The Amboy Dukes (band)
The Amboy Dukes were an American rock music band of the late 1960s and early 1970s from Detroit, Michigan, best remembered for their hit single "Journey to the Center of the Mind". They were probably named after a Brooklyn street gang of the same name (see Louis Buchalter).
Band members included singer John Drake, rhythm guitarist Steve Farmer, and lead guitarist Ted Nugent. The band name came from Nugent, who had heard of a Detroit band called Amboy Dukes that had just broken up, took the name for a new band he was forming (originally the name was the title of a novel about gang members).
The Amboy Dukes' first album, Journey to the Center of the Mind, was released in 1968 on Mainstream Records, and the single of the same name rose to number 16 on the US Billboard Hot 100 pop chart. The album and song were classic examples of acid rock; for example, the original album cover depicted fifty different kinds of marijuana-smoking devices.
Other Amboy Dukes song titles would display such period flavor as "Why Is a Carrot More Orange Than an Orange" and "The Inexhaustible Quest for the Cosmic Cabbage"; the latter number was a multi-part epic that incorporated both Béla Bartók and The Beach Boys.
After their initial success, the Dukes' three following albums, Migrations, Marriage on the Rocks, and Survival of the Fittest, were not well received, and the band dissolved.
While the other Amboy Dukes receded into obscurity, Nugent, as the "Motor City Madman", became a very successful and quite visible solo musician, hunter, and political controversialist.
The disparity in career outcomes has led to differing recollections among the former Dukes about what happened during the band's lifetime. Nugent claims to have been the leader of the band, and at times the "babysitter" for the rest of the band, and that when he took a few months off the band fell apart. And despite the apparent drug references of many of their songs, Nugent fervently denies significant drug use.
The other members of the band, such as Steve Farmer, viewed the band differently. They say guitarist Farmer and singer Drake were the main songwriters and the de facto leaders of the Amboy Dukes; Nugent was not the "leadman". In an interview , Farmer deprecated Nugent's creative role in the Amboy Dukes, and mentioned some rather embarrassing personal details about Nugent. From Farmer's point of view, Nugent was the one who needed babysitting - he was a spoiled brat and none too intelligent. Farmer did emphasize that Nugent was the only member not involved in drug activity and promiscuous sex with groupies, so on that matter everyone is in agreement.