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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Love this review! Top work – I’m going to make sure to have a listen to The Lemon Drops before the weekend is done.
I only know the one song! A lot of these Nugget bands have one notable song that the compilation grabs.
The lack of drums do work perfectly here.
Yup, there are versions with drums on YouTube but I like this version more. Maybe a happy accident
Not bad!
I enjoyed this one a lot.
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.
One of mine too.
I have been listening to this album for about a week non-stop now. Great stuff.
Glad you’re enjoying it! It’s a pretty iconic set. Are you planning on writing about it?
Yes, I have done. I put a link in to your site.
https://psb.psbmusicreviewsblogspot.com/2020/12/nuggets-original-artyfacts-from-first.html
I also reviewed Syndicate Of Sound’s only album-
https://psb.psbmusicreviewsblogspot.com/2020/12/syndicate-of-sound.html
I like those accidents (leaving out the drums) that end up taking the song in a new, even better, direction
Have you heard where Billy Joel’s debut was mastered wrong and he ended up sounding like a chipmunk?
I have not…yet, that sounds like one that might not have been ‘improved’ by a mistake, per se!
It’s probably a sought after collectors item – he wasn’t very popular at the time.
Another gem from a gem of a collection!
Yup, no bad ones so far, maybe they are all good to great.
I think so. You may find my comments repetitive…
This one is kind of nice. But I’d really like to hear the one with the drums
It’s on YouTube- it’s kind of normal, splashy psychedelic drums.
When this series is over I think I’ll listen ‘Nuggets’ all in one sitting.
And in the correct order – I’m doing it backwards!
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.
Yep. That’s how it got the name garage Rock. Because of the British Invasion and the Beatles, teenagers all over America started forming bands that practiced in their parent’s garage. Of course nobody called it garage rock at the time. Nobody called it that until long after the fact.
I saw some uses of it in 1971 here https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/18957/where-did-the-term-garage-band-originate-from – I figured it was probably a thing before the original Nuggets compilation?
That was so interesting. The one guy called The Grateful Dead a garage band, so I don’t think garage meant the same thing as it did later. It really wasn’t any specific style anyway. It was lots of styles. Actually garage probably more describes a certain time period in rock more than anything else.
That was Lenny Kaye, who also compiled Nuggets.
Also mostly white and male, which kind of limits the diversity.