| Marriage on the Rocks/Rock Bottom | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | March 1970 | |||
| Length | 45:26 | |||
| Label | Polydor | |||
| Producer |
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| The Amboy Dukes chronology | ||||
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Marriage on the Rocks/Rock Bottom is the fourth album by American rock band The Amboy Dukes, released in 1970. It is the first of two albums released on the Polydor label, which saw the band experiencing creative differences in regards to their musical direction, resulting in a more experimental album than their previous releases.
 | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (May 2023) |
During the recording of the Amboy Dukes' albums for Polydor Records, the band experienced creative differences in regards to their musical direction. [1] During this album's recording sessions, drummer Dave Palmer left the group to become a recording engineer. [2]
AllMusic wrote, "Amboy Dukes' Marriage on the Rocks/Rock Bottom is a very musical record, more experimental than their releases on Mainstream Records". [3] The website compared the band's recordings on Polydor to the band Ten Years After [3] and said that "Marriage/Part 1: Man/Part 2: Woman/Part 3: Music" sounded like the band Jethro Tull, calling it a progressive blues song. [3] The album's songs are longer and more reliant on improvisation, with AllMusic nothing that "Breast Fed Gator (Bait)" is one of the only songs that could have been released as a single, due to it's shorter length compared to the rest of the album. [3] AllMusic called "Children of the Woods" "workable British pop". [3] AllMusic compared "The Inexhaustible Quest for Cosmic Cabbage", which quotes Béla Bartók's "String quartet no. 2", [4] to the Beach Boys, Spirit and Ten Wheel Drive, and said that it sounded like the Amboy Dukes hoped "to be the Mothers of Invention". [3]
| | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (May 2023) |
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [3] |
All tracks composed by Ted Nugent, except where indicated.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Marriage (Part 1: Man. Part 2: Woman. Part 3: Music)" | 9:02 |
| 2. | "Breast-Fed 'Gator (Bait)" | 2:52 |
| 3. | "Get Yer Guns" | 4:23 |
| 4. | "Non-Conformist Wilderbeastman" | 1:25 |
| 5. | "Today's Lesson (Ladies & Gentlemen)" | 5:30 |
| Total length: | 24:04 | |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6. | "Children of the Woods" | 8:27 | |
| 7. | "Brain Games of Yesteryear" | 3:42 | |
| 8. | "The Inexhaustible Quest for the Cosmic Cabbage" (Includes excerpts from Bartók's "String quartet no. 2" [4] ) |
| 10:05 |
| Total length: | 23:12 | ||
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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