Ted Nugent -- "Stranglehold" (1975)

Here I come again now, baby
Like a dog in heat . . .

Like 2 or 3 lines, Ted Nugent (a/k/a/ the "Motor City Madman") is a real man.

Ted Nugent – proud right-winger, expert bowhunter, "straight edge" role model (he disavows alcohol and drug abuse), and heavy-metal guitar god – saved the best for first when he left the Amboy Dukes.  The first cut on his first solo album is "Stranglehold," perhaps the ne plus ultra example of guitar-solo-heavy 1970s arena rock. 

Not only that, he led off the song with its best two lines (quoted above).

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I don't remember when I first heard this song. But I do remember an evening many years ago when for some reason I went to a local Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant with my youngest son, who was then small enough to require a car seat.

"Stranglehold" came on just as I was parking, and it is a song that simply does not allow you to turn the radio off until it is over, some eight-plus minutes later. 

 My son didn't actually burst into tears as a result of me singing along at the top of my lungs, using the steering wheel and my thighs as drums, and generally making a spectacle of myself – but you could tell he was terrified of the goings-on from the front seat.

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"Stranglehold" is featured on a number of movie soundtracks, including the original Bad News Bears (I can't believe that movie was rated PG when it came out) and the ultimate teenage movie, Dazed and Confused.

Click here to listen to "Stranglehold."  

Click on the link below to buy the record from Amazon: