Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era 1965–1968 | ||||
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Compilation album by various artists | ||||
Released | October 2, 1972 | |||
Recorded | 1964–68 | |||
Genre | Garage rock, psychedelic rock | |||
Length | 77:25 | |||
Label | Elektra Sire | |||
Producer | Lenny Kaye | |||
Various artists chronology | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
MSN Music (Consumer Guide) | A− [2] |
Encyclopedia of Popular Music | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era is a compilation album of American psychedelic and garage rock singles that were released during the mid-to-late 1960s. It was created by Lenny Kaye, who was a writer and clerk at the Village Oldies record shop in New York. He would later become the lead guitarist for the Patti Smith Group. Kaye produced Nuggets under the supervision of Elektra Records founder Jac Holzman. Kaye conceived the project as a series of roughly eight LP installments focusing on different US regions, but Elektra convinced him that one double album would be more commercially viable. [4] It was released on LP by Elektra in 1972 with liner notes by Kaye that contained one of the first uses of the term "punk rock". [5] It was reissued with a new cover design by Sire Records in 1976. In the 1980s, Rhino Records issued Nuggets in a series of fifteen installments, and in 1998 as a 4-cd box set.
Kaye was unsure whether Elektra Records would put out the album, so he threw his favorite songs together and made them fit into a concept. [6] Elektra hired lawyer Michael Kapp to track down the original artists and secure licensing. [6] Speaking in 2017, Kaye reflected "I would've made it more 'garage rock' as opposed to these kind of weirder things, like Sagittarius or even the Blues Project. A lot of it falls outside the parameters of what we've come to define as garage rock." [6]
Though there were plans for a second Nuggets volume, Elektra did not choose the option. According to Kaye, he supplied the label with a list of potential songs, but they were not able to obtain licensing for most and the project was cancelled. [6]
Jon Savage, in his history of the UK punk rock scene, England's Dreaming, cites Nuggets as a major influence on punk bands and includes it in his essential punk discography, alongside Iggy and the Stooges' Raw Power and The Velvet Underground's White Light/White Heat .
Many other compilation albums took their cue from Nuggets, including the Pebbles , Rubble - 20 volumes of mainly UK 1960s-era psychedelia released in the 1980s - and Back From the Grave series. Nuggets spawned an entire cottage industry of small record labels dedicated to unearthing and releasing obscure but worthy garage and psychedelic rock music from the 1960s.
In 1998 Rhino brought the original LP to CD, reproducing the original song sequence and liner notes. However, rather than releasing a single-disc release of the original LP, Rhino put the original disc in a box set with three other discs, an extra 91 songs in total that were not on the original LP. Contrary to popular belief, many of the songs were American Top 40 hits: more than a third of the original Nuggets would fall into that category, while Rhino's expanded set featured such smash hits as "Incense and Peppermints" by Strawberry Alarm Clock (#1), "Louie, Louie" by the Kingsmen (#2), "Wooly Bully" by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs (#2), "Little Bit o' Soul" by the Music Explosion (#2), and "Time Won't Let Me" by the Outsiders (#5).
"Louie, Louie", "Laugh, Laugh", "Farmer John", "Psycho", "The Witch", and The Gestures' "Run, Run, Run" fall outside the set's stated time frame of 1965–1968; "Louie, Louie" having been released in 1963 and the rest in 1964.
In Europe in 2006 Rhino released a remastered version of the album featuring the original 1972 tracklist on a single compact disc in a miniaturized replica of the original gatefold sleeve. However, unlike the original album the tracks were presented using their mono mixes. In 2012 the album was again remastered, this time directly from the same tapes as the original 1972 release, featuring mono and stereo mixes. Available in double LP and digital formats, this version included updated release notes from Kaye and Jac Holzman.
It was voted number 479 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000). [7] In 2003, the album was ranked number 196 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, [8] maintaining the rating in a 2012 revised list. [9] It was later ranked down at 405 on the 2020 edition. [10]
The same tracks appear in the same order as the original double album.
