About the Video Above...

I first heard the song Journey to the Center of the Mind when I was eight years old. I was at a school carnival at Pinecrest Elementary, on a ride called The Whip. Cars moved on an oval track and lurched violently around each curve. This was supposed to be fun.

I remember The Whip because it was the first time I'd ever been on a ride by myself. It felt weird. "This is going to be my life when I'm 50!" I thought to myself. Well, no, I didn't and I'm glad.

I had a goldfish in a plastic bag on the ride with me. Anyone remember Pitch-a-Fish? If you landed a ping pong ball in one of the fish bowls on tiered shelves, you got to take the fish home in a plastic bag. With water in it. Did I really need to say that?

As the Whip did its terrible turns I worried about my fish. The ride moved fast. And those violent lurches... Was it upsetting my baggie-encased Comet ? I've always been sensitive. I cared about that fish.

This next part...who knows if I'm putting this together right. It all become a collage with each passing decade. But what I remember is hearing Journey to the Center of the Mind for the first time, at the carnival. Maybe while still on the ride. Really, it doesn't matter where I was because I slipped the mortal coil and flew.

If my third grade brain had been scanned at that moment, it would have shown my neurons glowing neon colors, pulsating and flashing like disco lights. The song made me ecstatic. I'd never had a song- maybe anything- make me feel that way before.

Journey to the Center of the Mind still makes me fly- in an overweight, close-to-menopause kind of way.

Everything about the video above makes me happy. Twenty year old Ted Nugent (did you know he was in the Amboy Dukes? No? Come to me for this sort of thing. I know it). Twenty year old Ted Nugent on guitar, smokin' hot and a great guitar player too. And if that wasn't enough, there are Go-Go dancers. I LOVE Go-Go dancers. If I could be anything at any point in history I'd be a 60's Go-Go dancer.

If there's even one person who watches this and gets how special it is, I'll be happy. Liking it for it's anachronistic charm is fine too.

Yeah, Yeah, I know, Ted Nugent's politics today... I'm not wild about his pro NRA stance, but his hunting is fine with me. I love his cookbook title "Kill it and Grill it". Subtlety is over-rated.

I saw Ted in 1977. He was insane; a wild man. It was awesome, but I love his restraint and little gestures in the video below. And the guitar playing. Wow.

So, check out Young Ted and some sixties psychedelic fun.