Ted Nugent

Ted Nugent asserted his maniac presence from the 1965 beginning of the Amboy Dukes. "Journey to the Center of the Mind" (1968) would be just another pleasant psychedelic excursion without that lead guitar: Nugent makes the instrument snarl and stutter like a Harley-Davidson in low gear, shifting into a high-pressure whoosh on the solo breaks. Along with Motor City peers such as the MC5, Nugent and the Amboy Dukes built a bridge between the scruffy garage rock of the late '60s and the gargantuan structures of '70s heavy metal. The Mainstream Best of captures this transition, splitting the difference between acid-laced pop songs and Nugent's full-bore instrumental frenzy. The Amboy Dukes recorded several disappointing albums for Polydor (all now deleted), with varying lineups. The muddled opus Marriage on the Rocks/Rock Botto (1971) offers vivid and frightening evidence of Nugent's secret art-rock bent -- his Bartok interpretation doesn't come off any better than Emerson, Lake and Palmer's Mussorgsky.

Nugent's solo career really begins with the two Amboy Dukes albums on Discreet. Survival never quite catches fire, but the taut, rangy guitar workouts on Tooth, Fang and Claw -- "Hibernation," "Great White Buffalo" -- can floor an unsuspecting listener. Nugent worked the arena circuit hard in the mid-'70s, cultivating a flamboyant stage persona to accompany his bag of riffs. Sporting a loincloth, shaking his torrents of dirty blond hair, wielding a massive hollow-body Gibson like it was a shotgun: he was an act you couldn't ignore. Producer Tom Werman effectively reins in the Neanderthal on his early Epic albums, placing his stream of banshee peals and power chords in an ever-shifting group format. (An up-and-comer named Meat Loaf provides lead vocals on Free-for-All.)

Cat Scratch Fever is the catchiest and most fevered entry in the Nugent catalogue. Hot-dog guitar licks and slobbering choruses push the sexist swill of "Wang Dang Sweet Poontang" and "Cat Scratch Fever" into the comedy zone. "Live It Up" draws up a blueprint for the Bon Jovi school of pop metal, "Fist Fightin' Son of a Gun" declares Ted's allegiance with Skynyrd-style Southern boogie, and "Death by Misadventure" skids into a wall of granite guitars about halfway through.

Despite the fact that Great Gonzos! succinctly demonstrates the considerable influence his '70s singles had on the '80s hair-metal boom, Terrible Ted's slicked-up forays in the following decade were completely unsuitable, which goes as well for his misbegotten stint with Damn Yankees, a creation of Night Ranger's Jack Blades and Styx's Tommy Shaw. But in the '90s, the rock & roll caveman began to trumpet his far right (some might say Paleolithic) sociopolitical views regarding hunters' rights, the criminal justice system, and the environment, and his public profile was reborn. Spirit of the Wild and Craveman restore Nuge to his wild and woolly modus operandi: un-restrained feral soloing, recklessly hilarious self-aggrandizement and political incorrectness, and, in the case of the latter's "Pussywhipped," the first recorded instance of Nugent deferring to someone -- namely, his wife. But the truest manifestation of Tedness can be found on his live albums -- on the excavated Live at Hammersmith '79, 1981's Double Live Gonzo and 2001's Full Bluntal Nugity; his trademark stage raps show that even a loudmouthed right-winger can lay claim to the status of rock & roll original. -- (MARK COLEMAN/ROB KEMP)

From the 2004 The New Rolling Stone Album Guide