Callwood interviews the band’s surviving members and close associates to create a compelling firsthand picture of the MC5’s history and its music. He introduces readers to the band’s original members, Rob Tyner, Wayne Kramer, Fred "Sonic" Smith, Michael Davis, and Dennis Thompson, and links the power of the MC5 phenomenon to its early days as the raucous house band of Detroit’s legendary Grande Ballroom. Callwood also traces the MC5’s revolutionary political bent through their relationship with friend—and later, manager—John Sinclair, their firsthand experience of the 1967 Detroit riots, and the formation of Sinclair’s White Panther Party. Callwood surveys the three classic albums that came out of the band’s blend of political protest and hard driving rock ‘n’ roll, and he details the later projects of the ex-MC5 members, including Sonic’s Rendezvous Band, the influential art-punk band Destroy All Monsters, and Wayne Kramer’s solo recordings. He also recounts their personal struggles with drugs, incarceration, and estrangement from one another, as well as the untimely deaths of Smith and Tyner in the 1990s.
Product Details
- Paperback
- 256 Pages
- English
- 6 x 9 inches
- Published: September 2010
- ISBN: 9780814334850
- Painted Turtle Publishing