Marriage on the Rocks/Rock Bottom
| Marriage on the Rocks/Rock Bottom | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | March 1970 | |||
| Recorded | December 1969 | |||
| Studio | Mirasound Studios & The Hit Factory, New York | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 45:26 | |||
| Label | Polydor | |||
| Producer |
| |||
| The Amboy Dukes chronology | ||||
| ||||
Marriage on the Rocks/Rock Bottom is the fourth album by American rock band The Amboy Dukes, released in 1970, this was a more experimental album than their previous releases. It is the first of two albums released on the Polydor Records label.
Production
During the recording of the Amboy Dukes' albums for Polydor Records, the band experienced creative differences in regards to their musical direction,[1] and drummer Dave Palmer left the group to become a recording engineer.[2]
Reception
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | [3] |
| Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal | 3/10[4] |
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 noting that "Breast Fed Gator (Bait)" is one of the only songs that could have been released as a single, due to its 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",[5] 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]
Track listing
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"[5]) |
| 10:05 |
| Total length: | 23:12 | ||
Personnel
- Ted Nugent – guitar, lead vocals on track 4
- Andy Solomon – keyboards, lead vocals, saxophone
- Greg Arama – bass
- Dave Palmer – drums, assistant engineer
- Production
- Edwin H. Kramer – producer, engineer
Charts
| Chart (1970) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| US Billboard Top LPs[6] | 191 |
References
- ^ Hoffman, Frank (May 23, 2016). Chronology of American Popular Music, 1900-2000. Taylor & Francis. p. 375. ISBN 978-1135868864.
- ^ Matheu, Robert; Bowe, Brian J. (November 2007). CREEM: America's Only Rock 'N' Roll Magazine. HarperCollins. p. 31. ISBN 978-0061374562.
- ^ a b c d e f g Viglione, Joe. "Marriage on the Rocks/Rock Bottom Review". AllMusic. Retrieved May 23, 2023.
- ^ Popoff, Martin (October 2003). The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal: Volume 1: The Seventies. Burlington, Ontario, Canada: Collector's Guide Publishing. pp. 21–22. ISBN 978-1894959025.
- ^ a b Duxbury, Janell R. (February 5, 2001). Rockin' the Classics and Classicizin' the Rock: A Selectively Annotated Discography: Second Supplement. Xlibris. p. 28. ISBN 1462807364.
- ^ Whitburn, Joel (1996). Top LPs, 1955–1996. Record Research. p. 10. Retrieved July 10, 2025.