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.

(61 votes, average: 4.34 out of 5)

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The Rolling Stones “Jumping Jack Flash” (released originally in May 1968 b/w “Street Fighting Man”) and “Honky Tonk Women”   (released originally in July 1969 b/w “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”) Decca Records

One picture has the band with Brian Jones and the other with Mick Taylor.   Taylor, who at 17 had replaced Eric Clapton in John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, joined the Stones in June, 1969.   Jones died in July, a month later.   Though Brian was at the recording of “Honky Tonk Women” in early ’69, by the time it was released he was out of the band and replaced by 20-year old Taylor whose guitar work was overdubbed for the release of the single.     Mick Taylor was with the Stones until he left the group in December of 1974, to be replaced by Ron Wood.   Many would say that the Mick Taylor years were the band’s greatest period.

(55 votes, average: 3.85 out of 5)

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“The Buddy Holly Story”   Compare the U.K. Coral   (top) and U.S. Coral Records (bottom) releases.

(31 votes, average: 4.03 out of 5)

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“Crazy Little Mama”   The Eldorados     Guest Artist:   The Magnificents   Vee Jay Records   (1957) Listen up:   “At My Front Door”

The El Dorados did a week at Chicago’s Regal Theater starting February 22, 1957. They shared the boards with Bobby Charles, the Spaniels, Jimmy Reed, Arthur Prysock, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, the Rhythm Kings, Gene & Eunice, Big Joe Turner, Priscilla Bowman, Brook Benton, and the Tab Smith Orchestra.

In March, while the group was in Atlanta, Vee Jay announced that the El Dorados would have the honor of being the subject of the company’s first LP.   Issued as VJLP-1001 (“Crazy Little Mama”), it contained ten songs by them: “My Loving Baby,” “Baby I Need You,” “Annie’s Answer,” “I Began To Realize,” “At My Front Door” (“Crazy Little Mama”), “Now That You’ve Gone,” “I’ll Be Forever Loving You,” “Rock ‘N Roll’s For Me,” “There In The Night,” and “A Fallen Tear.”   For some reason, while they left off some of the El Dorados releases, they included two tunes by the Magnificents: “Up On The Mountain” and “Caddy Bo.”

Crazy little mamma come knockin’

Comes a-knockin’ at my front door, door, door

Crazy little mamma come knockin’

Knockin’ at my front door

Crazy little mamma come knock, knock, knockin’

Just like she did before

I woke up this morning with a feeling of despair

Looking for my baby and she wasn’t there

Heard someone knockin’ much to my surprise

There stood my babe lookin’ at my eyes

Crazy little mamma comes knock, knock, knockin’

Just like she did before

If you got a little mamma and you wanna keep her neat

Keep your little mama off my street

Same thing will happen like it did before

She’ll come knock, knock, knockin’ at my door

Crazy little mamma come knock, knock, knockin’

Just like she did before

(44 votes, average: 3.77 out of 5)

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MC5 “Kick Out the Jams” (“motherfuckers”)   1969 Elektra Records   Vocals, Rob Tyner; Guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred “Sonic” Smith (Later Mr. Patti Smith); Michael Fraser on vocals/bass and Grant Palmer on drums.

Radical and revolutionary. in the late sixties MC5 was banging out hard punk jams that meshed out jazz, political anger and garage band rock.   MC5 was signed to Elektra in 1969 along with fellow motor city madmen The Stooges.

Stupefaction hips us to this site of MC5 drummer Dennis “Machinegun” Thompson.   Check it out.

(49 votes, average: 3.86 out of 5)

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“Walkin With Mr. Lee” Lee Allen and his Band   Ember Records   (1958)   New Orleans Rock’n Roll from the man that played sax for Little Richard, Fats Domino, Smiley Lewis, Shirley And Lee and Huey “Piano” Smith.     (From lp cover lover Joan’s collection)

(40 votes, average: 3.40 out of 5)

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“Boppin’, “Rumble” and “Cadillacs Meet The Orioles”     Thanks to Lp cover lover, Joan for sending us these three compilations of fifties rock and roll and doo-op on Jubilee Records.     “Whoppers” and “Paragons Meet the Jesters are others in the series (look for future postings here.)

(58 votes, average: 4.36 out of 5)

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Link Wray & The Wraymen   Epic Records   It’s hard to imagine an instrumental being banned as too subversive, but that is what happened to Link Wray’s Rumble   in 1958.   Its tough, muscular sound captured the tension of a gang fight and many US radio stations refused to play it or even mention its title.It’s hard to imagine an instrumental being banned as too subversive, but that is what happened to Link Wray’s “Rumble” in 1958. Its tough, muscular sound captured the tension of a gang fight and many US radio stations refused to play it or even mention its title. Wray’s opening chord sets the scene for 150 echo-drenched seconds of feedback and distorted guitar. This is Link Wray’s original 1960 debut LP.   An all instrumental album incluing Link’s smash hit “Raw-Hide”, the often covered “Comanche”, the ballad “Lillian” plus Caroline/Slinky/Right Turn/Rendezvous/Dixie-Doodle/Ramble/Hand Clapper/Radar/Studio Blues.   You can get this and more Link Wray from Norton Records.

“He is the king; if it hadn’t been for Link Wray and ‘Rumble,’ I would have never picked up a guitar.” – Pete Townsend

Link Wray –   still NOT in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

(47 votes, average: 3.85 out of 5)

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“Mr. Tambourine Man”   The Byrds 1965 debut on Columbia Records.   #232 on Rolling Stones’ 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.”   Produced by Terry Melcher.   Cover Photo by:   Barry Feinstein.   Here’s an early TV appearance on Hullabaloo.

The only Byrd to play on the band’s first hit was Roger McGuinn, whose chiming twelve-string Rickenbacker guitar became folk rock’s defining sound. Everything else came from L.A. pros, including drummer Hal Blaine and bassist Larry Knechtel from Phil Spector’s Wrecking Crew. But the rest of the Byrds soon caught up, and as the song was breaking, a curious Dylan checked out the band at Ciro’s, an L.A. club, and reportedly didn’t recognize some of his own songs in their electrified versions.   – Rolling Stone

(24 votes, average: 3.33 out of 5)

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Clarence “Frogman” Henry “You Always Hurt the One You Love”   Argo Records (1961)   Henry opened for the Beatles on their 1964 tour.   His first big hit, and most enduring recording, is the lovable and very weird, “Ain’t Got No Home” (released in 1956), where he “sings like a frog” and “sings like a girl”.   This reached a new generation, when Daniel Stern did a great sing-along in the 1982 movie “Diner.”   This LP is another example of how record companies in the fifties and early sixties even wouldn’t show the black artists on the cover in the hopes of selling the record to more white listeners.

(43 votes, average: 3.93 out of 5)

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