Formed in 1964 by guitarists Kramer & Smith as the Bounty Hunters, they recruit Rob Tyner on vocals (originally wanted to be their manager) who comes up with the name MC5 and recruited Michael Davis (bass) and Thompson (drums). The name MC5 is thought up by Tyner and chosen because it sounds like a car part and also stands for Motor City 5 which is apt because the band emanates from the tough city of Detroit a city famed for its car industry and simmering racial tensions in mid sixties America.

The band play battle of the bands and any gig they can get taking an aggressive, competitive edge to these events honing their skills, performance and solidarity but without much success. However with the burgeoning hippy scene the band’s fortunes take a turn for the better when they take on John Sinclair, leader of the Trans Love Commune, as their manager. Sinclair was a major figure Detroit’s counter culture and had served two prison terms for marijuana related offences.

Wayne Kramer Being the young hustlers we were, the MC5 started to see that this hippie thing was gonna go, man…So we figured the way to get the hippies to like us was to get the chief hippie to like us, who was John Sinclair.  ‘Please Kill Me’

Wayne Kramer We met at school; it’s the same old story as millions of other bands. The energy goes into it, you play and you write but you’re too crazy to control it – you need direction. In 1968 John Sinclair took our experience and articulated and defined it so it became something political. He know where our interest in the music movement stopped, we were primarily interested in rock ‘n’ roll music.  NME, 20.8.77

In terms of radicalisation Sinclair and the Trans Love Commune had now formed and become involved with the more radical White Panther Party based on the Black Panthers a new radial black paramilitary movement that had sprung into existence to protect the rights of blacks as tensions simmered. The belief was that armed revolution was inevitable! Events seemed to be bearing this out as they reached boiling point in Detroit in 1967 when the Detroit Race Riots occurred. Caused by the mainly white police force they were responsible for racial harassment and beatings and were known for their excessive brutality. In this period they became out of control and shot dead over forty people (mainly black). During the Riots 467 were injured, over 7000 arrests were made and more than 2,000 buildings were burned down. In the centre of all this, the MC5 were living.

As the riots progressed troops and tanks were brought in and Kramer recalls coming out of his door to find a tank pointing directly at him. Troops also assaulted the house though perhaps not surprising as the graffiti below was painted on the side of the house

With Sinclair ostensibly the leader and Minister Of Information for the White Panthers a higher profile of propagating revolt was being undertaken by both him and the band and the congregation of large groups of people and conveyance of a revolutionary counter-society message through records and gigs. Around this time the group produce a series of promo shots (mildly homo erotic) posing topless with guitars and guns (and a sax!)

This was a bold but dangerous move displaying themselves as hardened revolutionaries. In retrospect, they considered this a mistake because they weren’t. At the time they seriously considered death in an armed shootout a possibility.

This and the publicised White Panther 10 Point Program couldn’t fail to bring them to the attention of the authorities as a danger and their phones were illegally tapped and they were the subject of covert surveillance by the FBI. During the riots their group van was firebombed and their residence invaded by marines checking out reports of a sniper and who addressed Sinclair chillingly by name. They were marked men.

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White Panther Party 10-Point Program

1. Full endorsement and support of Black Panther Party’s 10-Point Program.
2. Total assault on the culture by any means necessary, including rock ’n’ roll, dope and fucking in the streets.
3. Free exchange of energy and materials — we demand the end of money!
4. Free food, clothes, housing, dope, music, bodies, medical care — everything free for everybody!
5. Free access to information media — free the technology from the greed creeps!
6. Free time and space for all humans — dissolve all unnatural boundaries.
7. Free all schools and all structures from corporate rule — turn the buildings over to the people at once!
8. Free all prisoners everywhere — they are our brothers.
9. Free all soldiers at once — no more conscripted armies.
10. Free the people from their “leaders” — leaders suck — all power to all the people! Freedom means free everyone!

John Sinclair, Minister of Information, White Panther Party November 1st, 1968

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While they may not have been hardened revolutionaries, they had the cohones to go and play at the Chicago Democratic Conventioneer of 1968. While Crosby Still Nash & Young sang a song about it and the Doors name-checked it in ‘Peace Frog’ other bands due to play failed to show. One band did and that was the MC5. As agent provocateurs mingled with the crowd and police and troopers massed ready to teargas and beat to a bloody pulp the protestors, the MC5 pumped out their hi energy white noise attuned to the whirring helicopters overhead. The atmosphere must have been incredible. Only the band held the crowd together.

