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The Best and Most Influential Comp During The Rock Era ?
The Garage rock compilation Nuggets prepared by Rock Journalist and Guitarist ( Patti Smith) Lenny Kaye is often cited as the best rock comp and I agree. When the album was released in 1972 the term punk or garage rock was not often used but I think the compilation helped ignite the movement.
The title of the comp was Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era 1965-1968. Kaye had a rather wide interpretation of Garage Rock and included groups like the Mojo Men ( recently discussed by me in another thread for having a female drummer), Sagittarius ( The Beach Boys meet the Mamas and Papas and actually featuring some Beach Boys ) and The Third Rail featuring future bubblegum star Joey Levine. Plus a lot of groups that are associated with the original Garage/Punk wave such as the Seeds, Count Five, Shadows of Knight etc
The comp for the most part had tracks that made the bottom half of the top 40 or even the bottom part of the Hot 100.
The comp began a whole cottage industry of Garage comps and Rhino Records beginning in the 80's actually released many series using the Nuggets moniker and expanding the concept to even include the likes of the Monkees. I own most of them and when it comes to comps it's my most listened to series.
Below are pictures of some of the Nuggets sets including:
1. Liner notes from the original 1972 release for the Mojo Men track. The group was originally called Sly ( Yes the very same) and the Mojo Men.
2. One of 9 Vinyl sets in the Nuggets series released in the 80's
3. One of 3 CD releases from the 80's.
4. A huge 4 CD set released in the late 90's that included the entire original album on the first CD but only the mono mixes were included as it was felt that's how the tracks were meant to be heard.
5. Finally a YT clip of Sagittarius and My World Fell Down which made it to number 70 on Billboard and received airplay on WOR FM - the first experiment with progressive rock on the radio and sounds decidedly not garage but more Brian Wilsonesque meets Mama Cass.
6. YT of original garage gods the Seeds. Some may remember their appearance on the Mothers in Law and featuring the great Sky Saxon. Note who introduces them.
Last edited by Fitz (March 17, 2026 8:34 pm)
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Re: The Best and Most Influential Comp During The Rock Era ?
Gonna Drive by the Stop and Shop with the radio on - Modern Lovers
Let me elaborate a bit on why I think Nuggets is the best and most influential comp album of the Rock generation.
The sound was the inspiration for groups like the Ramones and Modern Lovers and many many more. There's a whole channel on SXM devoted to garage rock from all ages. Underground Garage on channel 21 and album mastermind, Lenny Kaye has a show on it. You can hear everything from The Dictators to Hermin;s Hermits on the station.
Also have a look at the rather wide ranging track listing of the original album ( pictured below). Creem magazine in 1972 called the sound "psychedelic punkitude" . Original Creem review also included below.
Some more YT clips. Two of the songs on the original set. The 13th Floor Elevator's manic "You're Gonna Miss me" and Mouse and The Trap's great take on the Bob Dylan protest sound. A cover of a nuggets era tune by the Fall called Mr. Pharmacist and finally a 70's tune by the Modern Lovers inspired by the 60's sound.
Incidently The Modern Lovers track has the words AM Radio -oh how the band has slid to irrrevalance. 
Last edited by Fitz (March 18, 2026 8:47 am)
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Re: The Best and Most Influential Comp During The Rock Era ?
You Know Lilly, I'm going to sleep a lot better my dear knowing the future of America is in the hands of boys like these - Herman Munster
including the original double album set I think i have more than 15 titles in the Nuggets series and am missing only two or three and needless to say I am a big fan..
Want to concentrate on the impact that the acts had on American culture and media BEFORE the release of the set. Thus I present 3 groups that were part of the original double album. There were many media appearances from such acts from 1965 to 1969.
1. The Standells on the Munsters in an episode called Far Out Munsters
2. The Seeds on the sitcom The Mother's In Law features quite a bit of dialog
3. The Chocolate Watchband from the teen exploitation film Riot On Sunset Strip - doing their best Yardbirds imitation and in fact borrowing heavily from Jeff Beck's The Nazz are Blue but not calling it that. Plus some dated and not neccessarily accirate depiction of the hippie culture.
Last edited by Fitz (March 19, 2026 8:05 am)
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Re: The Best and Most Influential Comp During The Rock Era ?
