MC5 – Sonically Speaking
By Brett Callwood
Finally – the ultimate MC5
book that answers all of those questions that have been asked repeatedly and not
answered for far too long. For those
of us that weren’t around to experience the original MC5 – this is the
ultimate answer. In 230 pages, Brett
Callwood (a relocated Britisher living in Detroit) does more than an admirable
job in bringing the story of the MC5 and their fascinating history to life.
The story of the MC5 is the story of Detroit, filled with promise and
success, followed by failure and then despair and concluding with rock &
roll redemption. We all know the
basic outline of the MC5 – formed in the late 1960s in Detroit, created 3
influential and commercially unsuccessful albums that later became one of the
catalysts for punk rock. Unlike
their fellow rockers the Stooges, the MC5 never had a personality like Iggy to
keep them in the headlines for the years during which the band was in
hibernation. Their return in 2003
was a major happening, but the MC5/DTK3 with both Rob Tyner and Fred “Sonic”
Smith missing, could not quite capture the essence of the MC5.
Brett Callwood’s book captures
the entire history of the MC5 from their beginnings in Lincoln Park through the
wild ride that Rob Tyner, Fred “Sonic” Smith, Wayne Kramer, Dennis
“Machine Gun” Thompson and Michael Davis embarked on the years after the MC5
broke up. The first half of the book
covers the early days in Lincoln Park, the formation of the band and their
short-lived career. There’s plenty
of sex, drugs and rock & roll here, but the politics and controversy takes
center stage. Like other bands that
just could not make that leap from sheer brilliance (my punk analogy is the Bad
Brains) to commercial success, the MC5 would always have something happen to
derail them from real success. Reading
these chapters is painful in a way as chance after chance is frittered away
through mistake after mistake, but bands like the MC5 are rarely destined for
mass acceptance anyway. The three
albums are described meticulously and you are forced to immediately listen to
them again because you have obviously missed something.
I just realized that my copy of High Times is missing and this sent me
off on a frantic search through used record stores to replace it.
I was too young to see the MC5
in person, but was old enough to see most of the most-MC5 projects that were
formed after the demise of the band. The
punk revolution that swept through in the late 1970s also gave an additional
lift to bands such as the ex-MC5-ers whose music and attitude fit in well with
punk. I had ample opportunity to see
Destroy All Monsters, Sonics Rendezvous Band, the Motor City Bad Boys and the
other projects that the various ex-MC5-ers would do.
For me, these guys were like Detroit rock royalty – their albums were
mentioned reverently by almost all punk bands, but they were hard to find and
definitely not heard on any of the local rock stations.
For one reason or another, the post MC5 music careers never seemed to get
going. The book discusses this in
excruciating detail, but other than the Wayne Kramer records from the 1990s –
there just wasn’t that much available from all of the post-MC5 bands.
I know that a lot has come out after the fact, but one Rendezvous single
and four or so DAM singles did not do these bands justice. The book has an
excellent MC5 and post-MC5 discography and also discussed the never
“officially” released MC5 documentary. My
favorite recollection was seeing Rob Tyner, who managed the vastly under-rated
and under-appreciated Vertical Pillows (sound familiar?).
Their set often concluded with “Kick Out the Jams” and the Rob Tyner
would sometimes (or at least once) take
the mike and turn the world into a few moments of rock & roll heaven.
I remember this distinctly from Lili’s and then tragically he was gone
soon afterwards. I went to the Tyner
tribute show and the DTK reunion show and cheered mightily when the remaining
members of the MC5 ripped through all of those great tunes that I never had the
opportunity to hear in person. Without
Tyner and Sonic – this could never be an MC5 reunion, but it still brings us
back to an era when one of the greatest rock & roll bands of all time came
into existence right here in Detroit.
This book is a “must read”
for anybody that cares about rock & roll and Detroit and we’re immensely
grateful that the story of the MC5 has now been told.