Journey to the Center of the Mind was recorded on a higher budget than the previous album, following the success of its single "Baby Please Don't Go", and features two new members to the line-up; Greg Arama replacing Bill White on bass, and Andy Solomon replacing Rick Lober on piano/organ. Stylistically, the album is a departure from its predecessor by abandoning much of their blues influences (with the exception of "Mississippi Murderer"). This was also the first Dukes album to feature all original songs, all of which were written by Ted Nugent and rhythm guitarist/singer Steve Farmer. The album was in part a commercial attempt to reach the counter-cultural market by producing somewhat of a concept album. Originally, the record's A and B sides were to be stylistically contrasted to each other, and written separately by Nugent and Farmer, respectively. The final project, however, includes most of the lyrics on the first half to be written by Farmer, while the second half features Nugent's only writing contribution to be the music for the album's title track and "Conclusion", which uses the same music. While Nugent's songs are more geared in the direction of hard rock that would pioneer into what is now considered an early precursor to heavy metal music, Farmer's work has much more of a psychedelic feel that tends to satirize the music scene at the time rather than embrace it, even going as far as to play out like a continual concept album. Despite the musical differences, the two sides are both experimental in their own right, as they were still in the process of developing their sound that Nugent would continue to reinvent until the end of the band's career.