

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 80/118
From: Los Angeles, California
Aphoristic Rating: 7/10
SOMETIMES GOOD GUYS DON’T WEAR WHITE – The Standells [2:37]
(Ed Cobb)
Personnel/DICK DODD: vocals, drums * TONY VALENTINO: guitar * LARRY TAMBLYN: organ * GARY LANE: bass
Produced by ED COBB for GREENGRASS PRODUCTIONS
Recorded in Seattle, WA
Tower single #257 (6/66); Pop #43
The Standells are one of the better-known acts on Nuggets, with three songs on the set. They’re best-known for their #11 hit ‘Dirty Water’, a song often played by Boston sporting teams because of its Boston references. ‘Sometimes Good Guys Don’t Wear White’ was taken from their second album, Why Pick On Me – Sometimes Good Guys Don’t Wear White.
The Standells are led by Larry Tamblyn, whose brother Russ Tamblyn is a notable actor. Lead vocals were handled by drummer Dick Dodd. The group’s notable for several high profile musicians who were members before joining other bands – early drummer Gary Leeds would join The Walker Brothers, Dewey Martin briefly replaced Dodd in 1965 before joining Buffalo Springfield, and Little Feat’s Lowell George was briefly a member in the late 1960s.
Like lots of Nuggets acts, it’s easy to draw comparisons to early Kinks and Rolling Stones. ‘Sometimes Good Guys Don’t Wear White’ is also reminiscent of The Small Faces, and Tamblyn’s Vox Continental organ is an important component of the sound. While Tamblyn is the leader, drummer Dick Dodd was the band’s lead vocalist. ‘Why Pick On Me’ was written by producer Ed Cobb, who wrote ‘Dirty Water’ as well as ‘Tainted Love’ (originally an obscure 1964 song before it was turned into a 1981 mega-hit by Soft Cell). There are three Standells songs on Nuggets – I think the latter two pale a little in comparison to ‘Dirty Water’.
The Standells are still a going concern, although Tamblyn is the only 1960s-era member still in the band. They released four records in the 1960s, as well as Bump in 2013.
Read More
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Nuggets: Let It Out (Let It All Hang Out) by The Hombres

