Various Artists - Nuggets 8: Other Countries (1965-1971)

If you've been following this blog, you may have noticed that I've been posting a series of various artists "Nuggets' compilations. Basically, I really liked the two Rhino Records "Nuggets" box sets of garage rock from the 1960s and early 1970s, but I figured there was a lot of good music they'd left off for various reasons, and I tried my best to expand on them.

I organized things into eight collections of my own, organized geographically. This is the eighth. Here's how I did it:

1: United States
2: Britain
3: Netherlands
4: Australia & New Zealand
5: Canada
6: Scandinavia
7: European Continent
8: Other Countries

I've posted all of that here, except for the first two. I've been waiting on those because they're huge. The US one has over 400 songs and the British one has over 200. If there's interest, I could try to figure out how to subdivide that into more manageable album-sized chunks, so I could post it here. Frankly, I find the music outside the US and Britain more interesting, because it's just as good yet far less known.

Anyway, what "Other Countries" means is it's a grab bag dealing with all the countries not included in the previous seven compilations. Seven of the 16 songs here come from South Africa, which makes sense because it's a country with a big English speaking population culturally tied to the rock music culture of the US and Britain.

The rest of the selections are generally more strange. There are songs from India, Uruguay, Peru, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Japan. (I've included the countries of origin in the "comment" field of the mp3 tags for those who are curious.) I must admit that I have a strong bias in favor of English language songs, so I can understand what they're about. But a couple of songs I enjoyed so much that I included them even though they're in other languages.

A good example of this is "Jaan Pehechaan Ho" by Mohammed Rafi, which is kind of a Beatles knock off, but put through a very Indian filter. I recommend you watch the YouTube video for it. It's a hoot, and understandably has had over five million views. The video was even prominently featured in the 2001 movie "Ghost World."

A couple of the artists here are much more deserving than the song or two included here. That's especially the case for "Os Mutantes," a Brazilian band I adore. There's a ton of great Brazilian music in general, but that's beyond the scope of the "Nuggets" series, as it's mostly different genres of music. I only included one song from them because it was on one of the original Rhino "Nuggets" box sets. Los Shakers are also an interesting band. They were slavish Beatles clones in Uruguay, but they happened to be very good at it, with real songwriting ability (despite a limited grasp of English). I have a best of album from them. But I only put two of their songs here, to give a taste of what they were about.

I'm sure there are tons of great songs out there that I've missed. The further one goes from the US and Britain, the harder it is to pluck "nuggets" from obscurity. For instance, I know almost nothing about garage rock type music from India, but if "Jaan Pehechaan Ho" is any indication, there must be some other gems out there. If anyone has recommendations of songs I should add, please let me know.

This album is 55 minutes long.

01 Hungry for Love (A-Cads)
02 Jaan Pehechaan Ho (Mohammed Rafi)
03 Break It All (Los Shakers)
04 Inside Your Eyes [En Tu Mirada] (Los Vidrios Quebrados)
05 Always You (Los Shakers)
06 Bat Macumba (Os Mutantes)
07 Changing the Colors of Life (Los Chijuas)
08 Daughter of the Sun (Sharon Tandy & Les Fleur de Lys)
09 Hold On (Sharon Tandy & Les Fleur de Lys)
10 I Wish I Was Five (John Kongos & Scrugg)
11 I'm Just a Mops (Mops)
12 Master Jack (Four Jacks & a Jill)
13 Meshkalina (Traffic Sound)
14 It's a Sin to Go Away (We All Together)
15 See the Light (Flame)
16 He's Gonna Step on You Again (John Kongos)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16376841/VA-Nggts8OthrCuntris_atse.zip.html

Various Artists - Nuggets 7: European Continent (1965-1972)

Every now and then, I've been posting various artists compilation albums that extend the concept of the two great "Nuggets" Rhino Records box sets. (If you don't know, a "nugget" is song from the mid- to late-1960s era that's influenced by garage rock and is generally done by lesser known bands.)

I've come up with my own songs that I think the "Nuggets" box sets should have included, and I've organized them geographically. Volume 3 covered the Netherlands, and volume 5 covered Scandinavia. Britain is a very big can of worms that makes up my Volume 2, which I haven't posted here yet. (Volume 1 is the US, in case you're curious.)

