Zig Zag Wanderer (Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band)
Gentle As It May Seem (Iron Butterfly)
Candy Cane Madness (Lowell George & The Factory)
If You Want This Love (The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band)
Baby, My Heart (The Bobby Fuller Four)
All Night Long (The Palace Guard)
It's Gonna Rain (Sonny & Cher)
For My Own (The Guilloteens)
Take A Giant Step (The Rising Sons)
One Too Many Mornings (The Association)
Time Waits For No One (The Knack)
Take It As It Comes (The Doors)
Pulsating Dream (Kaleidoscope)
Tripmaker (The Seeds)
The People In Me (The Music Machine)
Saturday's Son (The Sons Of Adam)
Eventually (The Peanut Butter Conspiracy)
Swim (Penny Arkade)
The Third Eye (The Joint Effort)
Girl In Your Eye (Spirit)
Track Listings (26) - Disc #2
Jump, Jive & Harmonize (Thee Midniters)
Back Up (The Light)
To Die Alone (The Bush)
Get On This Plane (The Premiers)
Little Girl, Little Boy (The Odyssey)
Hideaway (The Electric Prunes)
Listen, Listen! (The Merry-Go-Round)
She Done Moved (The Spats)
Grim Reaper Of Love (The Turtles)
See If I Care (Ken & The Fourth Dimension)
He's Not There Anymore (The Chymes)
Back Seat '38 Dodge (Opus 1)
Eternal Prison (The Humane Society)
Revenge (The Others)
Come Alive (Things To Come)
Acid Head (The Velvet Illusions)
Guaranteed Love (Limey & The Yanks)
Love's The Thing (The Romancers, aka The Smoke Rings)
Underground Lady (Kim Fowley)
Pretty Little Thing (The Deepest Blue)
You're Wishin' I Was Someone Else (The Whatt Four)
Hippy Elevator Operator (The W.C. Fields Memorial Electric String Band)
That's For Sure (The Mustangs)
Tomorrow's Girl (Fapardokly)(Merrell & The Exiles)
Everything's There (The Hysterics)
Our Time Is Running Out (The Yellow Payges)
Track Listings (25) - Disc #3
Action, Action, Action (Keith Allison)
The Rebel Kind (Dino, Desi & Billy)
High On Love (The Knickerbockers)
Fan Tan (Jan & Dean)
Halloween Mary (P.F. Sloan)
Somebody Groovy (The Mamas & The Papas)
Daydreaming (Thorinshield)
Just Can't Wait (The Full Treatment)
Yellow Balloon (The Yellow Balloon)
The Times To Come (London Phogg)
No More Running Around (The Lamp Of Childhood)
Little Girl Lost-And-Found (The Garden Club)
Mothers And Fathers (The Moon)
My Girlfriend Is A Witch (October Country)
Montage Mirror (Roger Nichols Trio)
Flower Eyes (Pasternak Progress)
Come Down (The Common Cold)
Jill (Gary Lewis & The Playboys)
Daily Nightly (The Monkees)
Night Time Girl (Modern Folk Quintet)
Don't Say No (The Oracle)
Tin Angel (Will You Ever Come Down) (Hearts And Flowers)
Rainbow Woman (Lee Hazlewood)
Poor Old Organ Grinder (Pleasure featuring Billy Elder)
Baby, Please Don't Go (The Ballroom)
Track Listings (25) - Disc #4
Sit Down I Think I Love You (Stephen Stills & Richie Furay)
Splendor In The Grass (Jackie DeShannon with The Byrds)
November Night (Peter Fonda)
Roses And Rainbows (Danny Hutton)
Lemon Chimes (The Dillards)
Here's Today (The Rose Garden)
I Love How You Love Me (Nino Tempo & April Stevens)
Words (Demo) (Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart)
(You Used To) Ride So High (The Motorcycle Abeline)(Warren Zevon & Bones Howe)
Life Is A Dream (Noel Harrison)
Los Angeles (Gene Clark)
Once Upon A Time (Tim Buckley)
Darlin' You Can Count On Me (The Everpresent Fullness)
I'll Search The Sky (The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band)
Come To The Sunshine (Van Dyke Parks)
Heroes And Villains (Alternate Take) (The Beach Boys)
She Sang Hymns Out Of Tune (Jesse Lee Kincaid)
Sister Marie (Nilsson)
Last Night I Had A Dream (Single Version) (Randy Newman)
I Think I Love You (Del Shannon)
Change Is Now (The Byrds)
the Truth Is Not Real (Single Version) (Sagittarius)
Marshmallow Skies (Rick Nelson)
You Set The Scene (Love)
Inner-Manipulations (Barry McGuire)
