It's been quite a while since I've sat back with some 'Good Friends and a Bottle Of Wine' so to speak, and these three Rock Candy reissues, dubbed "Tip Top Ted:The Wang Dang Pantheon", are indeed the good friends I need to get reacquainted with.
Wrongly in my eyes labelled as a gun totin' redneck with more balls than brains, Ted undoubtedly sits in the love him or hate him category for most. Putting any personal feelings or judgements aside, what we have here are three top elpees, and certainly in the case of the studio albums, largely overlooked and missed. Years of being unavailable hasn't helped, but these reissues have certainly put that right.
So, what was the state of play, or should I say state of shock, with ted 'n the boys in 1978? frankly, his stock had never been higher. Endless touring and the huge success of his first solo elpees (even a top 30 US single with 'Cat Scratch Fever') gave Ted a massive following, profile and fuelled his already near out of control ego.
Double live albums were de rigeur after the astonishing success of Frampton Comes Alive, a cheap to record high profit product in the eyes of Record labels, cashing in on the rise of Stadium Rock, a seemingly new musical form that elevated the pastime of gig going alongside Grid Iron and Baseball. Sit in the cheap nosebleed seats with a hot dog and cup 'o suds for ten bucks...
January 1978 saw the release of 'Double Live Gonzo'. Wow! Classic gatefold sleeve artwork for sure, and a hefty mix of live classics to remind and relive. Only Scream Dream would match its' US chart position - 13 - but DLG hit triple platinum and Ted went into the stratosphere. Everybody's favourite Noble Savage.
Side One
Just What The Doctor Ordered
(Municipal Auditorium, Nashville,TN 7/77)
Yank Me Crank Me
(Taylor County Coliseum, Abilene, TX 11/77)
Gonzo
Baby, Please Don't Go
(Joe Freeman Coliseum, San Antonio, TX 11/77)
Side Two
Great White Buffalo
(Dallas, TX 7/76)
Hibernation
(Convention Center, San Antonio, TX 7/76)
Side Three
Stormtroopin'
(Center Coliseum, Seattle, WA 8/77)
Stranglehold
(Civic Center, Springfield, MA 6/76)
Side Four
Wang Dang Sweet Poontang
Cat Scratch Fever
(Municipal Auditorium, Nashville, TN 7/77)
Motor City Madhouse
(Dallas, TX 7/76)
But what of the actual record? As a rock hungry teenager settling into my first year at college all things loud and rawk were fine by me. Double Live Gonzo was a triumph, a vindication. Overall I love it. It's a pretty good representation of Ted at that time, and gives us a peek into his onstage world. From the opening chaos of Just What The Doctor Ordered it's brilliant. OTT, live and sweaty rock 'n' roll. Oh, and louder than hell.
Highpoints for me are the first two sides, minus a strangely short and limp Great White Buffalo. Elpee two shines with two of the great live guitar pieces in Stormtroopin' and Stranglehold before Ted takes us home with Wang Dang, Cat Scratch and an unhinged Motor City Madhouse.
It's an elegy and tribute to the best band he ever had. Sadly, ego's and pressure split them as this was being released, subsequent elpees suffered from the instability and his star was on the wane as far as mass popularity was concerned. Only skinsman Cliff Davis was to remain in the line up after this. Shame. Anyhoo, what we have here is a 9.5 out of 10. As essential as it gets, a glimpse and more of a guitar icon at the peak of his powers for sure.
If I was to be picky, there's nothing from Free For All, only the obvious opening duet from Cat Scratch Fever and a strange running order kinda mars things. But that is being picky. After all we get 3 trax from the Amboy Dukes days (the best 3 to be fair) plus 2 unreleased live tracks. At the time Ted was so fired up, so living it, that he was writing and playing all the time. 24/7. So the inclusion of Yank Me Crank Me and Gonzo are testament to that. And they're great! All the way through the 70's until the early 80's his unshakeable confidence meant we got so many new songs, untried and untested, written at soundcheck and played the same night. Spontaneous Combustion indeed.
Cynically, it's easy to see it as a cash in, at a time when double live elpees and stadium rock were at an apex. The fact that the 11 tracks are sourced from 7 shows over an 18 month period and two different tours. Stormtroopin', however incendiary and driven it is, has some major edits in the jammed solo section, and if the Baby Please Don't Go is really from Abilene in November 77, why does Ted scream 'San Antonio' repeatedly at the end?!
When all is said and done Double Live Gonzo is a triumph, whichever way you look at it. Yes it can be griped at but it stands tall as a monument to his stadium years, when he was a guitar god in the eyes of so many.
