WHERE THE ACTION IS! LOS ANGELES NUGGETS.
Where The Action Is! Los Angeles Nuggets.
Label: Rhino
There aren’t many compilation series that last twenty-five years. That’s apart from Rhino’s much loved Nuggets compilation series. It began in 1984 when Nuggets, Volume 1: The Hits was released. Little did anyone know that the Nuggets series would last twenty-five years, and include fifteen LP, five box sets and two CD compilations. Like all good things, the Nuggets series had to come to an end. The final chapter in the story was Where the Action Is! Los Angeles Nuggets: 1965–1968 box set, which was released in 2009. For record collectors it was the end of era.
Ten years later, and Where The Action Is! Los Angeles Nuggets a 2-LP set was released by Rhino for Record Store Day 2019. This was a welcome reissue that featured some of the highlights of Where the Action Is! Los Angeles Nuggets: 1965–1968, which was released in 2009. Those who remembered the Nuggets series rejoiced and were keen to add the this limited edition to their record collection. So were hipsters and new breed of record collectors that had embraced vinyl with such enthusiasm. They were in for an eduction when they heard Where The Action Is! Los Angeles Nuggets..
Side One.
Opening side one is Love’s I’ll Be Following, penned by the legendary Arthur Lee. This sets the bar high, but Where the Action Is! Los Angeles Nuggets doesn’t disappoint. Buffalo Springfield’s Go and Say Goodbye and “If You Want This Love by The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band soon follow on a compilation that is already oozing quality. Proof of this is The Bobby Fuller Four’s Baby My Heart which close side one on a high.
Side Two.
There’s no let up in quality on side two which opens with Sonny and Cher’s It’s Gonna Rain. One Too Many Mornings by The Association is welcome addition as is The Doors’ Take It As It Comes featuring the inimitable Lizard King Jim Morrison. This gives way to The Electric Prunes’ Hideaway while Things To Come’s Come Alive is a hidden gem that is well worthy of inclusion and closes side two.
Side Three.
Lee Hazelwood wrote The Rebel Kind which was recorded by Dino, Desi and Billy opens side three of Where the Action Is! Los Angeles Nuggets. It’s followed by a memorable track from surf duo Jan and Dean’, Fan Tan, while The Monkees contribute Daily Nightly , Lee Hazelwood Rainbow Woman and The Ballroom cover Big Joe Williams’ Baby Please Don’t Go. Closing side three is The Rose Garden’s Here’s Today from 1968 which is another welcome addition to what’s shaping up to be the perfect primer to the Where the Action Is! Los Angeles Nuggets: 1965–1968 box set.
Side Four.
Already it’s side four of Where the Action Is! Los Angeles Nuggets and twenty tracks have just flown past. It’s a case of all killer no filler. That is the case with the five tracks on side five which are all worthy of a mention. This includes I Love How You Love Me by Nino Tempo and April Stevens which opens side one and gives way to Tim Buckley’s emotive and heartfelt rendition of Once Upon A Time and then Randy Newman’s Last Night I Had A Dream. Noel Harrison then contributes Life Is A Dream before Love bookend Where the Action Is! Los Angeles Nuggets with You Set The Scene another slice of psych rock from one of its finest practitioners. That brings Where the Action Is! Los Angeles Nuggets to a close after twenty-five tracks spread over four sides of vinyl.
The years after the release of Where the Action Is! Los Angeles Nuggets: 1965–1968 box set, the 2 LP set Where the Action Is! Los Angeles Nuggets, which was recently released for Record Store Day is the perfect primer. It features old friends, familiar faces, new names and hidden gems and was a welcome release for Record Store Day 201i. It’s crammed full of quality garage rock and psychedelic rock and is one of the best compilations released for Record Store Day 2019. However, anyone wanting a copy should get one sooner than later Where the Action Is! Los Angeles Nuggets is a limited edition, with ‘only’ 5.500 copies available and once they’re gone, they’re gone for good.
Where The Action Is! Los Angeles Nuggets.
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