Ted Nugent knew a good thing when he played it.<\/p>\n
On his self-titled debut album, Nugent turned some solid grooves
\ninto decent songs, and added melodic, not flashy solos to them. The
\nend result: a decent first effort.<\/p>\n
Just one year later, Nugent came back with
\nFree-For-All<\/i>. Musically, there weren’t that many surprises,
\nexcept in the vocal department. And while you can hear a little
\nrecycling of riffs, it still is a solid follow-up that doesn’t fall
\ninto the dreaded “sophomore slump”.<\/p>\n
The first surprise vocally is that Nugent himself takes a turn
\nat the microphone on the title track. Now, Nugent has never claimed
\nto be an exceptional singer; indeed, it’s the rawness and emotion,
\nwith more than just a touch of swagger, that make his vocals soar.
\nThere’s a reason that this track is one of the best-remembered by
\nNugent fans; it’s a solid rocker.<\/p>\n
Surprise number two is that Derek St. Holmes isn’t utilized
\nnearly as much as he was on
\nTed Nugent<\/i>, making appearances as lead throat on only three
\nof the nine songs. Taking his place was one Mr. Marvin Lee Aday –
\nbetter known to the world as Meat Loaf. Prior to his hitting the
\nbig time with
\nBat Out Of Hell<\/i>, Loaf hooked up with Nugent on this album,
\nand provided vocals on five tracks. And the more you hear them, the
\nmore you have to wonder what would have happened had Loaf stayed
\nwith Nugent’s band. My thought: they would have been
\nunstoppable.<\/p>\n
Loaf easily powers through the could-have-been-a-hit-single “I
\nLove You So I Told You A Lie,” a song that has all the trappings
\nthat make a song successful: solid playing, powerful riffs, and a
\ncontrolled solo from the Motor City Madman himself. But Loaf also
\ndemonstrates his prowess for more groove-based songs (“Hammerdown,”
\n“Street Rats”) and the ballad (“Together”), songs which also add to
\nthe Nugent legend and repertoire.<\/p>\n
Fact of the matter is, the marriage between Nugent and Loaf
\nworked damned well – pity it only lasted one album. And it’s not
\nthat St. Holmes did a terrible job; the track “Dog Eat Dog” is
\nanother eternal classic off
\nFree-For-All<\/i>. But the material that St. Holmes sings isn’t
\nquite as strong as the rest of the album. “Turn It Up” is a
\ndefinite throwaway track, while “Light My Way” just doesn’t live up
\nto its potential.<\/p>\n
The repetition comes in on the track “Writing On The Wall,”
\nwhere you could swear that you’re listening to a re-write of
\n“Stranglehold” off
\nTed Nugent<\/i> – even down to the bass line. Oh, this is still a
\ngood track, but you have to wonder if this would be a sign of
\nthings to come. (Was it? Well, you’re just going to have to wait
\nuntil we review albums like
\nCat Scratch Fever<\/i> to find out.)<\/p>\n
\nFree-For-All<\/i> is another strong effort from Nugent that
\nbuilds upon the success of his first album, and is rightfully one
\nof his albums that still enjoys popularity even to this day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27821,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5798],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-39204","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-ted-nugent","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39204","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=39204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39204"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}