WHERE THE ACTION IS! compiles 101 tracks that mix many of the city's brightest stars like The Byrds, Love, The Doors, The Beach Boys, Buffalo Springfield, Captain Beefheart, The Mamas & The Papas, Lowell George, Iron B... more »utterfly, with talented artists whose stellar songcraft sadly flew under the radar The Seeds, The Electric Prunes, The Peanut Butter Conspiracy, The Everpresent Fullness, The Bobby Fuller Four.« less
WHERE THE ACTION IS! compiles 101 tracks that mix many of the city's brightest stars like The Byrds, Love, The Doors, The Beach Boys, Buffalo Springfield, Captain Beefheart, The Mamas & The Papas, Lowell George, Iron Butterfly, with talented artists whose stellar songcraft sadly flew under the radar The Seeds, The Electric Prunes, The Peanut Butter Conspiracy, The Everpresent Fullness, The Bobby Fuller Four.
"Four discs -61,64,69,71 minutes each approximately. The sound is uniformly fine. These songs sound about as good as they ever will. The discs are slipped-bare-into half-cardboard sleeves in the back of the hardback book. Not the best. I put my discs into separate jewel cases for protection. The book itself is well done. Information on the era when this great music was first coming out is informative and fun to read. There is a track by track listing of the various groups,with info on who was in the band,when it was recorded,and any listings on Billboard,etc. There are pictures of the bands,along with reproductions of advertising for various clubs and related items,that were seemingly essential (leather goods) during that time. There are also two pages listing clubs of the era,along with info on various groups that played these venues. The radio stations of the day are also listed,along with a brief description of the music they played. There's also a time line of musical and related events during this time period. All of this adds up to be a very well done collection,and helps set the scene for this great music. One of the more interesting items is a letter from THE BYRDS to the group THE RISING SONS,hoping their album flops and they rot in the Columbia Records basement,along with Terry Melcher,and then they wish the band good luck in the future. At Ciro's Le Disc,for $4.95,you can have dinner,dancing and two drinks,in a "special" called the "Early Byrd Delight". Definitely a different era.
The music itself is a good overview of Los Angeles "rock" during the mid to late sixties. Some groups will be well known to listeners (THE STANDELLS,THE BYRDS,LOVE IRON BUTTERFLY etc) familiar with this era's music. However,even the groups that most listeners know, they probably haven't heard a number of these early tracks. That's the beauty of this collection. It isn't a collection of "hits" from the era. This is an alternative collection of music by people/groups,some who went on to fame and fortune,while others disappeared. The discs are,roughly,thematically done,covering areas like pop sounds,groups who primarily played in the clubs,more rock oriented groups,and even Top 40 groups. Along the way you'll hear rock,folk,folk-rock,country (L.A. style),studio productions,and the beginnings of psychedelic music.
There are groups who "made it" and some groups who were literally "one shot wonders". But that's the beauty of this set. Together this overview will show listeners that there was much more than the "known" groups coming out of L.A. The treasures found in this collection are to numerous to list. Virtually every track is worthwhile,if for nothing else than putting a smile on your face. However,there are a number of groups who sound so good,you'll wonder why they didn't make it. The early tracks by many well known groups will be a revelation to listeners only familiar with the usual stuff we've heard over and over again. There's early songs from Van Dyke Parks,Nilsson,Peter Fonda(!),P.F. Sloan,THE RISING SONS (with Taj Mahal),THE SEEDS,HEARTS AND FLOWERS,Sonny and Cher,and so on.
