Nugget: 60s Garage Rock Compilation

This "cult" compilation covers the period from 1964-68 in US musical history and includes a bucketful of rarities that were filed under the genre "garage rock", "acid rock" or "psychedelic rock". Although some of the artists were better known, and some of the groups' members went on to bigger and better things, the groups concerned have a Northern Soul-style mysterious obscurity about them. I guess the genre is to rock and punk music what Northern Soul was to Motown and Stax. Rather like US punk was different to UK punk, the music is is more rocky than its trippy UK equivalent, much of which can be found on the Decca/Deram compilation The Psychedelic Scene.

The US material is riffier, with more verve and attack and clearly was a big influence on punk and new wave. Indeed, the original double album compliation was curated by then DJ Lenny Kaye, who went on to be the bass player with The Patti Smith group. In fact, the sleeve notes are said to contain one of the first written references to "punk rock". 

The influences on the material are many - The Beatles, early Rolling Stones, early Kinks, early Beach Boys and surf music, "mercury sound" Bob Dylan, Them, The Yardbirds and many others. In turn, songs like (We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet by The Blue Magoos is very much the pre-cursor of Deep Purple's Black Night, with its bass riff that Purple subsequently played on lead guitar and Music Explosion's A Little Bit O' Soul was covered by The Ramones on their Subterranean Jungle album. 

You can hear punk and new wave hints all over the place and there are also huge debts to the British r 'n' b - blues bands in much of the material. The Ramones covered four of the tracks from the album on their Acid Eaters album of covers and, for me, you can really hear the influence of this sub-genre on the early Blondie albums - short, frantic tracks like I'm On E, for example. 

The album in its full, extended format only seems to be available on vinyl, although the original CD is still on sale here and there online. Neither of the albums are available via streaming, so I have managed to make up a playlist* of around 100 of the tracks by searching for them individually from the track listing. The sound quality is pretty good on most of the tracks too, although there are a few that sound a bit rudimentary. I will just list my favourites as opposed to commenting track by track:-

Nobody But Me - The Human Beinz

Journey To The Center Of The Mind - Amboy Dukes feat. Ted Nugent

A Little Bit O' Soul - Music Explosion

(We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet - The Blue Magoos

Mindrocker - Fenwyck

Steppin' Out - Paul Revere & The Raiders

Action Woman - The Litter

Incense And Peppermints - Strawberry Alarm Clock

Night Time - The Strangeloves

Hold Me Now - The Rumors

You're Gonna Miss Me - The 13th Floor Elevators

You Burn Me Up And Down - We The People

Run, Run, Run - The Gestures

Psychotic Reaction - The Count Five

Baby Please Don't Go - Ted Nugent

Last Time Around - The Dell-Vetts

Liar, Liar - The Castaways

Don't Look Back - The Remains

A Question Of Temperature - Balloon Farm

Oh Yeah - The Shadows Of Night (check out that Jean Genie-Blockbuster! riff)

It's Cold Outside - The Choir

One Track Mind - The Knickerbockers

The Trip - Kim Fowley

Outside Chance - The Turtles

Out Of Our Tree - The Fabulous Wailers

Blue's Theme - Davie Allan & The Arrows

I'm Five Years Ahead Of My Time - The Third Bardo

I Want Candy - The Strangeloves

Why Do I Cry - Barry And The Remains

Laugh, Laugh - The Beau Brummels

She's My Baby - The Mojo Men (very early Rolling Stones in sound)

Get Me To The World On Time - The Electric Prunes

Love's Gone Bad - The Underdogs

I Can't Make A Friend - The Vagrants

I Wonder - The Gants (obviously Beatles influenced)

She's About A Mover - Sir Douglas Quintet

Pushin' Too Hard - The Seeds

Are You A Boy Or Are You A Girl - The Barbarians

So What!! - The Lyrics

Little Girl - Syndicate Of Sound

Dirty Water - The Standells

A Public Execution - Mouse And The Traps (a very Dylanesque number)

Also well worth checking out is Nuggets II, which features largely UK material. I prefer the US one for its poppier, often bubblegum-esque feel but there is also some good stuff to be found here. Both of these are, dare I say, veritable goldmines of often unknown or little remembered material. They are well worth checking out. There is so much good stuff on both these albums that it is almost incomprehensible that most of it wasn't particularly successful. It has become somewhat trendy these days to like this material, but for once it is with good reason. 

* My playlists can be found here -

https://www.deezer.com/en/playlist/8539284782

https://www.deezer.com/en/playlist/8557993242

Here are the full album track listings anyway -