Don Mock - 1993 "Speed of Light"

 I had originally named this collection of tunes “The Basement Tapes.” I produced a few hundred cassette copies mainly for my GIT students so they could hear me play some of my compositions we were working on. Most of the tunes were basically rough demos which I recorded on my home studio (in my basement) 4-track cassette. I never considered the tracks to used on a “real” product. But soon after the tapes were duplicated, Jim Greeninger of DDD Records called me and wanted to release the album on CD. Playing off the title of my first album “Mock One,” he renamed it “Speed of Light.”

The CD was mainly sold in a few stores on the West Coast and later a few internet outlets. But eventually, we ran out of the first run of CD’s and the recording was out of circulation for several years. But thanks to the web, we’re now able to re-release the CD in digital downloadable form. This album will certainly not win any awards for it’s recording quality and some of the performances are rough but I’m proud of how well some of the tunes came out.

Being originally conceived as a demo, I wanted to demonstrate my playing and writing in various ways using several different guitars and sounds. Most of the electric guitar is my Mike Stevens prototype “LJ” with a Roland synth pickup. All of the midi recording of drums, bass and keyboard parts were input with the Stevens guitar. I also grabbed my Strat for a few things as well as my nylon and steel-string Ovation acoustics.

And that’s my custom Moller double-neck synth guitar playing the “Jan Hammer-ish” solos on tunes like St. Clair and Field of Six. The top neck has wires attached to each fret under the fingerboard. The strings are also wired so just the contact of the string touching the fret triggered the Oberheim synth modules I used. It’s the fasted tracking synth ever build but has lots of short-comings including mono-phonic (no chords) and mono-dynamic (no loud and soft). And it required a whole new left-hand “hammer” technique to play it. I did love using the pitch-bend lever which allowed me to do very un-guitar type bends and vibrato. The bottom neck is a regular electric guitar with a Roland system built in. A very experimental, exciting and heavy guitar.

"Speed of Light” does feature some very fine “real” players including drummer Dave Coleman, Chuck Deardorf on bass, Marc Seales on keyboards, Dan Dean on bass and Mike Bueno on drums.
A few of my favorite cuts are “St. Clair” and “Flight of the U-10.” Named after the street I lived on when I first moved to LA to start GIT, “St Clair” became a standard as far as fusion tunes go ending up in a few “fake" books. It’s a fun tune to play and the recording has some decent solos including a few seconds of “no idea how I pulled that off” guitar and synth licks. The “Flight of the U-10” is based on some sequenced background music I heard played on a sports broadcast showing, in slo-motion, a spectacular hydroplane crash which seriously injured the driver, who I knew. The music sequence was haunting and I “borrowed" the basic theme and built a groove from it. I added acoustic guitar and a few synth solos and like how it turned out.

And of course, “Apache Nightmare” is a tune I used to play a lot with the great Howard Roberts who wrote it. We always played it as a high-energy fusion tune, but for this recording I decided to change the key and play it on my nylon-string acoustic. And of all the tunes on “Speed of Light” I still play “Apache” to this day. Ironically, it’s usually with a guitar duo I play in with Jay Roberts, Howards son.

All compositions by Don Mock except:
Apache Nightmare by Howard Roberts and Jac Murphy
Robben’s Bebop Blues by Robben Ford
The theme from Flight of the U-10 - unknown
Speed of Light is a collection of compositions and computer tracks recorded at Mock One Productions, Seattle Washington. With the exception of St. Clair, Silent Castle and User Friendly (which are studio demos), all tunes were computer sequenced and/or recorded on a Tascam 4-track cassette recorder. All drums, bass and keyboard type parts recorded into the computer using a Roland Guitar Synthesizer with the exception of:
St. Clair and Silent Castle
Drums: Dave Coleman, Bass: Chuck Deardorf, Piano: Marc Seales
User Friendly
Drums: Mike Bueno, Bass: Dan Dean, Piano: Marc Seales
Robben’s Bebop Blues
Piano: Marc Seales
Produced by Don Mock
Dedicated to the Memory of Howard Roberts who was a great friend and inspiration to my guitar playing and my teaching. -Don Mock
Special Thanks to Kathy Adolphsen, Mark Morgan, Mike Stevens Guitars, Marc Seales, Dave Raynor, Harry Gatjens, Roger E. Hutchinson, Dave Coleman, Chuck Deardorf, Dan Dean, Mike Bueno and Jim Greeninger of Digital Domain Disks.
 -Don Mock. 

Courtesy: Original uploader. I do not own this record, Crimhead420.