Wayne Kramer “…we’re talking about the war and the human being lawnmower and everything, and the Chicago police helicopters started buzzing down on us”

Dennis Thompson: “…the police troopers came marching in into the park with their  three-foot batons

As they finish their set and make a run for it violence and rioting erupt. The band make good their escape.

An MC5 set at the time was an eclectic mix of originals and covers. ‘Come Together’ & ‘Starship’ mingled with Hooker’s ‘Motorcity Is Burning’, and Ray Charles ‘Believe It To My Soul’. Mix in Coltrane’s ‘unji’ and add their own aural freeform orgy ‘Black To Comm’. Top that off with a high octane stage act of smith and Kramer ripping shit out of their instruments of standing on their stacks rocking them so much they were teetering on falling over, ripping up the US flag, smashing up their instruments and you can see why  people were both fascinated, appalled and loved the band. One thing you could not do was ignore them.

As the music got more frantic, the stage show got farther out, and the people responded wildly…and it got more and more wild. John Sinclair

Another reason was arguably their most famous song ‘Kick Out The Jams’ which started with the cry ‘Kick Out The jams’ Motherfucker! Hard to believe, but that alone sung at a gig could get you arrested or club owners throw you out or withhold payment.

We started getting hassled by the pigs, private guards and heavies, at gig after gig…the police heard about the song through the pig grapevine…John Sinclair

Sinclair wanted to establish some righteous antidote to the current industry with their own label, production and booking company and venues to nurture like bands. Unfortunately MC5 would be providing the funds for this which would later rankle.

In 1968 JC Crawford joined the band and began to introduce the band as can be heard on KOTJ and helping create atmosphere and heightened the atmosphere. Next came the Electra contract and $20k advance which enable debts to be paid off and a decent backline purchased.

1) Sinclair hired a stretch limo to take the band to the gig

2) Tyner basically introduced the band by saying ‘Fuck politics we’re here to rock ‘n’ roll!’

What happened next was their equipment was smashed up, Bill Graham was chain whipped (blaming the MC5), seats were set on fire and they wanted to kill the band saying

Dennis Thompson You guys are a bunch of fucking pussies. You’re pussy motherfuckers. This is the time for revolution. You guys are either gonna be the real thing or if not, we’re gonna kill you. Mojo

The band high tail it out of the place with their reputation in tatters and the influential Bill Graham banning them from his venues and spreading the word on the grapevine that the MC5 were trouble.

Meanwhile there was dissension in the ranks even before the Electra deal. You would think this would be great for the band but according to Sinclair the band were pissed off .” They were dissatisfied with their money, about lack of recognition…they were tired of living with my Trans Love Energies crowd, and demanding that they be allowed to get a house of their own….also they start criticising what we were doing in the White Panther Party.” Zigzag

Following this Holzman offered to release the band from their contract as the band have become a liability without mitigating sales. The record eventually reaches no 30. The band gladly accept and moving to Atlantic for a 50k advance.

While this was happening the long arm of the law got even with the man who had become a thorn in their side.  Sinclair was busted for just two Marijuana joints and eventually sentenced to 10 years in prison. Efforts to get him out would fail until ironically 8 years later John Lennon would play Detroit and dedicate a song to him and his release which would happen virtually the next day!

While inside the band effectively bail out on him (though paying his defence fees)  eventually severing all ties with him and the White Panthers. For Sinclair it was the end of the road and his belief was the band had sold out wanting fame and fortune and to be pop stars.

In 1970 they released the ‘Back In The USA’ album produced by future Springsteen manager Jon Landau. Radically different in sound and approach to the first, the songs are quick and snappy and have an urgency that would make them more in common with later Punk Rock bands. Again the album fails to make headway and the band begins a slow slide into obscurity. They immediately began on the next ‘High Times’ which was to be in effect a culmination of their previous two and according to the band their best effort. As Wayne Kramer reveals in MC5 A True Testimonial the balance of power had now shifted in the band from him as leader to him and Fred Smith as co-leaders.

The link with Farren was to become an important one. Years later when Kramer went to prison for two years for drug possession, it was Farren who would organise money so Kramer would come out with something to help get him set up. While in London they started recording the next album and put down ‘Sister Anne’.

