The Nerves: 50th Anniversary Anthology
The definitive retrospective, marking fifty years since the 1976 debut EP. Newly remastered, with liner notes by founding member Peter Case.
The archive
Unearthing a lifetime of unheard music
In the early 1970s Jack Lee left Alaska for San Francisco to make a career out of music. He could not get gigs, so he busked for change along Fisherman's Wharf. That is where he met another street musician, Peter Case. They liked each other's songs, Paul Collins joined on drums, and in 1974 the three of them started playing out as The Nerves.
Long before Blondie turned “Hanging on the Telephone” into a global anthem and Paul Young took “Come Back and Stay” around the world, those songs were being written in rooms almost nobody heard.
The band self-released a single four-track EP in 1976 and broke up two years later. The songs did not.
The Jack Lee Archives is a living repository dedicated to preserving, restoring and releasing Jack's extensive unheard back catalogue. From original reel-to-reel studio sessions to rare home demos, the archive continues to unearth lost master tapes for listeners and collectors.
Jack Lee died in 2023. The work of getting the rest of his catalogue heard is ongoing.