Fast forward to the summer of '78. Internal problems and battling ego's have decimated Ted's band, and the super hot 4-piece behind the first 3 elpees and tours are no more. Stalwart Cliff Davis remains on drums, but long standing bassist Rob Grange and Spinal Tap monicker inspiree Derek St Holmes are gone. 3 bassists - including Ted himself on 'Name Your Poison' - and most guitar parts by Ted show the transitional mood at the time.
Weekend Warriors has a slicker, calmer and less in-your-face production than the Big Three solo elpees. Constant intense touring meant Ted was incapable of a bad, lame record. His band are (as ever) drilled and powered into shape by the road goes ever on tour schedule, and it shows.
There are plenty of highlights here. Need You Bad, One Woman, Venom Soup, Smokescreen (slightly deranged second cousin to Stranglehold), Weekend Warriors and the wonderfully sinister Name Your Poison stand out for me. Of the rest, they ain't bad but just a bit generic. And my major negative is Good Friends And A Bottle Of Wine. Just the title ain't Ted! Remember Geoff Barton's outrage in his Sounds review at the time. It's too cheesy and commercial and NICE. Uh oh.
Still, 38 years on WW does stand up well. The fire is still burning bright through much of it and Ted's playing is as fluent and focused as it is edgy. The band just doesn't have the same swagger and confidence. Losing two of his trusted lieutenants at the same time was obviously a hammer blow and as a result even the sometimes inspired vocals of newbie Charlie Huhn can't hide the slight downward slide. Then again, it has to follow his biggest selling studio elpee Cat Scratch Fever and the edge of your seats edge of your mind live mayhem of Double Live Gonzo.
Ted's star was still shining brightly enough for WW to hit 24 on Billboard and ship platinum. Live, he still had few competitors, and no equals. Onwards and upwards was the order of the day, and the WW world tour pushed on from late May through to January 79 when it was time for the next elpee.
Solid, sometimes inspired, Weekend Warriors is more the continuation of what went before than a brave new world. Ted's ego and control is higher than ever, and it's starting to suffocate the songs a bit. No longer a band of brothers against the world, rockin' every night. More about Ted and being Ted Nugent, Noble Savage and Weekend Warrior.
Highpoints for me are the first two sides, minus a strangely short and limp Great White Buffalo. Elpee two shines with two of the great live guitar pieces in Stormtroopin' and Stranglehold before Ted takes us home with Wang Dang, Cat Scratch and an unhinged Motor City Madhouse.
It's an elegy and tribute to the best band he ever had. Sadly, ego's and pressure split them as this was being released, subsequent elpees suffered from the instability and his star was on the wane as far as mass popularity was concerned. Only skinsman Cliff Davis was to remain in the line up after this. Shame. Anyhoo, what we have here is a 9.5 out of 10. As essential as it gets, a glimpse and more of a guitar icon at the peak of his powers for sure.
If I was to be picky, there's nothing from Free For All, only the obvious opening duet from Cat Scratch Fever and a strange running order kinda mars things. But that is being picky. After all we get 3 trax from the Amboy Dukes days (the best 3 to be fair) plus 2 unreleased live tracks. At the time Ted was so fired up, so living it, that he was writing and playing all the time. 24/7. So the inclusion of Yank Me Crank Me and Gonzo are testament to that. And they're great! All the way through the 70's until the early 80's his unshakeable confidence meant we got so many new songs, untried and untested, written at soundcheck and played the same night. Spontaneous Combustion indeed.
Cynically, it's easy to see it as a cash in, at a time when double live elpees and stadium rock were at an apex. The fact that the 11 tracks are sourced from 7 shows over an 18 month period and two different tours. Stormtroopin', however incendiary and driven it is, has some major edits in the jammed solo section, and if the Baby Please Don't Go is really from Abilene in November 77, why does Ted scream 'San Antonio' repeatedly at the end?!
Try and grab a copy of the old vinyl Bootleg 'You Love Bands When They P)lay It Hard' on This Little Bird/Idle Mind. From (mostly) a fuzzy yet powerful audience recording at Swing Auditorium, San Bernardino, CA it shows, as many of the hundreds of boot tapes testify, that this Ted Nugent Band was on the ball most of the time most nights. Double Live Gonzo is a patchwork snapshot. How about getting a fan only box set of the complete 7 shows? We can dream...
Fast forward to the summer of '78. Internal problems and battling ego's have decimated Ted's band, and the super hot 4-piece behind the first 3 elpees and tours are no more. Stalwart Cliff Davis remains on drums, but long standing bassist Rob Grange and Spinal Tap monicker inspiree Derek St Holmes are gone. 3 bassists - including Ted himself on 'Name Your Poison' - and most guitar parts by Ted show the transitional mood at the time.
