MC5

As any rock afficionado knows, there are some bands that are classic rock legends that we all are familiar with (the Beatles, Stones, Zeppelin, etc.) and we either unashamedly consume their famous back catalogue with inevitable pleasure or haughtily dismiss them as popularist rubbish with pointless cynicism. Then there are the bands that exist below the surface, that most of us come to pretty quickly once we start venturing beyond the obvious ports of call. We pick our favourites and then when conversing with someone with a lesser musical knowledge than ourselves we bring them out with the "well, Nirvana are a good band but they really owe it all to [band x]". Within the cult rock bands section, though, there still exists a hierarchy. At the top the likes of the Velvet Underground, the Stooges, Joy Division, et al strut about, content in the knowledge they will always get their due from the people who really know about this stuff. Below them, though, lie the bands that were arguably as influential and as impressive but, for whatever reason, do not get the same level of respect. In my position I, of course, end up championing certain bands that I feel are as brilliant and as important as the most popular cult bands and, if one has not guessed by now, it turns out that one of these such bands is the massively influential yet heinously ignored Motor City Five.

Despite blasting out proto-grunge and roots rock'n'roll years before most other bands had cottoned on the MC5 remain locked in a struggle for recognition. The remaining three members are even still touring under the same moniker ('MC3' would of course be more accurate) but one suspects that is primarily for the money. Not that they do not deserve to earn a living out of the material they produced three decades ago as they have sold little quantity over the years and, indeed, poor old Wayne Kramer spent much of the seventies in prison, after being reduced to drug-dealing to make ends meet. Ironically, unlike their immediate peers the Stooges, the MC5 started out with high hopes of success due to their obvious rock'n'roll pedigree (resting on the twin guitar assault of Smith and Kramer and the soulful power of vocalist Rob Tyner) but things quickly turned against them after they were dropped from Elektra for Tyner's infamous profanity-laden call to arms on the first album and their follow-up featured woeful mis-production by Jon Landau (who later proved far more successful at fleecing Springsteen fans) as well as an artistic ethos that was only to find favour five years down the line. Their initial ties to the controversial White Panther party turned out to be a lose-lose situation as they were hounded politically at the time, sometimes having gigs shut down by the filth, and over time saw their legacy unfairly tarnished as that as outdated revolutionaries when, really, their interest in politics matches that of Tony Blair's enthusiasm for his rock'n'roll legacy. Indeed, the White Panthers (unlike their black 'brothers') barely stretched to a political stance at all, advocating little more than drugs and casual sex. The MC5, whilst no doubt fans of those two pastimes, were primarily concerned with rock'n'roll and it is a pity such fine and pure purveyors of the genre still struggle so much for recognition. I trust, however, that once you familiarise yourself with their output you will be the one saying 'well, the Sex Pistols were good and all but they really owe it all to...'

Like so many cult bands there is a massive number of cheap compilations released by minor record labels that are mostly complete rubbish. Indeed, I have removed the reviews for Motor City Is Burning and Powerage due to the fact they were completely pointless compilations. The two live albums below are the best I have heard and Babes in Arms acts as a more respectable alternative greatest hits to the official Big Bang (although I'd always question the need for a Best Of for a band with only three albums, all of which are excellent, and no Greatest Hits to speak of). The need to own anything beyond the three official albums is questionable at least, though.

