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...along with the avant noise the oxford circle were laying down in 'frisco this is the heavy vibe of the yardbirds (jeff/jimmy) freaking out on high octane amphetamines/LSD25/reefer going into the dimension of furtherness, to take IT to the limits and then pushes on from there...the live tracks on this nicely presented semi-boot are a fine reminder that straight from the off these cats were more than an average garage band, they had ideas about jazz and incorporating pure adrenalin noise to the frenzied R&B copped from BRO.JAMES up in NYC and the brit invasion 'stones' and 'them'...dig this early version of 'black to comm', it's a psyched out bo diddley in orbit much like the quicksilvers in 'frisco in 1965/6, with all the crunch of 'big brother' giving it all a right proper mangling...intense pounding mind disturbances are full on showing the rowdyness of their home town, this is a riot waiting to take shape...slow blues meandering with cool harp from rob tyner and they get busy also with a plaintive soul groove courtesy of a prime stonesian vibe and do some dance tuneage to get the kids rocking...the title of the wax for once tells it like it is, it's a breakout, this is the launching pad for their spaceways escapades in the next years...tracks chosen by wayne kramer so this is the deal that's real...
...right from the get go this is a top blast of electric shock rocking, a total storm of noise, the noise of detroit on fire, the personification of the motor city burning as interpreted by long haired rock'n'rollers on acid...living in a communal house in the inner city war zone where the pig oppression was at its most ferocious gave the 5 first hand experience of real life, a place where a cat might not make it through to the end of the day...this, coupled with manager john sinclairs white panther party enabled them to impart their rocking noise with super charged efficency, an out of control speeding kildozer going in every which way but somehow always together, always on the one...the sound is sloppy yet at the same time tight, their aim is true, they know where they are going, taking the message of radical freedom by any means necessary to the cats that need it for the long struggle that lies ahead...a fire storm of blues jams/freejazz/R&B via the fab4 and back to BROTHER.JB all delivered with a carnival atmoshere, where there is no distinction between band and audience, all are indulging in a shamanic experience where the acid and reefer will take them higher, the outer limits of the impossible can be reached at a MC5 show, rock'n'roll is the religeon that is TRUE, all others enslave the mind, only rock can deliver what's promised, it will deliver total freedom to all who desire it...the 5 are a joining of the tribal drum from eons past, before the dream warriors bought the earth into existance and the chaos generated by downpresser man, the beat of the drum keeps the whole thing movin'g, rolling through the war zone to the suburban joints to the grande ballroom, the downpresser supplies the reason, makes the whole thing a reality, gives untold energy that fuels the cause...this is the meeting the memphis truck driver has with sun ra at a secret location rumoured to be a beer joint outside of clarksville miss. in late '67 specifically to bring about a new music that would combine the hillbilly blues with the sound of reaching for the stars, to leave for the celestial, voyage far away from the realities of uncle sams autocracy...only the voyage was thwarted by the consumer society ordering its pigs to attack and the MC5 were brought into full effect, their whole 'james brown on acid' wayward dance routines, hamming it up in total old time revival meeting style, preaching the good times come after the revolution overthrows the capitalist piggy state and instigates the 3 point program they have come into possesion of via sinclairs acid munching white panthers...oppressive pig tactics and FBI surveillence makes them hone the whole shebang into one explosive napalm bomb shattering and reconstituting to shatter some more, each time getting stronger and more alive...a brother digs this he's surely part of the solution and thats a stone cold solid fact...
...the concensus of opinion seems to fall into the 'could do better' camp when it comes to this, the second wax from the 5, most cats seem to think that it's a let down after the jams joint which was a riot storm reflecting the detroit times...'back in the usa' is partly taking the 'GET BACK' route, to play some 50's rock'n'roll, much like the flamin' groovies were doing at around the same time, taking pure rock'n'roll back to before the acid washed in and turned the whole joint day-glow...having the manager john sinclair sent down for a 2-10 stretch after getting set up by narco pigs destabilised the combo, the oppressor drew even nearer, they were being targeted by pig forces in different towns and cities as proven when the 5 took a kicking in chicago...playing basic rocking tunes they hoped to keep on rolling, to move ever onward, this time taking the revolution to the kids through the transistor radio which is why the sound has the treble stacked fairly full on...they took the 'get back' parametres to include how the sound must be that came from battery powered AM radio back when they themselves were early teenagers digging the wild boss sounds that came flooding through the ether...dig the lyrics and a cat knows this is directed to the kids, extolling rock roll freedom/rocking the high school in all different forms/getting hip to the amerikkkan ruse/not falling for the pig line, the revolution is pouring off this disk, it's abbie hoffman backed by chuck berry, both of whom themselves suffered pig trouble as they upset the balance of power, they were considered extremely dangerous by the ruling class, trouble rocked (and rolled) the empire...going to europe in 1970 to promote the disk helped them keep the faith where revolution and rocking went hand-in-hand from paris to prague, they were welcomed by leather jacket radicals as well as pure rocking daddios...any cats of a doubtful nature as far as this joint only need to enter into the spirit in which it was made, to party on the ruins of the corrupt system with a reefer in one hand and a transistor radio in the other, pushed tightly on the ear...dig the beat, its the memphis flyer steaming through the night, spreading the word in every direction, giving hope to all that feel the groove...
