''Pebbles'' is an extensive series of

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one Performing arts#Performers, performer or by several performers. If the recordings are from ...

s in both LP and CD formats that have been issued on several

record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...

s, though mostly by AIP. Together with the companion '' Highs in the Mid-Sixties series'', the ''Pebbles series'' made available over 800 obscure, mostly American "Original Punk Rock" songs recorded in the mid-1960s — primarily known today as the

garage rock Garage rock (sometimes called garage punk or 60s punk) is a raw and energetic style of rock music that flourished in the mid-1960s, most notably in the United States and Canada, and has experienced a series of subsequent revivals. The style is ...

and

psychedelic rock Psychedelic rock is a rock music Music genre, genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelia, psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound ...

genres — that were previously known only to a handful of collectors. In 2007, the release of the '' Pebbles, Volume 11: Northern California'' CD marked the final album in the ''Pebbles series'' (curiously, '' Vol. 12'' had been issued in 1999). The following year, Bomp! marked the 30th anniversary of the original '' Pebbles'' album with a spartan, limited-edition, clear-vinyl reissue complete with the original pink cover insert. The ''Pebbles series'' played a significant role in the emergence of a "canon" of garage-rock music and artists in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In his review of the ''Pebbles series'' for

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

Richie Unterberger Richie Unterberger (born 1962) is an American author and journalist whose focus is popular music and travel writing. Life and writing Unterberger attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he wrote for the university newspaper '' The Daily P ...

comments: "Though 1972's '' Nuggets'' compilation reawakened listeners to the sounds of mid-'60s garage rock, it only focused on the tip of the iceberg. Behind those forgotten hits and semi-hits lurked hundreds, if not thousands, of regional hits and flops from the same era, most even rawer and cruder. . . . More than any other factor, these compilations n the ''Pebbles series''were responsible for the resurgence of interest in garage rock, which remains high among collectors to this day."

, Pebbles seriesat

. Including the '' Highs in the Mid-Sixties series'', '' Best of Pebbles series'', '' Essential Pebbles series'', '' Planetary Pebbles series'', and two

box set A boxed set or (its US name) box set is a set of items (for example, a compilation of books, musical recordings, films or television programs) traditionally packaged in a box, hence 'boxed', and offered for sale as a single unit. Music Artists ...

s, more than 60

s have been released using the ''Pebbles'' name. Following on the heels of the success of the ''Pebbles series'', dozens of other series of

s have been started, with numerous albums being released each year for several decades.

"Pebbles" compared with "Nuggets"

The name "Pebbles" is a derivative of the name of the seminal '' Nuggets'' album of similar music; since in almost all cases, the recordings compiled on these albums were lesser known regional hits or 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 The Standells are an American garage rock band from Los Angeles, California, Los Angeles, California, formed in the 1960s, who have been referred to as a "punk band of the 1960s", and are said to have inspired such groups as the Sex Pistols and ...

, 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. As the Pebbles albums were compiled from record collections, dubbed from discs (not from the

master tape Master recordings, or simply masters, are the original recordings—including Mastering (audio), post-recording mixes and Record production, production edits—of audio performances, from which all analog and digital copies of the audio are derived ...

s like the Nuggets series), often without the knowledge of the musicians or producers involved, BFD and AIP had a much larger range of music to choose from. In addition, while the original Nuggets album from 1972 bore the subtitle "Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965–1969," the Pebbles series made a different claim through its subtitle: "Original Artyfacts from the First Punk Era." In this way Pebbles explicitly sought to connect the garage style of the 1960s to the then-current (1979) punk movement typified by artists like

The Ramones The Ramones were an American punk rock band formed in the New York City neighborhood Forest Hills, Queens in 1974. Known for helping establish the punk movement in the United States and elsewhere, the Ramones are often recognized as one of t ...

The Sex Pistols The Sex Pistols are an English punk rock band formed in London in 1975. Although their initial career lasted just two and a half years, they became culturally influential in popular music. The band initiated the punk movement in the United Ki ...

, and others.

Nature of the music

The ''Pebbles'' series describes the recordings on their albums as "Original punk rock from the psychedelic 60s!"Included as a stock section on the liner notes of several of the Pebbles LPs. These recordings were primarily made by the numerous American bands that were formed in the wake of the

British Invasion The British Invasion was a cultural phenomenon of the mid-1960s, when Rock music, rock and pop music acts from the United Kingdom and other aspects of Culture of the United Kingdom, British culture became popular in the United States with sign ...

. Essentially referring to the young age and lack of sophistication of the musicians, the term "

punk rock Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...

" was coined (or at least popularized) by Lenny Kaye, who was involved in compiling the original '' Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968''. Some of the recordings of this type were credited to individual musicians, but most were made by young combos and rock bands that were typically composed of teenagers; the term "

" comes from such an archetypal combo's usual rehearsal space: the suburban American family garage. The songs almost invariably come from 45 rpm singles. In many cases, the band would release a routine

cover song In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song released ...

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 a

. However, the wild covers by some of the garage rock bands are as renowned as any of the original songs, and numerous

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

and

, since many songs were designed to be enjoyed while under the influence of

psychoactive drugs A psychoactive drug, psychopharmaceutical, mind-altering drug, consciousness-altering drug, psychoactive substance, or psychotropic substance is a chemical substance that alters psychological functioning by modulating central nervous system acti ...

such as

marijuana Cannabis (), commonly known as marijuana (), weed, pot, and ganja, List of slang names for cannabis, among other names, is a non-chemically uniform psychoactive drug from the ''Cannabis'' plant. Native to Central or South Asia, cannabis has ...

and

LSD Lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly known as LSD (from German ; often referred to as acid or lucy), is a semisynthetic, hallucinogenic compound derived from ergot, known for its powerful psychological effects and serotonergic activity. I ...

