Consumer Guide Album

Ted Nugent: Great Gonzos: The Best of Ted Nugent [Epic, 1981]
Anybody who gets misty-eyed about the MC-5 owes it to himself (or herself, believe it or not) to ponder this Detroit boy's, well, let's call it his sexual rhetoric, which was virtually invented by the White Panthers. Maybe the when-in-doubt-whip-it-out of "Stranglehold" and "Wang Dang Sweet Poontang" and "Free for All" are only metaphors, but as metaphors, well, let's just say they suck. And having done so, let's add with only slightly guilty pleasure that his musclebound gooniness is a hoot. It's an evasion to pass him off as a harmless joke, but it's a distortion to pretend that he or anyone in his audience takes his bullshit more than half seriously. From flash guitar to locomotive beat to secret tunes, he's an unreconstructed '60s survivor--the hippie-biker as feral sex fiend, terror of countless timid ninnies and nice people. One way or another, well, let's just say I get off on everything here, with the slobbering "Wango Tango" a special favorite. Rock and roll! B+