Ted Nugent - Double Live Gonzo!

Here it is, Ted Nugent's 1978 aural assault Double Live Gonzo!

First things first: this is about Ted the monster player. I really couldn't give a shit about his political bent, which has only become more exaggerated over the years, but the guy has his convictions. While I don't agree with many of his views, I'd still have an iced tea with the guy and talk guitars and music.

Secondly, see the first thing. This is coming from a guy who leans a little to the left of centre. That's about as political as I get. I'll just quote Forrest Gump: "And that's all I've got to say about that."

Recorded between 1976 and 1977, Double Live Gonzo! captures Ted and band (what a band!) at their zenith, and the results aren't for those who can't handle sensory overload. If you were to go by the pictures in the gatefold, you'd think it was all Ted all the time.

My first experience with Ted's music was in my cousin's pickup truck with an 8-track (trying to visualize whether it was a Craig or a Lloyd's - can't remember, it's not important) cranked and the windows rolled down. It was the soundtrack to a summer. It was also really annoying to listen to on 8-track when things would fade and click and fade back in.

This guitar right here is guaranteed to blow the balls off a charging rhino at sixty paces it is. That’s my baby… This guitar definitely refuses to play sweet shit. It just refuses…

When I got the record, I could at least listen to a full side before having to get up and turn it over. Getting the CD was particularly awesome - just start it and go all the way through with no breaks. It didn't hurt that the liner notes had a great essay on the album too, even if the little booklet was printed in two-point font.

As a teenager trying to learn guitar, listening to Ted make his guitar scream and howl before launching into "Just What the Doctor Ordered" was jaw-dropping. "Great White Buffalo" left me wondering, "How did he do that?"

I'll admit that back then, and most of the time now, I'd pick up the needle and skip the first few minutes of "Hibernation." It's a cool bit of feedback-taming by Mr. Nugent, but it always seemed like a good time to go to the bathroom. The rest of the song, I have to admit, is pretty jaw-dropping.

Gee, if I go on listing songs, I'll just end up copying the track list. But how can I not give a shout out to "Storm Troopin'," "Stranglehold," and "Cat Scratch Fever"? You can't. Oh, and "Yank Me, Crank Me," and his wicked cover of "Baby, Please Don't Go" - drats, I am just copying down the track list. One more and I'm done: "Wang Dang Sweet Poontang." There, now I'm done.

That was the thing - this was Ted at his absolute loincloth Tarzan rope-swinging gonzo best. I'm not sure how much tweaking and editing was done post-recording, but I always felt like I was at the concert, even if it was pieced together over a number of shows. These versions of his classics are, to me, definitive.

I spent the last hour and a half on the floor in the basement with the album cranked, pouring over the gatefold, looking at the pictures, and feeling like a 15-year-old kid.

Yeah baby, this is just what the doctor ordered.

Styx - Paradise Theater

Styx was hands down one of my favourite bands as a kid. They were a strange band, even back then. They were a hard rock band, almost progressive at times, who had a penchant for sucky ballads. I know there's a tendency for people to zero in on "Babe" as the song that killed the band's credibility. The roots go way back to almost the beginning when Styx released "Lady" on their second album. It showed a side to the band that needed to be kept in check, and for the most part the band kept things on a pretty tight leash. The band had been setting a gruelling pace, releasing an album a year (two in 1972) and by the time they released Paradise Theater (if I end up writing theatre later it's because that's how we spell it here) in 1981 they'd dropped ten albums in less than a decade. I snapped this up as soon as I saw it, and it became a fixture on my turntable. Like the band had announced on "Borrowed Time" from 1979's Cornerstone , ...

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I'd seen this before in the bin, but kept flipping through the stacks. I'd see it a few more times, each time stopping to look at it a little more. There was something kind of cool about the cover where the stylized Celtic knot had the dotted yellow line - it was a strange street for sure. I pulled the record out of the jacket and I was struck by the centre image. There was the familiar Mercury label, the same one I'd seen a thousand times on BTO's Head On album. Well, I'd bought things based on odd associations before - like when I had to buy anything that Solid Rock Records released (this was generally a good thing) - so who knows, maybe this was a hidden gem. There weren't any real scratches or rash, just a lot of dirt and dust. It seemed to clean up okay, but we'll see how it goes. The album opens with the title track, and this wasn't straight-ahead pop or rock. It was leaning toward the progressive, but with a pop bent. Oddly enough, the vocals rem...

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