Nuggets 50th Aniversary Celebration

2023-07-29 at City Winery

Lenny Kaye told us a story on Saturday night about how he was approached by Elektra Records CEO Jac Holtzman in 1971 to curate a collection of psychedelic and garage rock songs. Lenny says his initial idea was to offer up a series of multiple LPs, each focusing on a different geographical area. Holtzman wouldn’t green light that kind of project but did give Kaye carte blanche on what would eventually be a 2 LP collection of rock and roll history called Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965–1968. The compilation would be officially released in October of 1972 and as Kaye so aptly stated from the stage of City Winery on Saturday night, he is eternally grateful to Holtzman for not only approving the project but for virtually giving Lenny full reign as to what would be included on the 2 LP set.

Which brings me to what transpired at City Winery on Friday and Saturday nights last weekend. Lenny and a multitude of his friends (a veritable who’s who in the New York and beyond rock and roll scene) took the stage each evening to recreate the “nuggets” which were part of the original double album as well as the second Volume II which was released by Rhino Records in 2001 to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Nuggets.

I was not able to make it to the Friday night show but consider myself quite fortunate to have been in attendance for the festivities on Saturday evening. Let me first say that for those who are familiar, City Winery is basically a supper club. With its relatively new location along the Hudson River the spacious room with great acoustics, wonderful lighting and expansive sightlines of the stage, it’s a great room for mellower music which is more conducive to sitting down and enjoying food and wine with. As for a raucous rock and roll show that is more of a get up and dance inducing scene, not so much. Fortunately, the producers of this evening of music had the foresight to recognize this and convinced the people at City Winery to clear the tables in the center of the room and do a GA standing room arrangement for the weekend’s shows. Mind you, this is something I’d venture to guess had never been done before at City Winery. The bottom line is, this was a stroke of genius matching the original idea of making the Nuggets LP to begin with.

As for the evening of music, I’ll just start from the beginning. Shortly after 8 PM, the evening’s house band consisting of Tony Shanahan (Patti Smith Group) on bass, Jack Petruzzelli (Joan Osborne, Ian Hunter, Jesse Malin) on guitar, Glen Burtnik (The Weeklings, Styx, Beatlemania) on keys, James Mastro (The Bongos) on guitar & sax, and Dennis Diken (The Smithereens) on drums took the stage followed by the man of the night…Lenny Kaye. After a brief introduction of what we were going to be treated to for the night, he aptly got the music started with the night’s first musical guest, none other than Patti Smith, just returned from Bogota. The always affable Smith jumped right into The Electric Prunes’ classic “I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night”. Following this with a William S. Boroughs anecdote and reading, Patti finished her segment of the evening off with an old staple from her setlists from the late 70’s, The Leaves’s “Hey Joe”. As one who is on record that I could listen to Patti read/sing the phone book, I could have gone home right then and there and the evening would have been a success. But we still had a good 2 hours of classic rock and roll to get through.

Tom Clark had the unenviable job of following Patti, but managed to kill it with a perfectly campy version of The Lovin Spoonful’s “Do You Believe In Magic ” replete with Tom reprising John Sebastion’s autoharp.

Joe McGinty, Vicki Peterson (and John Cowsill), Tony Shanahn and James Mastro would each follow with their takes on their favorite Nuggets tracks. Each one managed to top the previous performance. But the next artist, I was not at all prepared for. Tammy Faye Starlite, has been doing the performance art/ underground cabaret scene since the mid 90’s but I was not at all familiar with her. As soon as she took the stage she quickly offered up a borscht belt one liner joke (“it’s OK because Lenny’s Jewish, I’m Jewish and we know ALL of you are Jewish”) poking fun at Jews. She then presented us with the joke’s punchline, The Strangeloves’s “I Want Candy”, a perfect choice for Tammy Faye to showcase her vampy cabaret act.

Next up we were treated to a two-fer of Steve Wynn and REM’s Peter Buck doing two chestnuts, one from the Moving Sidewalks and the second The Spades. During both of these songs, Wynn was all over the stage feeding off of the other musician’s energies and having an absolute blast moving from Lenny to Tony and back again. Mary Lee Kortes was next up with a little help from sidekick Eric Ambel for her rendition of “First Cut Is the Deepest” which was originally done by P.P. Arnold but which I discovered on Saturday was written by none other than Cat Stevens!?!

After Television’s Richard Lloyd did a pair of tracks, Edward Rogers took the stage for a quick “It’s Cold Outside” (which it most certainly was not. Following Rogers was another one of my highlights from an evening of highlights, Juliana Hatfield (with Peter Buck again joining the band) for sultry versions of “I Won’t Hurt You” (West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band) and “I Can’t Stop You” (Cherry Slush). Julianna sounded absolutely fantastic as her voice hasn’t lost any of its timbre or range.