This volume is a kind of grab bag for all the other countries in Europe. (The following volume deals with all the other countries in the world outside of Europe, the US, and Canada.) Unfortunately, I have to admit that I'm not a "nuggets expert." I haven't listened to zillions of obscure compilations of obscure European bands. So I'm sure there are plenty of excellent songs that I've missed. If you know of any, please let me know and I'll consider adding them in. However, I have come across some songs here and there that I really like that fit the "nuggets" description, so here they are.

I have to admit that, as someone who speaks English but no other European languages, I have a bias in favor of English language songs. But there are a few here in other languages that I think can be appreciated even if you don't know the words.

Speaking of knowing the words, one song you definitely should listen to here is the last one, "Prisencolinensinaiciusol." As you may guess from the title, it's very strange. It's done by a famous Italian musician, Adriano Celentano, but it's not in Italian. As you listen to it, you'll think at first it's in English, but nothing is intelligible. Apparently, the song is some kind of commentary about how many young people in mainland Europe at the time were listening mostly to English songs on the radio without speaking English. So the vocals are made of English sounding noises without it actually being English!

Oh, and by the way, you should check out the video of the song on YouTube. It has over 2 million views, which is a heck of a lot for a song from Italy in 1972. There's something strangely entertaining about it, especially the way the singer dances and moves.

You'll probably recognize "Black Is Black," the one song here that was plucked from obscurity to be a big international hit. But in my opinion, in a better world, a bunch of these songs should have been big international hits. The fact that these bands were based on other countries meant they were almost certainly doomed not to make it in the US or Britain, because the world was much less connected in those days.

You may also recognize the instrumental "Psyche Rock," since the theme to the TV show "Futurama" is very heavily based on it.

This album is an hour and 11 minutes long.

01 But You'll Never Do It Babe (Boots)
02 Baluba Shake (Brunetta)
03 Black Is Black (Los Bravos)
04 El Muerto Vivo (Peret)
05 Gaby (Boots)
06 Going Nowhere (Los Bravos)
07 It's My Fault (Rattles)
08 Piangi con Me (Rokes)
09 Slaves Time (Slaves)
10 An Unknown Quantity (Bill Ramsey & the Jay Five)
11 Get on Your Knees (Los Canarios)
12 Peppermint Frappe (Los Canarios)
13 Psyche Rock (Les Yper Sound [Pierre Henry])
14 Animal on Est Mal (Gérard Manset)
15 Bring a Little Lovin' (Los Bravos)
16 Get Down from the Tree (Matadors)
17 Rain and Tears (Aphrodite's Child)
18 A Song of Joy (Miguel Rios)
19 Daydream (Wallace Collection)
20 Sad Soul (Ronnie Bird)
21 The Witch (Rattles)
22 Mamy Blue (Los Pop Tops)
23 Woman (Barrabas)
24 Prisencolinensinaiciusol (Adriano Celentano)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16701220/VA-Nggts7_EurpeanCntnent_atse.zip.html

Various Artists - Nuggets 6: Scandinavia (1965-1970)

Generally speaking, I'm been focusing on posting stray tracks collections from prominent artists. But I have a lot of other things I plan on posting eventually, including many various artists collections. I've posted several collections of what are called "nuggets," which are mostly garage rock-type songs from more obscure bands. Rhino Records released two excellent box sets of such material, but those mostly focused on American and British bands. I was intrigued to find more of the songs from other countries.

This album deals with the "nuggets" from Scandinavia. I define that as Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland. I must admit I don't know the music of Scandinavia from the 1960s that well. But I have found a bunch of songs I like a lot, all of them in English.

I would like to especially point out the song "Naked When You Come," by the Lollipops. Apparently, the Lollipops were a Danish boy band, which made a bunch of forgettable, derivative pop. Yet this original song is a serious classic to my ears.

This collection also has four songs from the Tages, a more serious group from Sweden. They were known as the Beatles of Sweden, and with good reason. Obviously, they weren't as good as the Beatles (who were?!), but they may have been the best 1960s band in Europe outside of the British Isles. If you like their songs here, you should check out their album "Studio," which is excellent.

