Where the Action Is! Los Angeles Nuggets (1965-1968)

iTunes Review

The good folks at Nuggets have bequeathed another stellar box set with Where The Action Is! Los Angeles Nuggets (1965-1968). It kicks off with the Standells’ “Riot On Sunset Strip,” the garage-rocking theme song to a hilarious 1967 teensploitation flick about the daughter of an L.A. cop who starts hanging out with longhaired, side-burned punks. The real beauty of this 100-song-deep collection is that successful acts of the era like the Byrds, the Doors, the Beach Boys and Buffalo Springfield play side by side with more obscure cult bands such as Love, Spirit, Nilsson and Sagittarius. And in true Nuggets style, the rarities radiate like pure Golden State sunshine — especially Van Dyke Parks’ baroque-pop ditty “Come to the Sunshine” and the single version of Randy Newman’s psyche-rocker “Last Night I Had a Dream.” Other uncommon gems include Jackie De Shannon singing “Splendor In the Grass” — the only recording where a female singer was ever backed by the Byrds — and Gene Clark’s “Los Angeles” — the best song about the City of Angels since Neil Young’s “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere.”