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Nuggets: Original artyfacts from the first psychedelic era 1965-1968, RHINO/ELEKTRA

While the seven-album expanded set has been intermittently available throughout the past few decades, the original Nuggets double-album of garage-punk classics has been tough to track down since its initial 1972 release, only now receiving its single-CD debut. Compiled by rock archivist (and Patti Smith's guitarist) Lenny Kaye, its 27 tracks offer a condensed account of a youth movement in its first flush, as primitive Stones- and Yardbirds-inspired groups sprang up across America and quickly mutated into the first wave of psychedelic-punk explorers. From groups such as The Nazz and The Amboy Dukes would come the likes of Todd Rundgren and Ted Nugent, while a few bands (The Electric Prunes, The Seeds) developed momentum for several albums. Most of these bands, though, were touched with genius just once before vanishing: The Count Five with "Psychotic Reaction", The Standells with "Dirty Water" and The Leaves with the original "Hey Joe", for three. This CD is a parade of fevered musical exploration with no subsequent parallel in rock.

DOWNLOAD THIS: 'I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)', 'Dirty Water', 'Pushin' Too Hard', 'Psychotic Reaction', 'Hey Joe'