Legendary Michigan Songs

11.) Journey To The Center Of The Mind - The Amboy Dukes

Artist Name: The Amboy Dukes
Year Inducted: 2008

"Journey To The Center Of The Mind" (S. Farmer, T. Nugent) - The Amboy Dukes;  Mainstream label,  # 16 Billboard Hot 100 - 1968.  Inducted in 2008.

Led by the howling guitar of Ted Nugent, the Amboy Dukes set the bar for high-energy Michigan rock and roll. "Journey To The Center Of The Mind" blasted out of car radios across the land to help define the psychedelic movement during the summer of 1968.  But the two co-writers of the song, Ted Nugent and Steve Farmer, couldn't have been more different. 

Nugent claims to have never done a drug in his life, and that he didn't even drink or smoke cigarettes. He described Farmer, the other main creative force in the Amboy Dukes, as a brilliant thinker who was often "so high and so irresponsible you couldn't get from point A to point B with him." 

This creative odd couple kept it together for three albums and a handful of singles before the original Amboy Dukes disintegrated.  "Journey To The Center Of The Mind" would be their only significant hit.

YouTube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Beh1ipK3hN0