TED NUGENT "DOUBLE LIVE GONZO" (Epic)

Fuck yes. What else could you possibly say? You're either into this 100% or you think Nugent isn't the shit (and if that's your stance-you're wrong.) I have never met anyone who's middle of the road on Nuge. You never hear anyone blurt out, "Oh, the Motor City Madman? He's okay, i guess. 'Cat Scratch Fever' is kinda cool." No! Totally wrong. The Nuge slays and this double live offering from near two decades ago proves just how fucking ON TOP Ted used to be. You'll never play guitar like this if you practice your whole fucking life and you'll never have a crowd full of thousands begging to hear about your latest gash conquests transformed into simple 12 bar blues head-nodders.

I'm almost not sure if i even need to say anything else about this because the above comments pretty much sum up "Double Live Gonzo." As the title implies, it's live, it's a 2LP set, and the performances are GONZO. Only the latter claim could be honestly disputed; there might be other shows out there where the Nuge gave more but on this set he's pretty fiery, sounding like some poon-enchanted auctioneer testifyin' to the fact that his guitar is incapable of playing anything sweet and soft. The only real complaint regarding this album is that it's the antithesis of everything you'd want a live album to be. All of the audience banter is so cliched and self-serving that you wonder if Ted's joking, but when you consider the time, the man and his stature during it becomes obvious that at one point in our great nation's history, thousands upon thousands were willing to pay hard earned dollars to see Ted Nugent run through some extremely well-played but rote transmogrifications of classic rock and roll. He even says as much on his run through of "Baby Please Don't Go." While retaining a hint of the original track's structure, Ted manages to transform it into a lustful quest for dripping snatch, a complete morphing into an anthem for misogyny. It's brilliant-no one could get away with that shit today without getting called on it, and no one today seems to remember that rock has always been stupidly tongue in cheek and it's meant to be that way for a reason. How much shit do you worry about in your life? Do you really need to care what such obviously cliched music is saying? If you do then you're a fucking moron.

The high point here (among many) is Side C, the one-two combo of "Stormtroopin'" and "Stranglehold," 20 minutes of pure psychedelic guitar meltdown and frontman bravado wedged between a couple layers of smooth , solid backing band formulae. You never feel like things are floating out beyond the Nuge's control but it's a languid, opiate-saoked trip all the same. Ted's recitation on "Stranglehold" here seems downright prophetic (i'm not going to repeat it here, because you should know it BY HEART) and it's that sort of dedication to the material, a true and honest belief in ROCK, that catapults this live set from the realm of "mere run through" to "ABSOLUTELY FUCKING ESSENTIAL." Buy it now or run the risk of being a pussy your whole fucking life.