If any of you know of some really good songs from Scandinavia that fit with this style of music, please let me know and I'll consider adding them to this collection.

I have more albums in this series to post, covering other parts of Europe, and beyond.

This album is 42 minutes long.

01 Empty Handed (Friends)
02 I Want to Live (Mascots)
03 My Life (Thor's Hammer)
04 Naked When You Come (Lollipops)
05 Summer Sun (Beathovens)
06 Wedding (Hep Stars)
07 Words Enough to Tell You (Mascots)
08 You Can Be My Baby (Red Squares)
09 Have You Seen Your Brother Lately (Tages)
10 It's My Life (Tages)
11 A Girl I Knew (Savage Rose)
12 Fantasy Island (Tages)
13 I Read You like an Open Book (Tages)
14 They Call Us Misfits [Dom Kallar Oss Mods] (Lea Riders Group)
15 Did You Give the World Some Love Today, Baby (Doris Svensson)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15634475/Nuggets6_Scndinavia_atse.zip.html

Various Artists - Nuggets 5: Canada (1966-1972)

I've got a bunch of artists I want to post more stray tracks albums of so I can move on to posting from yet more artists. As a result, it's been a long while since I've posted any various artists collections. But I've got a whole bunch of those I plan on posting as well. Let me continue with the rest of my Nuggets series before moving to other various artists collections.

As I explained before, I really liked the two Nuggets box sets Rhino Records put out, but when it came to gems outside of the US and Britain, I wanted to see what worthy material they'd missed. I've already posted my collections from the Netherlands and Australia/New Zealand. Here's Canada.

As with the previous collections, the emphasis is on garage-styled rock or pop. But there are two notable groups I didn't include: the Guess Who and Steppenwolf. That's because although some of their music could arguably qualify as garage rock (The Guess Who started out that way, with the early hit "Shakin' All Over"), I figure anyone who has any interest in this would at least have some music by both of those groups, so there's no need to repeat their songs here. (I included two Guess Who songs are bonus tracks.)

This makes up an hour and two minutes of quality Canadian rock. As with the others in the series, if there are any great songs you feel I failed to include, please let me know and I might update the song list.

This album is 59 minutes long, not including the bonus tracks.

01 1-2-5 (Haunted)
02 Brainwashed (David Clayton-Thomas & the Bossmen)
03 Nothin' (Ugly Ducklings)
04 That's Just a Thought that I H (Ugly Ducklings)
05 Who Dat (Jury)
06 Gaslight (Ugly Ducklings)
07 Hard to Cry (Northwest Company)
08 I'm Losing Tonight (A Passing Fancy)
09 Looking at a Baby (Collectors)
10 One Ring Jane (Mother Tuckers Yellow Duck)
11 Feel It (It's All Meat)
12 As the Years Go By (Mashmakhan)
13 Signs (Five Man Electrical Band)
14 Absolutely Right (Five Man Electrical Band)
15 Lovin' You Ain't Easy (Michel Pagliaro)
16 Oh, What a Feeling (Crowbar)
17 One Fine Morning (Lighthouse)
18 Sweet City Woman (Stampeders)
19 I Hardly Knew Her Name (Wackers)

It's My Pride (Guess Who)
Shakin' All Over (Guess Who)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16088805/NUGGTS5Cnada_atse.zip.html

I made the cover art, along with the others in this series.

Various Artists - Nuggets 4: Australia & New Zealand (1963-1972)

Since my previous post of my Nuggets collection from the Netherlands to see what this is all about. In short, I really liked the Nuggets box sets put out by Rhino Records, and wanted more music in that vein. I found there were a lot more good songs like that from overseas than what Rhino compiled, so I've made my own compilations, organized by country.

One thing I've discovered is that although I'd been listening to this style of music for a long time, I was pretty much oblivious about music from countries other than the US, Canada, and Britain, outside of some artists that made it big or the occasional song that became an international hit.

It turns out Australia and New Zealand had quite a thriving music scene back in the 1960s and early 1970s. (Australia's population is five times bigger than New Zealand's, so most of the music is from Australia.) If you don't know much about this music, this is an ideal chance for you to find out. I'm convinced that many of these songs could have been big hits elsewhere, but were not due to geographical isolation.

