Customer Reviews

Loaded for Bear: Best of Ted Nugent & Amboy Dukes

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I used to own every Amboy Dukes album that there was. So I may be the only reviewer that has this perspective. I watched the band as it slowly went from 'The Amboy Dukes' to 'Ted Nugent and the Amboy Dukes' to finally.... Ted Nugent.

For those of you that are considering this CD because you want more 'Cat Scratch Fever' you might want to preview the songs first. In my opinion this CD is 180 degrees from popular Ted Nugent. But if you want to hear intelligent, thought-provoking, orchestrated, well-mixed studio sessions of a great hard rocking band this is for you.

There are keyboards and there are harmonies - things you won't hear much of in post-Amboy Dukes Nugent. Ted's licks and hollow body guitar sound are still there. I have to say though that I'm disappointed in the lack of space given to the other members of the band in the documentation. It's worded like a tribute to Nugent's early days. Admittedly, Ted became the most well-known of all of them. But this CD is about music and a band. Ted is just a part of it.

This is a very good compilation of the original Amboy Dukes! The sound quality is excellent and nice packaging as well with the Mainstream logo present on this Sony release. Most of the tunes on their 67' debut and their 68' release "Journey To The Center Of The Mind" are awesome garage/psych rock and are included here on Loaded For Bear. Songs NOT included that I would loved to have had on this CD are: "I Feel Free" and "Missionary Mary". I mainly bought this because it contains "Colors" and "Why Is A Carrot More Orange Than An Orange?" which are omitted on other Dukes' compilations for some reason. Two examples of fine ACID ROCK. Ted Nugent's guitar playing during the Dukes' era is among the best of any guitar player in the country. His conviction and execution is almost flawless and the flaws lend very well too. Check out their 3rd album Migration (CD on Repertoire), Nugent is fantastic. I love the Amboy Dukes' first 4 LP's on Mainstream, but sadly, Mainstream producer Bob Shad did very little to promote the groups on the label. He eventually dropped every group from the label, even sold away Janis and Big Brother to Columbia in 68' for a hefty sum. Consequently, most of the rock groups that released a full length album on the label commands high prices and are sought after collector's items! Mainstream signed some other great psychedelic bands, most notable: Big Brother and The Holding Co., The Tangerine Zoo, The Jellybean Bandits (See my Amazon review of this classic), The Art Of Lovin' and The Stone Circus. My favorite Amboy Dukes' tune without a doubt is D.O.P.E. This music was made to be played LOUD!

