MC5
MC5 was an American rock band from Lincoln Park, Michigan, formed in 1964. The original band line-up consisted of vocalist Rob Tyner, guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred “Sonic” Smith, bassist Michael Davis, and drummer Dennis Thompson. Their loud, energetic style of back-to-basics rock ’n’ roll included elements of garage rock, hard rock, blues rock, and psychedelic rock. MC5 developed a reputation for energetic and polemical live performances, one of which was recorded as their 1969 debut album Kick Out the Jams. MC5 was often cited as one of the most important American hard rock groups of their era. Their three albums are regarded by many as classics, and their song “Kick Out the Jams” is widely covered. (More from Wikipedia)
In 1969, I was in a record store somewhere and saw two debut albums with similar front and back covers, Three Dog Night by Three Dog Night and Kick out the Jams by MC5, both having a swirl of images of the bandmembers, mostly in concert. They are actually quite different bands. Three Dog Night, renowned for their harmony vocals and excellent material, had a succession of hit songs in the 1970’s, including 11 that made the Top Ten, along with 12 consecutive gold albums in a six year period. Not long after the release of Three Dog Night, the Nilsson song “One” became their first hit song, and “ONE” was added to the album cover. I searched for decades to find their album as I had originally seen it, without the song name on it. I finally found a copy, just in time for Hurricane Katrina to wash it away.
MC5 is a Detroit band and stands for “Motor City 5”. Jason Ankeny opens his article on the band in Allmusic: “Alongside their Detroit-area brethren the Stooges, MC5 essentially laid the foundations for the emergence of punk; deafeningly loud and uncompromisingly intense, the group’s politics were ultimately as crucial as their music, their revolutionary sloganeering and anti-establishment outrage crystallizing the counterculture movement at its most volatile and threatening. Under the guidance of svengali John Sinclair (the infamous founder of the radical White Panther Party), MC5 celebrated the holy trinity of sex, drugs, and rock & roll, their incendiary live sets offering a defiantly bacchanalian counterpoint to the peace-and-love reveries of their hippie contemporaries.”
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MC5 was formed in 1964 by several high school friends, Rob Tyner (vocalist), Fred “Sonic” Smith (guitar), Wayne Kramer (guitar), Pat Burrows (bass), and Bob Gaspar (drums). The two guitarists began experimenting with feedback and distortion in their concerts in 1965, and a new rhythm section joined in 1966, Michael Davis (bass) and Dennis Thompson (drums). MC5 got a regular gig at the Grande Ballroom, where their album Kick out the Jams was recorded live in October 1968.
In his 5-star review of the MC5 album, Mark Deming raves in Allmusic: “Kick out the Jams is one of the most powerfully energetic live albums ever made; Wayne Kramer and Fred ‘Sonic’ Smith were a lethal combination on tightly interlocked guitars, bassist Michael Davis and drummer Dennis Thompson were as strong a rhythm section as Detroit ever produced, and Rob Tyner’s vocals could actually match the soulful firepower of the musicians, no small accomplishment. Even on the relatively subdued numbers (such as the blues workout ‘Motor City Is Burning’), the band sounds like they’re locked in tight and cooking with gas; while the full-blown rockers (pretty much all of side one) are as gloriously thunderous as anything ever committed to tape. This is an album that refuses to be played quietly.”
Two more albums followed, Back in the U.S.A. (1970) and High Time (1971), with a more stripped down sound but no politics. The band broke up in 1972 but has only grown in influence over the years. I just picked up three more live CD’s by MC5 that were recorded in the 1960’s.
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The Stooges (also known as Iggy and the Stooges) are the prototype of proto-punk. Like MC5, they are a Detroit band, or more properly an Ann Arbor band.
As an opening act for MC5, the Stooges lucked into a major label contract when the Elektra Records talent scout signed both acts.
(December 2016)
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