It could be argued that Ted Nugent’s “glory period” lasted three
\nalbums, from his self-titled debut to
\nCat Scratch Fever<\/i>. The concert set
\nDouble Live Gonzo<\/i> served to sum up this wild period in
\nNugent’s career… but after that,
\nthen<\/i> what? While Nugent still enjoyed a level of success
\nuntil around 1980, most of his output past
\nCat Scratch Fever<\/i> has all but been written off.<\/p>\n
This is interesting, because a chance selection from the Pierce
\nMemorial Archives led me to dust off
\nWeekend Warriors<\/i>, Nugent’s 1978 effort. Featuring a band in
\nthe midst of change (which would become standard operating
\nprocedure for Nugent), the music contained on this slab o’ vinyl
\nisn’t a masterpiece, but it’s hardly a failure. In fact, if any
\nNugent album would be rightfully called a “diamond in the rough,”
\nthis one might just be it.<\/p>\n
Out was long-time vocalist\/guitarist Derek St. Holmes, in was
\nCharlie Huhn – who, probably by no coincidence, sounds similar to
\nSt. Holmes. For his part, Nugent keeps his turns at the microphone
\nto a minimum – smart move, in all reality, since Nugent’s strong
\npoint has never been his vocals.<\/p>\n
Musically, the material on
\nWeekend Warriors<\/i> is surprisingly tight. In fact, for the
\nentire first half of this album, it sometimes feels that Nugent et
\nal. can do absolutely no wrong – honestly, not an opinion I had
\nwhen I first bought this disc some 13 years ago. Why tracks like
\n“Need You Bad,” “I Got The Feelin'” and “Venom Soup” aren’t ranked
\nin the upper echelon of Nugent’s repertoire is beyond me – I mean,
\nthese tracks absolutely smoke. And the groove that’s laid down on
\n“One Woman” is among the bluesiest that Nugent had accomplished to
\nthat point in his solo career. (If there is one tiny stumbling
\nblock, it might be “Tight Spots,” though even it’s a small enough
\nthing to laugh off.)<\/p>\n
The train is almost derailed, though, by “Smokescreen,” a track
\nwhich just knocks all the momentum out of
\nWeekend Warriors<\/i>. With much less development lyrically and
\nmusically, it hardly bodes well to start the second half of the
\ndisc… and, in a way, Nugent and crew never fully recover.
\nFollow-up tracks like “Good Friends And A Bottle Of Wine,”
\n“Cruisin'” and the title track all have a feel as if they’re trying
\nto cover their tracks. While it might have been better for
\n“Smokescreen” to have been completely left off this disc, if it
\nhad<\/i> to be included, I’d have buried it as the last track, if
\nonly to assure that the juggernaut that was the first side of the
\ndisc wasn’t interrupted.<\/p>\n
Even with this one goose egg of a song,
\nWeekend Warriors<\/i> is a surprisingly good album – honestly,
\nnot something one would expect when the broadcast world drools over
\nthe three prior studio albums. And, frankly, it might be time for a
\nre-discovery of
\nWeekend Warriors<\/i>, if only to show people that Nugent’s
\nprowess was still quite strong at this stage in his career. More
\nimportantly than the quality of his guitar work (which felt like it
\nwas kicked up a notch or two on this one), Nugent’s songwriting
\nability should be spotlighted – some people might be surprised
\nthese came from the same mind as “Wang Dang Sweet Poontang”.<\/p>\n
Although this record almost doesn’t recover from one bad song,
\nWeekend Warriors<\/i> is a surprisingly mature effort from Nugent
\nand band that has been left behind for new members of the Cult of
\nNugent to discover. It might just be time to raise this disc above
\ncult status, and give it the attention it should have been getting
\nfor over two decades.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26053,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5798],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-37264","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-ted-nugent","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37264"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37264"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}