‘If I knew I’d be talking about it in 50 years, I would have fucked it up,” says Lenny Kaye. “I would have tried to make it too conceptual. It was a lark – just putting a bunch of my favourite records together.”
The Patti Smith guitarist is recalling the creation of Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968, a compilation he was asked to curate by Jac Holzman at Elektra Records. Half a century on, it’s considered a set text for the genre. It regularly pops up on lists of the greatest albums of all time and has a strong claim to being considered one of the most influential compilations ever. But at the time there was little hope for it. “I didn’t think it would ever come out,” says Kaye, whose working relationship with Elektra fizzled out six months before the record was released. Kaye insisted it be called Rockin and Reelin’ USA but Holzman refused. “A wise move,” Kaye laughs today, noting what a perfectly apt title Nuggets is.