Track listing:

01 St. Clair 5:31
02 Robben's Bebop Blues 4:04
03 Hip Hop Cowboy - Part 1 7:06
04 Ballad of Triangles 2:06
05 Kasamba 3:29
06 Field of Six 5:19
07 Etude of Two Hearts 1:57
08 User Friendly 5:07
09 Flight of the U-10 7:54
10 Hip Hop Cowboy - Part 2 4:52
11 Apache Nightmare 3:39
12 Silent Castle 7:16

Total length: 58:20

Personnel:

Don Mock - Guitars
Dave Coleman, Mike Bueno - Drums
Dan Dean, Chuck Deardorf - Bass
Marc Seales - Piano

Ted Nugent & The Amboy Dukes - 1970 [2004] "Survival of the Fittest Live"

Survival of the Fittest Live is the fifth album by The Amboy Dukes. Released in 1971, it was the band's second album on Polydor Records, and the first where the band was credited as "Ted Nugent and the Amboy Dukes". It was the second Polydor album to chart, and it peaked at #129. There were no accompanying singles released by the record company. The performance was recorded live at the Eastown Theater in Detroit, Michigan, on July 31 and August 1, 1970. Keyboardist Andy Solomon, again, contributed most of the vocals. Except "Prodigal Son" (from Migration album) none of songs were previously released.

After three albums on Mainstream Records and a Top 20 smash with "Journey to the Center of the Mind," Ted Nugent brought his new aggregation to Polydor(the late Lillian Roxon claimed there were 35 personnel changes prior to their first and only hit). This second album on that label (and before they would jump to Warner and eventually Epic), was recorded live at The Eastowne Theater in Detroit, MI, July 31 and August 1, 1970.

A prime candidate for re-release with bonus tracks, the full hit is not here; the single disc contains six tracks, including the 21-minute-and-20-second epic "Prodigal Son," written by Nugent and sung by keyboardist Andy Solomon. Solomon handles the majority of the vocals on this album, with drummer K.J. Knight vocalizing on the bluesy "Mr.Jones Hanging Party" and songwriter/guitarist/focal point Nugent doing the chores on "Papa's Will." Solomon provides nice sax on "Mr. Jones' Hanging Party," showing the considerable talent he brought to the table.

What's this live disc like? The riff to "Journey to the Center of the Mind" opens the album inside the instrumental collaboration written by the group, "Survival of the Fittest," and it is a big tease. Unlike the bad mutations of the Electric Prunes, H.P. Lovecraft, and the most blatant example, the Velvet Underground's pseudo-record, Squeeze, this is the leader of an original group as he goes through musical changes. "Rattle My Snake" is certainly more in the Pat Travers vein than the psychedelic intrigue of the original (on record anyway) Amboy Dukes, and though this recording is live and has that live excitement, it feels more like a new album, with none of the tracks appearing on previous discs. "Papa's Will" is Ted Nugent stretching out a riff that -- if it were brought up in the mix -- could inspire Black Sabbath.

The collage of the four members on back is as bizarre as another Michigan product, Survival by Grand Funk Railroad. This album has that primal feel, though it is Ted Nugent with bows and arrows, in Native American garb, who is the solitary figure on the front cover. "Slidin' On" is a weak opening to side two, and the lengthy "Prodigal Son" contains obligatory drum solo and bass musings, but fails to kick in à la "In a Gadda da Vida" or Rare Earth's "Get Ready," which spread across entire sides of their respective discs. OK, so it is Ted Nugent doing Ten Years After without the flash of Alvin Lee, but "Prodigal Son" is one long jam with no climax, when you know 20 minutes of riffing on "Journey to the Center of the Mind" is really what the record-buying public wanted.

Years later someone needs to tell these Amboy Dukes why Procul Harum had to put "A Whiter Shade of Pale" back in the set. Steve Farmer is long gone from here, and only Andy Solomon and Ted Nugent remain from the band who had the hit two years before this concert was recorded. This is really Ted Nugent moving away from the group concept and gearing up for his heavy metal fame in the '70s and '80s. It is mildly interesting.

Track listing:

All songs written by Ted Nugent unless noted.

    "Survival of the Fittest" (Ted Nugent, Rob Ruzga, Andy Solomon, K. J. Knight) – 6:17
    "Rattle My Snake" – 3:00
    "Mr. Jones' Hanging Party" – 4:55
    "Papa's Will" – 9:00
    "Slidin' On" – 3:03
    "Prodigal Son" – 21:20

Personnel:

    Ted Nugent – Guitar, vocals (lead on track 4)
    Andy Solomon – Keyboards, saxophone, vocals (lead on tracks 2, 5 and 6)
    K. J. Knight – Drums, vocals (lead on track 3)
    Rob Ruzga – Bass