Ted Nugent's Amboy Dukes - Tooth, Fang and Claw (US 1974)

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Tooth, Fang & Claw is the seventh and final album by Ted Nugent and The Amboy Dukes. It is the second offering on the DiscReet label. Re-issued in 1977 by Warner Bros as part of "Two Originals of... Ted Nugent".

The band consists of Nugent, Rob Grange on bass and drummer Vic Mastrianni. The album has the feel of the outdoors (esp. "Hibernation") and Nugent's love for hunting and rock and roll; the back sleeve pictures him playing hard in front of an amplifier stack, next to a wild boar trophy.

Like on the Amboy Dukes' previous three albums, the credits are followed by a short tongue-in-cheek statement. This time, "Fear not the crusted warblers, but be wary of the Mad Cheese Grater for he shall slaw the features from your face. Beware the public carnivores as they inevitably edibly have a soft nosed hollow point magnum behind every bush."

"Great White Buffalo" is one of the mainstays of Nugent's catalog and was generated on this album. In an interview with Classic Rock Revisited he discusses how he and Grange developed the song idea: "This was yet another magical moment like the original musical burst of so many of my songs. This amazing lick/song erupted spontaneously during a recording session around 1972-73," Nugent says. 

"As I was tuning up my Blonde Byrdland, that pattern leaped forth with a force to reckon with. Killer bass player, Rob Grange, stopped me and asked what the hell that was, and I said "I don't know, just jackin’ around, tuning up." He told me to play it again, but I failed to play the lick the same as I had just done moments before and he kept badgering me to re-discover the lick. I didn't. But after recording some other songs, I again went to tune up my Gibson and the lick burst forth again. 

Rob Grange yelled 'That's it! That's it!' So I played it a few times, showed the guys where I wanted to stop and start it up again, turned on the tape machine and recorded it in one fell swoop, making up the lyrics as I went along, articulating to the best of my ability my take on the great Indian legend of the spiritual beast of yore. Rob Grange came up with that wonderful fluid bass melody at the end, Vic the thundering double bass drum assault, and history was made. To this day it is one of my and the audiences' and band's all time favorites."

Also featured, a frantic and happily deranged version of "Maybellene", a 1955 classic of Chuck Berry (often quoted by Nugent in the late 70s as a major influence on his playing). Ted Nugent is credited for a one-finger guitar solo under the moniker "Rev Atrocious Theodosius".

The album includes one of very few "calm" Nugent songs of this era, "Sasha", which Nugent dedicated to his newly born daughter.

Due to Warner Bros distributing the album worldwide, Ted Nugent's music eventually began to reach overseas markets, but his royalties were not up to his expectations - DiscReet's manager & owner Frank Zappa reported mediocre sales. In late October 1974, rhythm guitarist Derek St. Holmes joined the band at least for one of the Amboy Dukes' final shows at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago.

By 1975, Nugent abandoned the troubled DiscReet label and signed with Epic Records. He teamed with producer Tom Werman and Aerosmith’s managers, Leber-Krebs, who organized his live tours into commercially successful operations. The only Amboy Dukes member who continued with Nugent in his solo career is bassist Rob Grange. Nugent's band also included Derek St. Holmes on vocals and guitar, and drummer Clifford Davies; Ted Nugent moved forward to national and worldwide success.

In the 1993 film Dazed and Confused, the character Wooderson, played by Matthew McConaughey, wears a t-shirt featuring the Tooth Fang & Claw album cover.

In 1995, "Tooth, Fang & Claw" was a song on the album Spirit of the Wild, which marked Ted Nugent's return to an outdoor lifestyle and his original sound of hard rock.

Personnel

♦ Ted Nugent – Guitar, vocals, percussion

♦ Rob Grange – Bass, vocals, arrangements, composer

♦ Vic Mastrianni – Drums, percussion

♦ Andy Jezowski (and the Crusted Warblers) – Backing vocals

01. "Lady Luck" - 5:57

02. "Living in the Woods" - 3:54

03. "Hibernation" - 9:19

04. "Free Flight" - 4:03

05. "Maybellene" - (Chuck Berry, Russ Fratto, Alan Freed) - 3:28

06. "The Great White Buffalo" - 4:57

07. "Sasha" - 3:06

08. "No Holds Barred" - 4:48

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Amon Dûûl - Paradieswärts Düül (Progressive Rock Germany 1970)

Size: 105 MB

BitRate: @320

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Amon Duul could only have happened in a certain time and place. This is, of course, the only bona fide studio album released by Amon Duul, and I have to say it is an absolute gem. The Repertoire Records edition is superlative - the clarity and warmth of the sound is impeccable, and the two bonus tracks are not only brilliant in their own right, but actually improve the structure of the CD.

'Para Dieswarts Duul' does not need to be sliced into tracks. Even though there are actually plenty of small musical shifts within each song - washes of synthesiser, key changes, vocals floating in and out of harmonies - it doesn't seem so at all. It seems like it's all one song.- one constant, flowing synthesis of sparse and delicate guitar lines, with keyboards and vocals and flutes and bongos occasionally stepping into focus for a while before vanishing back into the central piece. These five songs knitted together as an album present a wonderfully seamless statement of intent, even if the tone of one piece clashes with another (for example, the opening odyssey 'Love Is Peace' is warm and dreamily fun, whereas the closing 'Paramechanical World' - a bonus track - is spare and mournful, even hopeless).

Unlike the other Amon Duul albums, which are all taken from the same monster jam session in 1969, it is unclear exactly how much of this is improvised. I suspect 'Snow Your Thirst...' is, as it ends with a hard cut, but the rest of the album is teetering gloriously between the composed and the telepathised. It rhythmically feels its way forward, rarely breaking the pulse through its entire duration.

And strangely, that's all I can remember about it. 'Para Dieswarts Duul' is the ultimate background music, and is as successful in sending me to sleep as it is in enthralling me, drawing me into the swaying rhythms and the wonderful kosmische sirenism vocals. It is a very special album indeed, comparable to much of the rest of the Krautrock cannon in the same way that 'Islands' compares to the rest of King Crimson's music: A beautiful oddity.

Clearly the best Amon Duul's album with the original line up. Always primitive kraut / folk improvisations but the emphasis is now put on more structured songs. The abusive, mucky jam attempts of the previous efforts let the place to an easy listening psychedelic folk "trip" and it works formidably. The music retains the listener's attention thanks to intriguing, emotional compositions. 

The first track starts with catchy, cool guitar melodies, acoustic percussions, with "pastoral", "peaceful" flute lines. A tremendous energy prevails. Lyrics are all about "peace and love"; "Love is peace and freedom is harmony" said the voice. The following track carries on the same beautiful, semi-acoustic psych atmosphere. It alternates experimental, improvised ideas to serene, inspired structured sections. This one is instrumental, rather "archaic" in sound but really efficient. The two bonus tracks are slow, floating, moody pieces with "stoned" melodic vocals. "Eternal Flow » is made of sad guitar arpeggios, a nice bluesy rock section with plaintive vocals, a mysterious, rather desperate atmosphere. "Paramechanical World » is a crying, lovely free ballad. Don't ask sophistication but just simplicity and feeling and you will definitely enjoy this album.

01. Love Is Peace (17:13)

02. Snow Your Thirst And Sun Your Open Mouth (9:28)

03. P Mechanische Welt (7:38)

Bonus Tracks: 

04. Eternal Flow (4:10)

05. Paramechanical World (5:44)

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