When the MC5 first started making waves in their native Detroit, not a very prosperous city I gather, it was partly through their association with the controversial White Panther party and its spokesperson John Sinclair. Sinclair was obviously a complete chancer but in his artificially elevated position he eased his way in as the band's manager and even tried his hand at producing, with uniformly terrible results. As a result, the MC5 were tied to a political scene and it was therefore deemed appropriate by the band and their record label Elektra to exploit such a revolutionary stance with their debut album. The band had a reputation as a fearsome live act, and rightly so, and therefore instead of attempting to convert such a sound into studio form the decision was made to release a recording of a live concert as their debut. Although such a decision is a rare occurrence, and with good reason, it would seem that, in these circumstances, it was the right one. Although the political preaching of Brother J.C. Crawford between the odd song is nothing but an embarrassing anachronism ('honkeys' indeed) the actual musical assault produced by the band is perfectly captured. Although it would be generous to regard the 'Five as truly great songwriters at any stage of their career, at this point they clearly did not have a great deal of original material available and therefore the set is filled out with a handful of excellent and appropriate covers. Furthermore, John Sinclair's attempts at recreating the MC5's power in the studio had proved disastrous and there is no doubt that such a full-frontal assault on the senses is perfectly replicated with this live recording. You can almost feel the perspiration flying from Tyner's bellowed vocals and Smith and Kramer produce such an inpenetrable wall of noise that it sounds more like the work of ten guitars than two. MC5 are usually credited with being one of the central players in the proto-punk movement (much of which was actually better than the actual punk scene) but it is the subsequent album that more obviously influenced the Ramones and their ilk than this one. Perversely, this sounds a lot more like the grunge movement that did not come about until the mid- to late-eighties. The dirty grind of the grimy guitars and the pounding rhythm section pre-empt the demonic fuzzy blur of, say, Husker Du and the moment when Tyner lets rip on the immense "I Want You Right Now" and the rest of the band roar back into action with the lumbering power of heavy machinery would send even the greasiest of nineties grungers to the shower in fright. The set does begin at its most snappy, though, with Kramer's screeching falsetto on the traditional blues of "Ramblin' Rose" immediately setting out the band's real manifesto of reducing rock'n'roll to its most primal and powerful. Similarly, the title track is an undeniable classic of its kind, with an unstoppable electric riff and Tyner's breathless hi-octane exertions delivering the perfect sermon to the power of rock'n'roll ('let me be who I am and let me kick out the jams'). It is fully deserving that it should be considered their finest moment and it surely did as much for punk music and, more generally, rock'n'roll than any other classic one cares to mention. True to the live experience the album ends with a psychedelic sound-scape, "Starship", which unfortunately sounds unavoidably dated and is a disappointingly limp way to end such a powerful set, with it fizzling out into nothing. Before that, though, the needles are kept in the red with the escalating energy of "Come Together" and the grinding blues of "Motor City Is Burning" - perhaps the only time they successfully play up to their revolutionary status. Politically speaking, that is, as the actual music on here is revolutionary on numerous levels. Like most cult bands, their influence extends far further than the period they were together and any 'cool' band you care to mention can probably have their musical origins traced to some extent back to this album. It did actually draw some modest success and for a while it looked like the MC5 might be as big as they deserved to be. Unfortunately, the retailer Hudsons took issue with the rather gratuitous use of the word 'motherfuckers' on this album, the MC5 took issue with Hudsons, and Elektra took issue with the MC5 taking issue and eventually dropped them. Atlantic were on hand to sign them up but such an act of self-sabotage was unfortunately indicative of the 'Five's career.

After the unnecessary distraction of finding a new record label exactly what the MC5 did not need was a ridiculously flawed stab at production on their second effort (and first studio album) that sounded completely out-of-date and instantly obliterated the interest generated from the primal blast of their debut. The band had altered their approach to songwriting, dropping the psychedelic blues in favour of a retro re-appraisal of classic rock'n'roll from the fifties and early sixties. The album is therefore bookended by two classic rock'n'roll covers - Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti" and Chuck Berry's "Back in the USA" - and the songs in between are short and snappy shocks, without any of the bloated power of their initial live set. After being taken for a ride by one chancer in the form of John Sinclair the band immediately got taken down the same road again by Jon Landau, a struggling music journalist who ultimately made it through befriending Bruce Springsteen. Landau convinced the band he could produce their first studio album but ended up making an horrific botch of it. The bass appears to have got lost somewhere, with the sound virtually bottomless as a result, and the entire album ends up as a treble-fest, with the kind of pitch that could make dogs whine. Unsurprisingly, the whole thing completely flopped at the time of release. It should not take the most perceptive of detectives to realise, though, that retro-rock'n'roll did actually become quite popular a few years after the release of this album. Although the New York Dolls were glamming it up rather outrageously that little-known band called the Ramones discovered this album and ended up releasing a debut that sounded rather similar. And, of course, we all know what happened after that album came out. So, if one is to be less annoyingly coy, the aesthetics of this album represents essentially one of the first crucial steps in sending rock music down the path that would explode into life in 1976 as that horrible punk music racket. Of course, the production does not exactly play such a prominent part in writing history but neither does it, in all fairness, ruin the set. Sure, it is obviously a poorly produced album but it still kinda fits in with the unpretentious, almost minimalist, approach of the songs and one can just about connect the high-pitched fuzz of Kramer's and Smith's guitars with the chainsaw buzz on The Ramones. More to the point, though, the majority of material the band penned for this release constitutes superb no-frills rock'n'roll, with the set flying by in little over half an hour. It is a shame, then, that the set had to be marred by the tedious ballad "Let Me Try" as an album so short cannot have space for any flab. Furthermore, despite the obvious statement-of-intent in including two classic covers the MC5's own material mostly surpasses them. "Teenage Lust" is a brief blast of power pop and the vicious classic "Looking at You" is one of their finest songs, with a famous guitar solo that is arguably the best never to be have been performed by Hendrix or Page. The anti-authoritarian "The American Ruse" is a cynical joy ('if you complain they're gonna get vicious/kick in your teeth and charge you with assault') and "The Human Being Lawnmower" is probably the only multi-part operatic epic to be two and a half minutes in length. Fred Smith sings his own acoustic "Shakin' Street" which not only benefits the set with its diversity it also helps that it is, again, one of the best songs the 'Five ever recorded. In general terms, the influence of this album and the deliberate concept of old-fashioned high-school rock'n'roll wouldn't mean a hell of a lot if they weren't backed up by a reassuringly strong set of songs. I would say the surviving members must look back at this album with immense self-satisfaction for its long-standing influence but, as I'm sure they'll tell you, that don't pay the bills.

