Ted Nugent - Free-For-All

This is a new to me release, as the only album I really knew was his 1978 Double Live Gonzo, which was face meltingly awesome. I had always wanted to pick up his earlier albums, but never did. Time would march on, and invariably I'd move on as well leaving Ted as a pleasant footnote in my musical development.

Of course, nowadays Mister Nugent is a tad divisive. His personality, which was always huge and as bombastic as his music, seems to overshadow his music for a lot of people. Which is a shame, but then again the musical landscape is littered with artistic pariahs who have buried their art under their own personal baggage.

While I don't agree with Mister Nugent on a lot of things, I also appreciate his love of nature, hunting, and his stance on drug and alcohol abuse. He's a strange fellow. However in today's climate we don't celebrate different opinions or engage in any sort of discourse, everything has devolved into name calling and attempts to cancel each other out. I have to admit some of the insults on either side can be pretty funny, but I don't think that's the point.

I'd like to move on, and just listen to Ted and park the rest. I'll likely catch a little grief over this (who am I kidding, no one reads this stuff. I write it for me because I like reminiscing about music), but I'm trying not to be political. I love rock and roll, and for goodness sake when Ted was on he was insanely good. Free-For-All was Ted's second album, and for those keeping score, none of the songs on this release were on Double Live Gonzo which looking back on it is kind of strange, as "Dog Eat Dog" and "Free-For-All" are classic Ted. 

Who knows maybe there was still some residual tension from the making of the album. I have no idea what happened, and frankly being an armchair storyteller making shit up out of school isn't one of my skills. From what I've read Derek St. Holmes left during the recording of the album, although his vocals are still present on a few cuts, notably "Dog Eat Dog." Oddly it would be Meat Loaf (stylized as Meatloaf in the credits) who would sing on five of the album's nine tracks. Apparently he earned a thousand bucks for his efforts. One of the standouts is "Together" written by drummer Cliff Davies and bassist Rob Grange. It's the best southern rock song I've heard in a long time.

Derek would rejoin Ted (we're on a first name basis now) for the 1977 follow up Cat Scratch Fever. This was a solid album, and admittedly what pushed me to getting the album was finding out about Meat Loaf's contributions. I was curious as to what he brought to the table. His voice didn't have the edge and grit Derek, or the wild abandon Ted brought out in when he sang his own songs - Meat Loaf brought power though and no doubt he saved the album, but he didn't go over the top like he would on his own albums that were just on the horizon.

It's a shame I never picked up Ted's earlier albums back when I was a teenager as no doubt albums like Free-For-All would have had a greater impact (I have no doubt actually). Listening to it now, I still got a kick out of several songs, and it's a really solid collection of mid '70s rockers with Ted unleashing his Byrdland throughout the album. 

The album is a solid listen, and there are more than a few killer tracks. Sadly I suspect this will get a few cursory plays and then get filed. It'll be known more for the Meat Loaf connection as a trivia question than as a solid Ted Nugent sonic assault.