Nuggets: Knock, Knock by The Humane Society

Nuggets: Beg, Borrow, And Steal by The Rare Breed

Nuggets II: Dance Around the Maypole by Acid Gallery

Nuggets: Night Time by The Strangeloves

Nuggets II: Flight from Ashiya by Kaleidoscope

Nuggets: Stop! Get A Ticket by Clefs of Lavender Hill

Nuggets II: One Third by The Majority

Nuggets II: My Life by Thor’s Hammer

Nuggets: Why Pick On Me by The Standells

Nuggets: Complication by The Monks

Nuggets: Journey To The Center Of The Mind by The Amboy Dukes

Nuggets: No Time Like The Right Time by The Blues Project

Nuggets II: I’m Just A Mops by The Mops

Nuggets: Mindrocker by Fenwyck

Nuggets: Pushin’ Too Hard by The Seeds

Nuggets II: Here Come the Nice by The Small Faces

Nuggets: Hold Me Now by The Rumors

Nuggets II: Nothin’ by Ugly Ducklings

Nuggets: Johnny Was A Good Boy by Mystery Trend

Nuggets: Just Like Me by Paul Revere & the Raiders

Nuggets: Why Do I Cry by The Remains

Nuggets II: Get Yourself Home by The Fairies

Nuggets II: When The Alarm Clock Rings by the Blossom Toes

Nuggets: I Think I’m Down by the Harbinger Complex

Nuggets: Can’t Seem To Make You Mine by The Seeds

Nuggets II: But You’ll Never Do It, Babe by The Boots

Nuggets: Bad Girl by The Zakary Thaks

Nuggets II: Bad Little Woman by The Wheels

Nuggets: Little Bit O’Soul by The Music Explosion

Nuggets: Put the Clock Back on the Wall by The E-Types

Nuggets: I Live in the Springtime by The Lemon Drops

Nuggets II: Slaves Time by The Slaves

Nuggets II: No Good Without You Baby by The Birds

Nuggets: Live by The Merry-Go-Round

Nuggets: Double Yellow Line by The Music Machine

Nuggets II: Why Don’t You Smile Now by Downliners Sect

Nuggets: Maid of Sugar – Maid of Spice by Mouse and the Traps

Nuggets: A Question of Temperature by The Balloon Farm

Nuggets: One Track Mind by The Knickerbockers

Nuggets: Don’t Look Back by The Remains

Nuggets: Shape of Things to Come by Max Frost & The Troopers

Nuggets: Dirty Water by The Standells

Nuggets: Primitive by The Groupies

Nuggets: Open My Eyes by Nazz

Nuggets: Fight Fire by The Golliwogs

Nuggets: I Need You by The Rationals

Nuggets: Liar, Liar by The Castaways

Nuggets: Out Of Our Tree by The Wailers

Nuggets: Last Time Around by The Del-Vetts

Nuggets: Wooly Bully by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs

Nuggets: You Ain’t Tuff by The Uniques

Nuggets II: Come On by The Atlantics

Nuggets: Are You A Boy Or Are You A Girl by The Barbarians

Nuggets II: The Train to Disaster by The Voice

Nuggets: Steppin’ Out by Paul Revere & the Raiders

Nuggets: (We Ain’t Got) Nothin’ Yet by the Blues Magoos

Nuggets: Little Girl by Syndicate of Sound

Nuggets II: Break It All by Los Shakers

Nuggets II: Bat Macumba by Os Mutantes

Baby, Please Don’t Go by The Amboy Dukes

Nuggets: Louie Louie by The Kingsmen

Nuggets: I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night) by The Electric Prunes

Nuggets: It’s A-Happening by The Magic Mushrooms

Nuggets: Action Woman by The Litter

Nuggets: So What! by The Lyrics

Nuggets: The Witch by The Sonics

Nuggets: Respect by The Vagrants

Nuggets: I See the Light by The Five Americans

Nuggets: My World Fell Down by Sagittarius

Nuggets: Who Do You Love by The Woolies

10 Best Songs on the Nuggets Boxset

Nuggets: Going All the Way by The Squires

Nuggets II: The Madman Running Through The Fields by Dantalian’s Chariot

Nuggets: I Ain’t No Miracle Worker by The Brogues

Nuggets II: It’s My Fault by The Rattles

Nuggets: She’s About A Mover by Sir Douglas Quintet

Nuggets: Mr. Pharmacist by The Other Half

Nuggets: Psycho by The Sonics

Nuggets: Let’s Talk About Girls by The Chocolate Watchband

Nuggets: Are You Gonna Be There (At The Love In) by The Chocolate Watchband

Nuggets: I Want Candy by The Strangeloves

Nuggets: At the River’s Edge by New Colony Six

Nuggets: She’s My Baby by The Mojo Men

Nuggets II: Rosalyn by The Pretty Things

Nuggets: What Am I Going to Do? by The Dovers

Nuggets: Codine by The Charlatans

Nuggets: Moulty by The Barbarians

Nuggets: Follow Me by Lyme & Cybelle

Nuggets: Sometimes Good Guys Don’t Wear White by The Standells

Nuggets: Journey to Tyme by Kenny and the Kasuals

Nuggets: Run, Run, Run by The Third Rail

Nuggets: Time Won’t Let Me by The Outsiders

Nuggets: The Trip by Kim Fowley

Nuggets: You Must Be A Witch by The Lollipop Shoppe

Nuggets: Voices Green and Purple by The Bees

Nuggets: An Invitation to Cry by The Magicians

Nuggets: 7 and 7 Is by Love

Nuggets: Sit Down, I Think I Love You by The Mojo Men

Nuggets: Diddy Wah Diddy by Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band

