NUGGETS II: Original Artyfacts from the British Empire and Beyond, 1964-1969 Box Vol. 3 Poll

i delayed No Thanks for one more week (sorry), wanted to get this one in next.

guess you will have to click link to see artwork on this thread.

will listen before voting.

i need some time to think about this one

crawdaddy simone, path through the forest, you're driving me insane, magic potion... there's been moments when any of these songs sounded like the best song ever

Status Quo. May have been their one and only great single.

Not.

Actually, "Paper Plane" still had vestiges of their past psychedelic roots along with their future direction (or lack of)...

Well, "Ice In The Sun" was OK, but dunno about "Paper Plane".

Trust me.

oh, and "Black Hills of Melancholy" is hilarious in a sort of "follow up to Matchstick men" kind of way...

close your eyes and "Listen To the Sky" wins, hands down for me. the other stand outs were "Crawdaddy Simone," "It's My Pride," "Magic Potion," "By My Side," "Love Hate Revenge" and "Pictures Of Matchstick Men."

is that a double kick in magic potion?? first time i heard that song it took me a couple of hours to recover.

Easy - 'Path Through The Forest'.

"Circles" is one of a tiny handful of more-than-credible Who covers in existence. But Q'65 gets the nod.

Q65 is a monster yeah I missed that one reading through this first time.

'Crawdaddy Simone', but 'Circles' runs it very close. Honorable mentions to "Train to Disaster' and 'Listen to the Sky' . . and the whole damn thing, really. This box is so amazing.

'It's My Pride'

Always detested 'Crawdaddy Simone'.

My two favorite songs on the entire box show up here: "Days Of The Broken Arrows" and, I can't believe this one hasn't been mentioned yet, "A Midsummer's Night Scene." Come on, people - "A Midsummer's Night Scene" is the most Nuggets II track in all of Nuggets II. I don't know - maybe I was influenced by the booklet pic of the Children kicking up leaves in their jammies. But this tornado really brings out the wood sprites and forest nymphs and hicksy pixies and LOTR motherfuckers to sniff each other's butts and inject some frug into fantasy. In short, what filk (not a misspelling) oughta sound like. Waaaaaaaaaaaaay gets my vote.

And actually, my third fave song on the box might be "Love Hate Revenge" esp. for that remarkable voodoo ceremony where the guitar solo should be. Nastier than Deep Purple too.

Then there's "Pictures Of Matchstick Men," "Glendora," "Social End Product." Hell, after the biff bang pow of the first seven or so cuts on Disc One, this just might be the best disc of all.

Oh and can someone defend "Circles" please. And in your defense, tell me how on your planet it rocks out harder than "Social End Product." Cuz, um, "Social End Product" is the snot-nosed punk that kicks the cane out from underneath Old Lady "Circles."

Is "Circles" the Small Faces song?

No, wait, that one was called "Green Circles", I believe.

No this is a Who cover.

Actually, the original wasn't all that hot to begin with.

Oh, of course. Yes. From the Who's debut, no?

Yup. Which wasn't all that hot to begin with...

ok i went for the missing links. what a stormer.

Not from The Who's debut, but you will find it on the "My Generation" 2CD deluxe edition though.

It was on the US version.

Fair enough then.

this just might be the best disc of all.

― Kevin John Bozelka

this is so OTM.

as i was re-listening to this last night, i was thinking this is the best of all the Nuggets discs. then it ends with "I Wish I Was Five" and the glorious "Glendora."

Not from The Who's debut, but you will find it on the "My Generation" 2CD deluxe edition though.

the version on the US the who sings my generation is far superior (noisier, trashier) to the later version that first appeared on the ready steady who! ep and is now on the a quick one cd. and the original version is fucking crashing and furious. i yield to no one in my love of nuggets ii, but anything with keith moon kind of comprehensively demolishes anything without him.

the fleur de lys' "circles" has that tremendous richard thompson/rick neilsen guitar throughout...but like sara sara sara upthread, i can't deny q'65's awesomeness.

So is this the "fucking crashing and furious" one?

yep.

Question for Those Who Were There: were US and UK punks circa 1977 into this stuff at the time? (Other than Lenny Kaye.)

1. Rejects the central 60s trope of "deepness." 2. Does not sound like Ken Loach. 3. This is one of the bedtime lullabies I sing with my 2-year old though we leave out the jawdrop guitar parts. 4. Its existence is amazing (and fact that it's on Supraphon is hilarious) but not up to snuff here. 4. Vicious. 5. Dirty. 6. Most boring solo on the box? 7. Sounds like a punk but talks like a slacker. Begging to be covered--has anyone? 8. Insane. Also clever: "he always walks alone" cues the background singers to join in, and "no axe to grind" cues the axeman to start grinding. 9. Dull! 10. Nuggets romanticism = the wounded wildman. 11. Stooge-ish! Nice doof-genius move of twiddling a different effects knob for the last word sung in every line. 12. Guitarist sticks to a two-note riff until he builds up enough potential energy to explode, then does so. 13. Nice beauty-in-ugliness moment: guitar solo shimmers though everything else in the song growls. 14. Starts like Desdemona with hippie-dippier lyrics, ends like several simultaneous songs. 15. Epic reminder to dreamy hippies with heads in the clouds: you're in a warzone. 16. Every trick in the mod pop handbook. 17. How can such downer lyrics be played so peppy? 18. Prime robot-punk except for the unfortunate let's-break-it-down section. 19. Drums like like a steady scythe clearing the thicket. 20. The id. 21. Perfect psych single. 22. Schizoid: which part of the harmony is the Voice? 23. Majestic. 24. Had they heard the Monks? 25. Pretty on overdrive. The drums are nuts. Charming how thrilled they sound when they yell "Whooo!" 26.27. Five/Alive; Glendora/Store-a; when you come up with such a couplet the rest of the song really writes itself.

Voted Love Hate Revenge.

Cheers - another great summary!

"were US and UK punks circa 1977 into this stuff at the time?" - Pretty sure Julian Cope was, and I'd guess the Damned, particularly given the later Naz Nomad project.

On "Circles" - this is a song The Who basically threw away, taken up by a sharp bunch of mod chancers, tweaked, freaked and polished until it glows. Which is the kind of circumstance Nuggets et al are all about. I'm not going to attempt the impossible "better than the original" argument, but having listened to the that, a "more-than-credible" cover pretty much nails it.

The lyric is also tight, sharp and unforced. None of which applies to "Social End Product". That cane has a blade in it.

great post as always dad a!

in addition to battles of number ones, i'm going to put up all the discs from I and II against each other. this one is my favorite disc but will have to see how it plays out on a ILM poll.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Fleur de lys trump the Ready Steady Who Circles, but original, anarchic Who version wins. The Fleur de lys
track to hear is Liar.

Correction, the song is called "You're Just a Liar" and its on the Turning Point comp Reflections

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

The Who's Circles is like a demo for the Fleur de Lys version, with the lyrics improved by judicious copyediting and the French horn dropped in favor of killer guitar parts. But Kevin, saying the Who's debut record wasn't all that hot is just a big pile of wrong.

Well, I'd still have you over for dinner knowing you felt differently.

I've already eaten but thanks for that, agree to disagree & all respect.

the guitar solo at the end of "Crawdaddy Simone" is nuts

though in retrospect i would vote for "magic potion" by the open mind