It’s been well over 20 years since Ted Nugent unleashed
\nDouble Live Gonzo!<\/i> on the public, at the height of his
\ncareer. Since then, the Motor City Madman has found himself
\nbattling decreasing record sales, the maturing of his audience, the
\nrise of hundreds of bands who learned their licks at the feet of
\nthe Nuge and the commercial rise and fall of heavy metal.<\/p>\n
Through it all, Nugent has been a survivor, though one can
\nquestion whether he’s thrived musically. (No references are being
\nmade to Nugent’s stint in Damn Yankees.) His latest release,
\nFull Bluntal Nugity<\/i>, is evidence that quite possibly Nugent
\nhas stagnated. Featuring only one relatively new track, Nugent’s
\nthird live outing sounds more like an aging rocker trying to hold
\non to his days of glory than a rock pioneer continuing to plow new
\ntrails.<\/p>\n
Recorded on New Year’s Eve 2000 at Nugent’s annual Whiplash Bash
\nin Detroit, Nugent and his band – bassist Marco Mendoza and drummer
\nTommy Aldridge – plow through songs which any real fan probably
\nowns several copies of. With the exception of the opening
\ninstrumental “Klstrphk” (add a few vowels to see what it’s really
\nsaying), only “Fred Bear” approaches anything past 1980. Too bad;
\nthis could have been a great vehicle for Nugent to remind people
\nabout some of the forgotten albums in his career. Anything would
\nhave been better than Nugent’s occasional ode to Jimi Hendrix
\nscattered throughout the show.<\/p>\n
As a vocalist, Nugent at his best was merely marginal. Now in
\nhis fifties, Nugent’s vocals have smoothed out a little bit, but
\none does miss the maniacal shrieks he became known for on such
\ntracks as “Cat Scratch Fever” and “Free For All”. Sadly, Nugent
\ndoesn’t seem to have the kind of vocal power these tracks all but
\nbeg for. Mendoza does an admirable job on “Hey Baby,” doing his
\nbest Derek St. Holmes and holding his own quite well.<\/p>\n
The most interesting part of
\nFull Bluntal Nugity<\/i>, ironically, is the newest song, “Fred
\nBear” – and also is the only acoustic number performed on this
\ndisc. Yes, Nugent seems to stretch it out a tad too long, but he
\ndoes capture something in this version that hasn’t been approached
\nin the studio version. Nugent claims he’s taking the audience to a
\ncampfire with this one – and he succeeds.<\/p>\n
Granted, fans would probably feel cheated if
\nall<\/i> of Nugent’s hits were absent from
\nFull Bluntal Nugity<\/i> – but by focusing on almost all hits,
\ntracks from albums like
\nWeekend Warriors<\/i>,
\nLittle Miss Dangerous<\/i>,
\nSpirit Of The Wild<\/i> (“Fred Bear” notwithstanding) and
\nPenetrator<\/i> are ignored. Again, too bad.<\/p>\n
Nugent’s days as superstar are all but over except in his own
\nmind, and
\nFull Bluntal Nugity<\/i> is a reminder of that sad fact. Pick
\nthis one up only if you absolutely must have every album in
\nNugent’s discography.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26967,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5798],"rating":[5616],"class_list":["post-39550","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-ted-nugent","rating-rating-d"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39550","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=39550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39550"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}