Customer Reviews

Nuggets From Nuggets: Choice Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you are between the ages of 45 and 70 and listened to any rock or top 40 radio stations in the 60s', you have simply got to have this cd. There are songs on here that just by looking at the titles you would swear you never heard of but when the song starts playing, amazingly you are able to sing along just like the last 35 years never happened.

Of course, everone in this solar system is familiar with Louie Louie by the Kingsmen and Wolly Bully by Sam The Sham & The Pharaohs but do you remember Liar, Liar by the Castaways? No? You wanna bet? How about I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night by the Electric Prunes? Time Won't Let Me by The Outsiders?

This cd is the creme de la creme of Rhino's 4 cd 130 song Garage Band collection and is more fun than scarfing down a half gallon of "Turtle Tracks". It also comes with a 23 page booklet packed full of pictures and wonderful information such as in the early 60s', something like 63 percent of American kids under the age of 20 were in a rock band of some kind, many were making records.

These songs, though ones of a kind, were Monster Hits at the time and this is the cd that I have spent 2 years looking for. Thank you, Rhino.

A lot of you twenty-and thirty somethings out there probably think that psychedelic music was all swirling colors, flashing strobe lights, and intergalactic journeys of the mind. You would be wrong of course; all those sounds came later (mostly in the early seventies). Nope, early psychedelia was made with fuzzed-out guitars, Farfisa (or Vox) organ solos, and amps that were very small. In short, garage band music with a mindbending twist. (Think Very early Pink Floyd, such as "See Emily Play," rather than Dark Side of the Moon.) In his liner notes to the set, Greg Shaw does an outstanding job of linking these three-minute wonders to the punk and new wave movements of a decade later. Both proto-punk ("Dirty Water," "Pushin' Too Hard," and the Music Machine's wonderful "Talk, Talk"), and pre-new wave ("I Want Candy" and "The Shape of Things to Come") are well represented here. Also present are several selections from one-hit wonder soundalike bands, such as the Beatlesque Knickerbockers ("Lies"), the Byrd-like Leaves ("Hey, Joe", which was actually covered better by other artists), and, best of all, the Count Five, whose Yardbirds clone, "Psychotic Reaction" (complete with mini rave-up instrumental break) is not to be missed. One problem: Rhino Records have set the bar so high with this compilation, it's easy to start nitpicking. For instance, Love would be better represented with "My Little Red Book" than by the track offered here. And where are those all-time garage classics "Wild Thing," by the Troggs, and "Gloria" by Shadows of Knight (or by the Van-Morrison-led group Them)? These, however, are minor quibbles. Overall, Nuggets from Nuggets is good enough to make you want to race to your garage (or living room), clear out a space in the middle, and Start Dancing!!!

This CD has all the garage rock and psychedlic tracks I've been looking for. Really great to listen to. Helped to complete my rock collection. AS great as this disc is, I wish I could afford the multi-disc set and I would buy that one. One disc of this music is not enough!

Three decades ago, the Patti Smith Group's Lenny Kaye coined the phrase "Nuggets" as a term for garbled garage band classics recorded in the mid-60s, mostly by one-chord wonders with names as surreal as Strawberry Alarm Clock, the 13th Floor Elevators, and the Electric Prunes. His insightful compilations contained the stuff of a thousand glam, punk and grundge acts to come. These garbled one-off smashes and semi-underground gems have been mined endlessly ever since by the likes of Alice Cooper on the Music Machine's TALK TALK, The Cramps' reincarnation of the Count Five's PSYCHOTIC REACTION, Brownsville Stations' bruising bash-up on Balloon Farm's QUESTION OF TEMPERATURE, even JOHN BELUSHI, whose slob-fest rendition of the Kingsmen's ultimate Nugget LOUIE LOUIE appeared in ANIMAL HOUSE. Certainly, groups like Arthur Lee and Love could muster considerably more talent than the musically impaired yet still charismatic Seeds, but a snotty attitude counted far more than a perfect solo, and most of these ragtag ensembles had the former to spare. WOOLY BULLY's sleazoid Tex-Mex groove, the frat house shout-along DOUBLE SHOT OF MY BABY'S LOVE, and the Jagger-esque snarl of DIRTY WATER and LITTLE GIRL will almost make you forget the galring omission of Van Morrison's GLORIA, which ties LOUIE LOUIE for all time garage great. That minor gripe aside, NUGGETS is an avalanche of the nastiest, homeliest, and trashiest that sixties rock had to offer.