Weekend Warriors has a slicker, calmer and less in-your-face production than the Big Three solo elpees. Constant intense touring meant Ted was incapable of a bad, lame record. His band are (as ever) drilled and powered into shape by the road goes ever on tour schedule, and it shows.
There are plenty of highlights here. Need You Bad, One Woman, Venom Soup, Smokescreen (slightly deranged second cousin to Stranglehold), Weekend Warriors and the wonderfully sinister Name Your Poison stand out for me. Of the rest, they ain't bad but just a bit generic. And my major negative is Good Friends And A Bottle Of Wine. Just the title ain't Ted! Remember Geoff Barton's outrage in his Sounds review at the time. It's too cheesy and commercial and NICE. Uh oh.
Still, 38 years on WW does stand up well. The fire is still burning bright through much of it and Ted's playing is as fluent and focused as it is edgy. The band just doesn't have the same swagger and confidence. Losing two of his trusted lieutenants at the same time was obviously a hammer blow and as a result even the sometimes inspired vocals of newbie Charlie Huhn can't hide the slight downward slide. Then again, it has to follow his biggest selling studio elpee Cat Scratch Fever and the edge of your seats edge of your mind live mayhem of Double Live Gonzo.
Ted's star was still shining brightly enough for WW to hit 24 on Billboard and ship platinum. Live, he still had few competitors, and no equals. Onwards and upwards was the order of the day, and the WW world tour pushed on from late May through to January 79 when it was time for the next elpee.
Solid, sometimes inspired, Weekend Warriors is more the continuation of what went before than a brave new world. Ted's ego and control is higher than ever, and it's starting to suffocate the songs a bit. No longer a band of brothers against the world, rockin' every night. More about Ted and being Ted Nugent, Noble Savage and Weekend Warrior.
Next came State Of Shock. Oh dear. By far his lowest point. Too rushed, lame and throwaway. The only standout track for me is the brilliant 'Paralyzed', a deranged masterpiece driven over the edge by some awesome wah wah licks (yep, apart from phaser/flanger effects, Ted was always loud and proud about NOT using effects, so this was a departure for him) and typically Gonzo lyrics - 'I know you've been spending your nights alone, the lights are on but there's nobody home'. That aside, the rest is forgettable and best forgotten. Now hard to find on CD, it's been almost airbrushed away, despite the continuing stellar live shows and elpee sales. Even a 2 shows (the CD liner notes say 3) in 1 night stopover at Hammersmith in May '79 only featured 2 tracks from the elpee amid the usual mix of Ted classics. The road was the focus, the albums seemed more and more a contractual inconvenience. But the Hammersmith stopover WAS sensational, the resulting legacy CD barely doing the chaos of the night justice.
By October '79 Ted returned to CBS Studios in New York for his next elpee. Dave Kiswiney had joined as a permanent bassist but Charlie Huhn's role was reduced to lead vocals on 2 tracks and rhythm guitar on 1. Ted was now almost in complete control. Cliff Davis was sole producer and Ted's creative juices were flowing and insane enough for him to co-credit his faithful hound Paco the Wonder Dog as collaborating songwriter and arranger.
The result is a strong return to form. Deranged and defiant, Scream Dream is his last great studio elpee for Epic. Despite the more than questionable lyrics to the title track, there's an energy and madness that's infectious. Wango Tango is as inspired as it is bonkers, a rap before rap, leaning on some of his out there onstage rants and raves (remember the infamous and to me hilarious if a touch less than chivalrous Lady Di rap at Hammersmith 84 anybody??!). Flesh and Blood is another standout, as is the unhinged Terminus Eldorado, the tale of a rich daddy's girl totalling a 4 by 4. The closing lines are classic - 'the crows be pickin' at your flesh and you got no control over the sityation' - and some consummate Byrdland feedback howls underline the irony.
The rest may be throwaway to a degree but the intent and intensity is as strong as ever elevate it to a higher level. The tour was great too, as Ted marshalled a top band into a nightly delivery of intense power. His last Gold record (except the following year's Great Gonzo's best of compilation), it hit 13 on billboard and even 37 in the UK.
Soon after things would change as his Epic deal was wound down, but the 'Wang Dang Pantheon' was indeed a great and largely overlooked period in Ted's long rock n roll life.
The three Rock Candy reissues are sterling. lavishly packaged with fantastic extended sleeve notes by the legend that is Geoff Barton including exclusive interviews with Ted. Essential.
