Review:
“Garage-rock days revisited.” BL “If a single compilation can be attributed to beginning the oldies revolution, it is easily the original 1972 double LP Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From the First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968. Compiled by Elektra Records founder Jac Holzman with assistance and input from guitarist and music historian Lenny Kaye, this deceptively haphazard 27-track aggregate became the cornerstone of both the serious appreciation of ‘60s underground music as well as a rather off-scale model for a plethora of reissue-based record labels such as Rhino, Sundazed, and See for Miles. A glance at the way the tunes stack up on the original two-disc vinyl collection reveals that Holzman was indeed looking beyond. Rather than re-treading the same tired ‘golden oldies’ packages – which were being hocked on TV and in print adverts by mail order throughout North America in the early ‘70s – he and Kaye began to gather the secondary and even tertiary layers of rock music.” LP
“These tunes likewise had a stated influence on a new breed of rocker. Musicians such as Patti Smith – for whom Kaye happened to play lead guitar – the Ramones, the Talking Heads, and R.E.M. were more than simply enthusiasts. As their new wave of pop music would reflect, they were actually students and disciples. One important factor that unifies and likewise levels the playing field for all 27 sides chosen for the first run of Nuggets… is that they were all issued as singles. There are both Top 20 charting pop hits – Dirty Water (Standells), Liar, Liar (Castaways), and at number five the highest-charting 45 of the bunch, Psychotic Reaction (Count Five) – as well as” LP non-charters such as “the equally inspired Let’s Talk About Girls (Chocolate Watchband), Don’t Look Back (Remains), and An Invitation to Cry (Magicians).” LP “Found among Nuggets’ garage one-hit wonders, though, are first steps by Todd Rundgren and Ted Nugent.” BL
“Each track is also given a brief bio which was researched and penned by Kaye. His comments go beyond the facts and figures of the typical discography, relating to the music as the personal experience that it was.” LP “Kaye writes that these were ‘unprofessional’ bands. Take that as a glowing recommendation.” BL “This further unifies the subtle assertion that a new generation of pop/rock music fans were listening beneath the charts and the formats that began to dictate the contents of the airwaves as well as record store shelves. In 1998 Rhino Records reissued this set in an expanded edition containing 91 additional garage and psychedelic stacks of wax. As a paean to the two-LP set that started it all, the first CD in the Nuggets… box replicates the running order and artwork of this fundamental rock & roll anthology.” LP
Review Source(s):
BLBlender Magazine’s “100 Greatest American Albums” (10/08)
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