It would be very easy to write off the Amboy Dukes and say that they were really nothing without Ted Nugent. And while that may be true to a certain extent, this collection of Amboy Dukes songs really shows this group in the best possible light. I know that one reviewer had complained that this collection was incomplete because there was nothing from the Amboy Dukes' 1970-1974 output. And while I would still like to see that later material be released on compact disc, that early 70's version of the Amboy Dukes was really a different group with different members--a power trio stripped of all psychedelic pretension, its music more closely related to Ted's post-Dukes recordings, and Ted Nugent taking full-artistic control. This late 60's version, on the other hand, was really just a Yardbirds-style group, Ted still a fairly-shy youngster willing to share leadership with other members such as Steve Farmer, who had a different vision for the group. And this collection represents that 1967-1969 version of the Amboy Dukes quite well.
As Michigan bands go, they were more melodic than the MC5, wrote better songs than The Stooges, played louder than the Frost, and pretty close in sound to Grand Funk Railroad's first album. Of course, many people wrote them off as "just another psychedlic garage band". And while one could make a case that their songs "sound" somewhat psychedelic, and their music was defintely as "garagey" as it gets, the biggest surprise to me was just how good a songwriting team Steve Farmer and Ted Nugent were together. Unlike most garage bands back then, who just started a riff, and thought up words on-the-spot to go around that riff, these guys actually took the time to write some fairly intelligent and witty lyrics, perhaps before they thought of the music itself, and it shows on songs like "Colors", "Night Time", and "You Talk Sunshine, I Breathe Fire". Now admittedly, some of Steve Farmer's lyrics are kind of "spacey", but they're no more spacey than Jim Morrison's lyrics, and people thought of him as a genius. I think Steve Farmer was as good as lyricist as came out of Michigan-a place not generally known for great songwriters, and probably one of the better ones at expressing himself intelligently.
As far as Ted Nugent's guitar playing with the Amboy Dukes, I think one of his best riffs ever was here on the Dukes' "Dr. Slingshot", my personal favourite of this album. "Dr. Slingshot" is what I call a "classic" Detroit groove--Nugent just drags one funky riff through the mud the entire song until it infects your brain to the point that you can't get it out of your head! He also dominates on "Flight of the Bird", which has some other great Nugent riffs, but the song itself sounds a little like early-Deep Purple, Nugent playing in more of a "dramatic" Ritichie Blackmore vein. I wasn't as impressed with "Migration", as other reviewers were. I think both "Migration" and "Scottish Tea" were Ted's attempts to do the "Jeff Beck self-indulgent guitar instrumental" thing, as both are sort of a variation on "Beck's Bolero", and to me, they kind of bridge a gap between "Beck's Bolero", and the melody Mark Farner plays to open Grand Funk's "Into The Sun". He would also later nick that same "bolero" riff for the instrumental section of "Stranglehold" on his first solo record in the 70's, but by then, I think Ted was having a lot more fun with his music, and didn't take it as seriously as he did with the Amboy Dukes, nor did he sound as stiff as he did here.
As for the rest of the Amboy Dukes besides the songwriting of Steve Farmer and the guitar talents of Ted Nugent, my opinion of them hasn't really changed much--they're still pretty mediocre in my eyes. So these guys might have been just another average garage band without Ted Nugent. But I think Ted could have kept Steve Farmer around as a lyricist in the '70's--a lot of Ted's solo stuff does suffer from a lack of intelligent songwriting. But then again, Ted Nugent wouldn't have been Ted Nugent--guitar riffs taking priority over the song. But you could tell with the Amboy Dukes that the song was top priority, and it shows on this collection. But I definitely think this needs to be repackaged and titled "Best of, Volume 1 (1967-1969)", and come out with another one; "Best of, Volume 2 (1970-1974)" to represent the power trio years that bridge the gap between the early Dukes, and Ted Nugent's solo material.

Before the loin cloth, before the bow-hunting blood lust, before the rude, crude, obnoxiousness of Ted Nugent as we now know him, there was the Amboy Dukes. And Ted was just another member of this fine late '60s midwest band, albeit an extremely important member. Consigned to one-hit-wonder status with the psychedelic hit "Journey to the Center of the Mind," the Dukes actually released four very good albums (three of which are included on this compilation) that showcased a high standard of musicianship and songwriting. The strongest cuts are the guitar-driven instrumentals like "Scottish Tea" and "Migration," where Ted's soaring guitar work shines brightly. Unfortunately, "mainstream" success ultimately eluded the Dukes, and after numerous personnel changes and several more (mostly mediocre) albums, Ted put the band to rest. He then embarked on a highly successful (but musically disappointing) solo career that pandered to all the worst aspects of lame, show-biz '70s rock. The Amboy Dukes, though, are definitely worth checking out.

Ted Nugent and Steve Farmer had to be one of the strangest combos in rock history, and it still amazes me how well they sounded together. Nugent's early guitar work was distinctive, fluid and original, more refined than much of his later stuff. Farmer's songwriting antics were just as original, although his attempts at psychedelic "deepness" were sometimes hilarious. (And he hasn't changed much, check out his "Journey to the Darkside...")

Nugent claims he didn't know the songs were about drugs... does anyone believe that for a minute?

This disc is missing some notable songs, including "Surrender To Your Kings" and "Inside the Outside". Also, for no good reason, this version of "Prodigal Man" has been remixed, with instrumental passages out of their original order. Who would do such a thing?

