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 57/118: (We Ain’t Got) Nothin’ Yet by the Blues Magoos
From: The Bronx, New York
Aphoristic Rating: 8/10
(WE AIN’T GOT) NOTHIN’ YET – Blues Magoos [2:10]
(Ronald Gilbert/Ralph Scala/Michael Esposito/Emil Thielhelm)
Personnel/RALPH SCALA: vocals, organ * MIKE ESPOSITO: lead guitar * EMIL “PEPPY” THIELHELM: guitar, vocals * RONNIE GILBERT: bass, vocals * GEOFF DAKING: drums
Produced by BOB WYLD & ART POLHEMUS for LONGHAIR PRODUCTIONS
Recorded in New York, NY
Mercury single #72622 (10/66); Pop #5
The Blues Magoos were formed in 1964, originally known as The Trenchcoats. Playing in clubs around Greenwich Village, they changed their name to the Bloos Magoos, before settling on the final spelling. They marketed themselves as a psychedelic band – their debut is titled Psychedelic Lollipop. But there’s plenty of garage band in their DNA as well.
The Blues Magoos’ best-known song is their third single, ‘We Ain’t Got Nothin’ Yet’, their first release for Mercury Records. It reached #5 on the Billboard Charts.
The song’s bass and organ parts closely resemble Joe Osborn’s bassline for Ricky Nelson’s 1962 version of ‘Summertime’; a George Gershwin cover. The same riff later powered Deep Purple’s 1970 single ‘Black Night’ – the group were told they needed a single for their debut album In Rock, and quickly wrote a song around the borrowed bassline. The Deep Purple single reached #2 on the UK charts – a little unfair when Nelson’s ‘Summertime’ only just scraped into the Billboard top #100.
Despite the riff recycling, there’s plenty to enjoy with harmonies and swirling organ.
The Blues Magoos stuck around long enough to record six albums, including a 2014 reunion album, Psychedelic Resurrection. Emil “Peppy” Thielhelm (aka “Peppy” Castro) was the band’s only constant member. He later joined the cast of Hair and scored a top 40 hit in 1981 with ‘Breaking Away’, with his new band Balance.
A 1967 cover was released by UK band The Spectres – they’d shortly rebrand themselves as Status Quo.
Read More
20 Comments
Leave a Reply
Read about the discographies of musical acts from the 1960s to the present day. Browse this site's review archives or enjoy these random selections:
I add new blog posts to this website every week. Browse the archives or enjoy these random selections:
Subscribe
Subscribe to receive new posts from Aphoristic Album Reviews.
****10/10****
Sorry…
Oh well. Maybe next week. I bet you’ll give that one 10/10!!!
I do like The Sonics.
And the next week after that too!!!!!
Normally I just do one per fortnight, so the suspense will be longer.
Actually Syndicate of Sound is next, which is what I thought. That’s a definite 10 out of 10, Sonics is kind of borderline for me.
Oops, almost skipped that one.
Don’t even have to listen to it. Pretty popular tune back in the day. Must have heard it a thousand times. Pretty good tune.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard it outside of Nuggets. It would certainly be better if classic hits radio had way bigger playlists and played stuff like this.
Oh, wow. No, sizeable hit over here. Very few of my generation wouldn’t recognize it.
That video is great. I wonder if it was from American Bandstand. I didn’t know Ricky Nelson did a version of Summertime. I actually like Ricky Nelson. And his hit Garden Party is one of my top 100 singles of the ’70s, I think.
I don’t know much about Ricky Nelson, but his version of Summertime was good.
I listened to Summertime and it was cool. Not only the bass line is the same as Blues Magoos but the guitar lines too, kinda sorta. It’s not the best Summertime I ever heard though. It ain’t Janis Joplin, I’ll tell you that.
I remember this. Thanks for bringing it back. Snappy tune with a lot going for it.
I didn’t know it at all before Nuggets.
I loved this song back in the day, as I’m so old I remember hearing it on the radio. Still holds up.
As I said in other comments, I’ve never heard it on the radio.
I love this song…I remember it on the Easy Rider soundtrack. Great raw garage rock…I’m a sucker for that organ.
I didn’t realise it was on Easy Rider. The organ’s pretty cool.