Fitz wrote:
Gonna Drive by the Stop and Shop with the radio on - Modern Lovers
Let me elaborate a bit on why I think Nuggets is the best and most influential comp album of the Rock generation.
The sound was the inspiration for groups like the Ramones and Modern Lovers and many many more. There's a whole channel on SXM devoted to garage rock from all ages. Underground Garage on channel 21 and album mastermind, Lenny Kaye has a show on it. You can hear everything from The Dictators to Hermin;s Hermits on the station.
Also have a look at the rather wide ranging track listing of the original album ( pictured below). Creem magazine in 1972 called the sound "psychedelic punkitude" . Original Creem review also included below.
Some more YT clips. Two of the songs on the original set. The 13th Floor Elevator's manic "You're Gonna Miss me" and Mouse and The Trap's great take on the Bob Dylan protest sound. A cover of a nuggets era tune by the Fall called Mr. Pharmacist and finally a 70's tune by the Modern Lovers inspired by the 60's sound.
Incidently The Modern Lovers track has the words AM Radio -oh how the band has slid to irrrevalance.
While going through Fitz’s excellent post, I recognized someone in the Modern Lovers frame grab, that being Talking Heads keyboardist Jerry Harrison, second from the left. I was not aware he had played with Johnathan Richman and the Modern Lovers, nice to know all these years later!
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Re: The Best and Most Influential Comp During The Rock Era ?
Good catch Short Wave re Jerry Harrison and Talking Heads. David Robinson later of the cars was also in there.
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Good catch Short Wave re Jerry Harrison and Talking Heads. David Robinson later of the cars was also in there.
I think that’s Robinson, first left, beside Harrison! The stuff you find out after the fact…..!
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Re: The Best and Most Influential Comp During The Rock Era ?
You Know Lilly, I'm going to sleep a lot better my dear knowing the future of America is in the hands of boys like these - Herman Munster
including the original double album set I think i have more than 15 titles in the Nuggets series and am missing only two or three and needless to say I am a big fan..
Want to concentrate on the impact that the acts had on American culture and media BEFORE the release of the set. Thus I present 3 groups that were part of the original double album. There were many media appearances from such acts from 1965 to 1969.
1. The Standells on the Munsters in an episode called Far Out Munsters
2. The Seeds on the sitcom The Mother's In Law features quite a bit of dialog
3. The Chocolate Watchband from the teen exploitation film Riot On Sunset Strip - doing their best Yardbirds imitation and in fact borrowing heavily from Jeff Beck's The Nazz are Blue but not calling it that. Plus some dated and not neccessarily accirate depiction of the hippie culture.
Most of the acts on the original nuggets set have concert footage from various TV shows but in addition to the above three examples here's another one that has a small skit from The Smother Brothers. The Blues Magoos:
Last edited by Fitz (March 19, 2026 9:08 am)
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Re: The Best and Most Influential Comp During The Rock Era ?
Might be of interest that the Blues Magoos' Peppy Castro was later in the group Balance, who had a #22 hit in 1981 with "Breaking Away".
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Re: The Best and Most Influential Comp During The Rock Era ?
Might be of interest that the Blues Magoos' Peppy Castro was later in the group Balance, who had a #22 hit in 1981 with "Breaking Away".
Yes I have read that but as a garage fan I appreciate Peppy's work with the Blues Magoos more. We Ain't Got Nothing Yet is a certified classic and they have some other worthwhile tracks,
Last edited by Fitz (March 19, 2026 6:44 pm)
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Re: The Best and Most Influential Comp During The Rock Era ?
Not sure I agree with everything on this list, but it's still interesting to see what they chose.
The biggest one-hit wonder of each year from the 1960s to now
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Re: The Best and Most Influential Comp During The Rock Era ?
Not sure I agree with everything on this list, but it's still interesting to see what they chose.
The biggest one-hit wonder of each year from the 1960s to now
I just skimmed thru the list and will say that Vanity Fare was actually a two hit wonder and the one they did not choose might have been as big as the one they did choose. That's for the North American market. I think they had more hits in the UK
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Re: The Best and Most Influential Comp During The Rock Era ?
Not sure I agree with everything on this list, but it's still interesting to see what they chose.
The biggest one-hit wonder of each year from the 1960s to now
I’m with you RA as far as what’s on this list, but still interesting to go over. I am basically cut off at Stacey’s Mom by Fountains of Wayne, who lost one of their members early on during pre-vaccine COVID, not sure if they’re still together.
I can think of tons of one hit wonders from the 80s, Video Killed the Radio Star for starters!
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Upthread I posted a clip from the teen exploitation film Riot on Sunset Strip which seems to feature a rather caricatured and misleading look at the hippie culture of the west coast. The film though did also feature two icons of garage rock, The Sandells and Chocolate Watchband . Their take on west coast rock was different than that of the San Francisco bands like the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and Quicksilver Messenger Service but the peace and love vibe, however naive and contrived, could possibly be applied to both wings. I don't see that reflected in the short clip of the film I posted above and nor does it show up on this poster for the film I found online. Might be one of those so bad that it might be fun to watch films. I will seek it out as I have known about it for years and may have a look.
Does seem like a case of the adults ( American International Films) exploiting the youth.
BTW the club that can be seen at around 1:51 of the clip I posted was a real club ( Pandor;s Box) and I think The Association track Pandora's Golden Heebee Geebees was inspired by that and an actual riot did take place in the vicinity of the club as imorialized in Buffalo Springfield's For What It's Worth. The song depicts the event as a demonstarion which resulted in a nasty police crackdown and that's probably closer to the truth than a riot.
Last edited by Fitz (March 20, 2026 9:14 am)
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My all time favourite movie in this category is 1968's "Wild In The Streets," in which a rock star organizes the youth of the U.S. and becomes President of the United States. He then goes about putting anyone 30 or older ("never trust anyone over 30" was a mantra back then) in LSD retraining camps. The scene in Congress with a bunch of acid-stoned politicians voting on a bill is something I've never forgotten.
It was a silly film in many ways, but had quite a cast, including a very young and relvatively unknown Richard Pryor, Hal Holbrook, and Ed Begley Sr. among others. It has a fantastic ending, which I won't spoil here.
And in keeping with this thread, it also spawned one of the best One Hit Wonders of that year, "Shape Of Things To Come," which became a fairly sizeable hit for Max Frost and the Troopers - the fictional band portrayed in the movie.
If you've never seen it, you're in for a treat. It's dated in many ways but still fun to watch. And it's one of the most memorable movies I've ever seen and stuck with me all these years.
You can watch the entire flick free on the Internet Archive site.
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Re: The Best and Most Influential Comp During The Rock Era ?
Not sure I agree with everything on this list, but it's still interesting to see what they chose.
The biggest one-hit wonder of each year from the 1960s to nowI just skimmed thru the list and will say that Vanity Fare was actually a two hit wonder and the one they did not choose might have been as big as the one they did choose. That's for the North American market. I think they had more hits in the UK
Correct. Early In The Morning peaked at #12 on the Hot 100 at the end of January 1970.
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Re: The Best and Most Influential Comp During The Rock Era ?
My all time favourite movie in this category is 1968's "Wild In The Streets," in which a rock star organizes the youth of the U.S. and becomes President of the United States. He then goes about putting anyone 30 or older ("never trust anyone over 30" was a mantra back then) in LSD retraining camps. The scene in Congress with a bunch of acid-stoned politicians voting on a bill is something I've never forgotten.
It was a silly film in many ways, but had quite a cast, including a very young and relvatively unknown Richard Pryor, Hal Holbrook, and Ed Begley Sr. among others. It has a fantastic ending, which I won't spoil here.
And in keeping with this thread, it also spawned one of the best One Hit Wonders of that year, "Shape Of Things To Come," which became a fairly sizeable hit for Max Frost and the Troopers - the fictional band portrayed in the movie.
If you've never seen it, you're in for a treat. It's dated in many ways but still fun to watch. And it's one of the most memorable movies I've ever seen and stuck with me all these years.
You can watch the entire flick free on the Internet Archive site.
Shape of Things to Come was a good song and I think Andy Frost use to play it on P Sunday.
Another song with a similar title was Shape of Things by the Yardbirds which hit the top 40 in 1966. The Yardbirds along with the Stones were probably the two bands that all the garage bands were listening to most between 1966 to 1968.
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