Song:Journey To The Center Of The Mind
Album:Dick Clark's All Time Hits Vol. 3
Most fans should be familiar with guitarist Ted Nugent's solo career. But his solo career was a continuation of The Amboy Dukes. He just dropped the name in 1975. The Amboy Dukes scored a top 20 hit in 1968 with the psychedelic classic Journey To The Center Of The Mind. Though Nugent is from Detroit, he went to high school in Chicago. He was in The Lourds in the early 60s and this is where he met Amboy Dukes lead singer John Drake. Nugent first formed The Amboy Dukes in 1964. He stole the name from a defunct band. After the original band split up, Nugent moved back to Detroit and he formed a new Amboy Dukes. They signed with Bob Shad's Mainstream Records and released their debut album The Amboy Dukes in 1967. The band was Nugent on lead guitar, Drake on lead vocals, Steve Farmer on guitar and vocals, Dave Palmer on drums, Rick Lober on keyboards and Bill White on bass. For the 1968 album Journey To The Center Of The Mind, Lober and White were replaced by Andy Solomon and Greg Arama. Most of the songs including Journey Of The Center Of The Mind were written by Farmer. Journey To The Center Of The Mind reached #16 on the Billboard Hot 100. Today it is considered to be a psychedelic classic and much different to Nugent's later music. Things began to go south for The Amboy Dukes when Drake was replaced by future Cactus lead singer Rusty Day. They left Mainstream for Polydor and then Frank Zappa's DiscReet label. Nugent seemed to have problems keeping lead singers and that hurt the music and record sales. By 1975, Nugent signed with Epic and dropped the Amboy Dukes name. You can get Journey To The Center Of The Mind on this various artists CD. The original album is also available. The Amboy Dukes reunited at the 2009 Detroit Music Awards. They received a Distinguished Achievement award. Here's The Amboy Dukes performing Journey To The Center Of The Mind 1968.
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