07. Ted Nugent Cat Scratch Fever 1977 (Epic)
Hard Rock
The Nuge’s finest hour and some itchy pussy too!
Overview
Detroit’s high decibel guitarist Ted Nugent aka The Motor City Madman amongst numerous other nicknames, had built up a fervent following by the time of his third album
Cat Scratch Fever, an album that is usually regarded as his strongest set which undoubtedly it is. Ted Nugent from the word go, masked his limitations as artist by presenting the music world with his testosterone no-frills brand of hard rock and raging guitars, basically what you heard is what you got! His debut album the eponymous Ted Nugent had ushered in a tight fiery approach to hard rock in general (in my 1975 albums that missed the cut section) and it was an instant commercial success. Ted Nugent and band, had formed out of the remains of his previous band the Amboy Dukes and with bassist Rob Grange following him from that band. The duo then added British drummer Cliff Davies and then most importantly adding vocalist and rhythm guitarist Derek St. Holmes. By the time of their second album
Free-for-All, Derek St. Holmes had left the band during the recording sessions for that album, leaving Ted Nugent and guest vocalist the soon to be famous Meat Loaf to pick up the slack.
Free-for-All was seen as a weaker album than the debut, largely due to the departure of Derek-St. Holmes, but to be fair it had a set of weaker songs than the debut anyway. Luckily by the time of their third album
Cat Scratch Fever, Ted and Derek had patched up their differences and gave us one of the best workouts of the year and a studio album that the band would never match again. Ted Nugent writes the bulk of the compositions here and Tom Werman soon to be one of the busiest producers around, gives us another one of his clean productions, that often got criticised for being too clean for both hard rock and heavy metal, personally though I always kind of dug Tom Werman’s production style. As time went by, Ted Nugent’s anti-drugs and anti-drink stance would dominate his rock persona, something that certainly was anomaly in the musical community that he worked in. This was later furthered by his right-wing political stances which overshadowed aspects of his musical career, or in some cases may have actually enhanced his public profile. Whatever the outcome, Ted Nugent wasn’t one of the most gifted artists around, but he always knew how to apply himself, especially in a live environment and usually did the business for his fans.
Derek St. Holmes- Rhythm/Vocals
Ted Nugent- Guitar/Vocals
Rob Grange- Bass
Cliff Davies- Drums
Production- Tom Werman
The Album
Cat Scratch Fever- With the crunchy and scratchy heavy guitar intro with its well-known signature riff. The title track has been covered numerous times over the years and goes out on a high as well. The song is one of the great live features by the band and certainly one of their most famous as well, and the song is supposedly about hot pussy!
Wang Dang Sweet Poontang- A song that relies on buoyant energy and it’s one of the faster efforts on show, overall the song is an accomplished workout that is highlighted by its dominant riff and great playing throughout.
Death by Misadventure- A song about the death of Brian Jones from the Rolling Stones and I guess he would have been turning in his grave, when Ted Nugent & Co start with their guitar mashing halfway through the song.
Live It Up- More subdued than the earlier tracks and at times has a tinge of the Eagles about it, before the guitar really kicks in and you know its Ted Nugent.
Home Bound- One of the longer songs on the album is this instrumental and far away from the heavy guitar work that could be expected here. The song is actually highlighted by some fairly intricate melodic playing at times.
Workin’ Hard, Playin’ Hard- With a galloping intro that goes onto repeat itself throughout the song, the track is one of the more underrated efforts on the album compared to some of its better known efforts and at almost 6 minutes it’s the longest track on the album as well.
Sweet Sally- With its rock ‘n’ roll approach this is an upbeat track in every aspect and an example of just how strong this album is overall.
A Thousand Knives- A steady and solid song, and also one of the heaviest efforts on the album, which also happens as being one of the best as well.
Fist Fightin’ Son of a Gun- One of the more straightforward songs on the album and typical b-side material, but not a bad song at all.
Out of Control- The album finishes up with this blustery effort, to round off a satisfying 38 minute listening experience.
Verdict
Around the time of
Cat Scratch Fever, the now solo Sammy Hagar was certainly competing with Ted Nugent with this kind of rugged guitar based hard rock. Sammy Hagar may well have been the more melodic and diverse of the two, but Ted Nugent was certainly the heavier and more consistent of the pair. Ted Nugent’s early career is highlighted by sexist lyrics and throughout his early albums, Ted Nugent would feature a vocal slot here and there in place of Derek. St. Holmes. Often these vocal slots were on some of the better known tracks and he does a great job on the title track here, and as time went by he covered vocally more of his own material in a live setting. But saying this, Derek St. Holmes was able to provide a cool and an addictive vocal delivery that was essential to the Ted Nugent sound around this time and he puts in a great performance on this album in general. Ted Nugent was all about guitar playing and listening to the high-powered guitar riffs on “Cat Scratch Fever” “Wang Dang Sweet Poontang” and “Death by Misadventure” to name just three, it becomes apparent that Ted Nugent not only did this better than most out there, but he also managed to achieve this and still put out catchy and radio-friendly songs at the same time! Watching any live footage of the band around this time, also shows just how electric they were on stage. Some of the more subdued tracks on show include the melodic “Live It Up” the surprising and melodic instrumental “Homebound” which actually shows how good the band are, when they apply more depth to their sound and the song fills out its almost five minutes amiably, and then there is the heavy rock ‘n’ roll of a song like “Sweet Sally”. Then just when the listener wants some more heaviness again, we are blessed with a song like “A Thousand Knives” and also the album closer “Out of Control” which has that cool throbbing vibe, from which the album benefits heavily from. As an album,
Cat Scratch Fever suffers from no real weaknesses and is a guitar riff fanatic’s paradise. The simple fact of the matter is, whether you love him or hate him Ted Nugent on
Cat Scratch Fever has laid down some timeless hard rock tunes and if you only ever get to hear one Ted Nugent album, then it should be
Cat Scratch Fever everytime.