Tasty Nuggets

July 1st, 2009 in Illustration, Rock by lpcoverlover | 9 Comments

The original Nuggets LP on Elektra (1972) “Original Artyfacts from the First Psychodelic Era 1965 – 1968″  The seminal and influential double-record compilation of American garage band rock singles produced by Elektra founder Jac Holzman and Lenny Kaye (Patti Smith’s guitarist).  I discovered this in 1978 in Boston’s Kenmore Square – fittingly at a used record shop called “Nuggets” (Nuggets was next to “The Rat,” i.e., the Rathskeller, a raw basement concert venue that featured many local punk bands.)

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.  Contrary to popular belief, more than a third of the original Nuggets were American Top 40 hits.  Among them “Dirty Water” (Standells), “Liar, Liar” (Castaways), and at number five the highest-charting 45 of the bunch, “Psychotic Reaction” (Count Five).  Several sides never made the Top 200 including “Let’s Talk About Girls” (Chocolate Watchband), “Don’t Look Back” (Remains), and “An Invitation to Cry” (Magicians).  Nuggets influenced Patti Smith, The Ramones, The Talking Heads and R.E.M. .  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.

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9 Comments

1. #1 Scotty G. says:
   July 1st, 2009 at 11:16 am

   Very illuminating!

2. #2 normadesmond says:
   July 2nd, 2009 at 7:34 am

   i remember the rat, even ate there, but don’t recall nuggets & i was a used record store devotee. oh well.

3. #3 Bob says:
   July 2nd, 2009 at 4:21 pm

   It’s like…far out, man.

4. #4 belle says:
   July 2nd, 2009 at 7:04 pm

   now i’m curious about the tunes…

5. #5 lpcoverlover says:
   July 2nd, 2009 at 7:48 pm

   Norma, Nuggets was there 30 years ago and I think is still there. I worked at In Your Ear Records around 1980-84 – know that one?

6. #6 Gene Casey says:
   July 7th, 2009 at 8:34 pm

   Lenny Kaye married Patti Smith?

7. #7 SB says:
   July 15th, 2009 at 1:54 pm

   I can’t possibly be the only one who thought this art was only used and created for rhino records box sets I had no idea Elektra used the exact same cover art on an LP.

8. #8 Brian Phillips says:
   July 16th, 2009 at 4:54 pm

   There was an old Peanuts comics strip. Linus claimed he had the gift of prophecy and to prove it, he predicted, accurately that if you asked an adult, \If there is a Mother’s Day and a Father’s Day, why isn’t there a Children’s Day?\, they would say, \Every day is Children’s Day\. The Linus Van Pelt Gift of Prophecy Award for this compilation (which is wonderful, by the way, especially in the expanded edition Rhino put out) was this: every time I would mention this album, someone would always say, \It was compiled by Lenny Kaye. He’s the lead guitarist for the Patti Smith Group.\ Even if I tried to stop them. Every time.

   Viva Pebbles, Boulders, Teenage Shutdown, Back From the Grave and all the other LPs in the wake of this album, many (darn near all?) of them can be seen here: http://www.ugly-things.com/

   As a side note, I know that Patti Smith married Fred \Sonic\ Smith, but no record of Kaye and Smith being married.

9. #9 lpcoverlover says:
   July 16th, 2009 at 8:36 pm

   Thanks for the note Brian – my bad on the Lenny marrying Patti flub!