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Rating: The Godfather Part II might be better than The Godfather Part I.
I would be tempted to say the same for "Nuggets II" if it weren't for the fact that the original "Nuggets" had such an importance that it makes me more cautious. Without taking anything away from the first collection published by the meritorious Rhino in 1998 (which took inspiration from the 1972 double album by Elektra assembled at the behest of Lanny Kaye, reissued with the addition of three other CDs) which recovered a good chunk of the American sixties-punk heritage from 1965/1968, the Nuggets we are dealing with - published again by Rhino in 2001 in the same four-CD format - has at least equal merit. It dusts off, or better yet, reveals an unrepeatable phase of rock music, the English pre-psychedelic season of the sixties and some garage-rock nuggets scattered throughout the rest of the world. Phil Smee, the creator of the monumental collection Rubble from the early '80s, 20 albums that select the best of this era, coined the term freakbeat for this music to signify that it was in a phase, musical and cultural, that was halfway between the Beat in its resolution phase and the Freak intended as a more open mindset, more or less artificially, and a desire to experiment with new sounds.
In another way, we can say that "Nuggets II" covers the period starting from the aggressive rock of The Who, passes through the Beatles of "Paperback Writer/Rain" and the album "Revolver," touches the Pink Floyd of "Piper At The Gates Of Dawn" and stops just before "In The Court Of The Crimson King" when Psychedelia has (irrevocably?) transformed into Progressive. It's a multicolored bloom, an explosion of flavors (Perfumed Garden, the title of a BBC DJ John Peel's radio program), an anomalous wave of new musical experiences that from the solid foundations of the revolution triggered by the British Invasion of The Beatles, Pretty Things, Yardbirds, draws light to transform it into something else: a mixture of sounds that will become the starting point for future rock: psychedelia, progressive, hard-rock up to influencing the new wave and the more recent brit-pop. It is a collection of wonderful songs - mostly performed by artists considered second-rate, some completely unknown - that reveal an active undergrowth in the shadow of the giants Pink Floyd, Cream, Jimi Hendrix Experience; simply great songs to savor without overthinking. But for those who want to delve deeper...
If in the American "Nuggets" the role of trailblazer was given to the psychedelia of Electric Prunes with "I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)", here the honor goes to the Creation and it couldn’t be any other way: they are the most representative and influential band in the collection: in "Making Time" they use for the first time - well before Led Zeppelin - a violin bow to strike the guitar strings, creating one of the most famous riffs in rock history. The Creation - emulators of The Who and one of Pete Townshend's favorite bands - are architects of a vigorous beat that reaches its peak in the subsequent "How Does It Feel To Feel" a hard freakbeat that you can hear even today in several Oasis songs. Not for nothing did Alan McGee draw inspiration from them for the name of his record label and also took the name for his group from one of their songs "Biff Bang Pow". Still in the Creation orbit - vigorous beat vaguely tinged with psychedelic flavors - are the Fire of "Father's Name Was Dad" and the Smoke of "My Friend Jack", the latter with a marching pace that was successful in Germany, a very receptive land for this type of rock, a refuge for many English groups: the Creation and the Smoke recorded and released their only album right here. The Who are the starting point for many Nuggets bands: the Eyes with "When The Night Falls" and especially with "I'm Rowed Out" that even steals the riff from "I Can't Explain", the Fleur De Lys who remake their "Circles" (B-side of "Substitute"), the magnificent "Save My Soul" by Wimple Winch devastating freakbeat with a masterful fast solo. The mod/beat matrix in "Nuggets II" is still well-rooted, starting with the Action - "I'll Keep Holdin You" a mod-motown piece that can remind Graham Day’s Prisoners; the Birds of Ron Wood who revisit "Magic Bus" even in the title with "Say Those Magic Words". The Yardbirds are the soul of "Children Of the Sun" by the Misunderstood, an American group emigrated to England that didn’t have much luck despite the efforts of their mentor John Peel.
In a more garage key and therefore more similar to its overseas counterpart, "Nuggets II" offers "I Can Only Give You Everything" written only by Van Morrison but credited to Them, a sixties-punk archetype covered extensively, even by MC5 and Troggs who, caught even before their warhorse "Wild Things", are present here with a fuzz-laden "Lost Girl". The New Zealanders Bluestars express pure punk attitude in "Social End Product" one of the best of the lot and the Canadians Haunted are no less with "1-2-5". So not just Great Britain, indeed, among the best things expressed in that period we cannot fail to remember the Dutch Outsiders, creators of a very personal sound in "Touch" which draws from the Northern European folk heritage, strengthening it with substantial doses of R'n'B à la Pretty Things, or the Q65 of "The Life I Live" whose inspirers are also Rolling Stones and Kinks.
The Australian Easybeats represented in their homeland what the Beatles were in England, scenes of collective hysteria included, proposing a vigorous beat well exemplified in the two pieces in the collection: "Sorry" and the more famous "Friday On My Mind". To conclude with the non-English worthy of mention, I would certainly add "It's A Sin To Go Away" by the Peruvian We All Together, a sweet and romantic psychedelic song with a phasing effect on the guitar that very much recalls the early Sun Dial, the Mexican Los Chijuas with a faintly pastel garage-beat, with the title that is a true programmatic statement of freakbeat "Changing The Colors Of Life" and finally the Uruguayan Los Shakers with a Beatlesque look and attitude with a "Break It All" that vaguely reminds of "Rock And Roll Music" by the Fab Four.
The Beatles! Their presence is obviously among the most overwhelming in the Anglo-Saxon land and the Marmalade of "I See The Rain" couldn’t escape their influence - the song appears to be an outtake from "Rubber Soul" - praised by Jimi Hendrix himself. The Jimi Hendrix Experience - as we know - exploded in Britain, and its explosive fury was assimilated by many English bands, first of all the Mickey Finn who with "Garden Of My Mind" show off an undeniable hendrixian guitar in a piece that retraces the lines of "Purple Haze" even in the singing or the Syn of future Yes members Peter Banks and Chris Squire who pay tribute to the most famous psychedelic happening ever: the "14th Hour Technicolor Dream" of April 1967 at the Alexandra Palace in London with the homonymous track. On the bill there was also another Yes; those who follow Pink Floyd know by heart that their first performances took place at the UFO Club on Tottenham Court Road: here, along with them and the Soft Machine, the Tomorrow of Steve Howe and Twink, the former Fairies and future Pretty Things' crazy drummer, were also regulars. Tomorrow represents the most psychedelic wing of the Anglo-Saxon cohort; in "My White Bicycle" – an anthem to the intellectual revolt put in place by the Dutch Provos - they use backward recorded tapes in the style of what the Beatles were doing with "Sgt Pepper's" demonstrating that theirs was also a musical revolution: during this period all the effects (phasing, feedback, using the recording studio as an additional instrument) created and summarily used by the precursors of studio magic Beatles and Rolling Stones were employed to full regime. Listen to "Baby Your Phrasing Is Bad" by Caleb - only one 45 rpm to their credit - as a glaring example: voice effected with phasing, backward tapes for a song with an evident psychedelic mold. Delicate and childlike barrettian psychedelia mixed with delicate folk also nourishes "A Dream For Julie" by the Kaleidoscope and the Factory with "Path Through The Forest" that seems almost like a paradigm for the future Shoegaze of Ride and My Bloody Valentine! Only one 45 rpm as well for Dantalion's Chariot (with a very young Andy Summers of future Police in the lineup) which, however, is a masterpiece of pastel acid-rock "The Madman Running Through The Fields".
Occasionally one is surprised to learn that in these bands of ephemeral fame there are often artists who will later have a very bright future: some, like Davy Jones, will even become superstars. Listen to the sample of "You've Got A Habit Of Living" - my favorite song - to discover him grappling with a seductive freakbeat of mod imprint. And also the future icons of British Hard-Rock Status Quo had a psychedelic past: their "Pictures Of Matchstick Men" has been covered more than once, even by the freak Camper Van Beethoven.
Another heavyweight piece is "I Can Hear The Grass Grow" by the Move, a group that hosts the nucleus of the Electric Light Orchestra - Bev Bevan, Roy Wood, and, at a later time, Jeff Lynne (who also appears with the Idle Race with "Imposter's Of Life Magazine" further proof of pop ability with a childlike singing reminiscent of Syd Barrett) - where vocal lines and melody are dominant. The Move operated musically in an environment where mod fervor mixed with a well-structured and layered, almost Victorian pop. Without reaching the saccharine exaggeration of glam-rock and - not musically - they were among the first in England to consistently adopt oddity in its various manifestations: destroying cars and guitars on stage, publishing advertising postcards with the English prime minister in underpants, they weren't that far from the future provocations of Malcolm McLaren. They had a certain fame also in Italy where they debuted at the Rome International Pop Festival and one of their songs "Blackberry Way" will become a hit for Equipe 84. In Italy, the Primitives (Mal's band) and the Sorrows will also find considerable fortune, whose "Take A Heart" becomes "Mi Si Spezza Il Cuore", where the thumping bass at the start of the track gives me the idea it was taken wholesale by Little Tony for "Cuore Matto".
To close, I would still mention the Mockingbirds because I discovered that their "You Stole My Love" was taken verbatim (tsk, tsk, without credit in the credits!) by the Americans Chesterfield Kings of Greg Prevost for "I Don't Understand". The thing, however, is compensated by the Stooges-esque appropriation of the hard-psychedelic Open Mind whose famous "Magic Potion" assimilates the riff from "No Fun" or by the theft of the Downliners Sect who hear on an American demo the "Why Don't You Smile Now" by future Velvet Underground members John Cale and Lou Reed and make it their own.
Happy listening, if you want... zot?
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