Nuggets

As its title makes clear, Children of Nuggets is the first Nuggets release to stretch beyond the '60s heyday of garage rock and psychedelic music. Instead of once again returning to that seemingly bottomless well – which has not only brought the original 1972 double LP, Nuggets, but such imitators as the Pebbles and Rubble series, plus Rhino's expanded four-disc 1998 box set and its 2001 sequel, which focused on singles from the U.K. and around the world – the four-disc box Children of Nuggets is devoted to bands from the '70s, '80s, and '90s (but primarily the '80s) that were inspired by the original Nuggets LP, along with other trashy, intoxicating rock and guitar pop from the '60s…

If one had to point to a single initial salvo that launched the garage rock revival movement in the 1970s and ‘80s, it would have to be the release of Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era 1965-1968 in 1972. Elektra Records had approached rock critic Lenny Kaye (not yet the guitarist with the Patti Smith Group) with the notion of compiling an album of great, overlooked rock tunes, but what Kaye came up with was something significantly different – an overview of the great, wild era when American bands, goaded by the British Invasion, began honing in on a tougher and more eclectic rock & roll sound, and kids were reawakened to the possibilities of two guitars, bass, and drum…

Nuggets, Lenny Kaye's original 1972 compilation of garage and psych, loomed large in the record collectors consciousness, canonizing a portion of rock that was originally laughed off while setting the standard for reissues. Rhino's 1998 box set of the same name expanded the scope of that record, replicating most of the original while gloriously spilling forth over three additional discs – and, in doing so, it spurred a minor revolution, becoming one of the most talked-about reissues of the last half of the '90s…

In addition to penning several early rock & roll standards (most notably "Blue Suede Shoes," later popularized by Elvis Presley), Carl Perkins was one heck of a guitarist, known for switching gears between country rock and rock & roll…

The best songs on this updated compilation are by far the first twelve. Raw and savage Mod rockers such as "Making Time" and "Painter Man" rival The Who's first LP for intensity. It makes one wonder why The Creation weren't bigger than they were…

One of the more intriguing Purple eras from over the years was their "Mark IV" lineup, which was comprised of David Coverdale (vocals), Glenn Hughes (vocals, bass), Tommy Bolin (guitar), Jon Lord (keyboards), and Ian Paice (drums). The reason being that there was no Ritchie Blackmore in their ranks, and this lineup only managed a single studio album, the oft-overlooked Come Taste the Band, and a year after disbanding in 1976, a subpar live album, Last Concert in Japan…