Occasional Albums Thing 006 - Various Artists “Nuggets - Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era (1965-1968)”

When I was doing the #2024AlbumsThing I did say that I hadn’t really covered any of the compilations I have, I did one or two but not too many. So now in this #OccasionalAlbumsThing I think it’s time to take a look at some of them, starting with one of the most famous compilations ever put together…

It was my great friend Phil Barlow who introduced me to Garage Rock, Garage Psyche or whatever you want to call it. I was already a fan of music from the 60’s (The Who, Small Faces, The Kinks etc.) but Phil pointed me toward exotically named American bands of the period like The Chocolate Watch Band, The Electric Prunes and the Thirteenth Floor Elevators. These bands had been given a new lease of life and gained a wider audience when, in 1972, Lenny Kaye, then working at the Village Oldies record shop in New York (he would later become the lead guitarist for the Patti Smith Group) compiled “Nuggets” for Elektra records. Kaye’s sleeve notes contained one of the first references to “punk rock”.

Many of the bands contained within had been almost forgotten. Some of them had scored hits at the time, The Seeds, Shadows Of Knight, The Standells among them, but most had not even sniffed the big time. The song that kicks off this comp actually reached #49 in the UK charts in 1966. The Electric Prunes (singer James Lowe said of their name “It's not attractive, and there's nothing sexy about it, but people won't forget it”) second single “I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)” is almost a blueprint for Psychedelic Garage Rock. It rides in on a wash of weirdly affected guitars, is packed with more fuzz guitar and weirdy lyrics. It’s all slightly eerie but it’s a classic.

Next we get some pretty standard but spirited Garage Rock from The Standells and the Strangeloves, these were after all the bands of the day discovering new ways to make a noise. This was the sound of America’s response to the British Invasion that began with the arrival of The Beatles in 1964. That’s perfectly demonstrated by The Knickerbockers “Lies”, which is simultaneously fantastic while being a complete “Stars In Their Eyes” pastiche of the Fabs, if you didn’t know you’d easily mistake it for The Beatles themselves.

Lenny Kaye had originally conceived a series of 8 installments of “Nuggets” each one focussing on a different region of the USA but, worrying that Elektra might not go for that, he put together a collection of his favourite tracks mixed with some purely to make it more saleable. So we do get some great but very un-psyche moments like The Vagrants take on “Respect”, the poppy Michael & The Messengers “Just Like Romeo & Juliet” and the Shadows Of Knight’s “Oh Yeah” (which was a Top 40 hit in the US). But interspersed between them are some absolute gems.

The 13th Floor Elevators were from Austin Texas, led by the enigmatic Roky Erickson and featured Tommy Hall playing electric jug, this being a stoneware jug with a microphone held up to it while it was being blown into. Hall did not blow into the jug to produce his sound, he vocalised musical lines into the neck of the jug to create echo and distortion. Click the link below to hear their Garage Punk classic “You’re Gonna Miss Me” and that sound that makes you go “WHAT THE HELL IS THAT ?” is Tommy Hall and his Electric Jug.

Flip over to side 3 and the very next track is the Count Five’s “Psychotic Reaction” a song that, until it hits its instrumental passage, is a fairly ordinary 60’s tune with an interesting Fuzz guitar part. But when it hits the instrumental rave-up, in place to represent the storytellers psychotic state of mind, it really takes off. 

A little later we meet the Chocolate Watch Band, a San Francisco group whose singer, David Aguilar, had a vocal sound that was VERY reminiscent of Mick Jagger. But their contribution here, “Let’s Talk About Girls”, is a pummelling bit of Garage Rock, and it’s not even their best shot (I’d urge you to search out "Are You Gonna Be There (At the Love-In)”). The Amboy Dukes (featuring a young Ted Nugent, shame how that turned out) give us a proto-heavy rock go at “Baby Please Don’t Go” (an old Blues tune popularised in the 60’s by Them) and Nazz (fronted by Todd Rundgren) offer the wonderful Mod-Psyche of “Open My Eyes”.

“Nuggets” has been credited with an influence on both the US & UK Punk scenes. It kicked off many other similar 60’s Garage Rock compilations, The Pebbles and Rubble series run to over 20 LP’s. It has appeared in the Rolling Stone list of the 500 greatest albums of all time and in the book “All Time Top 1000 Albums”. In 1998 Rhino Records expanded “Nuggets” into a lavish 4 CD box set which I still own (along with its sequel box sets “Nuggets II (Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond 1964-1969)” and “Children Of Nuggets - Original Artyfacts From The Second Psychedelic Era 1976-1996”, both excellent sets). In 2012 Rhino re-issued the original double LP on vinyl and that is what I have here (an original 1972 US Nuggets would cost you around £100 now). 

Lenny Kaye went on to play on all of Patti Smith’s classic 70’s albums, he co-produced Suzanne Vega's first two albums including her huge hit single "Luka” and has been nominated for three Grammy’s but it’s arguable that he is still best known for compiling “Nuggets”…cheers Lenny !

13th Floor Elevators “You’re Gonna Miss Me” - https://youtu.be/S2VpigTE6js?si=4uDrGzGhJDa_1Whm