There's so much good music from "Down Under" that I had to break it up into three albums of about 50 minutes each. I've put all of it into one zip folder, but sorted into three different folders.

By the way, 12 out of the 45 songs here are also on the "Nuggets II - Original Artyfacts From The British Empire & Beyond" box set. That ends in 1969, but I continued until 1972. I stopped then mostly because my knowledge of music from that part of the world falls off a cliff after that year, but also because I sensed the style of music changed significantly around that time, just as it did in most other countries. In my opinion, musically at least, but probably culturally as well, what people think of "the 1960s" really began around 1963 and ended around 1971.

As I said with the Netherlands nuggets collection I've made, if you know of any excellent song that fits the location and era that I've missed, please let me know and maybe I'll add it in. I'm an American and I wasn't alive during this musical era, so I'm sure I missed some things.

I debated with myself whether to include any Bee Gees songs, since they had a recording career in Australia for a few years before leaving permanently in 1966 to try to "hit the big time" in Britain. I decided against including any song from them, since it turned out the vast majority of their career was based elsewhere.

I also took it relatively easy on including songs by the Easybeats and the Twilights, since those are my two favorite Australian groups from this era and I figure any fan of this music should at least get the greatest hits of each band. But I did include their biggest hits.

Also, speaking of the Twilights, I absolutely love their song "Comin' On Down," which I've included here even though it was only a B-side. It's melodically catchy and lyrically brilliant, yet it's a pop song about the horrors of nuclear war! It's that sort of creative ambition that makes 1960s music great in general. In a better world, it would have been a huge hit.

But anyway, the reason I mention it is because it's the one song on this compilation that I've altered. The music in the official version comes to a halt at about the two minute mark, and then the song fades out with a child singing a different song ("All Things Bright and Beautiful"). That was very unsatisfying to me, because in my head I heard the chorus again instead. So I removed the bit with the child and replaced it with the chorus, which soon fades out. I prefer this version so much that can no longer imagine hearing the song any other way. If you don't like it, feel free to replace it with the official version in your collection.

The first album is 47 minutes long. The second one is 50 minutes long. The third one is 54 minutes long.

ALBUM 1: 1963-1966
01 Bombora (Atlantics)
02 I Belong with You (Bobby & Laurie)
03 I'll Never Find Another You (Seekers)
04 A World of Our Own (Seekers)
05 It Ain't Necessarily So (Normie Rowe & the Playboys)
06 Que Sera Sera [Whatever Will Be, Will Be] (Normie Rowe & the Playboys)
07 She's So Fine (Easybeats)
08 Social End Product (Bluestars)
09 The Carnival Is Over (Seekers)
10 Wedding Ring (Easybeats)
11 You're Driving Me Insane (Missing Links)
12 Fever [Burns My Brain] (Allusions)
13 Friday on My Mind (Easybeats)
14 Georgy Girl (Seekers)
15 I Want, Need, Love You (Black Diamonds)
16 I'm Your Witchdoctor (Chants R&B)
17 Step Back (Johnny Young & Kompany)
18 The Loved One (Loved Ones)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16088684/NUGGTS4AustrliaNwZealnd1963-1966_Volum1.zip.html

ALBUM 2: 1966-1967
01 Believe in Me (Throb)
02 How Is the Air Up There (La De Das)
03 I'll Make You Happy (Easybeats)
04 Looks like Trouble (Allusions)
05 See the Way (Black Diamonds)
06 Someday, One Day (Seekers)
07 Sorry (Easybeats)
08 This Life of Mine (Lost Souls)
09 War or Hands of Time (Masters Apprentices)
10 By My Side (Elois)
11 Cathy, Come Home (Twilights)
12 Come On (Atlantics)
13 Exit Stage Right (Ronnie Burns)
14 Good Evening Girl (Johnny Young & Kompany)
15 Heaven and Hell (Easybeats)
16 My Aim Is to Please You (Executives)
17 No More Now (Smoke [New Zealand])
18 Sad (Normie Rowe & the Playboys)
19 Woman You're Breaking Me (Groop [Ausrralia])

https://www.upload.ee/files/16088708/NUGGTS4AustrliaNwZealnd1966-1967_Volum2.zip.html