The next album was ‘High Times’. With a hot reputation across the UK and Europe For the five the conquest of these territories was the next big adventure. Paris, Germany. But… 

A final blow was Atlantic dropping them leaving them with no record company no manager and no John Landau or Danny Fields to support them. The only thing holding it together was Ronan O’Rahilly ostensibly their manager from 1972 and owner of pirate ship Radio Caroline. The man according to Wayne Kramer who ‘almost saved the MC5.’  

It was all going wrong; there no money, they were disconnected from home, their fan base, country and they had lost the spiritual connection to the music and each other. Fred Smith and his wife lost a baby in a crib death. Michael Davis got involved and lived with a gangster and watched a murder being committed in his living room. Add to that a nice line in addictions – Dennis had a junk problem as did Wayne. The band would play a gig then drive 250 miles back home just to cop some more dope. For the more straight-edge Rob Tyner, watching this dissatisfaction was welling up. These weren’t fun times. Then the five became 4 as Michael got fired from the band for yes junk. They got an English bassist in Derek Hughes and went off to do some German gigs. Three months later he went over to the States to join the band.

And then the Five/Four were back in the UK for perhaps their strangest gig. A massive gig at the Wembley stadium on a rock ‘n’ roll show that was full of 1950’s Teds. There were 60,000 people there. So the MC5 unveiled their next move for the future! Fred came out as Sonic Smith super hero, Kramer had painted all his skin gold and Rob was in a gold lame jacket, massively backcombed afro with glitter and tons of makeup. The teddy boys didn’t like it and threw cans and Rob made the fatal error of throwing one back which heralded the onslaught of a rain of cans. “It was us versus them and there was way more of them! Sometimes we made tactical mistakes (laughing)” Wayne Kramer

Back to the US for more gigs then on the next visit to Europe Rob bailed out and at the same time Dennis bailed out. The band got in another drummer – Ritchie Dharama and they went over to Scandinavia and did the gigs as the MC5 except there was four and really in all respects it was the MC2.  Footage from the time show Fred and Wayne looking at each other wearily knowing it was neither right or righteous.

Getting back to Detroit they were offered $500 to play the Grande on New Year’s Eve and the other guys came back and played. Wayne Kramer recalls wistfully the night in ‘A True Testimonial’.

The scene of the great triumphs of the MC5, the wonderful gigs, the huge crowds 3000 people would show up…the coloured lights and the promise of the future, youthful enthusiasm, spirituality, John, White Panthers and now …same room…there might have been 250 people there and I had a heroin habit.

As Wayne Kramer played, everything he hated about the band welled up and midway through the gig he upped and walked out offstage and went to the dope house.

And that was the end of the MC5…

Afterwards…

Fed Smith formed Sonic Rendezvous and married Patti Smith. He died on Nov 4^th 1994

Rob Tyner formed a new MC5 and even recorded a single with the Hot Rods. He died in September 18^th 1991 and was buried in an MC5 Tshirt.

Michael played with ex Stooges guitarist Ron Ashton in Destroy All Monsters and served 2 years for drug possession

Dennis Thompson joined New Order

Wayne Kramer formed a number of bands including Gang War with Johnny Thunders and is releasing solo records to this day.

Wayne Kramer When the shit was hitting the fan, at its most intense, when the police were at the door, when the firebombs were flying when the riots going off, when the Grande ballroom had 3000 crazed youths in it …this was big fun, this was fun…you don’t know fun until you’ve just finished having the wildest most bizzarrest sex of your imagination to go downstairs and see your van being firebombed! We’re talking fun!

Radical activist band or band caught in a moment where their electric playing and act synergise with the time? The below from Charles Shaar Murray gig at The Fox Croydon in 1972 captures it perfectly. The band had that indefinable magic and music was the weapon for change not allied to guns.

‘The important thing in any revolutionary activity’ says Fred Smith, ‘is the communication of the real values’.’What we’re concerned with is not so much a revolutionary consciousness’, continues Tyner, ‘I think the consciousness that we’re concerned with, if you summed it up in a word, would definitively encompass revolutionary in the sense of the change in the sense of values that is needed right now, and that would be something that we would term loving awareness, as opposed to a defensive awareness, which is what most of the world functions in today, and always has.

