Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965–1968 (Original Compilation Album / CD1) Poll

There was an awful poll for every single Nuggets related thing ever, I think.

2. Dirty Water - The Standells

i kind of remember that but couldn't find it. anyways each CD should get it's own thread i think.

x-post

About a dozen of these tracks could qualify depending on my mood, but I'm gonna pick the Prunes for right now:

1. I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night) - Electric Prunes
2. Dirty Water - The Standells
3. Night Time - Strangeloves
6. A Public Execution - Mouse
9. Pushin' Too Hard - Seeds
13. Liar, Liar - Castaways
14. You're Gonna Miss Me - Thirteenth Floor Elevators
15. Psychotic Reaction - Count Five
20. Tobacco Road - Blues Magoos
21. Let's Talk About Girls - Chocolate Watch Band
24. My World Fell Down - Sagittarius
25. Open My Eyes - Nazz

i have played this thing to death, possibly the greatest compilation ever made.

"Dirty Water" - The Standells (just get the nod over many, many others.)

Pushin too Hard! (TOOOO HAAARRD!)

Pretty sure we've done this before, but Sagittarius it is anyway.

like i said, i couldn't find it, it's not under "Nuggets" in search. can someone link the original poll if found, thanks.

This week? Blues Project.

Remains remain my fave. Second best is prolly "Open My Eyes." I love when the 1960s dance!

Pushin' Too Hard - Seeds

"liar liar" over "psychotic reaction" over "dirty water" but yeah this changes minute to minute

open my eyes

nuggetspollNUGGETSPOLLnuggetspollNUGGETSPOLLnuggetspollNUGGETSPOLLnuggetspollNUGGETSPOLLnuggetspollNUGGETSPOLLnuggetspollNUGGETSPOLLnuggetspollNUGGETSPOLL

But as noted above, that was an awful poll.

thanks, that poll was pointless.

no wonder i couldn't find it.

Tough choice - coulda gone with nearly everything but it came down to Dirty Water vs Open my Eyes. Today, Rundgren for the win!

electric prunes for me.

Mouse!

A close tie between 'Lies' and 'Liar Liar'. The Knickerbockers win for now.

"Now there's just one thing that I need
Not sympathy and I don't want no pity
But a girl, a real girl
One that really loves me
And then I'll be the complete man
So I'm gonna tell you right now, listen..."

Nazz/Seeds dilemma.

Moulty! That's my jam.

Considered The Watchband, The Castaways and The Shadows of Night, but in the end I went for The Seeds, mainly cos I'm really enjoying their albums at the moment.

MOULTY!!!

13. Liar, Liar - Castaways

^^

i also love that cover, with the big hand controlling the music.

Remains 4ever.

open my eyes.
close 2nd: psychotic reaction,too much to dream/youre gonna miss me

I went with 13th Floor Elevators, then immediately regretted not going for the Premiers instead. (Count Five, Standells, Mouse, Prunes, Amboy Dukes, Seeds, etc. also in the running.)

Have never comprehended what people hear in the Remains song, though, oddly enough.

Can't decide between Standells and Seeds.

"Open My Eyes." It's like the Nazz thought, "We'll make 'Can't Explain' even MORE thrilling," and succeeded.

Predictions for least votes - sugar and spice?

bump, VOTE!

'psychotic reaction'.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Personally, I think the first 5 seconds of "Open My Eyes" is the only thing that sounds like "I Can't Explain."

19. Baby Please Don't Go - Amboy Dukes 0
16. Hey Joe - Leaves 0
8. Oh Yeah - Shadows Of Knight 0

:(

I voted for "Open My Eyes". I've always thought that was a really exciting song. It is like all of the parts of 60s psychedelic rock pop boiled down to a sweet sugary morsel. There is a whole lot packed into that tune, it has a big fuzzy yet melodic guitar riff, arranged layered harmony vocals on the chorus, late 60s trippy phasing on the bridge which leads into a drum freakout with an aggressive but melodic guitar solo and the lyrics are a total druggy head game. I think it is the best thing Todd Rundgren ever did by a couple of steps.

This one is hard, as it has a bunch of killer tunes. I'm not sure that You're Gonna Miss Me is my favorite Roky Erickson song, but Open My Eyes has always had a thing on me. I was always so bummed that the rest of that Nazz album is just really average, which is something you cannot say about some of the 13th Floor Elevators records.

The Standells' Dirty Water LP has some other good tracks, like "Medication" and "Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White." Always wondered about Mouse And The Traps' albums, or other singles, for that matter.

Personally, I think the first 5 seconds of "Open My Eyes" is the only thing that sounds like "I Can't Explain."

Yeah, then it turns into "Walk, Don't Run"

Giving this (specifically the original album/first CD) a listen for the first time in years and years for a writing project and damn, it remains such a fun listen. In the era of playlists and all, looking back to a prime example of brilliant selections and sequencing like what Lenny Kaye put together here is a heck of a thing. "HEY MOULTY!"

I was lucky enough to get a copy of the recent expanded boxset which also includes vol 2 and a bonus disc, as well as loads of liner notes and a new interview with Kaye. The bonus disc's final track is "I'm Five Years Ahead of My Time" by The Holy Modal Rounders, which is an excellent way to finish things.

Third Bardo, surely!

haha yes that's right, I think Holy Modal Rounders feature elsewhere

Not seeing Holy Modal Rounders included on a Nuggets set. They are on the Easy Rider s/trk. & have been reasonably well known for their late 60s work. Indian War Whoop, Moray Eels Eat The and a couple of others are worth picking up as freak folk . They were probably even odder as an acoustic duo earlier. I think they were one of the first bands to have the word psychedelic in one of their songs too.

yes you're right, apologies. I don't know how I got that mixed up!

a classic case of Third Bardo/Holy Modal Rounders confusion

the 2 4xCD boxed sets are essential. from 1998 and 2001. in my opinion. the books/notes are essential by themselves. Mike Stax outdid himself.

fun fact: i wrote the entries for both boxes in the last Rolling Stone Album Guide. I know! Who knew?