...third offering from the 5 sees them getting into some hard rocking with explosive missives rolling out all across the land, with the 50s rock'n'roll obsession from the second wax put on hold as they develope a sound more in keeping with the times, sometimes getting busy with their jazz leanings coming to the fore...they come off with a stooges riff more than once but given more flesh than the originals would have had so the years of the stooges supporting the mighty 5 have paid off in reverse, they helped the 5 get back on track as some of their live outings were gettin'g tired, they'd been through a lot in the last four years, being the most politically important band in amerikkka at the time they suffered continual pig harrassment/record co. getting cold feet, which shows up the liberal hippy ethics as shallow to non-existance...some of this disk is heading in the prog direction though this is jazz prog taken further, all sorts of yanquee musics show up if only in feel, fleeting moments of the fading empire, yes, the 5 still knew how to slip the ongoing revolution into tunes but they were warning of the dangers of too much rhetoric and not enough action, the 5 haven't given up looking for a 'better tomorrow' but they realised plenty cats will sell out and make some bread by selling the revolution 'down the river'...even at this late point in their lifespan the 5 are putting more into making this wax than hardly anyone back in the hard rock early 70s, a time of stoner rock/singer songer/glam, all things the 5 had already done back in the whirlwind riot days-their whole trip was full of words backed up by stoned out jazz boogie, draped in the glamest thing ever, the amerikkkan flag made over into a symbol of freedom instead repression (which annoyed the pig no end, proving the 5 were right)...without any hesitation a cat's got to know this is still the real deal, it stands alongside the other two, all allowing the listener to get the full picture, very much an art movement in their own right, they strove to turn on the masses by any means possible, the evolutionary next step from the merry pranksters bus trip of 1964 and the following years acid tests...this was for real in the heart of riot amerikkka, not in suburban bohemia, this was ken keseys vibe taken and expanded on with black panther consciousness/R&B/rock'n'roll/freejazz and mighty amounts of mind altering chemicals/the earths good herb and some old fashion beer...extremely important wax in its own right this is very much the sound of avant rock taking on the main stream as this could have taken off with the great unwashed and not just the underground, it's easy to see this as sound being accepted by the square teenagers in the early seventies and when they'd decyphered the message they be turned onto the revolution, they'd not get drafted, they'd not work for uncle sams autocracy making 'shoddy cars and cheap guitars'...the history of rock'n'roll is littered with great rocking combos who all contibute a little something to make it all bearable in the face of adversity bought on by a dose of 'society' and none moreso than the 5 who took it to the streets and turned on cats planet wide and still to this day inspire all that step within the hallowed boundaries of the grande ballroom of the mynd and groove outer spacesways with in the starship of the MC5...
...most combos past their prime settle in for the pension route, putting out inferior product, rehashs of begone glories and it's basically pointless to all but the band themselves though in their private moments they know it's all just fit for the garbage pail, nothing more nothing less...then there's the MC5 and it's obvious that time has rolled on, the heyday of complete madness is over but the job they set out to do has to some degree been accomplished, cats are thinking and doing it for themselves by 1972 (the MAN and pig lackys are still in charge but times have been a changing across the planet)...recorded live in a studio in france we get the 5 doing a greatest hits package, but with a difference, the mighty jams are still being kicked out, the 5 are rocking like they do and the sound quality is fantastic (relatively speaking, after all this is the 5)...after years of total whack sounding boots it's real gonesville to get this cranked up high showing the 5 were no posuers who got lucky, these cats were committed to the cause of revolutionary rock'n'roll, taking the spirit and madness of little richard and mixing in some spaceways thinking of sun ra and rolling the whole shebang into a phat doobie and lighting up with prime era townshend and moon whoisms...after this everything fell apart for the last time, they would be back in various guises to rock the kids wherever they need to rock which is everywhere, the 5 are alive in high society forever more, the flame will never go out whilst one true cat believes in the rama lama fa fa fa...(two early jams are tacked on the end, just to show how it was and completing the circle, plus making it last longer, nice)...