That was a prime example of where John Sinclair’s head was at, and that’s why we didn’t agree with it. We knew it wasn’t right, we knew it wasn’t gonna change things…”The most important thing for us to do’, says Smith, ‘is to try to project a loving awareness attitude. If I come to you and I’m projecting a defensive awareness attitude, then I’m totally blocked off to you, and there is no communication. In our situation as a group, in our music, in our stage show, in the things we say on stage, we wish to project this openness, this loving awareness, this sensitivity towards a higher level of communication.’ ‘Vibrations, the art form we are dealing with is literally vibrations’, says Tyner, ‘because we produce sound vibrations. These sound vibrations come out of us, through the circuitry of our instruments, out into the air and into you. You don’t have to know that rock and roll’s being played, you just open the door and walk in and immediately it comes into you. If it says something to you on a vibrational level, you stay and you become more opened up by it.’
 

In theory, the MC5 are just another multi-megawatt heavy band. Kramer and Smith seem to concentrate on playing with all the speed and volume they can muster Tyner’s range is minimal, and bassist Mike Davis and drummer Dennis Thompson are just about adequate. Technically it sucks, and the whole thing is crass as hell. But it works, I’m dancing. Something happens when the MC5 get it on that only happens when the very best bands get it on. What makes it happen is that the MC5 understand rock and roll, and they understand it well. They are masters of kinetic excitement, they know how to open a song at maximum power and then build from there, and that is what makes them a better show than many a band whose technical ability may be infinitely higher. Charles Shaar Murray http://makemyday.free.fr/cream.htm

Remember the MC5 like below and if it doesn’t move you – you really don’t understand music

Looking At You live at Tartar Field on Wayne State University Campus in Detroit on July 19th, 1970

“Truth and Love are my Law and Worship
Form and Conscience are my Manifestation and Guide
Nature and Peace are my Shelter and Companion
Order is my Attitude
Beauty and Perfection are my ATTACK.”
 “Poison” – Wayne Kramer

As Rock and the counter culture developed through the Sixties, it didn’t take a genius to work out that with the right band and message you had all the ingredients needed for a powerful vehicle of change. So when John Sinclair hooked up with the MC5 the possibility was there as his 1968 article below shows

Rock and Roll Is a Weapon of Cultural Revolution
by JOHN SINCLAIR

“The duty of the revolutionary is to make the revolution.” The duty of the musician is to make the music. But there is an equation that must not be missed: MUSIC IS REVOLUTION. Rock and roll music is one of the most vital revolutionary forces in the West-it blows people all the way back to their senses and makes them feel good, like they’re alive again in the middle of this monstrous funeral parlor of western civilization. And that’s what the revolution is all about-we have to establish a situation on this planet where all people can feel good all the time. And we “I not stop until that situation exists.

I mean the ego developed strictly as an economic function, when there got to be too many people on the planet for the planet’s natural resources and there wasn’t enough for everybody anymore. Then people had to start separating themselves out from the tribe and see themselves as individuals, because if there ain’t enough for everybody then everybody’s got to try to make sure he or she has got enough, and there’s always somebody else around who wants to take it away from you….

Think about it. If all the kids in high schools who can’t stand that shit would stop going-all of you-then where would the schools be? They have to have you there. If you aren’t there they won’t be able to eat-they won’t have a job anymore. Your parents will go crazy too….

If you’re living at home, start planning for what you’ll be doing when you split. Get together with your people who are waiting to split and plan a scene for when you can be together. Start practicing now, on your parents’ money and time. Save up your money if you get any so you can buy your supplies and equipment when you split.

Don’t waste your time pissing and moaning about how shitty everything is. Start getting it together so you can change it. Everybody knows what a drag it is. You’re not telling anybody anything they can use. Exchange information. Get down. And when you have split, get your thing together so you’ll be able to have a better time than just sitting around smoking bogus dope, dropping bogus speed-filled acid, shooting smack, and listening to brainwash low-energy jams. Tripping out is a dead end and a drag. You always come down. If you engage yourself in a total revolutionary program of self-reliance and serving the people any way you can, you will have a guaranteed good time forever (except for when they lock you up from time to time) and will help other people get it together too.

It isn’t enough just to drop out though-you have to create new forms which will enable you to sustain yourselves while you’re doing your work. The commune is the life-form of the future, it is the revolutionary organizational life-form, and the communal relationship must be realized in everything you do. Rock and roll is the best example. That’s why I said at the beginning of this rant, that MUSIC IS REVOLUTION-because it is immediate, total, fast-changing and ongoing. Rock and roll not only is a weapon of cultural revolution, it is the model of the revolutionary future. At its best the music works to free people on all levels, and a rock and roll band is a working model of the post-revolutionary production unit. The members of a rock and roll family or tribe are totally interdependent and totally committed to the same end-they produce their music collectively, sharing both the responsibility and the benefits of their work equally. They work on the frontiers of modern technology to produce a new form which is strictly contemporary in all its implications. There is no separation. And that’s what it’s all about….

