Total Psyched-out madness sophmore release by The Amboy Dukes is a mix of flaky hippy bullsh*t and good Psychedelic Pop songs. Side one was a total write off, filled with sh*tty Ted "Cat Scratch Fever" Nugent bonehead composed guitar show-boat nightmares. With the only exception, opening track,
Mississippi Murderer which at first just sounds like typical 60's Heavy Blues, but after a few listens I found it has a pre-Richard Hell quality to it.
The conceptual flipside is lyrically hard to decipher exactly what it is suppose to be about. Word is it's about drugs, or maybe death, some say it's about the levels of a conscious experience, but honestly to me, especially with song titles like
Why Is A Carrot More Orange Than an Orange, I don't think it's really about much of anything ... other than being really really stoned! The B side is written by the other guitarist and visionary in the band, Steve Farmer, who does more of a Pop oriented Psychedelic treatment to the music.
All in all the title track and the opening number are the best of the bunch, written by both Nugent and Farmer, it would have made a killer 45, but as a whole album I'm not too enthusiastic, nonetheless it's an interesting effort. What makes me laugh the most is Nugent's total denial of any drug use or knowledge of use during this period ... are you kidding me, the cover has hash pipes all over it, goddamn gun-toting Republican lying sh*thead, what's he trying to get us think, he really loves Tobacco?? Bull!!!