In the mid-to-late 1980s, Rhino released a series of fifteen albums that bore the Nuggets name. The first twelve of these albums each focused on either a specific garage-rock subgenre or location, while the last three took a more global approach. This series provided much of the source material for the box set.
Rhino released Nuggets II: Original Artyfacts from the British Empire and Beyond, 1964-1969 , a four-CD box set, in 2001. While the original Nuggets focused on the American scene, the second compilation shifted its focus to the rest of the world, collecting cuts from the United Kingdom (such as the Pretty Things and Small Faces), Australia (the Easybeats), New Zealand (the La De Da's), Canada (the Guess Who and The Haunted), Japan (the Mops), Iceland (Thor's Hammer), Peru (We All Together), and Brazil (Os Mutantes).
Rhino released two more compilations using the Nuggets title, Hallucinations: Psychedelic Pop Nuggets from the WEA Vaults and Come to the Sunshine: Soft Pop Nuggets from the WEA Vaults , in 2004. Both discs were released through Rhino's internet-only label Rhino Handmade in limited pressings of 7500 each.
Rhino also released Children of Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From The Second Psychedelic Era, 1976-1995, a four-CD set of recordings by bands influenced by the original Nuggets, in late 2005.
Lenny Kaye, who compiled the original Nuggets double LP set, also compiled a second volume that was never released. Many of the cuts appeared on the later Nuggets releases, but some did not. Below is the tentative track listing for Lenny Kaye's unreleased second Nuggets volume. [11]
The Electric Prunes are an American psychedelic rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1965. Much of the band's music was, as music historian Richie Unterberger described it, possessed of "an eerie and sometimes anguished ambiance." Their most successful material was by songwriters Annette Tucker and Nancie Mantz, though the group also penned their own songs. Incorporating psychedelia and elements of embryonic electronic rock, the band's sound was marked by innovative recording techniques with fuzz-toned guitars and oscillating sound effects. In addition, guitarist Ken Williams' and singer James Lowe's concept of "free-form garage music" provided the band with a richer sonic palette and exploratory lyrical structure than many of their contemporaries.
Nuggets may refer to:
Timothy Charles Buckley III was an American musician. He began his career based in folk rock, but subsequently experimented with genres such as psychedelia, jazz, the avant-garde, and funk paired with his unique five-octave vocal range. His commercial peak came with the 1969 album Happy Sad, reaching No. 81 on the charts, while his experimental 1970 album Starsailor went on to become a cult favorite. The latter contained his best known song, "Song to the Siren." Buckley died at the age of 28 from a heroin and morphine overdose, leaving behind sons Taylor and Jeff.
Lenny Kaye is an American guitarist, composer, and writer who is best known as a member of the Patti Smith Group, led by vocalist and poet Patti Smith.
The Magic Mushrooms were an American psychedelic garage rock band in the 1960s. The Magic Mushrooms were originally composed of five students from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. They were:
The Barbarians was an American garage rock band formed in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, that was active from 1964 to 1967. They are known for their 1965 hit song "Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl", and their album of the same name.
The Outsiders were an American rock and roll band from Cleveland, Ohio, that was founded and led by guitarist Tom King. The band released the hit single "Time Won't Let Me" in early 1966, which peaked at No. 5 in the US in April. The band had three other Hot 100 top 40 hit singles in 1966, but none on the Hot 100 afterwards, and released a total of four albums in the mid-1960s.
The Nerves were an American power pop trio, formed in San Francisco in 1974 and later based in Los Angeles, featuring guitarist Jack Lee, bassist Peter Case, and drummer Paul Collins. All three members composed songs and sang. They managed an international tour in the U.S. and Canada, including dates with the Ramones, and performances for the troops as part of the United Services Organization (USO).
Golden Throats is Rhino Records' series of humorous compilations of critically lambasted cover versions of songs, performed mostly either by celebrities known for something other than musical talent or musicians not known for the genre from which the song they are covering comes.