Nuggets: Falling Sugar by The Palace Guard

Nuggets: I’m Gonna Make You Mine by The Shadows of Knight

Nuggets: Lies by The Knickerbockers

Nuggets: Bad Little Woman by The Shadows of Knight

Nuggets: Incense and Peppermints by Strawberry Alarm Clock

Nuggets II: No Presents For Me by The Pandamonium

Nuggets II: No More Now by The Smoke

Nuggets II: Glendora by Downliners Sect

Nuggets: Run, Run, Run by The Gestures

Nuggets: It’s Cold Outside by The Choir

Nuggets: Farmer John by The Premiers

Nuggets: You’re Gonna Miss Me by The 13th Floor Elevators

Nuggets II: How Does It Feel to Feel by The Creation

Nuggets: Romeo and Juliet by Michael and the Messengers

Nuggets: Mirror Of Your Mind by We The People

Nuggets II: The Bitter Thoughts Of Little Jane by Timon

Nuggets: Story of My Life by The Unrelated Segments

Nuggets: Blue's Theme by Davie Allan & the Arrows

Nuggets: The Little Black Egg by The Nightcrawlers

Nuggets II: Pictures of Matchstick Men by The Status Quo

Nuggets: I’m Five Years Ahead of My Time by The Third Bardo

Nuggets II: Vacuum Cleaner by Tintern Abbey

Nuggets: Hey Joe by the Leaves

Nuggets: Get Me to the World on Time by The Electric Prunes

Nuggets: Tobacco Road by Blues Magoos

Nuggets: Psychotic Reaction by Count Five

Nuggets II: Touch by The Outsiders

Nuggets II: Sad by The (Australian) Playboys

Nuggets II: You Can Be My Baby by The Red Squares

Nuggets: Jack of Diamonds by The Daily Flash

Nuggets: Love's Gone Bad by The Underdogs

Nuggets: Spazz by The Elastik Band

Nuggets II: Kicks and Chicks by The Zipps

Nuggets: Oh Yeah by The Shadows of Knight

Nuggets: Outside Chance by The Turtles

Nuggets: Laugh, Laugh by The Beau Brummels

Nuggets: Optical Sound by The Human Expression

Nuggets II: Real Crazy Apartment by Winston’s Fumbs

Nuggets: Too Many People by The Leaves

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I never heard this before but it’s really cool. It stands up with Dirty Water…the guys voice was a little more distinctive than most of the garage band vocalists. When I heard him it was no doubt what band it was…
Off Topic… Is the comment section messed up for everyone? When you try to type in them it flips you into another page.
It’s doing it to me as well. I think it’s the Wordpress reader where the problem is? I don’t think commenting on other peoples sites is an issue?
What I’m doing is typing a comment in word and copying and pasting it in the comment section.
I mostly comment in reader…I can type in the side panel replying to comments BUT…. as I’m typing now…it’s liking the page I’m on and going back through the pages…but yes like you said…in Reader. I’m going to try to comment on peoples site instead of the reader.
I’ve noticed my comments are way down today.
Yup, this Nuggets post has barely any comments today – although it’s kind of a boring one since I already did a Standells post earlier.
I liked the song…loved his voice.
Graham…off topic but what are a couple of other bands like… Big Star, Velvet Underground, and The Replacements? I’m thinking about doing a cult band week… XTC would be another…what would be another one or two? If you don’t mind..
I thought about the largest cult band ever….The Dead but I wanted one in line with the others.
There are tons out there I think. They Might Be Giants. Jellyfish. and Guided By Voices are all ideas off the top of my head.
They Might Be Giants would be interesting….I was thinking also about The Jayhawks.
Great dirty garage rock. I used to play it in my short-lived garage band. Easy chords, fun to play.
The Standells (early lineup) made a memorable appearance on the American sitcom, “The Munsters.” A later guitarist, John Fleckenstein, was in an early lineup of Love.
It’s cool you played this song in a garage band! I didn’t realise the Love connection, but they’re pretty well connected to a bunch of other bands already.
(Sorry, he played bass.)
Listening to it again just right now, I like it even more than I did before. Now I think it’s probably a top-tier Nugget. The song and the tune are like way above average. And he’s got the kind of singing that you should have for this kind of stuff. And the drums sound the way I like them to sound, and they’re as loud as they should be, and the organ is as great as it should be. And it sticks in your head. If I rated it I would give it a 9/10. That’s higher than you did.
I listened to Bump last night and it’s excellent. I thought that since it’s from 2013 it wasn’t gonna be able to recapture the feel of the old ’60s recordings because it wouldn’t be made with the old ’60s recording technology, but it almost does. It’s kind of like in between the old and the new. Sometimes it sounds like contemporary punk, except a lot better. The remakes are the best ones, but the new originals are pretty good too.
I think recording technology is really good now – apart from contemporary pop and other music going for a particular aesthetic, it seems like you can make music that feels timeless.
That’s right. Today’s recording technology can do anything . You can make it sound like anything you want.
Missed this post. Yes, another catchy Sixties tune I never heard. “Dirty Water” gets played at Fenway Park every time the Red Sox win. Nobody even notices it anymore. When we saw Steely Dan a few years back they played it as an encore. The guys in the band had never even been here I think, except the songwriter. “Fun” fact – the song mentions the Boston strangler. My daughter lives in an apartment building where he killed someone.
I figured you’d be a Dirty Water fan. That’s right at the start of Nuggets so it’s a couple of years away at the rate I’m going…
I’ve been trying to figure out your second sentence. What’s at the start of Nuggets? Dirty Water? And what’s a couple years away?? Is there a joke in there?
He’s reviewing Nuggets backwards from the last track to the first, and it has a million gazillion tracks, so it will take him a couple years to get to Dirty Water
Ah-ha! Is that because he’s Down Under?🤣
Lol. ha ha. I guess so.
It’s so it will all eventually be in the correct order here:
https://albumreviews.blog/nuggets/
There’s going to be a lot of them. It’s like 125 tracks or something.