This is one of Rhino Records better releases in their Nuggets series. There is so much good,important,fun music here,that this collection bears listening to many times over. And every time you'll hear something new and probably great. For those who grew up in the late sixties,this will be a time machine back to an era long past. For those who weren't around then,this set will go a long way in explaining the beginnings of the sixties music sound. Either way,this is a great collection of the sounds that came out of Los Angeles during a relatively short,but important,period of time ."
Los Angeles in the mid-1960s
Fredric A. Cooper | Los Angeles, CA | 09/22/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is a really fine collection of tunes, following the blueprint of the original 1972 "Nuggets" compilation, concentrating on the "scene" in L.A., many of which were overlooked at the time, but are no less deserving of our praise than the more familiar hits by the artists represented. Some were genuine local radio hits, like "Tripmaker" by The Seeds, and "Roses and Rainbows" by Danny Hutton. The Music Machine's followup to "Talk Talk", "The People In Me" is arguably even better but got blacklisted from radio play due to radio station politics but should have been a monster hit. One of The Turtles' best records (and one of the greatest titles for a song ever) was the low-charting "Grim Reaper of Love", which is my personal favorite from the band. The sublime "Splendor in the Grass" written and performed by Jackie DeShannon (and covered by a girl group called The Boys), is a shining example of a tune that slipped by but shouldn't have. The idea here is not to collect a bunch of overly familiar songs (and there are plenty of CD collections like that), but to highlight the great gems that mostly missed receiving the attention they deserved. Now is the time for us to appreciate these tracks with this super set."
Mono, the new stereo
attentive listener | Joysey | 09/28/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Nuggets are noted for their enthusiasm and punch (AM) over any asperation of finesse or fidelity (FM). Mono is well suited to "punch", really the only way to hear this stuff, unless of course you have a favored altered state, that won't hurt the listening experience, either. As they say, enjoy responsibly. The tracks are fairly consistantly obscure, something that cannot be said for the previous S.F. Nuggets set, which contained a smattering of fairly well known, FM, stereo tracks. Many of these tracks lean toward the folk/pop side of the garage, clearly the Beach Boys' harmonies were a beacon to many of these aggregations. Digestion of Nuggets sometimes takes repeated listens, sometimes it seems like you've heard something before, but can't place when or where. Maybe, that's a tugging from alternate reality, planet X, where these are all, of course, big hits. Fans of the weird and wonderful, rejoice !"
A Brief Correction
Harley Peyton | Los Angeles, CA USA | 09/22/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"The above review seems based on a misconception about the box set. This is a compilation that celebrates rock and roll music in LOS ANGLES during the mid-60s. Which would explain why The Kinks or the Dave Clark 5 are not included. Like most Nuggets collections, this is a very thorough one. It's well worth the price."
Great music of course, but also the best book in the series
Doctor LongGhost | 11/10/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"You know the music's good. Hits, rarities, you name it, all from the great L.A. scene of the mid-sixties. Given recent trends in the Nuggets series, you know the packaging is going to annoy you, but hey, just slide those CDs out carefully the first time and put them in your own slim-line cases for protection and storage. It's really not that big a deal. But I'm here to alert you now about the CONTENT of the accompanying book for this Los Angeles set. It's the best of the series. Others have complained here on amazon about how Where the Action Is "skimps" on content. Well, not quite. True, there aren't as many pages as in the San Francisco set, but what's here is great. In a quick easy format, you get snapshot profiles of all the bands, personnel listings, and a timeline detailing everything of importance that happened on "the scene." After the paragraph long band capsules, you get profiles of all the clubs and discothèques of Sixties L.A. And then you get intros to the various radio stations that played this music in L.A. at the time. Best of all, it's a fast read, with no fluff and no filler. To tell you the truth, I've always found those earlier Nuggets books to be a little wearisome. Sure the great information is there, but you have to dig through a lot of wide-eyed wonder and elaboration to get to it. With Where the Action Is, it's all front and center. Nobody's on a nostalgia trip (except for maybe a little in the introduction), and you'll finish up knowing a whole lot more about the L.A. scene than you do about S.F. in Love is the Song We Sing. Sure, there are fewer words here, but they're the right words with the right information. This is the most succinct, most helpful and most entertaining companion book that Nuggets has put out, and I own them all. Looking forward to the Boston Scene, you guys!"