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 1965 to 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 75/118
From: Carlsbad, California
Aphoristic Rating: 7/10
SO WHAT!! – The Lyrics [2:42]
(Christopher Gaylord)
Personnel/CHRIS GAYLORD: vocals, harmonica * MICHAEL ALLEN: lead guitar * BILLY GARCIA: guitar * DANNY GARCIA: bass * GARY NEVES: drums [+ unknown studio musicians]
Arranged by DON RALKE
Producer unknown
Recorded in Los Angeles, CA
Era single #3153 (11/65)
The Lyrics are one of the more obscure bands on Nuggets – they don’t have a Wikipedia page, and it’s difficult to find much about them. It doesn’t help that they have one of the least Google-friendly band names out there – along with The The and The Band. If you search for “so what lyrics” you end up with the words for Pink’s obnoxious 2008 hit ‘So What’.
The Lyrics started their career as an R&B band in the 1950s. Their career took off when they were joined by vocalist Chris Gaylord. Gaylord had long hair, wore striped pants and apparently drove a dented black limousine, decorated on the inside with Rolling Stones photos. Gaylord is the writer and focal point of ‘So What!’. His sneering vocal about a former girlfriend elevates what would otherwise be a routine piece of Yardbirds-inspired R&B. He’s dismissive of her family’s wealth, exemplified by her electric typewriter; “You got an electric typewriter so you won’t have to work a lot/All I can say about that is so what!”.
The other Lyrics wished to pursue a different direction and fired Gaylord from the band. Gaylord reportedly never recorded again before passing away in 2013, while The Lyrics petered out after a couple of unsuccessful singles. Of the songs that I know titled ‘So What’, The Lyrics is middle of the table, behind Miles Davis but ahead of Pink.
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I never noticed the lyrics about the electric typewriter before but now that I do I like the song a little better than I used to cuz when I was little my parents had an electric typewriter and It was my favorite thing in the whole world. It was blue and it had a little carrying case so I could carry it all over the place. Unlike the other one up in the attic that used to be my grandparents that was made out of this real heavy steel and weighed about 88 million pounds, So I couldn’t even move it and I had to use it up in the attic. And the keys all used to stick together and shit. But anyway this is one of those songs that there’s just too many of on Nuggets and drags it down. How many songs with harmonica do you really need, ya know? I wouldn’t even give it a 5/10. Except for maybe the part about the electric typewriter.
If you take Gaylord vocal performance and harmonica out it’s not very interesting.
Oh yeah . You know what you gotta do when you’re Googling something like The The or some other problematic title, You got to make sure you type in something like ” rock band” or “rock song 1990’s” along with the title. That’s what I always got to do. But sometimes that doesn’t even work.
Love the blues harp/harmonica at the beginning. I’m positive it’s the only song I’ve ever heard with an electric typewriter in the lyrics….no pun intended. Gaylord had a strong voice… a little more oomph than some of his garage band peers.
I think Gaylord did the harmonica too – definitely the best thing about the band and it’s weird they fired him.
I started to look for something more earlier today and ran across a Chris Gaylord song called “Don’t Talk To Strangers. ” Check it out when you can if you haven’t already… it’s very folky and angry….it has a Dylan feel. Again…I like his voice.
I read he never recorded again, but I guess that’s a live recording. He’s pretty annoyed – similar subject matter to Graham Parker’s ‘You Can’t Be Too Strong’. He’s very charismatic.
I listened to it a few times…the guy had talent.
Hi — I’m not familiar with this blog but found it looking for The Lyrics. Bill Garcia is a friend, still living near Carlsbad. He was drafted into the Vietnam War, which is the main reason that The Lyrics disbanded. Prior to that they opened for The Doors and some other groups. Bill and his brother are still playing for family and friends; and his nephew totally shreds on lead guitar.
Cool – thanks for writing in. I’ve been going through Nuggets song-by-song for a couple of years, and I think you’re the first firsthand source to write in.
It sounds like Mr. Gaylord was an interesting character. I the lyrics and Gaylord’s vocals are the best aspects about this tune, which otherwise isn’t particularly memorable. I think your comparison with the Yardbirds is good. To be clear, I like the Yardbirds! 🙂
It’s weird they fired Gaylord – he was totally the best part of the band.
It really sounds like he was!
I love P!nk’s ‘obnoxious’ song “So What”
Sorry! It’s not very mature of me to slip snide putdowns of other songs in posts, but my 7-year-old has been playing that song a bunch lately so it was on my radar.
It’s alright. I shouldn’t have let it get to me.
They should just rename the album from ‘Nuggets’ to “A Host of Yardbirds Wanna Bes.'”
I think commenter kingclover is basically correct when he says that the routine Yardbirds ripoff here is Nuggets at its worst. I think the vocalists’ attitude and voice are enough to make it worthwhile though.
Yeah I think it’s OK, actually. I truthfully haven’t heard much on Nuggets I didn’t dig to some extent. Rough ‘n ready, bluesy, garage bands. I’ll take a lot of these over the Top 40 computer-driven, shiny pop tunes written by committee any day. I find those quite useful as an emetic, though.
At least the Yardbirds came up with some really good songs sometimes. And their best stuff is actually the songs that were farthest away from this kind of thing.