[.ca] Nuggets from Nuggets

cooler than you.:
This collection is good any time of the day, any day of the year. Any song goes on any mix-tape in between any band. If you enjoy bright colors and fuzzy ears (I know I DO) Buy it now!! Don't Delay!! Distort!!

Where are the real "Nuggets"?:
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?

Trippy noise from the garage:
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!!!

Nice collection of 60's Rock!:
This 20 track collection of hits from the sixties focuses on basically the more popular songs you'd have heard on radio (AM) back then. The songs are all in mono not stereo! Whether this was done for authenticity purpose is beyond me. Not that they don't sound good, they do and they've been remastered for improved sound. I would have prefered the stereo versions but who cares, all these songs bring back memories of a more peaceful, innocent life. If you enjoyed listening to the likes of Count Five, The Seeds, Strawberry Alarm Clock, Kingsmen, etc pick this up before it goes out of print. Recommended!

A lot of stuff.:
I was recently playing this album, which I ordered when I was trying to find some version of a familiar song that I still have not heard, for the benefit of someone who thought that "Lies" by the Knickerbockers sounded like it was by the famous Beatles. About all I could tell about "Lies" from skimming through the CD liner notes of "Nuggets from Nuggets" was that it was a number 20 pop hit released in November, 1965. Having a group that sounded like the Beatles was not a disadvantage that year, but it isn't automatically a sign of greatness. I could have said, "Yeah, but The Knickerbockers were good," or "The Beatles weren't much better." Is that offensive to people who never heard of them? The attempt by Rhino Entertainment Company in 2000 to explain in 24 CD-size pages (a picture of The Knickerbockers is on page 4) the psychedelic era of the 1960s as it relates to a collection of songs, praised for being part of a do-it-yourself approach to music ("The corporate record labels have always opposed this.") hardly encompasses such gems as "Liar, Liar" by The Castaways, released in May, 1965 and number 12 on the pop chart. Anyone who reads the list of songs on this album looking for great hits they've always wanted might be surprised at how few of the titles ring a bell. The Electric Prunes and Strawberry Alarm Clock sound like group names from the psychedelic era, but "Louie Louie" by The Kingsmen was so mainstream that it was a number 2 pop hit in 1963, long before a lot of rock 'n' roll ever happened. The real reason for owning this album, in my case, was the original "Hey Joe" by The Leaves, released in April, 1966 and only a number 31 pop hit. Within a few years, I had versions of the song by The Byrds and Jimi Hendrix. A lot of what Jimi Hendrix played on that song had been dropped by the Byrds in their version, and I wanted to know how much music Jimi had learned from the Leaves, and how much of Jimi's version was pure Jimi Hendrix.

• I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night) - The Electric Prunes
• Dirty Water - The Standells
• Lies - The Knickerbockers
• Pushin' Too Hard - Sky Saxon, The Seeds
• Liar, Liar - The Castaways
• You're Gonna Miss Me - 13th Floor Elevators
• Psychotic Reaction - The Count Five
• Hey Joe - The Leaves
• Nobody but Me - The Human Beinz
• Time Won't Let Me - The Outsiders
• Incense and Peppermints - Strawberry Alarm Clock
• Little Girl - The Syndicate of Sound
• Seven & Seven Is - Arthur Lee, Love
• Talk Talk - The Music Machine
• (We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet - Blues Magoos
• Double Shot (Of My Baby's Love) - The Swingin' Medallions
• Wooly Bully - Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs
• I Want Candy - The Strangeloves
• Louie, Louie - The Kingsmen
• Shape of Things to Come - Max Frost, Troopers