Nuggets: Why Pick On Me by The Standells

36 Comments

1. I guess this song is kind of okay but it’s not another Dirty Water, that’s for sure . I really can’t think of any Garage Band that had more than one great one. A lot of people think that the Third Floor Elevators or Electric Prunes or Flaming Groovies even had great albums, but nothing really measured up to their big hits.

   • I’ll see how we go as I work through the set!

2. Actually, the Electric Prunes had one or two pretty good follow-ups . Get Me to the World on Time and I Happen to Love You, a Carole King song strangely enough.

   • I Had Too Much To Dream is one song from the set that I do know well and really enjoy before listening through.

3. I knew I had heard of them before. This is a little more advanced than the previous ones…that organ is very edgy…it makes you feel like it’s going out at any time but he pulls it between the lines at the last minute.
   Most of the singers of that garage era have that Jagger and Morrison sound.
   I didn’t know that about Lowell George and Dewey Martin. That is a lot of talent in itself.

   • I forgot that Lowell George played with Zappa too.

     • He was a great musican…he also produced The Dead’s Shakedown Street album.
       I just took a peek at the Nuggets collection again. There are some bands coming I really like…

       • We’re going to hit a better known section of Nuggets shortly – The Monks, The Sonics, Paul Revere and the Raiders, and The Electric Prunes (plus Mr. Pharmacist, which I know from The Fall’s cover).

         • The Gentrys also…they did a very good version of Cinnamon Girl…kind of pointless but a good one.
           I do like the unknowns as well…great collection. After thinking about it..the Jagger type lead vocals makes sense.
           Our band had a guy that copied him (and me)…I love the Beatles but those harmonies are damn hard for a garage band and the Stones/Kinks/Them type music is easier to copy.

         • I’m always amazed by harmony singing – I can barely sing the melody in tune.

         • I sound like Tom Petty with a head cold but yea…I love the harmonizing also. When I listen to this type of music a lot…everything else sounds over produced.

4. Another solid track!

   • It’s my least favourite so far, but I still enjoyed it.

     • There’s something about that sound, that style, that groove that evokes enjoyment, no matter the tune. Isn’t it lovely to have something as solid as this be a lesser track for you, so far? I mean, an embarrassment of riches!

       • It’s just a cool idea, rounding up lots of also-rans. And it’s obviously a formative era for rock music -feels like a collection of tracks from 1985-1988 would be less interesting?

         • No way! Folks were still making awesome music, I hope they make that set too!

5. The only song from them I’m familiar with is “Dirty Water”, which I’m old enough to remember when it was a hit. I really liked it, and also thought they sounded a lot like the Stones and the Kinks. I never knew their lead singer was the brother of Russ Tamblyn.

   • A lot of the Nuggets stuff sounds like the Stones and The Kinks really, a bit like “it tastes like chicken” – I think as I go, I’ll get better at describing the songs. Tamblyn wasn’t the lead singer, but he’s the only constant member.

     • You haven’t got as far as any of the ones that aren’t in the Kinks/Stones mold yet. Like the Beatles-ish ones or the Tex-Mex ones. Or pop-rockish ones. And of course the famous Psychedellia type ones. There’s actually more variety as you get closer to the top of the tracklist. Most of my own favorites are those other kinds.

       • Cool – good to know. It makes sense that there’s a fair amount of psychedelia in there.

6. Top 10 Nuggets
   Psychotic Reaction – Count Five
   Little Girl – Syndicate of Sound
   Incense and Peppermints – Strawberry Alarm Clock
   Time Won’t Let Me – Outsiders
   Nobody But Me – Human Beinz
   Just Like Me – Paul Revere & Raiders
   Journey to the Center of Your Mind – Amboy Dukes
   Little Bit of Soul – The Music Explosion
   Blues Magoos – We Ain’t Got Nothin’ Yet
   Laugh Laugh – Beau Brummels
   (Bonus trax)
   Talk Talk – Music Machine
   The Hombres – Let it Out
   Wooly Bully – Sam the Sham
   Voices Green and Purple – The Bees
   She’s About a Mover – Sir Douglas
   Louie Louie – Kingsmen
   Too Much to Dream – Electric Prunes
   Liar Liar – Castaways
   Dirty Water – Standells

   • Nice lists – did you relisten to them all?

     • Yeah. There were a few more that I liked this time around. But mostly I still like all the same ones the best.

7. I came to the Standells via the Inmates doing a great cover of ‘Dirty Water’

   • I’ve never heard of The Inmates, but that cover sounds good – they changed it to London!

     • They changed the name of the river too. Instead of saying Charles they say Thames . If I remember correctly.

     • Ah! Good for you. I ate that band up. The debut is a killer. I’ll be pulling the trigger for a take on it soon I hope.

8. I used to have the original Nuggets compilation and I listened to it feverishly – amazing psychedelic jams on those CDs! I think, ultimately, I had even more fun with the British Invasion set, because I’m a Swinging London obsessive! I had no idea Russ Tamblyn was the brother of one of the Standells, though – I mostly just associate him with West Side Story and Twin Peaks (and he wasn’t the only West Side Story alumnus in that show!).

   • I’m kind of planning to tackle Nuggets II next, but it will take me a long time to get there.

9. Like this one a lot. From the descending ‘Kinksian’ opening to the ascending Ahhs in the chorus, it really inventive in a fairly basic sub-genre. Sure, much is derivative, but the whole thing is totally original. And what’s that piping sound? A theramin? Top note on a Farissa? 8 ½ / 10

   • Derivative isn’t necessarily a bad thing. All that really matters is the end result. How did the record turn out? is really the only question. I’d rather hear a great record that’s unoriginal than a crummy record that’s original. Just because something’s new and original doesn’t mean its any good. Usually a derivative unoriginal record is more likely to be good. That’s just the way it is.

     • You may not have noticed, but the comments were positive.

       • yeah I know. That’s why I said it. Your comment was proving my point I thought.

10. Read your intro afterwards, Graham. (Which is, I think, a good way to do this).
    A Vox organ then. 🙂
    And clearly I liked this a lot more than you!

    • I definitely think you (and Max from PowerPop blog) are correct that this song is a lot more accomplished and sophisticated than most of the Nuggets stuff, it just doesn’t do it for me as much of the others have so far.

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