Ted Nugent: The Motor City Madman

Ted Nugent made a career of playing r&b Faster and Louder than his contemporaries. Nugent and the Amboy Dukes hit big in 1968 with "Journey to the Center of the Mind," a psychedelic-themed ditty that Ted swears he didn't realize referred to drugs in any way. Aside from clean livin' and flash guitar-pickin', Nugent's avowed passions are hunting and parenting, and he expounds at length on the pristine beauty of the great outdoors and the special magic experienced in same, which explains his occasional onstage buffalo rides and loincloth-attired Tarzan-style antics. He rails at the futility and wrong-headedness he perceives in gun control efforts and restrictions on personal liberty in general (an area in which he seems out of step with most of his non-Gangsta Rap rock peers). Still, make no mistake; though it covers non-rock topics, this A&E Biography is still a rock and roll story: packed with concert footage in all its Cat Scratch Feverish splendor, this is essential stuff for pop music collections. Highly recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (M. Tribby)