Digging Deeper into the Nuggets' Treasure Chest

I always figured that owning both Nuggets box sets would forever satisfy my then-occasional yearning for sixties garage rock. Sure, I had a few Seeds albums, and the Shadows of Knight, the Troggs, the Standells, the Prunes, the Elevators, and others made substantial cameos in my collection, but I never felt a pressing need to go much further than that until only recently. My long-running rules of price sensitivity declared that if I found a good deal on an LP, I’d pick it up. But it’s not very often that you see some of these more obscure records for sale, and when you do, the obscenity of its price tag usually matches the record’s obscurity. Of course, this has all changed with the rise of the 180g reissue!

I used to think that Nuggets was the end, when in fact it is merely the beginning, a launch pad for further musical exploration. My first hint of this came nearly six years ago, when I first moved to Denver. (Six years??!! Has it really been that long??) My first week in town I picked up a Chocolate Watchband cassette and that baby didn’t leave my car’s tape deck for months! (I think I ended up passing it on to Gwen...) I look back on that tape as my first recognition that many of these garage bands, though all similar-sounding to unfamiliar ears, had unique qualities worth exploring in greater detail outside of their contributions to Nuggets.

A while back I posted on the legendary sixties group The Misunderstood, whose singular track on Nuggets, the outstanding "Children of the Sun", cannot on its own begin to do this great band justice. After soaking up their Lost Acetates record for the last few weeks, I am still convinced that this is THE "lost" band of that decade. Like the Watchband, the Misunderstood have that special something, a mysterious gift of transcendence which permeates their body of work. Perhaps it’s that both of these bands, I would argue, more successfully than their peers, straddled their roots in early rock n’ roll and gritty R&B with the experimentation and freedom of the burgeoning psychedelic scene.

Digging deeper into the Nuggets treasure chest unearths all kinds of random connections and bits of trivia. Did you remember that the Golliwogs were really an early lineup of Creedence Clearwater Revival? Ever listen to Ted Nugent before he began a long career of right wing sucking? Blue Cheer fans: have you heard guitar maestro Randy Holden’s pre-Cheer outfit The Other Half? Did you know that the Lyme in Lyme & Cybelle (the psychedelic Sonny & Cher) is none other than the then-unknown Warren Zevon? And that singer for We The People? He would later join the Allman Brothers.

We The People—there’s another Nuggets band well worth checking out. Very few of these bands lasted long enough to warrant a double-disc anthology, but theirs is well worth owning. Next up in my journeys, hopefully: the Lollipop Shoppe. I’ve heard they’re pretty swell. (THIS JUST IN: Turns out the dude from the Lollipop Shoppe is still playing music, currently in the garage band Dead Moon!)

(All this talk of Nuggets is not to leave out Pebbles, Rubble, and the seemingly endless run of similar-minded compilations…There seems to be enough to keep one busy forever…)

So I scored again at Black & Read—Friday night I found a copy of the Barbarians’ 1965 self-titled debut on Laurie Records for five bucks. Another famous Nuggets band, whose "Are You A Boy Or Are You A Girl" was a modest hit back in the day, the Barbarians were a gang of scraggly-lookin’ long-hairs, led by a one-armed drummer with a hook (Check album cover above! And speaking of one-armed drummers, Def Leppard ain’t got nothin’ on the Barbarians!). I did hesitate, because though the sleeve was in pretty great shape, the record itself had seen better days—but when I got home and threw it on the turntable, there were no skips to be had, just that crackle and pop I love so. The album itself is an enjoyable but inessential timepiece consisting mostly of well-chosen covers. Another bit of Nuggets trivia: What band, then known as the Hawks, play on the Barbarians’ song "Moulty", as rumored in the Nuggets liner notes?

Answer: The Band

Other Black & Read pick-ups:

Konk’s The Sound of Konk compilation. Konk was one of New York City’s finest, funkiest bands of the eighties, who ran in the same crowd as ESG and Liquid Liquid. It’s on Soul Jazz Records, thus the rich and detailed liner notes, fascinating stories of a period of time when one would cross paths with Grandmaster Flash and the Cro-Mags in the same day.

Africa Funk: The Original Sound of 1970s Funky Africa 2xLP. With this purchase, I’m really feelin’ that Afro-beat! I’ve been thinking that it’s about time I heard what else was out there besides Africa’s most famous son, Fela Kuti. All I can say is: WOW. I know there is much more where this came from, and I fully intend on seeking it out. More to come. Stay tuned.

And finally: A street singer championed by Frank Zappa, among many others, Wild Man Fischer's last album, Nothing Scary. Trouser Press calls him "one of the true wackos of our time." But really, the poor guy just has Tourettes syndrome. Fascinating "outsider" music. I need a few more listens though.

But really, I gots ta get working on my Best of ’04 list. I haven’t done much of anything yet, I know thenoiseboy is way ahead of me in that department. I also have a mix tape to make for Skyway, this Replacements email list that I’ve been on for years. Should be fun—I get to turn some lucky person on to the tunes of my choice, while I get the same in return. A marvelous thing, really. Anyway, so much to get done before we leave for P-Town for the holidays!

Today’s hits:
Clear Light – s/t
Fine Young Cannibals – The Raw & The Cooked
The DB’s – Stands for Decibels
Motorpsycho – Let Them Eat Cake
The Barbarians – s/t
Big Star - #1 Record
Anita Carter – Anita of the Carter Family
The Remains – A Session With the Remains
Echo & The Bunnymen – Porcupine