Is Ted Nugent Underrated? (NO Politics or Lifestyle discussion)!

That was his first album as a solo act, Ted had several albums with the Amboy Dukes, which are all amazing.

 

That was great! Thanks for sharing.

 

That was his first album as a solo act, Ted had several albums with the Amboy Dukes, which are all amazing. His "yap" is mostly spot on.

 

You're welcome!

 

Sometimes I don't wanna like Ted Nugent because of his views and his mouth and his act, but it seems like whenever I see him on TV or YouTube or wherever - and hear him play the guitar - I always find myself saying, "Damn, he's really good."

 

As we're analizing Ted Nugent's musical career, it might be worth noting his successes and failures from a purely strategic perspective. If we can agree that accomplished musicians don't live their lives in a vacuum and we're all tethered to the life choices we make, then it gets easier to extrapolate the musical decisions made that lead to eventual career successes and failures.

I'd like to propose, just for the sake of discussion, that Ted Nugent made a calculated decision for short term gain that forever boxed him in and limited his appeal to a broader audience. Please bear with me on this because the facts I'm relying on only lead to a hypothesis. While the circumstantial evidence is solid, there's little extraneous proof to support a broader theoretical conclusion. For want of a better term, let's call it the "Cat Scratch Fever" model of success.

Examining Ted's first international tour supporting his s/t album, his group appeared on Rockpalast, the German music program. On that program he dropped in the openning chords of the tune Cat Scratch Fever into a long solo (my recollection is that it was during Great White Buffalo). Anyway, the song Cat Scratch Fever wouldn't appear in finished form for over a year, until an album bearing that title was released following his next album Free-for-All.

Still with me? Okay. The single released from the s/t Ted Nugent album was the Derek St. Holmes tune Hey Baby which reached #72 on the US charts and helped catapult Ted and that album to #28 in 1975. The follow-up album Free-for-All in 1976 reached #24 on US charts, but Ted's single Dog Eat Dog only charted at #91 and the single Free-for-All failed to chart at all. The album Free-fo-All did chart slightly higher than the previous LP at #24.

Now here's where my hypothesis evolves from speculation. Ted knew he had a great hook that could make a break-out hit single, but in order to generate the kind of momentum he wanted the song had to be "safely" controversial. How do you make a song safe and controversial at the same time? ...By employing unambiguous euphemisms.

Lot's of testosterone heavy rock produced in the sixties & seventies by groups like Bad Company (Can't Get Enough), Led Zeppelin (Lemon Song), Aerosmith (Big Ten Inch Record), etc., employed euphemisms or innuendo, but rarely did their songs get aggressive toward the opposite sex or imply that the opposite sex found that aggression appealing. Cat Scratch Fever turned up the testosterone dial to 11 through raunchiness and aggression. It also successfully connected with the targeted male teen demographic, the suggestively titled single charting at #30 and album at #17, the highest of his career.

The Top 40 hit single Cat Scratch Fever provided Ted Nugent with a career path that he embraced and would double-down on for every subsequent album. Success of this album and song allowed him the freedom to jettison Derek St. Holmes ...who wanted more space for his own songwriting... while enabling Ted to avoid dealing with his own insecurities over weaker vocals and songwriting limitations.

The bottom line is that Ted Nugent chose the path of least resistance for short term success. It takes nothing away from his greatness as a guitarist or the overall legacy of his achievements, but it does give pause to wonder where he might've ended up had he traveled the road less taken and focused more on his extraordinary guitar technique and less on his image and controversial music messaging.


Cat (of the kinder-gentler male variety)

 

I agree 100%.

 

Looks like Ted could be onstage with Brittney Spears!!

 

Okay, so how does "Wang Dang Sweet Poontang" fit in with the euphemisms or innuendo of the "Cat Scratch Fever" model of success??

And speaking of "cat" euphemisms or innuendo, I prefer Rob Zombie's "Puzzy Liquor"..

 

I guess. I don't follow what you're meaning here...

 

"Cat Scratch Fever" lyrics as aggressive?

 

I hope that's a typo.

 

That kinda supports my hypothesis about Ted Nugent's direction since Wang Dang Sweet Poontang is on Cat Scratch Fever. Ted's move to raunch and roll fame was firmly established with this album going forward. Rob Zombie is probably just retracing Ted's footsteps in the cross-generational c-rock market. That said, it must be tougher pushing envelopes in the age of email and twitter.

Cat

 

Meh. I like a few of his songs.

 

I like the first two Amboy Dukes albums as well as a handful of songs on his own.

 

Was he really a great guitarist? Asking sincerely because I tuned him out after seeing this:

Back in '75(?) Bob Seger headlined a show in Omaha. Nugent was second on the bill. This was very shortly before both of them broke big.

(I went for the opener, Captain Beyond. They were spec-freakin-tacular!)

Anyway, I was familiar with Nugent, and always loved Journey TTCOTM. His band played OK hard rock for the time, but Nugent himself never took a single lead. Not once. Just pounded away at chords while playing frontman. A second guitarist handled lead chores; I guess he was OK. But it had me wondering. Did Nugent even play the lead on Journey?

Regardless, both he and Seger were too meat-and-potatoes for me. I later watched, dumbfounded, as their respective careers took off like a rocket. I enjoyed Cat Scratch and Stranglehold when they showed up on the radio, but I never bought the records or took in a show, esp if the Star wasn't up to playing.

Did he eventually learn how?

 

Well, he wasn't going to write Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

 

Yes, and how!

 

Love Ted Nugent. Me and my buddy Jerry stood in awe with our mouths open at the House of Blues in New Orleans (around 2001?) as Ted shot a flaming arrow into the back of a guitar. He came out for Great White Buffalo wearing a massive Native American head dress and had a small bon fire in the middle of the stage! Full control the entire show and the guitar work was blistering. Most of his work in the 70's is just incredible.

 

The self-titled album is killer as is "Double Live Gonzo". "Free-For-All" and "Cat Scratch Fever" are above-average but after that it's all downhill IMO.

 

I have been inspired to immediately put on Ted's first album!

 

This has to be the longest Ted Nugent thread that I
have ever seen here at SH Forums.
And it's still not yet closed.

Thanx kindly Gorts.

 

• He rocks, plain and simple, wango tango!!!

 

Me too. The 1st two Dukes lp's have all the Nuge I want but that's because they're great garage punk and psych. He was a damn good guitarist right out of the gate with the Dukes first longplayer from late '67. I hear a lot of Hendrix and Dick Wagner in his early playing. Journey To The Center Of The Mind, Down On Philips Escalator, Scottish Tea are my all time faves.

 

that's a more than a little bit creepy.