RATING: FIVE SOUR NOTES

This is a great collection of songs that were recorded by some of rock's great musicians in the early times of their careers. ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons ( The Thirteenth Floor Elevators), Jim Pons of the Turtles ( The Leaves) , and others lay down some great grooves and simple tunes that have great hooks. The Knickerbockers "Lies" is a great classic that has obvious vocal harmonies that remind you of the Beatles, along with the original live recording of "Louie, Louie" by the Kingsmen. The Count Five playing "Psychotic Reaction" has a very unusual rarity as it is the longest track on the CD, exceeding the typical 2 minute hit song length and having a tempo change from 120 bpm to double time and back. The Electric Prunes playing "I Had Too Much to Dream" is the true gem of the CD. It is definitely the rise of the fuzz tone and tremelo settings on the amps that gives this collection the true edge on these classics. Get out your distortion pedal, your Twin Reverb amp, and your Fender guitar and play along!

This cd contains Hard to Find songs from the 60s. The sound is excellent. This cd is definately a must for Oldies collectors.

This is a 20-track distillation of Rhino Records' four disc box set, Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968, a monumental collection of obscure American rock, pop, and psychedlic tunes from the mid 60s. The box set is a stunning compilation, and it belongs in every single rock 'n' roll library. However, if you're thrifty, or if you're not sure you want to drop over fifty bucks on a bunch of songs that you're not framiliar with, this is a good sampler. It features classics like the Electric Prunes' "I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)," The Count Five's garage-rockin' "Psychotic Reaction," The Swingin' Medallions' wonderfully idiotic "Double Shot (Of My Baby's Love)," and the Kingsmen's ubiquitous masterpiece, "Louie Louie." It is, in short, an oldies collection unlike any you've heard before, a mini-tour through the forgotten masterpieces of the 60s.

But it's not without flaws. For one thing, it's way too short- seeing as how CDs can hold 80 minutes of music, there's room here for maybe ten more songs. That means they could have included the Sonics' deranged "Strychnine," the Lyrics' ferocious "So What," the Dovers' uncannily gorgeous "What Am I Gonna Do," AND seven others! If you had any idea how good the afformentioned songs are, you'd feel so ripped off right now! Anyway, this kind of skimpiness is just plain uncalled-for. Plus, this isn't definitive; the box set is essential weather or not you have this disc. There's just too much good stuff there, and 20 tracks (or 30 for that matter) just plain can't sum it up.

Still, it's a very good introduction to the Nuggets world, and a fun listen in its own right. And it's great that this music is available in an inexpensive form. Enjoy!

This is all good stuff, no doubt, but the great thing about the big box set is the ear-opening experience of discovering the bands and hits you never heard before. Where are the Chocolate Watchband, or the Barbarians? No "Spazz" or "Strychnine"? This single disc version is just the golden oldies, and how much fun is that?

It seems that when Rhino Records embarked on breaking down its very cool Nuggets box set into one affordable CD, they took the simple route of just including the biggest chart hits, leaving much of the more obscure stuff (Shadows of Knight, Sonics, Barry & the Remains, etc.) off this set. The 13th Floor Elevators *are* included, so it's not like Rhino was ignoring the more groundbreaking garage rock. Still, this is a good sampler of the Nuggets box set, complete with the most well known garage rock anthem of all, "Louie Louie", which inspired a bazillion would-be bands during the 1960s. "Dirty Water", "Talk Talk", "Lies", and "Double Shot" are all personal favorites. Actually, there really isn't a dull track on this CD, but it only gets three stars for not having that many non-hits. Maybe Rhino is working on a second "Nuggets from Nuggets" collection in the not-too distant future with the truly underground garage rock that was being made at the time. Still, don't be discouraged. Start here, and then move onto the four CD Nuggets box set when you're ready for more cutting edge garage rock n' roll. And like the commercial says, get it and play it LOUD!

this new way of reviewing is very time cunsuming and irritating.
the product and seller are outstanding but amazon's review set up
is a borish time waster!!!!