Capitalism is obsolete – it is based on the two horrible notions of private property and competition, both of which have to go right now. And the point is, that it’s time for them to go, because there’s no more room for that old-time shit in the world today. People have got to get it together, not apart. People are now stuck in bullshit jobs, bullshit schools, bullshit houses, bullshit marriages, bullshit social and economic scenes, and there’s no need for it anymore. Most of the jobs that presently exist are useless and anti-human, and they’ll be done away with immediately once the people are in power and the machines are freed to do all the work.

Likewise most of the products of the present consumer economy they’re bullshit and will no longer exist. Eighty-seven different brands of toothpaste! Millions of junky automobiles! That’s all they are–junk-that people have been hooked on by the junk pushers of capitalism. The whole thing is ridiculous!  

Everything has to be free or else!

It is extremely important for urban groups to organize themselves around some form of popular cultural activity like a rock and roll band, a community newspaper, guerrilla theatre groups, a health clinic, or whatever you can put together. The cultural forms will give you access to the mass media and to mass audiences of pre-revolutionary youth who are just sitting around waiting to get totally turned on. High school groups can organize around newspapers and posters and bands and present a united front in their dealings with administrators and other old creeps…. It’s time to turn on, tune in and take over! Up against the ceiling, motherfucker!  

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Looking At You/Borderline
(A Square 1968)

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Kick Out TheJams
(Elektra)

Charles Shaar Murray, NME, 4.6.77

“BROTHERS AND sisters . . . the time has come for each and every one of you to decide, whether you are going to be the problem or whether you are going to be the solution!”

Applause.

“It takes five seconds . . . five seconds of decision . . . five seconds to realise your purpose here on the planet . . . I give you a testimonial – the MCS!”

Zoooooooom . . . crunch. The 5 leap on stage and into “Ramblin’ Rose” with the hardest, heaviest high-energy attack ever put on record. From there on in you’re on your own, in Detroit’s Grande Ballroom in the glory days of autumn ’68 with the meanest, toughest, most militant no-bullshit rock and roll band ever to emerge from the American heartland.

“Kick Out The Jams” is loud, proud rock and roll madness from an era when we thought that if we were weird enough, resolute enough, stoned enough and together enough we could make the establishment curl up and die by sheer good vibrations. Listening to the MCS, I can’t believe we lost. The 5 were one hell of a screamin’ fireball rock and roll band. There were Mike Davis (bass) and Dennis Thompson (drums) smokin’ and stokin’ in the rhythm section, Fred “Sonic” Smith and Brother Wayne Kramer on guitars. Listen, if Eric Bloom of the Cult plays “stun guitar” then Kramer and Smith played “instant disintegration guitars”. Along with Rob Tyner’s hoarse, exhortatory vocals, it all welded together in a death-before-dishonour kamikaze slipstream of “total assault on the culture.”

Apart from the Sun Ra adaptation “Starship”, which is basic psychedelic nonsense redeemed only by its energy and the slow blues “Motor City Is Burning” (and in 1967 Detroit actually was burning -such were the, times), “Kick Out The Jams” is nothing but flat-out full-tilt rock and roll and it still remains a sine qua non of the genre.

This reissue ain’t -perfect. The spine says “MCS” instead of “MCS”, John Sinclair’s celebrated rabble-rousing liner note has been omitted and WEA have used a censored mix that substitutes “Kick Out The Jams, Brothers And Sisters!” for the “Kick Out The Jams, Motherfuckers!” rant of the original mix. But it’s great to have the MCS back where they belong: in the record racks and on the turntables.

Two more things. Thing one – if high-energy no-quarter positive-vibrations rock and roll is your shot, then there’s no way you’re not going to have a great time with this album. It still kicks ass on most
of the new rock and roll about these days.

Thing two – free Wayne Kramer!

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MC5 Back In The USA
(Atlantic)

Hold onto your hats it’s a Julie Burchill review from her punky 1977 days!

I HEARD the MCS for the first time five days ago and I’m still coming down. Re-released by public demand (and a private plea from cuddlesome Charles Shaar Murray) “Back In The U.S.A.” was the second album by these five boys out of Motor City, first released in 1970.

