Nuggets: I Live in the Springtime by The Lemon Drops

Before he became Patti Smith’s lead guitarist, Lenny Kaye compiled the 2 album set, Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era. Released in 1972, the two-LP set covered American garage rock and psychedelia from the years from 1965-1968, and was a major influence on punk rock. Rhino Records reissued an expanded version of the set in 1998, with 118 tracks in total. I’m profiling and rating each of these 118 tracks, working backwards.

Track 110: I Live in the Springtime by The Lemon Drops
Release Date: 1967
From: Chicago, Illinois
Aphoristical Rating: 8/10

I LIVE IN THE SPRINGTIME – The Lemon Drops [2:52]
(Roger Weiss)
Personnel/DANNY SMOLA: vocals * RICKY ERICKSON: lead guitar * EDDIE WEISS: guitar * JEFF BRAND: bass * GARY WEISS: drums
Produced by ROGER WEISS for REMBRANDT PRODUCTIONS
Recorded in Chicago, IL
Rembrandt single #5009 (5/67)

Like a bunch of other Nuggets acts, The Lemon Drops were high school students when they recorded their best-known song. The band included two brothers from McHenry High School – Eddy Weiss on rhythm guitar and Gary Weiss on drums – while a third brother, Reggie, wrote the song and signed the band to his record label.

The drum track was accidentally left off the first pressing of ‘I Live In The Springtime’. A second pressing included the drums, but it’s the original release that’s included on Nuggets. The lack of drums actually works for this song – it’s woozy psychedelic folk-rock, and more space for the guitars accentuates this.

The group sold 1,500 copies of their first single, but lack of funds stopped production. They recorded demos in late 1967, which remained unreleased until they were compiled on a pair of albums in the mid-1980s.

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28 Comments

  1. This is a little different. Loving the variety we are getting. I agree it works without the drums just fine. Very mature sounding for high school students….good track! This is one of my favorites so far.

  2. Interesting that so many of these bands are high school kids. I guess that moniker that the Beatles performance on Ed Sullivan launched a thousand bands was true.

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Aphoristic Album Reviews is almost entirely written by one person. It features album reviews and blog posts across a growing spectrum of popular music.

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Graham Fyfe has been writing this website since his late teens. Now in his forties, he's been obsessively listening to albums for years. He works as a web editor and plays the piano.

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