Box Sets Part 1: NUGGETS

When I was a teenager I had import Box Set similar to this.  It was three CD's and not much in the way of liner notes.  I got it at now defunct record store that I would frequently visit.  The owner who has since passed away was a man I greatly admired for his taste in music and the education which he gave me.  Every time I came in he would find something to supplement my Crazy World of Arthur Brown album because he knew how much I loved the song he did.  This Box Set had the song on it plus many more gems.  These visits would be every weekend.  There was a motorcycle shop downstairs and while I was falling in love with music, my father was downstairs talking shop about motorcycles and ordering new old stock parts for his Triumph.

One day he handed me a two record set called Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era.  This compilation at that time was way out of my price range.  It was $75.00 and as much as I begged my father to get it for me I was dined the chance to get it.  One weekend there at the record store I was handed a tape.  The owner made me a cassette copy to listen to.  All the way home I wanted to hear it, but my fathers truck did not have a cassette player.  When I got home I quickly went to my stereo with headsets in hand and cranked up the cassette.  I was in so much joy.  Not only did I have the holy grail of music I had a box set that supplemented this awesome anthology.

While in college I saw the Box Set out at the local record store.  Then I wanted to get it.  Being a poor college student it was not meant to be.  But on Ebay I saw a sampler for the Box Set and at $20.00 I grabbed it.  It was at one point my most coveted part of my collection.  A twenty-eight song sampler was good enough for me (for now). All the songs on this sampler were gems.  Some of the songs were on the Box Set I owned, but this was deep in the American Psychedelic scene not like the set that did England and America.

I kept my eye on the box and one point it slipped through my fingers.  How could I pass up on a box set that had a chock full of at least 30 songs per CD while my wimpy box was 15 or 16 songs.  I had deep regret that I did not pick it up and to top it all off I had a great booklet to read full of awesome information.

Recently, I was on a music forum looking around in the CD's for sale and up popped this box set.  It was a great deal so I grabbed it.  Listening to most of the stuff I realize that some of this music was dated but dated well and others were timeless classics that we all know well.  The music that we all know well.  Look at the label above, the first two tracks are always played on either Classic Rock stations and the like on satellite radio.  What I liked about the box is the unknown or obscure bands that when you do a little research you find out that was their only claim to fame.  In that brief moment they had a song that defined the 60's counter culture.

If anything, I suggest you hunt and peck around for this box set.  It has moments that will make you remember the great tunes of an era, but it will make you laugh because of what and who are they singing about. There are I believe three other box sets that are set around the theme of this one and they are all worth listening to.  It is fun to hear the carefree music and the carefree time that this music brought.  Enjoy and have fun traveling back in time as much as I did.