The Smiley Smile Message Board

Anyone else a big fan of this record? I assume many on here own the Rhino 4 CD box set (the Nuggets II box also kills), but the original album/first CD on the box is an absolute classic. What are some of your favorite tunes on it?

I love The Seeds "Pushin' Too Hard", The Remains "Don't Look Back", Shadows of Knight's "Oh Yeah" and Nazz's "Open My Eyes". Damn near every tune on here is a '60s gem though.

I love it; "Dirty Water" by the Standells became one of my favorite '60s tunes. "Nobody But Me" by the Human Beinz too, though I already knew that song before I heard Nuggets.

I have the 4-CD box too, but I really like the more condensed selection on the double LP.

The original LP was certainly a big influence on the Punk movement mid/late 70s.  Played a lot in the clubs too.

Jac Holzman (head of Elektra records) did a Q&A on Reddit a little while ago. Someone asked about Nuggets, and I thought it was pretty interesting.

Q: Hi Jac, I'm a huge fan of Nuggets. How did you and Lenny Kaye get together and decide to assemble this amazing collection?

A: Pertinent question, thank you, especially since Nonesuch celebrated its 40th anniversary just last year. I used to visit Lenny at the Village record store at which he worked. I was fascinated by the garage bands of the early 60s who would have a single that was memorable over a short lifespan and no meaningful albums to speak of. So I thought, it might be fun to see if we could license all of these odd tracks, provide a frame of reference for them, and put them together in a 2-LP set. And I had a name. Namely, Nuggets -- simple and to the point. Later that same day, I ran into Lenny, mentioned this to him, asked him if he wanted to pull it together. Close friends ever since. It's the only compendium album not by a single artist that Rolling Stone recognized in the 250 best Rock Albums Of All Time. It's at 191. Nuggets was reissued in a special 40th anniversary edition by Rhino on CD and vinyl last year.

FYI  Back in 1968, the Beach Boys regularly played a few bars of the Seed's "Pushin' Too Hard" in their live shows.   Mike would introduce it as "...a bit of California Soul."

Love this record so much - can't even begin to pick a favourite.

One thing that is amazing to me is that when the record was first released most of the tracks were only around 5 - 7 years old and yet there was already a nostalgic revisionism at play.  Could you imagine that today for music from 2007?  And what would be the unifying aesthetic?  Music was moving at such a fast pace back then....

I love this album! I'm really big into the garage and psych bands of the 60s. Love bands like Strawberry Alarm Clock, Electric Prunes, Swingin' Medallions, The Leaves and Chocolate Watch Band. I hadn't heard Captain Beefheart's 'Diddy Wah Diddy' until I got this compilation (the box-set version of Nuggets) and I was just so blown away! I had never heard a bass guitar sound like that before (except for maybe at the end of Cabinessence). Great stuff!!

This album is great. "Psychotic Reaction" by The Count Five is fantastic early psych, and easily one of my favorite songs on the album. Also dig The Chocolate Watchband, The Human Beinz, and the classic 13th Floor Elevators. Nuggets II has also got some great stuff, such as "White Bicycle" by Tomorrow, "A Dream For Julie" by Kaleidoscope and other great stuff by We All Together, The Easybeats and The Pretty Things. Gotta love Nuggets.