Originally the brainchild of White Panther leader John Sinclair, the MCS bit the hand that fed them by hooking up with rock critic Jon Landau and rejecting radical politics in favour of sex, violence and dancing. While not explicitly political, the songs here are as conducive to youthful dissent and rebellion as outright propaganda would be. “Back In The U.S.A.” won’t send you running to the library for a hot copy of Das Kapital, but it could just drive you to saluting your Army/Careers/Probation Officer with two fingers and a Bronx cheer.

Almost without exception these 11 tracks are little gems – hard fast and nasty, just one lasting longer than three minutes and most of them around the two and a half minute mark.

“Tonight” (best rock title ever) is a haul-ass celebration of sitting in class getting juiced up with the sheer exhilaration of bands that make your ears bleed. With no plans beyond the next daybreak, the arrogantly acned guitars were made for each other and the pure dissenting harmonies are oblivious to all but their obsession – “Every day/Gonna hear them say/Got to get down in the U.S.A./ Tonight!”

The best song ever written about the wasteland between 12 and 20, “Teenage Lust”, explores the adolescent dilemma of being hot non-stop “Surrounded by bitches who just wouldn’t give it in/Who thought that getting down was an original sin/ Baby, baby, help me/I think I’m gonna bust/ l need a healthy outlet/For my teenage lust!”

Rubbing salt into the wounds inflicted by terminal teenage lust is “Looking At You”, a screaming full-throttle “Death Race 2000” debacle that couldn’t have come out of anywhere but Detroit, Murder City, which holds the dubious honour of the highest homicide rate in America. “Opened up my eyes baby/You made me realise all want to do/Is look at you!” It’s a teeth-clenching speed-shake mangled-Luftwaffe killer that you could tear yourself apart dancing to, Kramer’s guitar is as dirty as a dog fight; it’s like being out of your head and playing tag with the traffic on a warm wild night. Listening to it you can understand why they were too scared to leave Kramer free on the street.

Side Two opens with the butt-twitching “High School”, a good-time number worthy of The Monkees (what higher accolade?) with insidiously innocent lyrics “They’re gonna be taking over/You better get out of the way/Cos they’re going to High Schoo/Rah! Rah! Rah!” The guitar riffs are as irresistible as a drive-in movie, all of it as dumb and beautiful as a sun bronzed cheerleader.

“Call Me Animal” is a brash open invitation which the parents of Young America no doubt responded to with enthusiasm. Heavy handed though it is, the guitars could blast through solid concrete and they’ll yell at you to turn it down, so it serves its purpose.

Much better is “The American Ruse”, the essence of rock and roll meeting the dialectics of protest, propaganda to shake it down to, moving along as easy as greased lightning, Fred “-Sonic” Smith’s guitar strangling the American Dream in a few bars of contempt and affection. Yet it’s nevertheless gilded with harsh sweet harmony and searing optimism.

The compulsively manic “Shakin’ Street” features Rob Tyner in a tireless monotone recalling the orphans of America blind to everything but rock and roll, and Michael Davis as anonymous and irreproachable as a bass should be. “Their mamas all warned them not to come to town? It got into their blood, now they gotta get down”. On one level a no-nonsense rocker, it also comes across as slightly scary in its joyless determination to have a good time.

“The Human Being Lawn-mower” lacks the infectiousness of some of the other tracks and doesn’t make such a deadly fine point. Hard and fast though it is, it lacks the, precision of tracks like “Teenage Lust”; it misses the jugular, but it just about takes off an ear.

Meanwhile, “Back in the U.S.A.” ends with its Chuck Berry namesake, the immortal celebration of America in a happier time as Kramer serenades his country with menacing affection, wringing more love out of a guitar than any orator could ever give. Unlike Presidents, guitars don’t lie; while hamburgers sizzle on open grills and blacks sizzle in Watts – “I’m so glad I’m living in the U.S.A.!”

If any music sounds like suicide it’s the MC5. It wouldn’t be a shock to find inscribed on the label, “This record will self-destruct in five seconds”. As it was, it took them five years.

Free Wayne Kramer.

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High Times

High Time is their most overlooked LP and a million times better than the pitiful hype-practioners heaped on people by the music press/record companies the last few years (e.g. The Von Bodies, TheKills, White Stripes, The Hives, The Vines…and so on). The MC5 were onto something & produced this LP which was rumoured to be the one that the band liked the best! (Wayne Kramer said as much in an interview with Uncut a few years ago…).

