As ongoing Nuggets Divisional Series showdown between Side 1’s “I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night” (The Electric Prunes) and Side 4’s “Open My Eyes” (The Nazz) plays out (voting is open through August 24th at 11:59:59 pm!), it’s time to open the battle between the inner sides in this effort to determine—once and for all—the Best Song on the Original Nuggets LP.
This divisional battle pits The 13th Floor Elevators, whose “You’re Gonna Miss Me” narrowly edged out The Remains’ “Don’t Look Back” and The Seeds’ “Pushin’ Too Hard,” against runaway Side 3 winner “Psychotic Reaction,” by The Count Five. One team, I mean, song enters this round in peak form, having had to earn every vote it accumulated, while the other stormed through the competition with among the purest fuzztone riffs in rock history. Voting runs through 11:59:59 pm on Saturday, August 27. Then, on Monday, August 29 we begin the championship showdown!
SHOWDOWN (choose one): What's the BETTER song between the division winners of sides 2 and 3 of the original Nuggets?
- The Count Five, "Psychotic Reaction" (72%, 33 Votes)
- The 13th Floor Elevators, "You're Gonna Miss Me" (28%, 13 Votes)
Total Voters: 46
Loading ...
Not an easy choice – both songs are worthy, though I still think “Liar, Liar” should have won the Side 2 competition. However, I have to give The Count Five the nod here because the admittedly-derivative rave-ups push “Psychotic Reaction” to whacked-out fun territory. Besides, how can one resist a band who poses around what looks like an open grave trying hard (and failing) to look menacing? Their clothes look like Mom hit the back-to-school sales at JC Penney.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UrBuyY9txco/TcEXv7Uu4kI/AAAAAAAADc4/_ErDlGTevrY/s1600/count+five+-+psychotic+reaction+1967+front+large.jpg
Yeah…it’s a close call, for sure. But I took the Count Five.
I love the Elevators and Roky’s solo material, but this particular Elevators song never did it for me like Psychotic Reaction does.
I am so confident in The Count Five’s victory here that I will hold all commentary on “Psychotic Reaction” until the final round.
The stunning, ludicrous “Don’t Look Back” should have won Side 2, but I had a feeling it wouldn’t.
It’s the stupid electric jug. A very little goes a very long way, and there’s no very little on that whole album. Count 5 wins easily here.
An excellent effort by the 13th Floor Elevators but Psychotic Reaction crushes this one.
Psychotic Reaction wins this side. And, I predict, will win the whole thing. It’s the whole ethos of the Nuggets, wrapped up in one song.
Yep, it doesn’t get more Nuggety than “Psychotic Reaction”. Wins the whole shebang, as far as I’m concerned.
machinery is right: Psychotic Reaction is sort of Nuggets in a nutshell. And the Yardbirds rave-up is tremendous.
I know this is a losing battle, but You’re Gonna Miss Me is transcendent, and Psychotic Reaction … isn’t.
Yeah, I can just see all the jug band fans getting excited to see a show and booing him for electrifying it. Traitor!
you argue masterfully. this changes everything.
Tough choice. Roky’s singing and, uh, performance, is miles ahead of the rote catchiness of the singing on Psychotic, which is frankly less psychotic than the other song. There’s more driving simplicity in the Count Five rhythm, and it has a great hook and that so fantastic guitar sound, but again, the playing on Miss Me is more chaotic, more pure energy, more intense–but also sloppier and more poorly recorded. I’m going with Miss Me because I would play it five times per one of the other song, which is more easily graspable–Psychotic Reaction is a cute novelty on some level, while Miss Me is a rock song played by a rock band. I’d go with Psychotic though if the choice was purely “better song for a rocking party.”
I have the Remains and the Seeds as my two favorite tracks on Nuggets. “You’re Gonna Miss Me” is a good one; a little blues, a Texas gallop rhythm, wild vocals but it doesn’t hit you like “Psychotic Reaction”. That’s got the right song title, the right garage rave-up sound and the doofy young guys dressed in capes. That’s the winner for me here.
I really like the “You’re gonna Miss Me”, but in the head to head with “Psychotic Reaction”, for some reason I felt compelled to give my vote the the cheesey, derivative knock-off. Because I love it.
I think the Elevators transcend the genre, while the Count Five are content to channel the Yardbirds. As misterioso said, “Psychotic Reaction is sort of Nuggets in a nutshell,” and I think this exercise has come to be about which record is the most Nuggety.