“Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era is a compilation album of American psychedelic and garage rock singles that were released during the mid-to-late 1960s. It was created by Lenny Kaye, who was a writer and clerk at the Village Oldies record shop in New York. He would later become the lead guitarist for the Patti Smith Group. Kaye produced Nuggets under the supervision of Elektra Records founder Jac Holzman. Kaye conceived the project as a series of roughly eight LP installments focusing on different US regions, but Elektra convinced him that one double album would be more commercially viable.[4] It was released on LP by Elektra in 1972 with liner notes by Kaye that contained one of the first uses of the term "punk rock".[5] It was reissued with a new cover design by Sire Records in 1976. In the 1980s, Rhino Records issued Nuggets in a series of fifteen installments, and in 1998 as a 4-cd box set.” -wiki-
The flavor of the music in this collection carries the textures of its times flawlessly. Pop garage psychedelia. Stereotypically loaded terms to be sure. But if you listen carefully to these two collections you can remember the way that raw and other earthly rock experimentations wove their way onto commercial radio. All these singles got a run. You got to drive around in your car and get to know them intimately. Unfair to pull just one but here’s a moody classic from the Seeds.
“We are asleep with compasses in our hands.”
Mr. Merwin