Customer Reviews

Cat Scratch Fever

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4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
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I was a Junior in high school when Ted released this album and being into "hard rock" at the time, you know, Aerosmith and groups of their ilk ;-) I had to pick it up. I had of course already heard "Cat Scratch" on the radio and loved it but had no idea how blown away I was going to be by the rest of the album (I keep wanting to say CD). At 17 years old, of course I was tickled by the sexuality of "Cat Scratch" and "Wang Dang". The next 2 tracks were pretty typical Ted with a hint of the Amboy Dukes but "Home Bound" really struck me with the hard driving rhythm and the great riffs. The BEST song Ted has ever recorded (in my opinion) is track 6, "Workin' Hard, Playin' Hard". I can still remember when that fast, cascading rhythm guitar intro hit, I broke into goosebumps. I had never heard anything like that in my life! Then the lead kicks in and doesn't dissapoint. The vocals kick in and you realize this song has substance, a workin' man's song (I lived on a farm, so I knew what work was at 17). The hooks and key changes in the chorus just top the song off and make it the most well crafted Nugent song of all time. It's a shame this song never charted but I think most hard core Nugent fans will smile when you mention this song to them. As for the rest of the record, it's great...but he could have played Beethoven's 5th after track 6 and I would have still rated this one as the best of all time! I saw Ted live 3 times in the next year or so and those shows still rate up there among the best performances I've ever witnessed. Now at 42, I'm stocking my CD collection with a lot of the older stuff I liked as a kid. When this showed up, I immediately skipped to track 6 and re-lived that exhilerating experience all over again, cruising down the Interstate at about 90! It was awesome!!

This album is definitely a "classic" that has stood the test of time. Even more so, Ted is still just an absolutely incredible musician live. He performs better than you'd ever think for his age, so I'd definitely recommend seeing him in concert (again).

Ted Nugent's Cat Scratch Fever is my favorite album from him. A great classic rocker from start to finish. The famous title track is my least favorite song on here, but that one is still good with an awesome riff. If you like Ted Nugent this is a must-have CD. The music of Wang Dang Sweet Poontang is incredible, I wish it had decent lyrics. Home Bound is one of my all time favorite rock guitar instrumentals. Standout tracks include: Death by Misadventure, Live It Up, A Thousand Knives.

This is the best solo artist of our time.Forget the man,listen to the music!

It's interesting to view (or "listen to", if you will) this CD in the light of how it has in fact impacted (or, in fact, inaugurated) a turning-point phase in Mr. Nugent's fractous and enigmatic musical career. Long recognized as a hard-driving yet somewhat marginal rocker, here Mr. Nugent lays down a disc riddled with melodic and memorable songs which so captured the imagination of the "heavy music" public that it catapaulted his name up among the Jaggers, the Dios, and the "Little Red Rockers" who shared the charts at the time. Here we see the ominous predictions lashed with dire warning in "Cat Scratch Fever;" the passionate and pleading ode to sensual togetherness in "Wang Dang Sweet P******G;" the world-weary knowledge acquired when man looks into the depth of his human soul laid bare on "Fist-Fighting Son of A Gun;" and of course, the joyous expression of vibrant life achieved when one knows the balance of "Workin' Hard, Playin' Hard." Truly, although Mr. Nugent was in the middle of a rioutous career; as a man expressing his nature and selfhood through the oeuvre of "rock," he had only just begun. Highly recommended.