CoronaVinyl Day 205 (N): Tooth, Fang & Claw by Ted Nugent's Amboy Dukes

For an explanation of CoronaVinyl, click here.

Today's CoronaVinyl category is "N," and I only have albums by the Nug' or his bands left.  Since I've already done a solo Nugent album, I'm going with his last album with the Amboy Dukes, 1974's Tooth, Fang & Claw.  Alright, alright alright.

As you may or may not know, before he was ripping sweet solos and singing various songs with not-so-subtle references to the female sex organ in the '70s, and then becoming an outspoken raging right wing dickhead over the following decades, Ted Nugent was in a psychedelic rock band called The Amboy Dukes, which formed in Chicago in the mid '60s, before relocating to Detroit.  They had a hit with the very psychedelically titled rock song "Journey to the Center of the Mind" in 1968, which went to #16 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Over time, the Amboy Dukes had a lot of turnover, with Nugent being the only remaining original member of the band by 1971, so they became Ted Nugent and The Amboy Dukes.  On Tooth, Fang & Claw, the album is credited to "Ted Nugent's Amboy Dukes," and as I said before, it was the last album to feature the Amboy Dukes' name.  After the album, Nugent disbanded the band and truly went solo, although he took Amboy Dukes bassist Rob Grange with him.  If I knew Grange, I would definitely call him "Red," until he dies.  Then I'd call him the Galloping Ghost.

Anywho, Tooth, Claw & Fang didn't chart and didn't have any songs that charted, but it's a pretty solid '70s rock album.  It definitely still has one toe in the psychedelic era (not a whole foot, though), while mainly featuring the kind of hard rock the world would come to expect from Nugent.  There's a rip-roaring cover of Chuck Berry's "Maybellene," a nine-minute post-psychedelic instrumental jam ("Hibernation"), and a rare soft and sweet song dedicated to his newborn daughter ("Sasha"), but it's mostly just good, straightforward rock and roll.

For me, the most important and lasting impact of the album is that the album cover is the one that is displayed on Wooderson's t-shirt in Dazed and Confused -- and I actually bought the same t-shirt myself a few years ago for a Wooderson Halloween costume.  Obviously, I still wear the t-shirt now and then.

Favorite song from Side 1:  "Living in the Woods"

"Living in the Woods" starts off with a metal-esque riff, and then there's Nugent's little guitar melody during the choruses that I like.

Favorite song from Side 2:  "The Great White Buffalo"
This song ended up becoming a Nugent concert staple, and you can see why.  That nifty little guitar riff at the beginning paves the way for a rollicking rock song.