- Pebbles series
"The Pebbles series" is an extensive group of
compilation album s in both LP and CD formats that have been issued on severalrecord label s, though mostly byAIP Records . Together with the companionHighs in the Mid-Sixties series , the "Pebbles series" made available over 800 obscure, mostly American "Original Punk Rock" songs recorded in the mid-1960's — primarily known today as thegarage rock andpsychedelic rock genres — that were previously known only to a handful of collectors. In 2007, the release of the "Pebbles, Volume 11" CD marked the final album in the "Pebbles series" – nearly 30 years after the original "Pebbles" album was released in 1978.Including the
Highs in the Mid-Sixties series ,Best of Pebbles series ,Essential Pebbles series ,Planetary Pebbles series , and twobox set s, close to 100compilation album s have been released using the "Pebbles" name. Following on the heels of the success of the "Pebbles series", dozens of other series ofgarage rock compilation album s have been started, with numerous albums being released each year for several decades."Pebbles" Compared with "Nuggets"
The name "Pebbles" is a diminutive of the name of the seminal album of similar music; since in almost all cases, the recordings compiled on these albums were, at best, regional releases with little or no national exposure. By contrast, several of the bands presented on the original "Nuggets" compilation had one or more national hit songs, such as
the Seeds ,Blues Magoos ,Electric Prunes ,the Standells ,Count Five and others. As additional albums were released under both of these names over the years, "Nuggets" albums tended to feature more familiar bands, while "Pebbles" albums usually unearthed virtually unknown recording artists or previously unreleased tracks by better known bands.Nature of the Music
The "Pebbles series" describes the recordings on their albums as "Original punk rock and psychedelic rock from the fabulous Sixties." These recordings were primarily made by the numerous American bands that were formed in the wake of the
British Invasion . Essentially referring to the young age and lack of sophistication of the musicians, the term "punk rock " was coined (or at least popularized) byLenny Kaye , who was involved in compiling the original . Some of the recordings of this type were credited to individual musicians, but most were made by youngcombo s and rock bands that were typically composed of teenagers; and they almost invariably come from 45 singles. In many cases, the band would release a routinecover song of a well-known hit as the "A" side of a single and include a more interesting original song as the "B" side that would be more appropriate for inclusion on acompilation album . However, the wyld covers by some of the garage rock bands are as renowned as any of the original songs, and numerouscover song s have also been compiled on the "Pebbles series"."Punk rock" is now mainly applied to several waves of bands that formed in the 1970s and later, and many of these bands cite the music on Nuggets and Pebbles albums as major influences. This type of music is now generally identified as the genres of
garage rock , named after the practice venue that most young bands utilize, andpsychedelic rock , since many songs were designed to be enjoyed while under the influence ofpsychoactive drugs such asmarijuana andLSD .Mastercharge Records
The original release of the first Pebbles album was on
Mastercharge Records in 1978 and was circulated primarily among a small group of collectors inAustralia , where interest in this obscure music first germinated. Only 500 albums were pressed with a pink and black pasted-on cover. (One radio playlist posted on the Internet mentioned a Pebbles, Volume 2 on Mastercharge, but this was probably an incorrect reference to the BFD release).BFD Records
The legitimacy of BFD Records was long in question. It was discovered in the early '80s that the creator of the Pebbles series was Greg Shaw (of Bomp! Records). Creating a bogus record label eliminated the worry of smaller record labels being able to find the creator of the Pebbles series and asking for royalties. In most cases, the records were produced in such small numbers that locating anyone regarding royalties would have been impossible.
