Ted Nugent

When I was a kid, my best friend at the time was HUGE into Ted Nugent. This was a good thing as he was experimenting with every mind altering substance he could get his hands on. He got into some trouble at school and turned to his guitar to give him some support through it all. And, at that time, the god of guitar was Ted Nugent. Now, Ted was a lot different than most guitar players at that time. Other than the fact he was a foot taller than most, he was anti-drug in a major, very outspoken way. This gave my friend the “out” he needed to go straight while his friends got stoned. He still drank, but the hard stuff was no more.

Right around one of my buddy’s birthdays, I got ahold of some tickets for a Ted Nugent and his Guitar Army tour. Now, you have to understand, this was before the “Step on You to See The Who” disaster ( I actually had tickets to that show, but couldn’t find a ride ). General admission was still the norm, not the exception. We got there early, made the rush to the front row, and wound up front row center. The guitar army tour was probably Ted’s loudest. And, the crowd was by far the wildest. There were fights all over the place. When they got real good, Ted would just egg ‘em on a little more. I wound up catching a t-shirt Ted wiped his forehead off with and tossed into the crowd. I got to keep about half of it. When Ted let go a honker that landed in the back of my hair, I was lucky to get out alive. He had four guitars going that show. It was loud, REAL loud. And, it was Ted at his best. He did the jungle vine swing in a loin cloth, jumped off amps, and basically did everything you expected from a Ted concert.

Years later, that same friend was getting ready to turn 30. Around his birthday, I found out Ted was coming to Louisville again ( where my friend now lived ). For his birthday, I not only got tickets, but backstage passes as well. We did hang out with Ted. I realized then Ted was no different off-stage than on. This guy was gonzo all the time. My friend, for the only time in his life, was speechless when he met Ted. That was fun to watch. The show was good. I have about four particular Nuge songs I prefer. For the second concert, he played a couple of them, and didn’t play a couple of others. However, hanging out with Ted and sharing a stall with Bad Company made it an event I’ll never forget.

For our 40th birthday, we decided the tradition had to remain and we went to see Ted again. Nowadays he spends a lot of his time on a stool, is prone to long political speeches, and, is just as likely to play acoustic as electric. But, for the first time in 25 years, he played ALL the songs I like. Even Great White Buffalo. It didn’t have the punch it did in 1979, but it’s still one of the greatest rock songs ever composed.

Nowadays, I like taking midis and remixing old songs I love into a version I would have done if I had the talent of the original musicians. The hardest thing to get even remotely close to the original sound is the guitar. When trying to re-do guitar classics, it is hard to find good quality midis to start from. Every so often I’ll stumble across one that the author obviously had a love for the original effort. A lot of people make midis, not that many go to the trouble of assuring the little nuances that make a guitar work special are in there. Whoever originally did this piece obviously loved the song. They go an incredibly good job getting a lot of the nuances in there. I’m not terribly sure who originally did it, as it has floated around the ‘net for some time. But, here’s my digitized re-mastered version of Stranglehold.

I would kill to have some of his songs I like as much or more than Stranglehold, like Wango Tango and Great White Buffalo.

The best Nuge is old, old, old Nuge. Great White Buffalo is the sleeper Nugent song to have. The best version is off the 1978 live CD, “Double Live Gonzo“. It’s hard to even find the studio version any more, but the best Nuge is live Nuge anyway. Probably my second favorite would be Stranglehold. There’s a hell of a version of that on Double Live Gonzo as well. Needless to say, this is THE album to have. Probably my second favorite would be Intensities in 10 Cities. For the studio versions, just start with Great Gonzos and work yourself back to the various albums. He’s been around a long time, there’s a lot of fun stuff to be gotten. And, what makes Nuge so Nuge, is, unlike a lot of artists that experiment over the years, Nuge still sounds like Nuge in the studio. He’s mellowed some, but not much. In fact, he’s got a new album out, Craveman, that features song titles so offensive they’ll never make it to FM radio.

That’s part of the “where are they now” Nuge. He’s still recording and touring, hosting a talk radio show, sponsoring children camps, supporting the NRA, writing cookbooks, and, if you visit his site, you can buy anything from Nuge Coffee to clothing.

He’s a pretty busy guy. Unlike some rockers I’ve loved, this guy didn’t let the rock’n'roll life kill him.

Gonna update this post. Found a video of Gonzo doing my favorite song he ever did on Youtube.