Ted Nugent


Band: Ted Nugent
Album: Ted Nugent
Best song: “Stranglehold” is awesome, “Stormtroopin'” is really great. “Queen of the Forest” doesn’t suck.
Worst song: “Where Have You Been All My Life” isn’t much.

Like many men of my political persuasion and age, I have an uncomfortable relationship with my masculinity. I like hard rock and sports, but I find the unabashedly male-ness of much of culture to be problematic. A lot of it is based in the fact- and intelligence-less of said male-ness, but nevertheless, I’m not the world’s biggest, say, football fan. I don’t like war. I really hate it when people use the term “pussy.” I have no space in my life for people who call others “fag.” I don’t like hunting. That sort of thing.

But, I also enjoy some unabashed male stuff. I adore Sons of Anarchy in a way that is hard to describe. I find Zodiac Motherfucker’s Twitter stream to be wildly entertaining.

There are scads of things with which I cannot agree, but have completely redeeming qualities. Again, as mentioned, I can’t get behind the abject homophobia in so much rap music, but the emerging culture that remains in said music is undeniable. Moreover, as a fan of music, hip hop is so amazing and the modern dominant form.

Which brings us to Ted Nugent and, moreso, “Stranglehold.”

Ted Nugent is a crazy fucker on so very many levels. I’m not going to enumerate them here or try to get into the notion of “bad people making good culture.” That’s ground I’ll tread another time. I, specifically, want to talk about the lyric to “Stranglehold.”

“Stranglehold,” I hope, has a lyric that’s simply there to buttress a kickass guitar riff and several solos of varying awesomeness. I am betting — maybe foolishly — that the lyric isn’t about what I think it’s about: Beating a woman.

Remember the night that you left me.
You put me in my place.
I got you in a stranglehold baby.
You bet I crush your face.

“You gonna cross your face” and “You better cross your way” are also about the Internet as the final lines to that bit. And maybe those are Detroit colloquialisms of which I’m not aware. And maybe all those lines mean something other than a threat.

But, to me, they sound like a threat, at the very least. Indeed, the term “stranglehold” doesn’t sound like a loving move, a sweet embrace.

I don’t think that all sex needs to be about “making love,” indeed, I think it’s kind of an archaic and silly term. I have no problem with the “Closer” idea of sex: Animalistic and primal.

“Stranglehold?” That’s troubling.

But, that riff. Oh, that riff. What a guitar player the Nuge is. It’s a damned shame he’s a complete nutter.

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  • By Fallen | Albums That I Own on October 31, 2011 at 3:56 am

    […] person. I’ve touched on this before, but I do have some trouble knowing that I’ve contributed money to the Ted Nugent cause. He and I are not on the same level, I’d say. Nevertheless, the alternative is to go without […]

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  • About Me

    I'm Ross Jordan Gianfortune. I am not a writer, but I sometimes write here about music and my life. I live in Washington, DC.

    I used to review each of Rolling Stone Magazine's top 500 albums of all time. Now I'm writing about albums I own.

    My work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Gazette, The Atlantic, Sno-Cone and a bunch of defunct zines.

    You can contact me at rjgianfortune at gmail dot com.

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