So you're the guy!

And yes, both essential; I do also like the Children of Nuggets follow-on too. Been doing some relistening for a forthcoming project.

There were a bunch of boxes that were not "Nuggets" as such, but cover their time period in the same way. "No Thanks" for the UK punk years, and "Brit Box" for the Britpop years.

Both not available as such in the UK, btw

"Sisters of Nuggets" = One Kiss Can Lead to Another: Girl Group Sounds Lost & Found

Giving this (specifically the original album/first CD) a listen for the first time in years and years for a writing project and damn, it remains such a fun listen. In the era of playlists and all, looking back to a prime example of brilliant selections and sequencing like what Lenny Kaye put together here is a heck of a thing. "HEY MOULTY!"

― Ned Raggett

"moulty" is a great song! me being me i'm more interested in the _other_ big hit barbarians song. it gets overlooked that a lot of the reason the "straights" were so triggered by the hippies was because to them, long hair was a form of genderfuck. not consciously so - i think a lot of it stems from the beatles. none of them were queer and they took care to _not_ look queer. the "straights" couldn't tell, though. i'm _very_ in favor of heterosexuals confusing "straights". people get mad about harry styles but me i genuinely think men in dresses are the same kind of awesome as longhairs in the '60s were.

the rubble boxes - though bootleg-y - are likewise esential. to me anyway. originally on vinyl. 20 volumes. 20 CDs. on two boxes. they don't seem to be that expensive used. they focus more on the u.k./freakbeat end of things like the second Nuggets box.

When I was psych-mad and downloading in the late 00s, I think I downloaded the entire Rubbles and burned a few to CDr. They sounded so bad! But good, too.

I think there was also a Pebbles comp along the same lines.

Yeah Pebbles, Boulders and Rubble are kinda the big three in terms of initial obvious Nuggets knockoffs, thus their names. Then you've got things like Back From the Grave, Chocolate Soup For Diabetics, etc. This is all part of the project I'm doing, BTW! You'll see the results in a few more weeks.

Nice.

i made a playlist of all the Prae-Kraut Pandemonium comps:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE1-7P1reTFjmg-Bj0U65sFa35MypyZn5

Nuggets is too poppy (“Liar Liar”? “Sugar and Spice”?). I prefer the Pebbles series which is heavier and more rockin’. “Green Fuz” is one of the greatest songs ever recorded.

I always wondered if there was any real criterion to Nuggets and really enjoyed Kaye's explanation at those recent anniversary shows - "It's a 'nugget' if you dug it." Works for me!

Liar Liar is one of the greatest songs ever recorded.

I always wondered if there was any real criterion to Nuggets and really enjoyed Kaye's explanation at those recent anniversary shows - "It's a 'nugget' if you dug it." Works for me!

Okay! I mentioned that writing project I was working on and it is live!

https://theshfl.com/guide/The-Nuggets-Legacy

very cool.

i've never seen that website before.

nice work. hadn't heard of Banzai Freakbeat or Chains And Black Exhaust before, have to check those out

can see why you might've left these out as they are quite similar to Back From The Grave (for obvious reasons, as Crypt/Tim Warren were involved in all of them) - to the extent that I'm not exactly sure why they are different series - but would also recommend Teenage Shutdown and Garage Punk Unknowns (and more recently Last of the Garage Punk Unknowns) to anyone who wants more of the garage rock side of things

i've never seen that website before.

Been writing for them for a few years now. It's pretty great! I have a slew of reviews up plus a number of guides (listed as 'articles' in the menu at the top)

https://theshfl.com/recommender/Ned-Raggett

hadn't heard of Banzai Freakbeat or Chains And Black Exhaust before, have to check those out

Chains got a lot of attention in the early 00s that's for sure, including on here and elsewhere. Dominique Leone's Pitchfork review gives a sense of it. In ways it kinda feels like a Numero release just pre-Numero, or rather the same year they started, only without the extensive liners etc. Banzai was utterly unknown to me until a few months back! During my record shopping in LA in March around PopCon I found it randomly for very cheap, as I did the first of the Soft Sounds series, which I had wanted to look into for a while but was a little unsure about paying a lot for. I was already thinking about the guide by then and they turned out to be excellent additions, and I'm currently picking up more Soft Sounds and its distaff stuff as I find it.

would also recommend Teenage Shutdown and Garage Punk Unknowns (and more recently Last of the Garage Punk Unknowns) to anyone who wants more of the garage rock side of things

Yeah I have all the Garage Punk Unknowns and as you rightly indicate, they could easily fit in, but Tim's taste is...let's say rather specific. I figured just highlighting the main series is enough, especially since the guide was meant to be a partial response TO his way of looking at things.

Been waiting 22 years and counting for a Chains And Black Exhaust vinyl release.

This is epic!

Great write up, Ned. Gonna have to dive into some of these.

This looks great, Ned, thanks. Looking forward to digging into the article -- except for _Nuggets II_ I'm pretty ignorant of the non-US/UK stuff.

Thanks all! One thing I'll add, BTW, is that playlists for each album are available as well (which given the bootleg status of some of them makes it helpful for a sample). Just go to any individual review page and hit the 'play' button at the top; for formal releases Shfl usually points to where you can stream it, but for bootlegs or things that are out of print, YouTube playlists are the way to go. And that may sound weird for some of this but believe it or not, Rhino, as in the actual official Rhino account on YouTube, created its own random playlist for both the Nuggets I and II boxes that way!