Two ways to listen to the psychedelic Detroit classic "Journey to the Center of the Mind": With or without the Nuge!

By Mike McGonigal on Thu, Feb 26, 2015 at 2:44 pm

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There are many reasons to want to listen to a great version of the Amboy Dukes' psychedelic hit of 1968, "Journey to the Center of the Mind" without the specter of the crossbow-wielding, Tea Bagging chickenhawk and jailbate-dater Theodore Nugent. Dude has made it awful hard to enjoy listening to any of his music, after all.

This here version is sped-up, loud, and kicks just as much ass as the original, if not more. The Sun City Girls (1979-2007) always deliver. The group even has Michigan roots of their own; two thirds of them (brothers Rick and Alan Bishop) were kids nearby. “I'm half Lebanese, and I grew up in Michigan, in Saginaw, which actually has a large Lebanese population,” guitarist and singer Rick told Alarm magazine a few years ago.

And if you want to hear the excellent original, recorded right here in Detroit some 47 years ago, here that is, too!

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About The Author

Mike McGonigal

Metro Times music editor Mike McGonigal has written about music since 1984, when he started the fanzine Chemical Imbalance at age sixteen with money saved from mowing lawns in Florida. He's since written for Spin, Pitchfork, the Village VOICE and Artforum. He's been a museum guard, a financial reporter, a bicycle...