Once again, as they did with the first Nuggets Box and the first Doo Wop Box, the good folks at Rhino Records have produced a collection that is simply the finest of its type. In every way -- sound quality, liner notes, packaging, song selection, and sheer volume -- this box, like those others, shows evidence of great care and leaves most other similar collections in the dust.
The selection here is more wide-ranging than on the first Nuggets box, both geographically and in terms of style. The first box had a lot of fairly-well known songs; here we get just a handful of favorites and classics ("My White Bicycle", "I Can Hear the Grass Grow", "Friday on My Mind", "Pictures of Matchstick Men") along with a lot of great recordings that even dedicated listeners may not be familiar with. (I've been listening to music of this ilk for years, and I had heard less than half of these songs.)
I was particularly delighted with the inclusion of "Reflections of Charles Brown" (a song I had been wanting to hear for years -- and also, incidentally, proof that not everything here is fast and loud); "No Presents for Me" (a personal favorite); and Love Sculpture's "In the Land of the Few" (an excellent song, a true lost gem, here presented in an extended version from the one I'd heard before -- what a treat!). Plus, I've made lots of new favorites, and gained a greater appreciation of some songs I knew before after hearing them in this context and with this quality.
Folks expecting this to sound like the first Nuggets box set might be a bit disappointed: while some of the non-British groups do have an American-garage-band-type sound (like the La De Das from New Zealand and Los Chijuas from Mexico), and we do get some of the hard-edged British R&B that helped inspire American garage bands ("I Can Only Give You Everything", "Rosalyn"), a lot of the songs here show more evidence of self-conscious craft and studio experimentation.
This collection mostly leaves out Merseybeat (unless it comes from Uruguay -- Go Shakers!!), the more "twee" side of British psychedelia, and the tamer side of British R&B, in favor of edgier freakbeat and more experimental, psychedelic stuff, along with straight-ahead British pop-rock (the Mockingbirds' excellent "You Stole My Love") and lots of great examples of the rock scenes from outside the U.S. and U.K. (my favorites include the aforementioned Shakers, Japan's Mops, Holland's Q65, and "You Can Be My Baby" by Denmark's Red Squares).
I must single out the liner notes for particular praise -- they are absolutely excellent. Alec Palao's introductory essay is insightful and incisive, Mike Stax's track-by-track notes are full of great info, and the whole booklet makes for great reading.
Of course a few of my personal favorites didn't make the cut, like Rupert's People's "Dream in My Mind", the Curiosity Shoppe's "Baby I Need You", "Things She Says" by the In Crowd, and "Grey" by the Hush -- and I wish they had included the Mockingbirds' anti-conformity anthem "One By One" instead of the lesser "How to Find a Lover". There are about six misses here, in my opinion (for instance, I'm sorry, but I just don't like John's Children much). That's a couple more than the first Nuggets box had, I think -- but that still leaves over 100 excellent choices. Overall, I think any fan of '60s British rock, or anyone interested in non-U.S., non-U.K. '60s rock who picks this up will consider it money very well spent.
I'm hoping for at least one more Nuggets box (please?). If the folks at Rhino are concerned about "scraping the bottom of the barrel", perhaps they could make it half U.S. and half the rest of the world, to spread around the (very minimal) risk.
(One more note, to '60s anthology compilers: I have maybe 18 collections along the lines of this one, and "Circles" by Les Fleur De Lys is on no less than six of them. Yes, it's good, and it definitely belongs here -- but now, enough, already!)
