Free For All

I paid to see Ted Nugent once. The Motor City Madman was part of a very heavy bill that included Richie Blackmore's Rainbow and the Scorpions, and somewhat improbably headlined by REO Speedwagon. Generally speaking, my music tastes in the eighties ran more to the New Wave side of things, while it was my roommate Darren who held down the hard rock corner. Still, it was an opportunity to hear such nuggets as "Great White Buffalo" and "Cat Scratch Fever" live and in person, so off we trotted in search of a head-banging good time.
Turns out, I really enjoyed Ted's show. He was the quintessential arena rocker, and everything he did was big and loud. It was 1984 and he was just the right level of cartoon-machismo to drop on top of my late-summer college-drunk-haze. It never occurred to me that he might grow up to be a political force of any kind. Maybe it was the rum we stirred into our stadium Cokes, or the housewarming party we had survived the night before, but I don't recall any calls from the stage back then to do anything but keep on rockin'. There was no mention of Walter Mondale or Ronald Reagan.
Times have changed. Ted Nugent recently added to his ultra-conservative reputation by suggesting "We need to ride into that battlefield and chop their heads off in November," in reference to the Obama administration and the upcoming campaign with Mitt "En" Romney as his preferred candidate. He made this comment at an NRA convention, so the metaphor seemed appropriate to the occasion, if not just a little over the top. After meeting with Secret Service agents, the matter of threatening the President was put quickly put to rest. "Metaphors needn't be explained to educated people," he said.
Educated people don't need to have Ted's exhortations from four years ago any more than they would need a lyric sheet to examine the lyric subtlety of "Wang Dang Sweet Poontang." Educated people are probably looking for something just a little more thoughtful from their pundits, right or left. This guy kills grizzly bears after all, he doesn't use them as metaphor.