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.

Hi, so here are my thoughts for who ever cares:
Got this via Ebay in late August for a much better price than on RSD, so i am Ok with the package moneywise. Box, the cover, the booklet are all top quality, the poster for me useless, but hey it is there.
A lot of people habe issues with GZ, my copy is flat, flawless and sounds stunning, so i might just had luck. The only thing i do not understand is that this is produced without poly-lined inner sleeves, i had to vacu-clean all records, especially the bonus one, cause all were clustered with little paper or cardboard fibres. Not a big deal, but if you do not have a record-washing-machine, is would be.

Late to the party here. I received this box set as a Birthday gift just this week. It was purchased by a friend on mine on RSD. My set has two Vol.1 record 1’s. I’m missing Vol.2 record 1. Looking for swap partner if someone here happens to have the reverse of what I do.

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.

Well, these are nuggets from the psychedelic age, there is still an overweight of non-psychedelia here as much owe too much to rock 'n' roll and other genres. The first psychedelic recording was done in the late fifties and we have had many since, but it has to start somewhere as a document and for any practical, this is still it.
In other words, you can do much worse than start here.

Just my two cents

Reading some of the comments it sounds like we’re all playing GZ Roulette again.

Well, I’m pleased to have a winning bet this time thank heaven - the vinyl is flat with no scuffs and it isn’t noisy either!

The package itself is lovely - a robust, side open outer box; lovely matt gatefolds for the first and second albums (the original album being mastered from the original Elektra master reels by Chris Bellman, no less); a single album of tracks that didn’t make the cut in a cardboard, top loading “sleeve” (the kind of thing you used to get 12” singles in); a 16 page booklet and a double-sided poster.

The sound was way better than I’d hoped - it sounds great to be honest. The whole box set reeks of a true labour of love and is what RSD should be about.

Now, I didn’t get this on Record Store Day nor from an independent record store. No, I got it from Amazon UK of all places and it was sold and dispatched by them.

I don’t know how RSD works but suffice to say my copy was way cheaper than the price in the UK on the day. There is hope still for anyone that missed out originally like I did.

Highly recommended.

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.

Agree with most of the other reviews - I do not like this pressing. I can deal with a quiet pressing as long as there isn't a lot of surface noise (there isn't on my copy), but it sounds like a lot of the midrange frequencies were notched out of this during mastering and that doesn't work for this music at all. I did an A/B with my CD box and this pressing just does not sound good in comparison.

After multiple cleans there is still so much surface noise. Records are very clean and flat looking but the noise that shouldn’t be there sure does make them sound like a fuzzy and dirty 45 that’s been hiding in the attic for 50 years with no bath.
Playing on a 1200 with ortofon black.
Compared to my original nuggets the sound is the same give or take but this box set has mad noise throughout.

I was surprised by the fidelity of this record. It sounds great, considering the limitations of the source material, of course.