ALBUM 3: 1968-197201 Comin' On Down (Twilights)
02 Good Times (Easybeats)
03 Arkansas Grass (Axiom)
04 Mr. Guy Fawkes (Dave Miller Set)
05 Nature (Fourmyula)
06 The Real Thing (Russell Morris)
07 A Little Ray of Sunshine (Axiom)
08 Because I Love You (Masters Apprentices)
09 Julia (Ted Mulry)
10 My Baby's Gone (Axiom)
11 Naturally (Allison Gros)
12 Eagle Rock (Daddy Cool)
13 I'll Be Gone (Spectrum)
14 Most People I Know [Think that I'm Crazy] (Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs)
15 Wings of an Eagle (Russell Morris)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16088751/NUGGTS4AustrliaNwZealnd1968-1972_Volum3.zip.html

Various Artists - Nuggets 3: The Netherlands (1965-1972)

Here's something a little bit different, my first attempt at a various artists compilation.

In 1995, Rhino Records released a great box set called "Nuggets" that covered the American garage rock and psychedelic gems from the mid- to late 1960s. Then in 2001, they came out with another "Nuggets" box set that did the same thing, except for Britain and the rest of the world.

When I listened to those box sets, I liked pretty much every song. But I got to wondering what good songs they might have missed. So I kept an eye out for other "nuggets" and began adding them to my versions of the box sets whenever I found any songs that were worthy. Over time, I came up with so many songs that I decided to divide them up into more manageable portions. One way I did that was geographically. I called the first box set "Nuggets 1" and the British songs on the second one "Nuggets 2." Then I've gone on to make a bunch more.

Here's the first of those, "Nuggets 3," which focuses just on music from the Netherlands. I stretched the time period some too, going from 1965 all the way to 1972, because I kept finding worthy songs that seemed to fit the "nuggets" mode into the early 1970s. To be honest, I kind of lose track of Dutch music after that. I suspect that a lot of the music switched into the Dutch language, which makes it much less accessible to the likes of me.

The Netherlands has so many quality songs of this genre that I split this into two long albums. So note there are two zip files to download. Seven of the songs on the first album are duplicates of the second "Nuggets" box set. There are no duplicates on the second album, because it covers a later time period.

The first album is 44 minutes long. The second one is 54 minutes long.

FIRST ALBUM (1965-1968):

01 For Another Man (Motions)
02 Wasted Words (Motions)
03 Cry in the Night (Q65)
04 Daddy Buy Me a Girl (Golden Earring)
05 Don't You Remember (Sound Magics)
06 Down and Out (4 PK)
07 Everything [That's Mine] (Motions)
08 Kicks and Chicks (Zipps)
09 Russian Spy and I (Hunters)
10 The Life I Live (Q65)
11 Touch (Outsiders)
12 Your Body Not Your Soul (Cuby & the Blizzards)
13 Tomorrow Is Another Day (Buffoons)
14 Blue Revelations (Dukes)
15 Send Me a Postcard (Shocking Blue)
16 Seven Horses in the Sky (Pebbles)
17 Tame Me, Tiger (Bonnie St. Claire)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16701213/VA-Nggts3_Nethrlnds1965-1968_Volum1.zip.html

SECOND ALBUM (1969-1972):

01 Hot Sand (Shocking Blue)
02 I Surrender (Bonnie St. Claire)
03 Little Green Bag (George Baker Selection)
04 Long and Lonesome Road (Shocking Blue)
05 Ma Belle Amie (Tee Set)
06 Mighty Joe (Shocking Blue)
07 Spooky's Day Off (Swinging Soul Machine)
08 Venus (Shocking Blue)
09 Back Home (Golden Earring)
10 Never Marry a Railroad Man (Shocking Blue)
11 Ruby Is the One (Earth & Fire)
12 Hocus Pocus (Focus)
13 Just Fancy (BZN)
14 Serenade (Shocking Blue)
15 It's Gonna Be Alright (Smyle)
16 Memories (Earth & Fire)
17 Sylvia (Focus)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16701219/VA-Nggts3_Nethrlnds1969-1972_Volum2.zip.html

By the way, if anyone knows of any top notch songs from the Netherlands in this time period that I'm missing, please let me know. Perhaps I'll like the songs enough to include them in a future edition.