CoronaVinyl Day 145 (Love to Hate/Hate to Love): Free-For-All by Ted Nugent

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Today's CoronaVinyl category is "love to hate/hate to love," and by that, I mean artists whose music you might really like, but who you don't like on a personal level for whatever reason, whether it's differing political or religious views, the person snubbed you for an autograph, or the person is just an asshole or a nutjob.  It's an internal struggle because you don't like the person, but you like his or her music or you think his or her music has artistic value on some level.  It can be a difficult display of cognitive dissonance sometimes.  

I can think of a few artists that fall into this category for me.  Gene Simmons is an arrogant asshole in real life, but KISS is one of my favorite bands.  Kanye West is one of the most important hip hop artists of the last 20 years, but he is fucking crazy.  

And then there's Ted Nugent.  What a guitarist.  And what a magnificent asshole.  The Nuge is a longtime outspoken right winger, Second Amendment nut, and Trumper.  He says intentionally terrible things to get a reaction, and he has gotten in hot water about racist, misogynistic, homophobic, Islamophobic, and anti-animal-rights comments in the past (and was even investigated by the Secret Service after he made veiled threats about President Obama).  I think he's an abhorrent human being.  But on the other hand, I love his music.

1976's Free-For-All was Nugent's second studio solo album after disbanding The Amboy Dukes, and it was his first solo album to go platinum in the U.S.  Nugent and David St. Holmes, his rhythm guitarist and lead singer on the first album, had a falling out during the recording of the album, so some songs have St. Holmes on lead vocals, some have Nugent on lead vocals, and some have a then-unknown singer named Meat Loaf on vocals.  Despite being a little disjointed, the album is a solid piece of '70s hard rock, and it reached #24 on the Billboard album chart.

The Spotify version of the album has three bonus live tracks.

Favorite song from Side 1:  "Free-For-All"

The title track is a catchy hard rock song with a nice riff.  Nugent handles lead vocals on this one, and it's one of his more well-known songs.

Favorite song from Side 2:  "Street Rats"
The first track on Side 2 is a snarling rocker, with Meat Loaf providing lead vocals.  Given the bombast of his own albums, it's fun to hear Meat Loaf showing that he could lay down a dirty rock vocal too.