Pebbles is a compilation of US underground and garage single record releases from the mid- to late-1960s. It had a limited original release in 1978 and a more general release in 1979. It was followed by several subsequent Pebbles compilations and albums. This album is nowadays known as Pebbles, Volume 1 and was originally issued in 1978 as Pebbles, Volume One: Artyfacts from the First Punk Era, an obvious riff on Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, a similar, groundbreaking compilation from 1972.
Nuggets is a series of compilation albums, started by Elektra Records in 1972 and continued by Rhino Records thereafter. The series focuses primarily on relatively obscure garage and psychedelic rock songs from the 1960s, but with some hits and pop-oriented songs also included.
We the People was an American garage rock band from Orlando, Florida, that was formed in late 1965 and professionally active between 1966 and 1970. Although none of their singles charted nationally in the U.S., a number of them did reach the Top 10 of the local Orlando charts. The band are perhaps best remembered for their song "Mirror of Your Mind", which reached the Top 10 in a number of regional singles charts across the U.S. during 1966. The song has subsequently been included on several compilation albums over the years.
"I Ain't No Miracle Worker" is a song by the American garage rock band, the Brogues, written by Annette Tucker and Nancie Mantz, and released as the group's second and final single on Challenge Records, in November 1965. The composition is now considered a classic of the musical genre of garage rock, and has reappeared on several compilation albums and has been covered by other musical artists. The Brogues' original rendition was musically influenced by their contemporaries on the R&B circuit and the British Invasion.
"Voices Green and Purple" is a song by the Bees, an American garage rock and psychedelic band from Covina, California who were active in the mid-1960s. It has been mentioned as an innovative example of early protopunk and has become highly prized by various garage rock collectors and enthusiasts.
"A Public Execution" is a song performed and recorded by the American band Mouse and the Traps, also credited simply as Mouse, written by Ronny "Mouse" Weiss (né Ronald Lon Weiss; born 1942) (music) and Knox Henderson (né Knox Holmes Henderson; 1939–2002) (words), and first released as the group's debut single on Fraternity Records in December 1965. The song was a big regional hit in Texas and peaked in the lower reaches of the Billboard charts, but has become better-known today, in large part, due to the band's uncanny imitation of Highway 61 Revisited-era Bob Dylan.
"Bad Girl" is a song by the American garage rock band the Zakary Thaks, written by the whole group—Chris Gerniottis, Pete Stinson, Stan Moore, Rex Gregory, and John Lopez—and was first released for the band's debut single on J-Beck Records in July 1966. The song was an immensely successful regional hit in Texas, precipitating "Bad Girl"'s national release on Mercury Records later in the year. Since its initial distribution, the tune has received further recognition for its appearance on several compilation albums.
The Palace Guard was an American garage rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964. Though the band never obtained national success, they made a huge splash in Southern California with their song "Falling Sugar". The group is also notable for featuring the first commercial appearance of Emitt Rhodes, later a member of the Merry-Go-Round.
The Groupies were an American garage rock-psychedelic rock band from New York City who were active in the 1960s and are known for an innovative approach to primal blues-based rock exemplified in such songs as "Primitive". They were a popular fixture in the New York club scene and recorded for Atco Records, later venturing to Los Angeles. Due to their uncompromising stance the Groupies failed to attract a wider audience outside of their local enclaves. They have come to the attention of garage rock and psychedelic enthusiasts and their work has been included on various compilations such as the 1998 Nuggets four-CD box set, which was released on Rhino Records. Their material has been re-issued on other garage rock and psychedelic compilations such as the Pebbles, Volume 10 LP.
The Underdogs were an American garage rock band from Grosse Pointe, Michigan who were active in the 1960s. They became a regular attraction at the Hideout, a club that was an early venue for acts such as Bob Seger, Glenn Frey, and The Pleasure Seekers, featuring Suzi Quatro, and it also served as the home to the Hideout record label, which released several of the Underdogs' singles. The group enjoyed success in the region and came close to breaking nationally with two records released through a joint deal on Reprise Records and then their last on Motown. The Underdogs' work has been included on various garage rock compilations such as the 1998 Nuggets 4-CD box set released on Rhino Records.