From: BackroomOtto@aol.com 

Don't you think Back in the USA is better than Kick Out the Jams? The second half of Jams is kinda dull. Back in the USA rocks pretty much all the way through.   

For their third album the MC5 finally succeeded in capturing the power of their live sound in studio form but, unfortunately, by this time no-one was really listening anymore. The band battled on gamely for another year or so but it did not take them long to realise they had missed the boat. It is a shame, as High Time was another great album and, of course, the essential final chapter in a brief but near immaculate career. Even disregarding the dwindling fanbase and finances the album clearly documents a growing schism between the band members, with individual songwriting credits showing Fred Smith to be the principle songwriter. Obviously, few bands are always happy bunnies all the time but when you're forever fighting over something with such little prospects of success it is easy to see why most under-selling cult bands do not stick around long enough to produce a lengthy legacy. After the unique (at the time) retro-rock'n'roll of Back in the USA so spectacularly failed the band decided to go back to how they had started but, by this time, it represented too little too late. That is not to say this album is not an artistic success, though, as the aesthetic ideals that made Kick Out the Jams such a tour de force are perfectly distilled into studio form on here. As an antithesis to Back in the USA the songs are of quite an extravagant length, often going on for five minutes plus, but they rarely depart from the relentless grind of hi-octane rock'n'roll. "Sister Anne", "Baby Won't Ya", and "Skunk (Sonicly Speaking)" all rest upon the usual brilliance of Tyner's white-soul vocals and Kramer and Smith trading punishing riffs and searing solos (and the latter also features a furious brass playout) but all three draw out the experience, thankfully without compromising on the energy or aggression. Although no-one was really paying attention, the sleek no-nonsense approach on here is a blast of fresh air compared to much of the pompous rock bands of the time. Many artists might have referred to rock'n'roll but there is no doubt it was the MC5 that best embodied it. The split in songwriting does not betray the band's unity but it is noticeable that, apart from Kramer's snappy "Poison", Smith was the band member with the most ability as a writer. That said, Rob Tyner's "Future/Now" might have been another classic given the first half is a typically ferocious rocker but half-way through he makes the utterly inexplicable decision to drag it out with an extended, dreary psychedelic coda that completely ruins the energy of the song and halts the flow of the album. Similarly, Kramer's rock ballad "Miss X" is uninspiring, although Smith makes amends with the similarly paced "Over and Over" putting the 'power' in power-ballad, particularly thanks to Tyner's anguished bellowing on the chorus. Its lyrics are somewhat indicative of the forced theme of the album, though, given it obviously tries to continue playing up to a political revolutionary status that had long before been exposed as a fraud. As it is, the deliriously irreverant lyrics on, for instance, "Sister Ann" and "Baby Won't Ya" seem far less forced and artificial. No matter, though, as the music rocks solidly throughout and, thirty years on, that is all that really matters. Another classic album made by band that was simply too authentic for its own good.

