Free For All Dog Eat Dog Ted Nugent

Free For All
Dog Eat Dog Album: Free For All (1976)
by Ted Nugent

In an interview with Nugent, he explained the meaning in Free For All: "When you spend as much time on stage as I do, you're looking into the beady eyes that can cut me in two. Those lyrics just blurted out. The rhythm is like a Bo Diddley lick through a louder amp with more flail. Equal groove, but a little excessive flailage.

I sang what I felt on stage looking into those wonderful music lovers' eyeballs. Just as spontaneous and raw as a song can be. Celebrating those people that share my music with me."

"Free For All" (sometimes rendered "Free-For-All") is the title track to Ted Nugent's 1976 album. It was just his second album as a solo artist, but in the last few years of his band The Amboy Dukes, he was running the show.

Nugent didn't sing lead on many songs around this time, but he did on this one. Five songs on the album have lead vocals by Meat Loaf, whose bat had yet to escape hell. Three others feature his guitarist, Derek St. Holmes. Only "Free For All" has a Ted Nugent lead.

Nugent certainly couldn't sing like Meat Loaf and didn't want to try - his focus was on the guitar. But there were certain song that he felt only he could express vocally, and "Free For All" was one of them. He also wanted a set of songs that he could sing in concert so he could better command the stage, and he had an inking that "Free For All" would become a live favorite.

The line, "Stakes are high, and so am I" isn't a drug reference - Nugent took a strong stance against drugs and alcohol. He's high on life and on the music. Another drug-free "high" song Nugent was part of is "High Enough," his hit with the group Damn Yankees.

Nugent performed this song in 2006 with Scott Ian, Sebastian Bach, Jason Bonham, and Evan Seinfeld for the VH1 reality show Supergroup, which followed these guys as they formed a group called Damnocracy.

Dog Eat Dog written by the Motor City Madman himself, this song from Ted Nugent's second solo album was inspired by the 1967 Detroit riots:

Sabotage in the downtown streets
Police cars overturned
Can't do nothing to beat the heat
And if you don't you'll get burned

Nugent isn't taking a side, but looking at the riots from the perspective of a citizen who gets caught up in them. "It's necessary to keep authority in check to some extent, but not always," he told Sounds. "A lot of times riots are just stupidity in action. A lot of times I can't tell you whether they are righteous or stupid and there may be occasions of both."

Ted Nugent didn't sing on many of his early tracks, and on this one, Derek St. Holmes did lead vocals. Nugent would often introduce the song, making it clear that he was the alpha dog in this outfit.

In the last verse, Nugent sings:

Kamikaze from the hundredth floor
Swan dive to the street
He couldn't handle this madness no more
He craved that sweeter meat

This represents people who can't cope in the dog-eat-dog world and turn to suicide. "What it implies is that ain't nobody eatin' this dog," he said. "I'm a part of that city world, I was for many years and I was able to deal with it and take nourishment." said Ted.