Tooth, Fang & Claw

About Tooth, Fang & Claw

Tooth, Fang & Claw is the seventh and final album by Ted Nugent and The Amboy Dukes. It is the second offering on the DiscReet label. Re-issued in 1977 by Warner Bros as part of "Two Originals of... Ted Nugent". The band consists of Nugent, Rob Grange on bass and drummer Vic Mastrianni. The album has the feel of the outdoors (esp. "Hibernation") and Nugent's love for hunting and rock and roll; the backsleeve pictures him playing hard in front of an amplifier stack, next to a wild boar trophy. Like on the Amboy Dukes' previous three albums, the credits are followed by a short tongue-in-cheek statement. This time, "Fear not the crusted warblers, but be wary of the Mad Cheese Grater for he shall slaw the features from your face. Beware the public carnivores as they inevitably edibly have a soft nosed hollow point magnum behind every bush." "Great White Buffalo" is one of the mainstays of Nugent's catalog and was generated on this album. In an interview with Classic Rock Revisited he discusses how he and Grange developed the song idea: "This was yet another magical moment like the original musical burst of so many of my songs. This amazing lick/song erupted spontaneously during a recording session around 1972-73," Nugent says. "As I was tuning up my Blonde Byrdland, that pattern leaped forth with a force to reckon with. Killer bass player, Rob Grange, stopped me and asked what the hell that was, and I said "I don't know, just jackin’ around, tuning up." He told me to play it again, but I failed to play the lick the same as I had just done moments before and he kept badgering me to re-discover the lick. I didn't. But after recording some other songs, I again went to tune up my Gibson and the lick burst forth again. Rob Grange yelled 'That's it! That's it!' So I played it a few times, showed the guys where I wanted to stop and start it up again, turned on the tape machine and recorded it in one fell swoop, making up the lyrics as I went along, articulating to the best of my ability my take on the great Indian legend of the spiritual beast of yore. Rob Grange came up with that wonderful fluid bass melody at the end, Vic the thundering double bass drum assault, and history was made. To this day it is one of my and the audiences' and band's all time favorites."Also featured, a frantic and happily deranged version of "Maybellene", a 1955 classic of Chuck Berry (often quoted by Nugent in the late 70s as a major influence on his playing). Ted Nugent is credited for a one-finger guitar solo under the moniker "Rev Atrocious Theodosius". more »