Various – Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era 1965-1968

I personally much prefer stereo to mono, particularly when it comes to mid-60's psychedelic recordings, as they did amazing things with stereo mixing at that time. Just look at what The Beatles did in 1965 and 1966 with their 3-track Abbey Road studio recordings. Also, check out what Jefferson Airplane did on their amazing "After Bathing At Baxter's" (recorded at RCA Studios Hollywood in 8-track) by listening to the entire album in sequence under headphones. (And if you can do it in an artificially altered state of consciousness, all the better.) For what it's worth, the 4 CD compact disc box set of :Nuggets" is mostly mono masters, much to my consternation after having this edition of "Nuggets" for so many years. In many instances, I have both mono and stereo versions of songs or even whole albums loaded onto my iPod, including The Knickerbockers' "Lies," The Yardbirds' "Over, Under, Sideways, Down" and Small Faces' "Ogden's Nut Gone Flake." Still, mono has had its adherents so then you get an album like Dr. Feelgood's first album "Down By The Jetty" which was recorded in and only released in a monophonic edition as late as 1974.

I can't speak for the Elektra version but far too many of the tracks here are in stereo. While this is not a disaster with tracks like I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night, it's positively bizarre for the likes of Lies, Dirty Water and Liar, Liar. Everything on this album was released as a mono single - it surely wouldn't have been impossible to source mono masters for them and I'm a little surprised that Lenny Kaye seemingly didn't insist on this.

All that said, and a few ho-hum selections aside (especially on Side 4), I'm eternally grateful both to Lenny Kaye and the person who first played the Elektra version to me in the late 70s - they opened up a whole new world of music to me. The Rhino 4 CD version from 1998 is also a thing of wonder, though it remains a (Cryan) shame that even then they were unable to license 96 Tears, which surely would have been on the original double LP if it had been available.

I was working at Homer's record Store in Omaha in 1979 when the Patti Smith Group was doing an instore. Everyone was mobbed around Patti but I went up to Lenny Kaye and asked him to autograph my copy (it was this version, the Sire reissue Santa Maria Press). He said at that time, no one had ever asked him to sigh a copy of Nuggets, and he autographed it: "To Mike -- It's a Nugget and you dug it XXX Lenny Kaye." I also met with him the next day in his hotel room at the then-Red Lion Inn in Omaha, with a German journalist I had befriended that previous day at the instore. Indeed, a charming, personable gentleman.

I just noticed I bought a misprint of this one. Sides go A/D and B/C.

Perfectly mastered at Sterling Sound. These recordings never sounded better than on this collection. The original Electra '72 release or The '76 Sire reissue is a must have for fans of rock n roll music.

One fine day around 1977 I was in Virgin Records in Brighton and saw a cut-out copy of this for £2.99.
Yoink!!
A couple of years later I saw an under-priced copy of the Elektra original in a second-hand shop for about £6... so, yoink! again.
Back around 2000 I met Lenny Kaye to do an interview and he signed both copies for me.... and inscribed one thusly: "It's a nugget if you dug it!"
I think we were supposed to be talking about Patti Smith but I managed to steer the conversation 'round to Nuggets.
Charming gentleman.
The next day he played a short acoustic set at Borders book shop. Jay Dee Daugherty was there so I managed to get my copy of Horses signed by him and Lenny.