The wild guitars of Wayne Kramer & the late Fred’ Sonic’ Smith are suitably mindblowing- this may have been a band towards the end of their brief, brilliant career, but they still played with the freshness you’d associate with the start of their career…High Time is one of the great rock albums of the 1970s and one I’d easily class next to Funhouse (The Stooges), New York Dolls, or The Day…(Rocket from the Tombs). An album this great really ought to be appreciated more-Nirvana? PAH! Primal Scream? REALLY! The Strokes? YOU MUST BE JOKING…this is the real deal and a reminder that there was more to The MC5 than Kick Out the Jams… Jason Parkes Amazon review

The NME of October 1st 1977 featured an article by Rob Tyner of the seminal MC5. They had whisked Rob over from the States and for 2 weeks he had looked at the state of UK music and given his thoughts. In that time he took in Generation X, Boomtown Rats, Eddie & The Hot Rods and met Sid and a couple of other Sex Pistols. While other luminaries of the time were fairly disparaging about Punk and new wave, Rob was both excited and positive about the sound, look and possibilities. And so he should have been…he’d been there before himself.

Groups of ten or twelve dudes who looked like a cross between A Clockwork Orange and Night Of The Living Dead were leaping up and down with shaking heads and rolling eyes and crazy teeth. Generation X were up on the stand lashing and flailing and Billy Idol, their blond lead singer was exhorting the crowd. They responded by spitting on him. I could scarcely believe my eyes…

On the Pistols

The tactics that the Pistols have used to promote their act have gotten them white hot, but they’ve backfired on them too. What good is it to be really hot when you can’t play for an audience that wants you? But then it’s historically perfect. The Stones were banned, the Troggs were banned, I was banned, everybody and their momma has been banned. It’s part of the Social Backlash Syndrome that occurs when groups begin to stir up The Wrath Of The Authorities. But it’s more than the cops against the Pistols, it’s mums and dads. They’re a more powerful pressure group than most bands can take on and beat.

On Punks V Teds

The levels of violence around here are weird and random…you can get smashed for any multitude of reasons (a) having long hair (b) having short hair or (c) not greasing your hair back in a pompadour… Seriously the animosity between Teds and punks and hippies totally mystifies me…[we’ve] more in common than with the rest of society and we’ve got the Big Beat in common…I believe the Teds are keeping alive a really important musical influence…but you can’t cut it off at 1957 and violently oppose other rockers exploring new influences.

On Punk & The US

The old guard is still in control of the mass market, judging from the most recent charts and popularity polls. I believe that in some ways the politics of the New Wave are responsible for the lack of worldwide acceptance. In the Sates, punk is buzzing around the fringes of the industry like hornets, but they haven’t found the way in yet. None of them, with the slight exception of Patti Smith, have made any inroad toward the mass audience, but the politics of Ameri-Punk are implicit in the stance and not really a blatant part of the lyrical content any more. But then we went through our heavy political period in the late 60s and 70s. Britain is on a serious No Future trajectory, and on that level, Rotten is dead on….The music of groups like the Pistols and the Clash draw an energetic electricity from the political environment…[but] while it’s a smoking track. “Anarchy In The UK” doesn’t have the potency in Omaha, Nebraska, that it enjoys in London.

In Conclusion

I know it’s in vogue to say that the scene here is dead and decaying and you shoulda seen it last year, but that kind of talk doesn’t phase me at all. I give Brit-Rock my seal of approval and a clean bill of health. The atmosphere is more exciting then I’ve ever seen it before and there is more possibility for hip action than there was when I came to this great city six years ago. The bans are hotter, the folks in the street seem happier and the pubs are rowdier.

And if this is decadence and decay, where do I sign up and take my blood test?

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Till The Night Is Gone (Let’s Rock) / Flipside Rock (Island 1977)

If a comparison has to be made…then it probably shouldn’t be with the Stones or the Feelgoods, who are the most obvious choices, but with the unutterably magnificent MC5. Not that the Rods have the same political cross that the Five were forced to bear, but they play a similar brand of of short and sharp teen anthems, that comes from the heart and the gut, rather than the intellect….Manager Ed Hollis reckons that when the Rods do get around to doing an album, they’ll be aiming for the sort of feel that the MC5 got on ‘Back In The USA’. Paul Kendall, Zigzag, May 1976