The 70’s were full of magnificent live albums and quite frankly, 1978 was a boom year with Ted Nugent’s ‘Double Live Gonzo’ being right up there amongst them.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: Ted Nugent
ALBUM: Double Live Gonzo
LABEL: Epic
SERIAL: KE2 35069
YEAR: 1978
CD REISSUE: Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
LINEUP: Ted Nugent – lead guitar, lead and backing vocals * Derek St. Holmes – rhythm guitar, lead and backing vocals * Rob Grange – bass, vocals * Cliff Davies – drums, backing vocals, production
TRACK LISTING: 01 Just What The Doctor Ordered * 02 Yank Me Crank Me * 03 Gonzo * 04 Baby Please Don’t Go * 05 Great White Buffalo * 06 Hibernation * 07 Stormtroopin’ * 08 Stranglehold * 09 Wang Dang Sweet Poontang * 10 Cat Scratch Fever * 11 Motorcity Madhouse
WEBLINKS: Site Link
Background
I review this album years after the fact. In the here and now, Ted Nugent is better known as a ranting gun enthusiast and homophobic, who can’t seem to keep his mouth shut and his opinions to himself.
However, there was a time in the man’s career where he was actually a decent musician (Amboy Dukes, Damn Yankees), and spent nearly two decades in the public eye as a solo act, with backing band in tow.
A raft of studio releases for Epic Records ensured his albums were widely available, but I think his live performances captured his energy perfectly. The fact that he released two live albums in the space of three years (this one in 1978, and ‘Intensities In Ten Cities’ in 1981) suggested his Management knew where the big bucks lay.
The Songs
Of course, the 70’s were full of magnificent live albums, and anyone decent enough in the live context were making single or double albums to capture their energy. And quite frankly, 1978 was a boom year for live LP’s and ‘Double Live Gonzo’ was right up amongst them and fitted the bill perfectly.
The combination of Nugent and St Holmes was a hard rock match made in heaven, and complimented the band so well. Most of the material is sourced from Nugent’s albums between 1975 and 1977. Namely ‘Ted Nugent’ and ‘Cat Scratch Fever’, though surprisingly, nothing from ‘Free For All’ made the 2LP set.
Three tracks from his Amboy Dukes era were included (‘Great White Buffalo’, ‘Hibernation’ and ‘Baby Please Don’t Go’, the latter from the very first Amboys LP back in 1967), while two new arrangements were added specifically for DLG, including the single ‘Yank Me Crank Me’ and ‘Gonzo’.
The energy of this live album is raucous, though much like many of the recorded live albums from this era, you have to wonder how much studio trickery was added to embellish the production? In this case, probably not a lot, but I stand to be corrected.
In Summary
As expected, DLG went high into the Billboard Charts, making it to #13, a pretty good effort considering. After a couple of studio albums (‘Weekend Warrior’, State Of Shock’ and ‘Scream Dream’) it was back to the sound-boards for the aforementioned ‘Intensities In Ten Cities’ (clever title huh?).
Nugent changed tack slightly as he headed into the mid 80’s with less of the manic and more of the melodic, as albums such as 1982’s ‘Nugent’, ‘Penetrator’ and ‘Little Miss Dangerous’ would show.
Ted Nugent on Video
Click to go to YTM album page.
