| "Journey to the Center of the Mind" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by the Amboy Dukes | ||||
| from the album Journey to the Center of the Mind | ||||
| B-side | "Mississippi Murderer" | |||
| Released | June 1968 [1] | |||
| Recorded | 1967 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 3:11 | |||
| Label | Mainstream | |||
| Songwriter(s) | ||||
| Producer(s) | Bob Shad | |||
| The Amboy Dukes singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"Journey to the Center of the Mind" is a song released by the Amboy Dukes in June 1968. [1] It reached No.16 on the Billboard charts in 1968 [2] and No.19 in Canada. [3]
"Journey to the Center of the Mind" featured a psychedelic rock, [4] garage rock, [5] hard rock [6] and acid rock sound. [7] It features lyrics written by the Dukes' second guitarist Steve Farmer, [8] and melody written by Ted Nugent. [9] [10] The song was recorded with a higher budget than their past work. During the recording there was considerable tension amongst the band members, and a few of them quit after the album was released, in the summer of 1968. The single helped define the psychedelic era as it peaked at No.16 on the Billboard charts. [11] [12]
The song "Journey to the Center of the Mind" was covered by Slade (as "Ambrose Slade") in 1969 on the album Beginnings , by The Ramones in 1994 on Acid Eaters [13] and by Sun City Girls in 2001 on Libyan Dream. "Journey to the Center of the Mind" was included in the compilation album Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965–1968 , on the 1998 CD reissue, as a bonus track.
Ted Nugent remade the song on his 2007 album Love Grenade .[ citation needed ]
The lyrics are generally thought to be referring to drug use. [14] [15] [16] [17]
Psychedelic rock is a rock music genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound effects and recording techniques, extended instrumental solos, and improvisation. Many psychedelic groups differ in style, and the label is often applied spuriously.
Acid Eaters is the thirteenth studio album by the American punk rock band Ramones.
Acid rock is a loosely defined type of rock music that evolved out of the mid-1960s garage punk movement and helped launch the psychedelic subculture. While the term has sometimes been used interchangeably with "psychedelic rock", acid rock also specifically refers to a more musically intense, rawer, harder, louder, or heavier subgenre or sibling of psychedelic rock. Named after lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), the style is generally defined by heavy, distorted guitars and often contains lyrics with drug references and long improvised jams.
The Amboy Dukes were an American rock band formed in 1964 in Chicago, Illinois, and later based in Detroit, Michigan. They are best known for their only hit single, "Journey to the Center of the Mind". The band's name comes from the title of a novel by Irving Shulman. In the UK, the group's records were released under the name of the American Amboy Dukes, because of the existence of a British group with the same name. The band went through a number of personnel changes during its active years, the only constant being lead guitarist and composer Ted Nugent. The band transitioned to being Nugent's backing band before he discontinued the name in 1975.
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The Amboy Dukes is the debut studio album by American rock band The Amboy Dukes. It was released in November 1967 on Mainstream Records.
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Theodore Anthony Nugent is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, and political activist. He goes by several nicknames, including Uncle Ted, The Nuge, and Motor City Madman. Nugent initially gained fame as the lead guitarist and occasional vocalist of The Amboy Dukes, a band formed in 1963 that played psychedelic rock and hard rock. After dissolving the band, he embarked on a successful solo career. His first three solo albums, Ted Nugent (1975), Free-for-All (1976) and Cat Scratch Fever (1977), were certified multi-platinum in the United States. His latest album, Detroit Muscle, was released in 2022.
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Steven Orville Farmer was an American guitarist, composer and lyricist, best known for his composition with Ted Nugent in 1968, "Journey to the Center of the Mind", performed by their group The Amboy Dukes. Farmer wrote the lyrics to the hit song, which peaked at #16 in the charts. He also co-wrote with Nugent, or self composed, 22 compositions on the first three albums by The Amboy Dukes.
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Journey to the Center of the Mind is the second studio album released by The Amboy Dukes. Released in April 1968 on Mainstream Records, the album is best remembered for its hit single title track, which charted at No.16 on the Billboard singles chart.
Rick Lober is an American musician who was the original keyboardist for the psychedelic rock band the Amboy Dukes in the 1960s. The group is known for its only hit "Journey to the Center of the Mind". His bandmates were Ted Nugent, Steve Farmer, John Drake, Dave Palmer and Bill White.
"Don't Talk to Strangers" is a song by American rock group The Beau Brummels, released as the second single from the band's second album, The Beau Brummels, Volume 2. The song later appeared on the band's 1987 compilation album The Best of The Beau Brummels 1964–1968. The single peaked at number 52 on the Billboard Hot 100 in November 1965; its relatively low chart placement possibly being the result of the band's label, Autumn Records, verging on collapse at the time. The song reached number 16 on the Canadian singles chart.
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Bohemian Vendetta was an American garage rock and psychedelic band from Long Island, New York, who were active from 1966 to 1968. In addition to recording two officially released singles and several previously unissued demos, they cut a self-titled album, Bohemian Vendetta, released by Mainstream Records in 1968.
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