, or to artistically replicate the feelings generated during such an experience.

Mastercharge Records

The original release of the first Pebbles album was on the Mastercharge label in 1978 and was circulated primarily among a small group of collectors in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, where interest in this obscure music seems to have first germinated. Only 500 albums were pressed, sporting a pink pasted-on cover sheet. "Mastercharge Records" was apparently not a real record company and might have been a reference to the financing of the release by a credit card. ("Master Charge" was the name of the credit card company in the 1970s that is now known as MasterCard). One radio playlist posted on the Internet mentioned a "Pebbles, Volume 2" on Mastercharge Records, but this was probably an incorrect reference to the BFD release.

BFD Records

The first 10 LPs in the ''Pebbles series'', including a reissue of the original volume were credited in the name of ''BFD Records'' of Kookaburra,

. These albums were released in a span of just two years (1979 and 1980) and are regarded by some as the best volumes in the series. The legitimacy of BFD Records (and the apparently associated company BFD Productions) has long been in question, not least because

Kookaburra Kookaburras (pronounced ) are terrestrial animal, terrestrial tree kingfishers of the genus ''Dacelo'' native to Australia and New Guinea, which grow to between in length and weigh around . The name is a loanword from Wiradjuri language, Wira ...

is actually the name of a bird of Australia, not a city or town. As an example, the back cover of the BFD pressing of '' Pebbles, Volume 3'' includes the following: "Licensed by special arrangement with Mastercharge Records, Dacron Ohio, USA" (Mastercharge being the label under which the first '' Pebbles'' volume was originally issued), followed by "® & © 1979 by BFD Records, Kookaburra, Australia 2157. Unauthorized duplication is a violation of applicable laws. All rights reserved." The first licensing notation is clearly fictitious (possibly inspired by the location of the National Lampoon's High School Yearbook parody) –

Dacron Polyethylene terephthalate (or poly(ethylene terephthalate), PET, PETE, or the obsolete PETP or PET-P), is the most common thermoplastic polymer resin of the polyester family and is used in fibres for clothing, containers for liquids and foods ...

is an artificial fiber, while the city in

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

Akron Akron () is a city in Summit County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the fifth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 190,469 at the 2020 census. The Akron metropolitan area, covering Summit and Portage counties, had ...

– and the same might easily be true of the second. Also, the Bomp! website says of its AIP label: "Since 1978, this Bomp-affiliated label has been assembling compilations of punk, psych, beat, garage, and related obscurities."Temporary entry on the Bomp! website o
AIP Records
. Actually, the first AIP album was the '' Pebbles, Volume 11'' LP, which was released in 1983. Thus, Bomp! seems to be taking tacit responsibility for the entire series. In any case, whether or not it is a charade, the BFD label has been perpetuated throughout the releases on the ''Pebbles series''. The reissues of the first 10 volumes have no reference to Bomp! or AIP, and the first 10 CDs in the ''Pebbles series'' include the same "BFD" catalogue numbers—which are not all consecutively numbered—as the corresponding LPs. Copyright notices referring to BFD continued to be exhibited on almost all of the albums in the ''Pebbles series'' well into the 2000s, including both the ESD CD's and the AIP CDs. Also, there are subtle differences in the packaging and programming of the BFD releases as compared to the later releases on AIP. Although the albums in the ''Pebbles series'' were produced in such small numbers that tracking down anyone regarding royalties might have been next to impossible, neither Bomp! nor anyone else has evidently been sued for copyright infringement with regard to these releases. Finally, these same charges have been made about other reissue record companies over the years as well, such as

Collectables A collectable (collectible or collector's item) is any object regarded as being of value or interest to a collector. Collectable items are not necessarily monetarily valuable or uncommon. There are numerous types of collectables and terms t ...

AIP Records

Beginning in 1983, Bomp! created the AIP

in part to issue further volumes in the ''Pebbles series''. In addition to the 10 volumes on the BFD label that were reissued several times over the years, another 18 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 the '' English 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 the

surf rock Surf music (also known as surf rock, surf pop, or surf guitar) is a genre of rock music associated with surf culture, particularly as found in Southern California. It was especially popular from 1958 to 1964 in two major forms. The first is inst ...

tracks from the '' Pebbles, Volume 4'' LP were released on that CD. When AIP renewed 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 the '' Highs 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''. According to the Bomp! 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''. More recently, AIP has begun the '' Essential Pebbles series'' and '' Planetary Pebbles series''; whether there will be future volumes in these series is uncertain. 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 website, ESD Records (also known as East 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'' or Highs 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 excellent

liner notes Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or cassette j-cards. Origin Liner notes are descended from the prog ...

are written by Nigel Strange (who wrote liner notes for several of the BFD Records albums also).

Discography

LPs

* Pebbles, Volume 1; #BFD-5016 — (no volume number on the BFD Records LP release; no catalogue number on the initial Mastercharge 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 10046

CDs — 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-5029

CDs — ESD Records

* Pebbles, Volume 1; #ESD 80252 * Pebbles, Volume 2; #ESD 80262 * Pebbles, Volume 3; #ESD 80362 * Pebbles, Volume 4; #ESD 80372

"Pebbles" compared with "Nuggets"

Nature of the music

Mastercharge Records

BFD Records

AIP Records

ESD Records

Discography

LPs

CDs — AIP Records

CDs — ESD Records

Box Sets

See also

References

External links