But this music is definitely worth hearing... the Amboy Dukes showed WAY more imagination and talent than your average 60's American garage band.

This is by far the best Amboy Dukes greatest hits compilation that has been released. The sound is excellent and the best part is it includes the full version of "Prodigal Man" which had been butchered on other Amboy Dukes best of CD's.

ther're afew good songs in the psyche mode. Journey, Baby ,Please don't go are standouts.But alot of it is generic and tedious that panders to the worst aspects of 60's psyche. I would cautiosly recommend it, the good out weighs the bad.

Let me first state my bias: "Journey to the Center of the Mind" is the song that convinced me I needed to become a guitarist, so it's the most important song in my own personal history...a genuinely life-changing thing, so it should come as no surprise that the Amboy Dukes were my favorite band in that time period. The music on this CD is all drawn from the three albums (and one single) released on the Mainstream Records label (when the band was still known only as The Amboy Dukes, without Ted Nugent's name being featured) and purports to be the best of that time period. For my money, the stuff from the first album is interesting from an historical perspective but is definitely the weakest material presented here (tracks 2-6). Tracks 1 and 7-12 come from their second album ("Journey...") featuring a stronger line-up of musicians and a lot of their best stuff (one glaring omission from this album is the song "Surrender to Your Kings": one of the RIPPING-EST Dukes tunes ever, it SHOULD have been included). Track 13 ("You Talk Sunshine...") was their attempt at a follow-up to their hit "Journey...". It's a decent song in-and-of-itself, and I'm glad it's included here, but if you listen to "Journey..." and then listen to "You Talk Sunshine...", it's almost hilarious to hear how these guys practically broke their own necks trying to re-create "Journey..." and score another hit. I've never heard a more blatant example of self-plagiarization. Tracks 14-18 come from the "Migration" album, and the compilers managed to get all the best stuff from this album. HOWEVER (and this is my biggest bitch with this collection), someone decided to re-edit the great "Prodigal Man" to disastrous effect. In the original recording, the solo section starts off with a beatiful drum solo by Dave Palmer; bassist Greg Arama then joins him and takes a bass solo that 99% of all rock bassists would never have been able to accomplish; those two are then joined by Andy Solomon playing some of his exquisite Jimmy Smith-inspired jazz organ stuff; and finally Ted Nugent comes in with one of his most blistering guitar solos ever. This section has a very organic flow to it that just builds and builds and is one of the Amboy Dukes finest moments. So some MORON comes along and shuffles the solos around and completely destroys the flow! This might not be so noticeable to someone who's never heard the song before, but to someone familiar with the original, it's absolutely JARRING.

In closing, I think it's important to note that, although Ted Nugent is featured prominently in these recordings (and rightly so: he WAS a brilliant and unique guitarist and the evidence here is ample), the Amboy Dukes were a great BAND, and Ted WASN'T the only virtuoso therein. If you're a fan of the arena-rock Nuge of the late 70's, you might not be too interested in this music, but if you want to hear a great and largely-overlooked progressive rock band from the late 60's, this collection is well-worth checking out.

I'm a little biased. There was a double album released some years ago with four Amboy Dukes albums on it. I found the first one ( "Journey to the Center of the Mind" ) to be the most enjoyable. This CD breaks up the albums and leaves out most tracks from the originals. I would have preferred them to have each album individually. Ted's guitar skills still shine, and Steve Farmer's writing is there, but for my money the first album is stellar and should have been included en toto.

What I wanted to ay with the first review is that the first two songs that are on this CD are the "only" songs you get to hear "if you are lucky " on those "play it safe" radio stations and unless you have an older brother or sister or a real hip parent or aunt or even an uncle they may remember that Ted Nugent was in a band calling themselve the Amboy Dukes and great vocal work by Steve Farmer

Add this CD to your collection of great music from the mid sixties