“My head’s attracted to a magnetic wave of sound.” That lyric may define my life. It is from Roy Wood’s “I Can Hear the Grass Grow”, a 1967 song by The Move, which I first heard on the second Nuggets box set.

This is a collection which expanded my musical tastes more than any other influence. Some of the UK rock bands here led to me discovering Fairport Convention, which led to similar groups like The Pentangle and Mellow Candle, not to mention Sandy Denny’s solo work. Just one track “Bat Macumba” by Os Mutantes, led to my interest in the Brazilian Tropicalia movement of the late 60’s. Finding a collection of that music on the Soul Jazz label led me to explore the label’s other titles, leading to a deep love I discovered for ska, rocksteady and early reggae. That thread then followed through to a passion I developed for gritty, lo-fi gospel.

In a way, the Nuggets series also had a weirdly circuitous path. In 1972, Lenny Kaye compiled 27 U.S. garage and psych tracks from the mid-to-late 60s on the a double-LP set. This guy knows his stuff, going on to be in the Patti Smith Group. He also currently has a show on the Sirius XM radio station Little Steven’s Underground Garage, which might as well be named Nuggets Radio. It is no surprise that is the first preset on my car’s radio.

There were then twelve additional single LPs of additional tracks. The series was popular enough to spawn imitators such as the Pebbles and Rubble compilations. Together, these various sets were a huge influence on the punk movement.

The influence on me didn’t occur until the four-CD expansion of the original Nuggets set was released in 1998. Even then, I was slow to take to it. The $80 price tag was prohibited. Although I grew up with a great deal of music in the vein of the set, these tracks were largely unknown to me. But my local library got it in and I proceeded to borrow it many, many times.

2001 rolled around and the world outside the U.S. was represented on a second four-CD collection. If I thought the songs on the first one were obscure, this one had a hype sticker which bragged it contained “practically no hits!”

Thank God. Until Little Steven’s station was created, this second set was like a radio station from a parallel universe. If most 60s rock fans know of any of these acts, the best known are likely Them and The Small Faces. Most people probably wouldn’t realize they know of Australia’s The Easybeats. If it wasn’t for “Making Time” being used in the movie Rushmore, I doubt anybody would know U.K.’s The Creation. What a sad and horrible world it would be if that was the case.

I would classify that track as freakbeat, a sub-genre I wasn’t aware was even a thing until this set. In a way, I feel it is the British equivalent of American 60’s garage rock, as similarly rough in style. It is like if groups were still playing the kind of rock The Beatles were playing in ’64 and ’65, only faster and harder. The thunderous “Save My Soul” by Wimple Winch establishes an interesting mental image with the chorus of “I carry my pride like a burning cross”. A key track here in that style is “Crawdaddy Simone”, a Joe Meek production which has an instrumental break of such intensity that it seems to anticipate The Velvet Underground’s White Light/White Heat. There is an instrumental break which becomes so overwhelming that one doesn’t believe it could any further, and yet it somehow extends beyond that. It is truly one of the few songs ever recorded which goes to 11.

Something which is especially surprising is the groups here representing countries other than the U.K. Australia’s Easybeats were rightly regarded as that country’s answer to The Beatles. Everybody has heard one of two tracks by Los Bravos but likely didn’t realize the band was Spanish. It is hard to believe the influence of The Beatles was so great that it reached Paraguay, where Los Shakers picked up the torch and ran with it. The liner notes humorously points out group photos make it appear it was a group composed of four Ringos. Also, does the chorus actually contain the line “Booty shake, booty shake/oh yeah”? Japan is represented by The Mops and their quirky “I’m Just a Mops”. Iceland’s Thor’s Hammer plays the heaviest, loudest version of The Beatles circa 1965 of any band I have heard.

What isn’t freakbeat on this set is largely psychedelia. One notable track is “Baby Your Phasing Is Bad” by Caleb, a song so awash in tape delay that the liner notes rightly speculate the song might as well be titled “Baby Your Phasing Is Bad”. The Factory only had three singles released in their brief existence, but their “Path Through the Forest” is the best song you haven’t heard yet and in a stellar, mysterious production. Not once have I listened to it and not felt a sensation of wonder. The Marmalade’s “I See the Rain” was singled out by no less than Jimi Hendrix as the best song of 1967. The man had taste.

Typical of that genre, more than a few tracks here channel a childlike whimsy and longing for an earlier, simpler time. May recall the era of Lewis Carroll. Just the title of “Dance Round the Maypole” tells you all you need to know. The imagery of Kaleidoscope’s “A Dream for Julie” is, frankly, a bit nightmarish, but an incredibly infectious chorus keeps things lively. The Idle Race’s “Days of Broken Arrows” is pure nostalgia wrapped in a very uptempo arrangement which curious structural shifts.

More typical of psychedelic music is the references to darker subject matter. A few address war, which is no surprise, as the Vietnam War had shaken the world at the time. Peru’s “It’s a Sin to Go Away” concerns suicide. The Voice’s “The Train to Disaster” is as notable for featuring Mick Ronson on guitar as it is its completely nihilistic lyrics. Of course, sex and drugs are the most frequent of the controversial content, with several tracks here being banned by the BBC. Admittedly, it didn’t take much at the time to get that kind of treatment from the broadcaster. Among the most notable here are The Small Faces’s “Here Comes the Nice”, which is unapologetically about the guy who sold speed to the group. “Desdemona”, by John’s Children (featuring Marc Bolan), has the eyebrow-raising line “lift up your skirt and fly”.

The liner notes are at least half of the experience of enjoying this set, something which I fear is lost to those who listen to it via streaming. It is only with those notes I learned how many musicians who started out in these groups went on to bigger things. Everybody knows Van Morrison started out with Them. But I wonder how many know Jeff Lynne began his career with The Idle Race. It sounds like Peter Gabriel is fronting Dantalian’s Chariot (he’s not), but guitarist Andy Summers would on to do the same for The Police. Tomorrow included Steve Howe, who went on to join Yes. One Ronnie Burns is backed here by The Bee Gees, and their sound is exactly like that of their phenomenal 1st LP, which is basically a group that only seemed to have one album, and that is Revolver.

Perhaps most remarkably, David Bowie appears here under his real name and fronting group The Lower Third. He would go on to cover another track on the set, The Pretty Things’s “Rosalyn”, on the album Pin-Ups, which was all covers of tracks from this era. So, not only did this music have a huge influence on me and later generations of musicians, it even had that much of an impact on somebody who was so closely a peer as to be gathered together with them in the same box set.