Given that the MC5 were such a revered and awesome live act it is unsurprising that a lot of the cash-in compilations that have since emerged pertain to capture the 'Five at their live peak. The fact that crappy recordings of sub-standard live shows are cheap and easy to knock out I'm sure has no bearing on the record companies' decision-making. I gather most are not worth bothering with (as I found out to my cost with the pointless 1999 release Motor City Is Burning) but the one that is usually recommended most is this one, from Alive/Total Energy Records. In terms of crappy recordings of sub-standard live shows I am pleased to acknowledge that this release does not fit the description in one respect. Despite capturing a gig performed on the Western world's annual day-long hangover - New Year's Day - the band are in surprisingly fine fettle and, as well as bantering with noticeable sobriety, are able to rip through the set-list with glorious abandon. This compilation is further benefitted by the fact it comprehensively covers a complete live set (although the two-second gap between songs on the CD is annoying and pointless) and is also of some historical note, given it was recorded on the first day of a new decade in which the world and the MC5 could look forward to a prosperous future which never arrived. Furthermore, this album suggests it is worth owning in addition to Kick Out the Jams given it features some new covers ("Fire of Love" and James Brown's classic "It's a Man's Man's Man's World") and focuses on their Back in the USA songs which, of course, we are yet to hear performed with the primal power the album's production stripped them of. It all is rather a shame, then, that the sound quality on this album is what would generously be referred to as 'abysmal'. Quite simply, no commercial-minded live album could ever be released with a sound quality this poor. Iggy and the Stooges' Metallic KO is the only official live release I can think of close to this level of muffled recording but the power still fights it way through more often on that release, not forgetting the fantastic and unique experience of actually hearing history being made. I am not a sound engineer (and nor would I want to be one) so I am afraid I cannot advise on how the production on here might have been improved but it certainly would have been wonderful to have heard this with the production values of Jams as this performance is actually probably even superior, given the band had both developed into more polished musicians and had improved their set-list. Some of the Back in the USA material shines through, with "Teenage Lust" and "Looking at You" exploding through the speakers with an even greater power than their studio counterparts. Similarly, "Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa" is tightened up from the sludgey version on Jams (although the definitive version appears on Thunder Express) and the set closer "Black to Comm" (a trademark tune that never appeared in studio form) brings down the house with its crisp grooves. However, placing "Kick Out the Jams" in the middle of the climatic medley (prefaced by the intro to "Starship") relegates it to status of mere Greatest Hit and the muffled production reduces the song to a droning riff. Such a complaint is indicative, of course, of the album as a whole. It is good that such an excellent and important live set has been preserved for the ages. It is just a shame it has been so completely compromised by a sound quality that barely reaches acceptability for most of it.

