Customer Reviews
Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From the First Psychedelic Era 1965-1968 - By: The Mancunian Candidate, 23 Jun 2008 
What can I say about Volume One of the Nuggets compilation that hasn't already been said, this album after all is still one of the most important purchases I have ever made.
The cheap price tag of this collection on its own is quite frankly daft, but with the array of quality songs from relatively unknown bands being quite literally immense on this compilation, as a starting point you can't really do much better. Soin short, you have no excuse, you need to have this compilationin your collection now.
Originally compiled & releasedin 1972 on the Sire Record label, by Elektra Records founder Jac Holzman with help from Lenny Kaye, Nuggets is a superb gateway to the 1960's Psychedelic & Garage scenes. I play at least 5 songs from this record every week on my radio show & since my purchase have expanded my collection buying albums from bands which featured on this compilation & strangely even bands that didn't. Bands which before I bought Nuggets, I never knew existed, but whom I now consider to be the producers of some of the finest songs from the period.
At the time this record was released, compilations were the reserve of the greatest hits from the biggest acts. But Holzman & Kaye took a different view; their work here was to place the spotlight on acts which may have otherwise easily been overlooked by history, which makes this compilation even the more staggering.
I could list all the quality songs on this compilation, but that would mean just listing the entire track list. Its easy to say that this album is a "must have" as such comments are used all over the shop on this World Wide Web thingy, but seriously if you don't own this album, you are missing out on a whole new world of music.
However this album should not be considered to be the definitive, but more a starting point. Buy this album & start saving straight away, because you're going to need a bigger boat.
Great Music - By: D. Morris, 18 Nov 2007 If you like the Kinks, Pretty things, Yardbirds, Them etc etc then this is worth a purchase. After the British Invasion thousand of kidsin various parts of the US started the garage revolution from which this music comes from.
Bands such as 13th floor elevators are legendary. It is brilliant & it makes you wish you were a teenager again & forming a band.
greatest vinyl various artists compilation ever - By: B, 26 Jan 2007 The greatest vinyl various artists compilation ever. Especially delightful to non USA people as many had been hitsin the States but eleswhere these were entirely fresh & unfamiliar. The sleeve notes alone were a joy. One niggle - the sound quality of the vinyl was not great & certainly not the best available for many of the tracks - I can't comment on the CD sound quality. Here are my approximate ratings for the tracks.
1. I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night) - Electric Prunes *****
2. Dirty Water - Standells ****
3. Night Time - Strangeloves **
4. Lies - Knickerbockers *** Beatles Lennon Run For Your Life era pastiche & much better than Run For Your Life!
5. Respect - Vagrants **** my fave version of this famous song, the classic bass line was never executed better
6. Public Execution - Mouse *** nice Dylan pastiche
7. No Time Like The Right Time - Blues Project **
8. Oh Yeah - Shadows Of Knight **
9. Pushin' Too Hard - Seeds ** over rated Seeds track. They cut a lot of good tracks & this by no means their best
10. Moulty - Barbarians *** absurd & strangely touching,
11. Don't Look Back - Remains * maybe the worst track here, terrible SQ
12. Invitation To Cry - Magicians **
13. Liar Liar - Castaways *** evenin 1965 this hit had distinct psycedelic touches
14. You're Gonna Miss Me - 13th Floor Elevators ** over rated song by over rated outfit with the most undermodulated (ie not loud enough), badly recorded major body of workin the sixties
15. Psychotic Reaction - Count Five ****
16. Hey Joe - Leaves *** good but left standing by many versions esp Tim Rose's
17. Just Like Romeo And Juliet - Michael & The Messengers **
18. Sugar And Spice - Cryan' Shames *
19. Baby Please Don't Go - Amboy Dukes ***** stunning! Beware their albums don't hold a candle to this.
20. Tobacco Road - Blues Magoos ***** stunning! Like Baby Please Don't Go above probably their encore piece at the time.
21. Let's Talk About Girls - Chocolate Watch Band **** compelling metallic chord sounds, Their albums are awful.
22. Sit Down I Think I Love You - Mojo Men **
23. Run Run Run - Third Rail **** great melody, delightful minor hit. Their album Id Music is terrific!
24. My World Fell Down - Sagittarius *** the splendid original version by the Ivy League (autumn 1966 ) is the kind of stately baroque pop we imagined the follow up to Pet Sounds might have sounded like, instead we got Smiley Smile.
