July, 2009
Tasty Nuggets
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.