This compilation began life as a rare cassette-only release in the early eighties before Roir records decided it was worth remastering for a CD release. From what I can gather it is meant to act as a sort of alternative greatest hits. For it, Wayne "Cosmo" Kramer has remixed a handful of the performances from the Back in the USA and High Times albums, included four early studio tracks, their last studio recording, "Gold" (the main attraction for enthusiasts, I imagine), and, just so it can retain some claim of being a Greatest Hits package, "Kick Out the Jams". As I've said elsewhere, a band as great as MC5 with a mere three official albums really do not need a Greatest Hits collection, although I doubt this does any worse a job of it than the official compilation (called Big Bang, I believe). At least if you buy this one some of the money is going to Kramer's pocket as opposed to the record company fat cats. Kramer's selection of tracks from the two studio albums seems fair enough to me. Maybe I would have included "The Human Being Lawnmower" and "Teenage Lust" from Back in the USA and "Baby Won't Ya" and "Over and Over" from High Time but, you know, different strokes for different folks, horses for courses, and all that. Certainly none of the songs chosen are anything less than good but you could say that about any of the studio songs barring, perhaps, the ineffectual ballads "Let Me Try" and "Miss X". The remixes don't appear to alter the songs a huge amount and certainly don't make any of them sound obviously superior to the originals. Kramer is wise enough, however, to stop "Future Now" as the main song finishes, thereby cutting off Tyner's silly and dreary extended ending. Given the way MC5 fractured apart towards the end of their career you can imagine Tyner's original insistence on including the shit ending was a real source of irritation with the other members. I'm speculating, of course, tho'. And even though it probably doesn't improve on the original the alternate take of "Shaking Street" with a pretty second guitar line is, at least, an interesting twist. The unreleased stuff all comes at the end of the compilation. "Gold" is, I think, the last thing they recorded in the studio, in London during their European tour by which time Michael Davis had already left and, therefore, Kramer fills in on the bass. According to the sleeve-notes it was intended to be used in a film of the same name. I don't know whether the film was ever released - my research suggests a British film of that name was released in the early seventies but, apparently, it was a mining caper starring Roger Moore. Who knows, eh? Well, not me anyway. In any case, it is rather overly psychedelic and hardly a classic composition. The final four tracks represent a mini-document of MC5's origins. There's a cover of Van Morrison's "I Can Only Give You Everything" which is the first single they released (and it is OK); "One of the Guys" - the first original song they ever recorded (it seems a little dopey to me); "I Just Don't Know" which featured their first use of experimental feedback (and pretty forward-thinking in 1966) and their common or garden original single release of "Looking at You" which relies on feedback rather than the later speedy guitar solos. Certainly, the five unreleased tracks are all decent efforts and worth owning in one form or another. Overall, though, I cannot really see the worth in this compilation for the everyday MC5 fan. The exclusion of all but one of the songs from Kick Out the Jams means this cannot claim to be a complete overview of their career but it does do enough to suggest it can act as a decent retrospective of their studio career. Still, though, just buy their three original albums. If you don't like them I'll personally give you your money back. Actually, I won't, 'cause if you don't like the MC5 I don't wanna know you.

Although one might question why these post-humous slap-dash archival releases keep getting pumped out one should be suitably sated by the news that this, actually, is one of the best. Although it is a completely themeless it does, at least, draw together the first and last footnotes to the MC5's career. Most of the CD consists of a six track live performance recorded on French TV in 1972, therefore right at the close of the band's career, with Michael Davis already absent (replaced by someone called Steev Moorhouse). It is almost certainly one of the last times the group played together, a fact which is made all the more disappointing given that it actually captures the band at their peak as performers. Although the enthusiasm had no doubt been painfully sapped from them over the years of frustrating failure, borne out by the opening "Kick Out the Jams" only lasting up until the first chorus before the band segue superbly into a lengthy jam-tastic cover of the Stones' "Empty Heart", one would hardly notice given the energy they appear to invest in their performance. The latter song is light years better than the original, although, in fairness, I'm sure the Stones in 1972 could have performed it pretty well themselves. It is noticeable that the material is taken solely from Jams, as if they had already disowned Back in the USA and High Time, although "Thunder Express" repesents a 'brand new exclusive' and is a stream-lined full-bloodied rock'n'roll homage to fast cars (something the band were all keen on, apparently). The climax of the set, though, and the undoubted highlight is the ten minute reworking of "Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa". Starting off from the hypnotic riff the song finally comes to life as a great individual composition in its own right before descending into just the rhythm section playing the beat which allows the rest of the band to gradually wind the composition back together, making for a truly compelling climax. Although there simply ain't no messing with Jams' power it certainly represents the peak of the band's muscianship and makes one wonder just what level they might have reached as artists if things had worked out differently. The set does not even end there as the band instantly rip into the instant coda - a metallic grind through the crawling blues of "Motor City Is Burning". As a whole the set perfectly captures their strength as live performers in which they excelled as one of the best of their generation. The compilation is filled out with the band's two early singles, 1966's "I Can Only Give You Everything" and 1968's "Looking at You" with their b-sides "I Just Don't Know" and "Borderline", respectively. The first two show an obviously inexperienced garage band coming to terms with their fresh perspective on rock'n'roll, whilst the latter are pretty much ruined by John Sinclair's woeful attempt at production (worryingly, he also produced the Teen Age Lust live album). It is pretty obvious they were only included because the live set was not long enough to warrant its own CD but, regardless, it is the latter that makes this compilation worth buying. It might be a luxury on top of the three studio albums but it does serve as further proof of just why the MC5 are so deserving of proper recognition.

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