25. Open My Eyes - Nazz * from 1969 &in contention for being the weakest item here. Their albums are disappointing given that Todd then launched into a string of classics culminatingin a Wizard a True Star, which is awesome.
26. Farmer John - Premiers ** V scratchy shabbily recorded.
27. It's A Happening - Magic Mushrooms ***** Super psychedelia. pos my fave track here.
High energy nostalgia - By: IanW, 05 Jan 2007 
Despite being a teenagerin the 60's, I'd only actually heard one of the 27 tracks before (The Electric Prunes' 'I had too much to dream'). Despite that, it felt very much like coming home as these mostly long forgotten groups echo the sounds of the Beatles, John Lee Hooker, the Searchers, the Byrds, Dylan, a veiled undercurrent of blues, psychedelia, & the general west coast ambience. Oh yes, & the British band the Nashville Teens whose arrangement of 'Tobacco Road' is largely ripped off by the Blues Magoos (unless someone tells me the Teens ripped it off from someone else).
Lenny Kaye really did the business with this great looking package & his excellent sleeve notes. While the music may not always be the greatest -most of these bands were very young- this collection should bein yours.
Reissue of Lenny Kaye's classic compilation.. - By: Jason Parkes, 03 Jul 2006 Does `Nuggets' need an introduction? Possibly...This 1972 compilation selected by Lenny Kaye, music journalist & long-time member of the Patti Smith Group, had a great effectin the 1970s on the punk/post-punk acts that followed. It would be cited by such acts as Rocket from the Tombs/Pere Ubu, The Undertones, Julian Cope, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds & even the Pet Shop Boys - this collection of one time hits from 1965 to 1968 takesin 27 tracks between the birth of garage rock & the development of the psychedelic scene. `Nuggets' would later be expanded into several box-set volumes, some of which, notably `Children of Nuggets', had lots of filler & some dubious selections. Rhino decide to reissue the original `Nuggets', never on compact disc before, & this version comesin a lovely paper sleeve that mimics the vinyl counterpart (also available again) - this is worth buying for the packaging alone.
The 27 tracks are all fantastic, `Nuggets' is probably the greatest compilationin existence & certainly one of those desert island collections. Some of the songs may be familiar - `Farmer John' (performed by the Premiers here) was later covered by Neil Young & Crazy Horses on `Ragged Glory/Weld', while The Leaves offer a version of `Hey Joe' (most famously recorded by Jimi Hendrix) & The Mojo Men offer a great psyched-garage version of Buffalo Springfield's `Sit Down, I Think I LoveYou.' There are some standards of the genre - The Standells' `Dirty Water', The Seeds' `Pushin' Too Hard', The Count Five's `Psychotic Reaction', & The Thirteenth Floor Elevators' seminal `You're Gonna Miss Me' - with that distinctive turkey-gobbling noise & Roky Erikson's howl. The rest is as great, this album is a highlightin itself, fans of Todd Rundgren will note his presence on the Nazz's `Open My Eyes', while The Strangelove's `Night Time', Chocolate Watch Band's `Let's Talk About Girls' & The Electric Prunes' `I Had too Much to Dream (Last Night)' are equally fantastic. Fans of the Dukes of Stratosphear's '25 O'Clock' will note the fact those crazy Dukes nodding to `I Had Too Much to Dream...' on the opening track of that mini-album. To conclude, a timeless compilation given a deserving reissue, & one that influenced many bands that would follow - Primal Scream, The Stone Roses, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Teardrop Explodes, The Saints...Truly seminal stuff you can't live without - the ghost of Lester Bangs lurks somewhere telling you that the Count Five were the greatest bandin the world...listening here, the dude wasn't wrong...
