featured on the original Nuggets album with their fabulous Bob Dylan soundalike song “A Public Execution” that was released under the name Mouse.  The band later backed a singer named Jimmy Rabbitt on a cover of “Psychotic Reaction”, a hit song recorded by Count Five.  The song was released under the name Positively 13 O’Clock; their version of “Psychotic Reaction” was included on the very first Pebbles album. 

 

The only other band to be featured on the original Nuggets album and also on Pebbles, Volume 1 is the Shadows of Knight.  The Nuggets song is their cover of a terrific Bo Diddley song, “Oh Yea”; while the Pebbles entry is a novelty song by the band called “Potato Chip” that was issued only on a flexi disc as part of some snack food promotion.  

 

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GONN is another legendary garage rock band; their amazing song “Blackout of Gretely” was slated to be included on the original Nuggets album but was omitted due to its length (4:29 – most garage rock tracks clock in at 3:00 or less).  But Greg Shaw had included this song as a bonus track on the CD reissue on AIP Records of Pebbles, Volume 1 and also put their follow-up single “Doin’ Me In” on the Pebbles, Volume 10 CD.  I had also acquired a retrospective album by GONN that was identified as Rough Diamonds, Volume 9; this is a series of albums that Greg Shaw put out on Voxx Records by garage rock bands who had recorded more than just a few singles. 

 

Even better was their 1995 reunion album – actually their first true album of any kind – GONN with the Wind that I have played over and over again.  The Wikipedia article on GONN has had more additions and changes to it than most of these, but it is still largely my work:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GONN .  

 
(September 2013)
 
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I was really scrambling to find someone who I could write about at that time; the post on the band that I had planned to talk about – Phil and the Frantics – wasn’t going at all well, and that post actually didn't come out until August 2012.  Then for some reason, I looked up the original Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968 and noticed that there was still one band on the two-LP set, the Magicians that still didn’t have an article.  And incredibly, they still don’t! 

 

YouTube has the Nuggets track by the Magicians, “An Invitation to Cry” in several locations, such as www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJB-DKoXD1A .  This version has several wedding invitations and shots of brides and grooms, and the like. 

 
(December 2013)

 

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Patti Smith began performing rock music in 1974 – another year that popular music changed irrevocably, much like 1963 with the Beatles and the rest of the British Invasion – with music archivist and guitarist Lenny Kaye.  While not actually inventing the term “punk rock”, he had popularized it in his liner notes for the first compilation album of garage rock and psychedelic rock music, Nuggets, so this was most appropriate. 

 

(February 2014)

 

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In early 1969, guitarist Leslie West of the Vagrants started a band called Leslie West Mountain (with “mountain” being a reference to his then-large size); other bandmembers were Norman Landsberg (keyboards, bass) and Ken Janick (drums).  Felix Pappalardi expressed interest in producing the band’s work. 

 

The album is called Mountain and was released in July 1969, just five months after Goodbye; Felix Pappalardi produced the album and also performed bass guitar with Leslie West, Norman Landsberg, and drummer N. D. Smart, formerly with the highly regarded Boston garage band the Remains (who are featured on the Nuggets album).  The album is often confused as being by the band Mountain; but officially, it is the first solo album by Leslie West. 

 
(May 2014)
 
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Here is the Nuggets album cover where the Magicians’ classic “An Invitation to Cry” appears: 

 

 

 

(December 2014)

 

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One of Kim Fowley’s best known songs is “The Trip”, the first single to be released under his own name; it was included in the soundtrack for the 2008 Guy Ritchie film RocknRolla.  The song is included on the album that started the garage rock/psychedelic rock revival that began in the 1970’s and continues to this day, Pebbles, Volume 1.  In his review of the Pebbles series for Allmusic, Richie Unterberger comments:  “Though 1972’s Nuggets compilation reawakened listeners to the sounds of mid-’60s garage rock, it only focused on the tip of the iceberg.  Behind those forgotten hits and semi-hits lurked hundreds, if not thousands, of regional hits and flops from the same era, most even rawer and cruder. . . .  More than any other factor, these compilations [in the Pebbles series] were responsible for the resurgence of interest in garage rock, which remains high among collectors to this day.” 