AIP Records
Beginning in 1983 (based on copyright notices on the album covers, although their website maintains it was 1979),
Bomp! Records createdAIP Records in part to issue further volumes in the "Pebbles series". In all, 28 LPs and 12 CDs have been issued in the "Pebbles series" under their auspices. Many of the LPs and CDs have basically the same catalogue numbers, and there is significant overlap in the tracks on the first 6 volumes on LP and CD — with the CD release of Volume 6 being shifted to theEnglish Freakbeat series — adding to the confusion. However, the overlap is far from complete; "Pebbles, Volume 5 " is the sole CD that has all of the songs from the corresponding LP, and only about half of thesurf rock tracks from the "Pebbles, Volume 4 " LP were released on that CD.When
AIP Records revived the "Pebbles series" in 1983, the company was apparently more interested in documenting local music scenes than in scattershot groupings of American garage rock records, so theHighs in the Mid-Sixties series was begun concurrently, with a total of 23 volumes devoted to recordings from specific American cities, states and regions, as compared to the 18 volumes of AIP Pebbles LPs. What's more, 10 of the 18 LPs that AIP issued in the "Pebbles series" were compilations of recordings from continental Europe in the sub-series the Continent Lashes Back. More recently,AIP Records has begun theEssential Pebbles series andPlanetary Pebbles series .According to the
Bomp! Records website, the release of the "Pebbles, Volume 11" CD in 2007 – actually several years after the release of the "Pebbles, Volume 12" CD – represents the last album that will ever be issued in the "Pebbles series".To their credit, when AIP began issuing Pebbles albums on CD, the albums included numerous recordings that were not as yet on the LPs. Also – after the release of the first six volumes on CD – all of the tracks on the Pebbles CDs had been previously un-reissued on CD. Even the first two releases in the
Essential Pebbles series include a second CD of previously un-reissued music in addition to the distillation from the previous Pebbles albums.ESD Records
According to the
AIP Records website,ESD Records (also known asEast Side Digital ) issued 4 volumes of CDs in the "Pebbles series" in 1989-1990. Though compiled by AIP, the tracks are almost completely different from those in the corresponding volumes of the LPs and CDs described previously (although a sizable number of the tracks on ESD's "Pebbles, Volume 2" appear on both the earlier "Pebbles, Volume 3 " LP and the later CD reissue). Particularly on ESD's "Pebbles, Volume 1", many of the tracks are either new to Pebbles or are buried on the higher-numbered volumes in the "Pebbles series" orHighs in the Mid-Sixties series . The albums had a limited run of only 1,000 each and are now difficult to locate; but, not surprisingly, the ESD and AIP CDs are often confused. One added bonus in the ESD CDs is that the excellentliner notes are written byNigel Strange (who wrote liner notes for several of theBFD Records albums also).Other Record Labels
Besides these albums in the "Pebbles series", the Pebbles name has been used in other
Bomp! Records releases outside ofAIP Records , and other LPs and CDs have been issued under this name, or similar names such as theBest of Pebbles series . A series was started in 1993 for release inJapan (complete withliner notes in Japanese), called theGreat Pebbles series (although to date, only one CD has been released under this name). A 5-LP "Pebbles Box " of the first five volumes in the "Pebbles series" — always the most popular according to theAIP Records website — was made available in theUnited Kingdom several years also; while a similar CDbox set came out more recently, called the "Trash Box ". However, in each case, the tracks on the box sets differ significantly from those on the individual Pebbles LPs and CDs.Liner Notes
One outstanding feature of the "Pebbles series" are the detailed
liner notes that are included on nearly all of the albums, dating back even to the original release onMastercharge Records . On theAIP Records releases and most of the others, they provide what little information is available on the artists on the album (and/or the general music scene that led to the recordings), though the printing on the original 45 disc is often the extent of it.On the other hand, the tongue-in-cheek liner notes on the "
Pebbles, Volume 2 " LP that were credited to "A. Seltzer" are a nearly incoherent rant ongarage rock that still provide some info on the bands, along with observations ranging from blunt – "These guys were the losers in a scene whereQuestion Mark & the Mysterians were the winners; they were such bad news that even the likes ofthe Trashmen looked down on 'em" – to simply over-the-top: "My pick for the Grammy this year is 'Green Fuz' by Randy Alvey & Green Fuz, which has to be the rottenest recording ever made but has more honest-to-Howard Cosell energy than anything the wimpySex Pistols ever dreamed of puking up." The two-part pseudo-scholarly exposition on the "Pebbles, Volume 7" and "Pebbles, Volume 8" LPs tookBritish Invasion musicians to task, accusing them all of being throwback, "dance hall " bands and coming to the bizarre conclusion that Tiny Tim represented the peak of popular music. Volume Two also features a humorous series of fictional LPs available on the BFD label, such as "Sid Vicious Live at Folsom Prison".While the
liner notes on theBFD Records were more conversational and commented as often on the music as on the musicians,AIP Records brought a touch more scholarship to theirs — though not without the same often playful spirit — and usually provided more information on band members and future bands. There was also a stockliner notes section on many of the AIP albums that closed with: "Truly this was the pinnacle of rock and roll, and until something comes along that surpasses it, we can only sit back and wonder at how great innocence can be."Annotations
As with the
liner notes ,BFD Records only occasionally provided information onsongwriter s and release dates of the recordings that were being compiled.AIP Records was more attentive to these details and also provided the record label and catalogue number in many cases, particularly on the CDs. On the other hand, the word "the" was dropped from almost all of the band names on the track listings for the AIP CDs.Cover Art
In keeping with the
lo-fi nature of the recordings, many of the early Pebbles LPs had black-and-white covers, and none were issued with full-color covers. TheBFD Records album covers were noted for the crazed drawings and strange photographs, which were carried forward into the first few releases byAIP Records , although most of their releases had more conventional covers (such as a photograph of one of the bands represented on the album).Discography
LPs
*
Pebbles, Volume 1 ; #BFD-5016 — No Volume Number Actually on the BFD Records LP Release
*Pebbles, Volume 2 ; #BFD-5019
*Pebbles, Volume 3 : The Acid Gallery; #BFD-5020
*Pebbles, Volume 4 : Summer Means Fun; #BFD-5021
*Pebbles, Volume 5 ; #BFD-5022
* Pebbles, Volume 6: The Roots of Mod; #BFD-5023
* Pebbles, Volume 7; #BFD-5024
* Pebbles, Volume 8; #BFD-5025
* Pebbles, Volume 9; #BFD-5026
* Pebbles, Volume 10; #BFD-5027
* Pebbles, Volume 11; #AIP 10001
* Pebbles, Volume 12; #AIP 10002
*Pebbles, Volume 13 ; #AIP 10013
*Pebbles, Volume 14 ; #AIP 10016
*Pebbles, Volume 15 : The Continent Lashes Back! The Netherlands 1965-1968; #AIP 10018
*Pebbles, Volume 16 ; #AIP 10023
*Pebbles, Volume 17 ; #AIP 10032
*Pebbles, Volume 18 : The Continent Lashes Back! European Garage Rock Part 2; #AIP 10033
*Pebbles, Volume 19 : The Continent Lashes Back! European Garage, Beat, & Psych Rarities Pt 3: Denmark; #AIP 10034
*Pebbles, Volume 20 : The Continent Lashes Back! European Garage Rock Part 4: Sweden; #AIP 10035
*Pebbles, Volume 21 ; #AIP 10036
*Pebbles, Volume 22 ; #AIP 10037
*Pebbles, Volume 23 : The Continent Lashes Back! European Garage, Beat, & Psych Rarities: Holland, Pt. 2; #AIP 10040
*Pebbles, Volume 24 : The Continent Lashes Back! European Garage, Beat, & Psych Rarities: Germany; #AIP 10043
*Pebbles, Volume 25 : The Continent Lashes Back! European Garage, Beat, & Psych Rarities: Holland Pt. 3; #AIP 10042
*Pebbles, Volume 26 : The Continent Lashes Back! European Garage, Beat, & Psych Rarities: Sweden Pt 2; #AIP 10044
*Pebbles, Volume 27 : The Continent Lashes Back! European Garage, Beat, & Psych Rarities: Switzerland; #AIP 10045
*Pebbles, Volume 28 : The Continent Lashes Back! European Garage, Beat, & Psych Rarities: Sweden Pt 3; #AIP 10046CDs — AIP Records
*
Pebbles, Volume 1 ; #AIP-CD-5016
*Pebbles, Volume 2 ; #AIP-CD-5019
*Pebbles, Volume 3 : The Acid Gallery; #AIP-CD-5020
*Pebbles, Volume 4 : Surf N Tunes; #AIP-CD-5021
*Pebbles, Volume 5 ; #AIP-CD-5022
* Pebbles, Volume 6: Chicago 1; #AIP-CD-5023
* Pebbles, Volume 7: Chicago 2; #AIP-CD-5024
* Pebbles, Volume 8: Southern California 1; #AIP-CD-5025
* Pebbles, Volume 9: Southern California 2; #AIP-CD-5026
* Pebbles, Volume 10; #AIP-CD-5027
* Pebbles, Volume 11; Northern California; #AIP-CD-5028
* Pebbles, Volume 12: The World; #AIP-CD-5029CDs — ESD Records
* Pebbles, Volume 1; #ESD 80252
* Pebbles, Volume 2; #ESD 80262
* Pebbles, Volume 3; #ESD 80362
* Pebbles, Volume 4; #ESD 80372Box Sets
*
Pebbles box
*Trash Box ee also
*
List of garage rock and psychedelic rock compilation albums
*Highs in the Mid-Sixties series External links
* [http://www.bompstore.com/servlet/Categories?category=*+AIP+* AIP Records — Mail Order Site]
* [http://www.bomp.com/AIP.html AIP Records — Historical Information]Web Radio
*http://www.radio60.dyndns.org/
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