Stranglehold

Introduction

In 1976 me and three mates drove down to the first Knebworth Festival, The summer was so hot that a lot of the verges on the motorway were on fire.

The line-up consisted of bands I liked and cost a massive £4,25, but that was fifty years ago.

I had never seen so many people and I believe that the fences went down at some point.

The Festival

people were crammed together, the toilets were just troughs, and the food was mainly hot dogs I think. Many girls dispensed with tops and bras, so lots of nice off-stage visuals for people like me.

The openers were Todd Rundgren's Utopia, and this was Lynyrd Skynyrd's final gig before many of the band lost their lives in a plane crash.

Then came 10CC brilliant band, but they took two or three hours to do their sound check. Can you believe that? This meant that it was after midnight when The Rolling Stones, the headliners, took to the stage.

Between the bands' performances, there was a lot of music playing, and one piece really impressed me and it was....

Stranglehold

I didn't know who this was, driven by a brooding amazing three note bass line. It goes on for eight minutes, there are words and vocals but the sound sound is absolutely monstrous.

I will say now that Ted Nugent is an absolute moronic idiotic right-wing numbskull, and as a person, I have no time for him. I remember he once said "If it's too loud then you're too old" but he wor earplugs at gigs. Then man was a total hypocrite even then.

This song is something else though. None of his other work comes within a million miles of this.

There are no flashy guitar solos or playing, but everything in this piece is just perfect.

It is one of those songs I will often put on the repeat on the player.

As I am writing this, the song is on two minutes, so it is less than a quarter through and I have six more minutes to enjoy. It is strange how you can get sick of annoying songs very quickly, but this I just don't want to come to an end, so I am happy to repeat it over and over.

The drums are perfect and the cymbals float in like vampiric ghosts. And that bass line goes on and on, never to end. There are ethereal guitar sounds that float in and out but no synthesisers. This is METAL.

This is a song that has a permanent place in my collection despite its origins, and despite its age, it still sounds perfectly current to me, but I suppose that is true of all good music.

I do hope you give it a listen, but you don't need to investigate Ted Nugent any further, this is the only song from his canon that anyone needs.

My copy is on the soundtrack of the film "Dazed and Confused" with a lot of other great music. It is sandwiched between "Love Hurts" by Nazareth and "Cherry Bomb" by The Runaways. Again this is an album I play a lot when I am working and walking.

The Rolling Stones At Knebworth 1976

I found this YouTube footage of the Rolling Stones set, the sound is not great, but it is nice to have this here. This is one of the things OI love about Vocal publications, the fact we can include music and videos along with our words.

Thank you so much for reading, I hope you have enjoyed my reminiscences and the music I have shared.

This is also for Marie Sinadjan's "Spooky Season Bingo Writing Challenge" which you can find out about here: