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Rating: There are currently hundreds of music anthologies focusing on primitive rock. In just a few years, significant quantities of 45 records believed lost forever in the dust of time have been unearthed. As the title suggests, the period in question is from the mid to late sixties, with particular attention to 1966, the peak year for American garage rock. In 1964, the British Invasion by Yardbirds, Them, Animals, Kinks, Beatles, and Rolling Stones had taken over the world, leading countless young teenagers to form their own amateur bands.
Ironically, the United States, which had invented rock and roll just a few years earlier, transitioned from unknowing masters to amateurish imitators of that English phenomenon known as beat. Of course, most Americans lacked the technical expertise and the typically British refined touch, so the result was somewhat different. Countless college bands from all over the Union, after strumming for months in their home garages to the new and classic tunes of the new music, emerged on vinyl in a raw, rousing, wild, and noisy manner with the attitude of street hooligans. Soon, the entire country was flooded with a flurry of 45 records. Some of these groups fulfilled their dreams of fame, money, fun, and girls, while many stopped at one or two singles, and others couldn't publish anything at all. This is where garage music originated, a genre that lasted for a very short time as it was quickly eclipsed and forgotten by the more well-known hippie phenomenon.
Among the finest rock archaeology experts, Lenny Kaye and Greg Shaw were undoubtedly the most tenacious in bringing to light such a fascinating, exciting, and seminal musical reality, with their first garage collection called Nuggets (1973) and the subsequent expansion into a 4-CD box set, which remains the most complete and representative anthology on the market, the bible of garage rock. After this brilliant commercial insight, the consequences were obvious: hundreds of more or less interesting replicas among which Back From The Grave, Pebbles, Rubble stand out, with a copious number of volumes attached, exorbitant prices, similar tracklists, and so on.
Garage Beat '66 is one of the most recent compilations, debuting in 2004 in three CDs plus two others released subsequently in July 2005 under the American label Sundazed, one of the best labels specializing in sixties reissues. These first three chapters immediately reveal, from the first listen, a great quality: the superb sound quality of the recordings. As for the flaws, the usual presence of tracks already included in previous collections. The first CD, subtitled "Like What, Me Worry?!", is a delightful mix of aggressive garage blues tracks and more beat-oriented songs with catchy choruses that don't fall into dated saccharine lullabies. On the contrary, often they have a bittersweet flavor and are still grittier and rougher than the shiny British pop. On the same wavelength are the other two episodes, one titled "Chicks Are For Kids" and the other "Feeling Zero..." with very well-designed covers and detailed and complete information about these obscure American bands.
These three volumes comprise a total of 60 songs, among the best I'd like to mention the ambiguous and urgent "Sweetgina" (1966) by Things To Come, defined as the precursors to Love and the Doors although, in reality, their attitude recalls the rougher Stones, the magnificent The Litter from Minneapolis with their "Whatcha Gonna Do About It?" (1967), one of the nastiest and most distorted garage punk groups ever, the raw and sick The Third Bardo from New York with the track "Lose Your Mind" (1967), the exciting Spiders from Arizona with "Don't Blow Your Mind" (1966), an essay of filthy fuzz sound for the Neanderthal man, the horror garage-beat of Texans Neal Ford & The Fanatics with "Shame On You" (1967), the suggestive beat soaked in Byrds melody of The Best Things with "Chicks Are For Kids" (1967), the fierce and ungainly soul of John Hammond with "I Wish You Would"(1966) The Remains, The Purple Underground, The Preachers, Ugly Ducklings, Sparkles, The Fe-Fi-Four Plus 2, Olivers and many others, possibly representing the hardest edge of this genre, but the list could go on.
An anthology therefore worthy of all respect: excellent music for all sixties lovers and beyond, with a great variety of styles from the more peaceful and melodic pop to the wildest and most depraved rock. I'd like to conclude this topic by recommending this collection to passionate completists of the genre, as I mentioned earlier, these musical fetishes cost a fortune and the tracks are not all worth such expense (some could have comfortably remained in the basement collecting dust). For those wishing to spend their money well and take home a quality product, the first box of Nuggets is perfect, and if the hunger for 60s garage still isn't satisfied, I recommend some volume of Pebbles, Back From The Grave, and those few complete records that saw the light during that period.
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