Drummer Dennis Diken, who I just need to say absolutely killed it all night long keeping the beat on the skins, offered us his version of The Turtles’s “Outside Chance” before Marshall Crenshaw took the stage with another highlight set for me. (Before I go any further, I need to point out how freakin’ cool Crenshaw’s guitar looked. I pretty much want it bad.) Crenshaw’s two songs were followed by his former Beatlemania castmate Glen Burtnik’s rollicking foot-stomping version of everyone’s favorite wedding song “Wooly Bully”.

Not to begrudge any of the artists who took part in this show because each and everyone of them were amazing but two of the artists who came out later in the evening were especially memorable. Ivan Julian who’s manic cover of “Pushin’ Too Hard” from The Seeds could have burned the house down, it was so scorching hot. And then there was Bob Mould who performed with such a ferocity and intensity that if you weren’t already a fan (and who in their right mind isn’t) he had to have won you over by the ending notes to “Action Woman”. And if he didn’t I would suggest calling 911 right away because there’s no sign of a pulse on you.

Following Mould’s ferocious pair of songs, Lenny and the band bid good evening to all and left the stage momentarily before returning for one last grand finale of an encore with the entire cast for the evening joining them onstage for a walls crashing, roof raising sing along to what Kaye described as “the ultimate garage rock song”, “G.L.O.R.I.A.” from Them. I will be the first to admit, I am not a fan of encores as I often find them to suffer from denouement. And when it comes to grand finales with everyone on stage singing along (or perhaps just occupying space on stage) these can very often seem trite and forced. This was not the case on Saturday night. I don’t think there was a single person on stage (or in the entire room) who wasn’t having an absolute blast as they screamed out the letters. What an incredible sendoff from such an incredible night of music with an equally incredible collection of talent and artistry.

Thank you Lenny for doing this for all of us.

Setlist

I Had Too Much to Dream(Last Night)(The Electric Prunes cover) (with Patti Smith)
Hey Joe (The Leaves cover) (with Patti Smith)
Do You Believe in Magic?(The Lovin’ Spoonful cover) (with Tom Clark)
Dirty Water (The Standells cover) (with Joe McGinty)
Laugh Laugh (The Beau Brummels cover) (with Vicki Peterson) (and John Cowsill)
Lies (The Knickerbockers cover) (with Vicki Peterson) (and John Cowsill)
Time Won’t Let Me (The Outsiders cover) (with Tony Shanahan)
Road Runner(Bo Diddley cover) (with James Mastro)
I Want Candy(The Strangeloves cover) (with Tammy Faye Starlite)
99th Floor(The Moving Sidewalks cover) (with Steve Wynn) (and Peter Buck)
You’re Gonna Miss Me (The Spades cover) (with Steve Wynn) (and Peter Buck)
First Cut Is the Deepest(Cat Stevens cover) (with Mary Lee Kortes) (and Eric Ambel)
Baby, Please Don’t Go (Joe Williams’ Washboard Blues Singers cover) (with Mary Lee Kortes) (and Eric Ambel)
Respect(Otis Redding cover) (with Richard Lloyd) (The Vagrants version)
Psychotic Reaction (Count Five cover) (with Richard Lloyd)
It’s Cold Outside (The Choir cover) (with Edward Rogers)
Crazy Like a Fox (Link Cromwell cover) (with Lenny Kaye) (and Peter Buck)
I Won’t Hurt You (The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band cover) (with Juliana Hatfield) (and Peter Buck)
I Cannot Stop You (Cherry Slush cover) (with Juliana Hatfield) (and Peter Buck)
Outside Chance (The Turtles cover) (with Dennis Diken)
I’m Five Years Ahead of My Time (The Third Bardo cover) (with Marshall Crenshaw)
It’s-A-Happening(The Magic Mushrooms cover) (with Marshall Crenshaw)
Wooly Bully (Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs cover) (with Glen Burtnik)
Invitation to Cry (The Magicians cover) (with Joan as Police Woman)
Put the Clock Back on the Wall(The ’E’ Types cover) (with Joan as Police Woman)
Open My Eyes(Nazz cover) (with Jack Petruzzelli)
Pushin’ Too Hard (The Seeds cover) (with Ivan Julian)
Talk Talk (The Music Machine cover) (with Ivan Julian)
My Little Red Book (Burt Bacharach cover) (with Lenny Kaye) (and Vicki Peterson) (>)
7 and 7 Is(Love cover) (with Tony Shanahan) (and Vicki Peterson) (>)
Sleep Walk (Santo & Johnny cover) (with Vicki Peterson)
Liar, Liar (The Castaways cover) (with Bob Mould)
Action Woman(The Litter cover) (with Bob Mould)
Gloria(Them cover) (with everyone)

W.S. Walcott Medicine Show