Here is another compilation, also from Rhino Records, and I still have no idea where it came from! Compiled by Lenny Kaye (later with Patti Smith Group), the double album was originally released by Elektra in 1972, before being reissued by Sire a few years later, then being picked up by Rhino in the Eighties since when it has been issued in a few different versions. What I have here is the original, which contained 27 songs, many of which had actually been hits as opposed to obscurities. This compilation is often viewed as being one of the most important of its type, and features in both Colin Larkin’s Top 1000 albums and Rolling Stones ‘Greatest 500 Albums of All Time’ (although I have not checked the most recent version which has been causing much gnashing of teeth). Apparently, it is also one of the very first times music is described as punk.

For me, I have enjoyed this album for years, as it mixes just so many different styles and types together, all under the banner “psychedelic”. One of the very first guitar albums I ever heard was Ted Nugent’s 1976 release, ‘Free For All’, and I wasted no time whatsoever in going back in time and grabbing not only his earlier debut album, but his releases with The Amboy Dukes. That is where I first came across their version of Big Joe Williams’ “Baby, Please Don’t Go”, which to me is one of the real highlights of this set. Here was a band trying to keep it together and in the corner of the studio was someone trying to rip his guitar to pieces. These days he is often thought of a redneck gun-toting hunter and not a serious musician, but in 1967 he was in his prime. Apart from that number it is hard to pick a standout as the joy of this release is that every single number is wonderful, from The Electric Prunes’ “I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)” all the way through to The Magic Mushrooms’ “It’s-a-Happening”. Some musicians went onto much greater things, with Nazz’s Todd Rundgren probably the most influential, but if anyone has somehow managed to miss this set it is all about the music and not the rarity. The psychedelic scene was far broader and more diverse than many think, and this set shows just that, and is as relevant today in 2020 as it was when first compiled nearly 50 years ago.

Rating: 10/10

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Track list and additional information:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuggets:_Original_Artyfacts_from_the_First_Psychedelic_Era,_1965%E2%80%931968

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Links:
https://www.rhino.com/