 

(January 2015/1)

 

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“I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)” by the Electric Prunes was brought to a larger audience when it became the opening track on the classic 1972 compilation album Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968.  The early psychedelic rock track “You’re Gonna Miss Me” by the 13th Floor Elevators that I mentioned earlier is also on that album. 

 

(July 2015)

 

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The Nuggets album collected the garage rock and psychedelic rock hits and would-be hits from the mid-1960’s from bands like the Electric Prunes, Blues Magoos, the Standells, the Seeds, etc. There are some omissions, but Nuggets is as good an overview of this scene as there is. “96 Tears” by ? and the Mysterians is the missing song that always comes to mind for me (that song didn’t even make the Nuggets Box Set, though it was on the list for the Nuggets, Volume 2 album that was programmed but never released). Interestingly, Wikipedia notes: “One of the earliest written uses of the ‘punk’ term was by critic Dave Marsh who used it in 1970 to describe the group Question Mark and the Mysterians, who had scored a major hit with their song ‘96 Tears’ in 1966.” Here is what I have to say about this album: .
 
The Wikipedia article on the album starts out this way: “Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968 is a groundbreaking compilation album of American psychedelic and garage rock singles released in the mid-to-late 1960s. It was assembled by Jac Holzman, founder of Elektra Records, and Lenny Kaye, later lead guitarist for the Patti Smith Group. The original double album was released on LP by Elektra in 1972 with liner notes by Kaye that contained one of the first uses of the term ‘punk rock’. It was reissued with a new cover design by Sire Records in 1976 and expanded into a four-CD box set by Rhino Records in 1998.”  
Greg Shaw of Bomp! Records started a long series of albums in 1978 called Pebbles that dug deeper into the mine than Nuggets for obscure garage rock and psychedelic rock songs. The initial album, the Pebbles, Volume 1 LP was subtitled “Original Artyfacts from the First Punk Era”, in a takeoff on the full name of the Nuggets album, Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968. The Wikipedia article on this album is largely my work, and there are dozens more articles on the albums in this series that I put together as well, in my first major Wikipedia project: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pebbles,_Volume_1 .  
(December 2016)
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Sky Saxon is the former frontman for the Seeds, best known for their hit song “Pushin’ Too Hard”; while not among the biggest garage rock hit songs, peaking only at #36 on the Billboard Hot 100, it is likely one of the best known.  “Pushin’ Too Hard” was included on the Nuggets compilation album and the Nuggets Box Set, and it is featured in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s exhibit showcasing “The 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll”.
 
(December 2017)
 
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But I likely will keep putting out what I call the “Story of the Month” (I have my web pages broken down into short “Items” and longer “Stories” on whomever or whatever I am talking about) that I uncover as I load up the web site. These Stories are on well known (well, better known anyway) songs and albums and rock bands and other topics that are not of the Under Appreciated variety. I started those last year and meant to list the ones in my year-end post last time but forgot, so here is that list from the past two years:
 
December 2013 – The Standells 
 
January 2014 – (skipped)
 
February 2014 – Hasil Adkins 
 
March 2014 – Bobby Darin 
 
April 2014 – Nuggets 
 
May 2014 – The Nerves 
 
June 2014 – The Outsiders (American band)
 
 
 
September 2014 – The Piltdown Man and Brontosaurus 
 
October 2014 – Walter/Wendy Carlos 
 
November 2014 – The Trashmen 
 
December 2014 – John Birch Society Blues 
 
January 2015 – John Mellencamp 
 
February 2015 – Child Is Father to the Man 
 
March 2015 – Dion DiMucci 
 
April 2015 – “Scotch and Soda” 
 
May 2015 – Stiv Bators/Greg Shaw 
 
June 2015 – “Walk on the Wild Side” 
 
July 2015 – “Lola”
 
August 2015 – Bob Dylan the Protest Singer
(Year 6 Review)
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Anyway, here is what and who I talked about last year:
December 2016 – 1960’s garage rock band THE IGUANAS; Story of the Month on the Muddy Waters song “Rollin’ Stone”; also, 1970’s music and proto-punk music, Ramones, Nuggets, Pebbles Series, the Sonics, New York Dolls, the Modern Lovers, MC5, the Stooges, Iggy Pop.
 
(Year 8 Review)
Last edited: April 8, 2021