Essential Pebbles, Volume 1

Essential Pebbles, Volume 1
Compilation album
Released 1997
Recorded Mid-1960s
Genre Garage rock, Psychedelic rock
Label AIP Records
chronology

Essential Pebbles, Volume 1
(1997)		 Essential Pebbles, Volume 2
(1998)

Essential Pebbles, Volume 1 is the first compilation album in the Essential Pebbles series. Although subtitled Ultimate '66 garage classics!, not all of the recordings on the album were originally released in 1966.

Release Data

This album was released on AIP Records in 1997 as #AIP-CD-1058. The first CD collects tracks from the first 10 CDs in the Pebbles series plus Ear-Piercing Punk, while the second CD are "insanely rare bonus tracks" that are previously un-reissued in any form (except for 2 that were previously included on a rare 1982 compilation album).

Notes on the tracks

As noted in the introductory liner notes, the recordings on the first CD serve as "a sort of 'greatest hits' for seasoned listeners" as well as an introduction to the Pebbles series. With the inclusion of garage rock and psychedelic rock classics like "Green Fuz", "I Never Loved Her", "She's Not Just Anybody", and "Doin' Me In", it is difficult to argue with this assessment. Although "many more" volumes are promised in the Pebbles series, in fact AIP Records has closed out the series with the release of the final 2 CDs in 1999 and 2007.

"Travel Agent Man" is a takeoff on "Secret Agent Man" with veiled drug references, while "You Gotta Run" is an unusually melodic song that belies the song title. The final cut, which is incorrectly titled "Go Go Girl" in the track listing, and attributed to "unknown artist", has the singer complaining about having to "stand in line" to see his girlfriend now that she is a "hip-swingin', fringe-slingin' Watusi go go girl". The song is in fact "Go Girl Go" by The Hombres, which was released as the B-Side of the single "Let It All Hang Out" in 1967.

Small photos of the 11 CDs mentioned above are given in the booklet, along with one of Surfbeat behind the Iron Curtain, although no surf rock recordings are included from either this album or from Pebbles, Volume 4 "for stylistic reasons". However, none of the tracks on the Pebbles, Volume 9 CD are included either.

Unlike most of the AIP albums, the liner notes are very spare and cover barely a page in the short booklet that comes with the album. Their final comment – "The Miles Ends from Phoenix are a personal favorite" – is evidently an opinion held by Greg Shaw himself.

Track listing

Disc 1

  1. The Preachers: "Who Do You Love" (Elias B. McDaniel)
  2. The Grains of Sand: "Going Away Baby"
  3. The Ju Jus: "You Treat Me Bad"
  4. The Haunted: "1-2-5"
  5. The Wilde Knights: "Beaver Patrol"
  6. The Lyrics: "So What!"
  7. The Green Fuz: "Green Fuz"
  8. Teddy & Patches: "Suzy Creamcheese" (Frank Zappa)
  9. T. C. Atlantic: "Faces"
  10. William Penn V: "Swami"
  11. The Tree: "No Good Woman"
  12. The Plague: "Go Away"
  13. The Gentlemen: "It's a Crying Shame"
  14. The Omens: "Searching"
  15. The Foggy Notions: "Need a Little Lovin'"
  16. Dean Carter: "Rebel Woman"
  17. The Lost Agency: "One Girl Man"
  18. The Trolls: "Every Night & Every Day"
  19. The Starfires: "I Never Loved Her"
  20. Beckett Quintet: "No Correspondence"
  21. The Dovers: "She's Not Just Anybody"
  22. The Hysterics: "Won't Get Far (labeled as "Everything's There")"
  23. The Good Feelings: "Shattered"
  24. The Breakers: "I Ain't Dead Yet"
  25. The Uncalled For: "Do Like Me"
  26. GONN: "Doin' Me In"
  27. The Mile Ends: "Bottle Up and Go"
  28. The Bohemian Vendetta: "Enough"
  29. Keith Kessler: "Don't Crowd Me"

Disc 2

  1. The Motifs: "Someday"
  2. The Shays: "Brainwashed"
  3. The Sinners: "Sinnerisme"
  4. Missing Lynx: "Hang Around"
  5. The Mixed Emotions: "Can't You Stop It Now"
  6. Thunderbolts: "Heart So Cold"
  7. Strangers: "What a Life"
  8. Roosters: "You Gotta Run"
  9. Peter & Wolves: "Hey Mama"
  10. Peter & Wolves: "I Can Only Give You Everything"
  11. Sound Apparatus: "Travel Agent Man"
  12. The Shades: "Down the Road Apiece"
  13. Dynamic Nutones: "Sick & Tired"
  14. Dry Grins: "You're Through"
  15. Hustlers: "Sky Is Black"
  16. Other Half: "Girl with the Long Black Hair"
  17. Thorns: "I'm in Love"
  18. Malibus: "I've Gotta Go"
  19. Malibus: "I Want You to Know"
  20. Creations: "I Want You"
  21. [Unknown Artist]: "I Just Don't Know"
  22. [Unknown Artist]: "Fed Up"
  23. The Banshees: "I've Had It"
  24. Roy / Bristols: "It's Your Fault"
  25. Terry Dee / Roadrunners: "Some Other Guy"
  26. The Hombres: "Go Girl, Go"