...the very first thing a cat's going to notice with this outing from the 5 is that the sound is well nice and that's a good and welcome turn up as this mob have been plagued with some sound reproduction so whack, its got to be a ruse by dark forces of oppression and bad vibes hoping to mute the true sound of cats on a mission, a mission to free the people from a life of amerikkkan mind control tyranny...taking a perusal at the tracklist, it's an overview of their noise from start to finish and proves that these cats got a good handle on the high NRG rocking with some improv-jazz moves scattered about...a crucial testament to one of the true exponents of mega blast blaring, pig destroying racket...rama lama fa fa fa...
...first off this reprint of john sinclairs 1972 book comprising rock'n'roll writings and prison missives is a totally right on groove, an overflowingly full bag of serious blabber and smoke from this free thinking revolutionary/MC5 manager/jazz buff and bluesologist and as such it's recommended as a heavy and necessary read, all cats need to set the peepers on stun for a hep trip into the heart of darkness, confrontations with the MAN and a general overdose of straight society oppression...this is direct communication with the front line from a city on fire, literally and metaphorical, the pig is everywhere watching and waiting, destroying what it can't understand, blindly following orders from some unknown dictorate...coming with the book is a cultural snapshot of detroit burning with many fires in the shape of the white panthers/black panthers/bobby seale/allen ginsberg/john sinclair/gary grimshaw/MC5/the UP!/rationals and others, a sock-it-too-'em stoned buzz with the righteous feel, a bong-diddly of psychedelic jazz splatter just perculating and oozing, ready to drop the mind bombs and blow up with a few rocking jams to keep the tribes going through the heavy despair of the square zone that throws endless tyrannies upon the 'different'...
...along with the avant noise the oxford circle were laying down in 'frisco this is the heavy vibe of the yardbirds (jeff/jimmy) freaking out on high octane amphetamines/LSD25/reefer going into the dimension of furtherness, to take IT to the limits and then pushes on from there...the live tracks on this nicely presented semi-boot are a fine reminder that straight from the off these cats were more than an average garage band, they had ideas about jazz and incorporating pure adrenalin noise to the frenzied R&B copped from BRO.JAMES up in NYC and the brit invasion 'stones' and 'them'...dig this early version of 'black to comm', it's a psyched out bo diddley in orbit much like the quicksilvers in 'frisco in 1965/6, with all the crunch of 'big brother' giving it all a right proper mangling...intense pounding mind disturbances are full on showing the rowdyness of their home town, this is a riot waiting to take shape...slow blues meandering with cool harp from rob tyner and they get busy also with a plaintive soul groove courtesy of a prime stonesian vibe and do some dance tuneage to get the kids rocking...the title of the wax for once tells it like it is, it's a breakout, this is the launching pad for their spaceways escapades in the next years...tracks chosen by wayne kramer so this is the deal that's real...
...right from the get go this is a top blast of electric shock rocking, a total storm of noise, the noise of detroit on fire, the personification of the motor city burning as interpreted by long haired rock'n'rollers on acid...living in a communal house in the inner city war zone where the pig oppression was at its most ferocious gave the 5 first hand experience of real life, a place where a cat might not make it through to the end of the day...this, coupled with manager john sinclairs white panther party enabled them to impart their rocking noise with super charged efficency, an out of control speeding kildozer going in every which way but somehow always together, always on the one...the sound is sloppy yet at the same time tight, their aim is true, they know where they are going, taking the message of radical freedom by any means necessary to the cats that need it for the long struggle that lies ahead...a fire storm of blues jams/freejazz/R&B via the fab4 and back to BROTHER.JB all delivered with a carnival atmoshere, where there is no distinction between band and audience, all are indulging in a shamanic experience where the acid and reefer will take them higher, the outer limits of the impossible can be reached at a MC5 show, rock'n'roll is the religeon that is TRUE, all others enslave the mind, only rock can deliver what's promised, it will deliver total freedom to all who desire it...the 5 are a joining of the tribal drum from eons past, before the dream warriors bought the earth into existance and the chaos generated by downpresser man, the beat of the drum keeps the whole thing movin'g, rolling through the war zone to the suburban joints to the grande ballroom, the downpresser supplies the reason, makes the whole thing a reality, gives untold energy that fuels the cause...this is the meeting the memphis truck driver has with sun ra at a secret location rumoured to be a beer joint outside of clarksville miss. in late '67 specifically to bring about a new music that would combine the hillbilly blues with the sound of reaching for the stars, to leave for the celestial, voyage far away from the realities of uncle sams autocracy...only the voyage was thwarted by the consumer society ordering its pigs to attack and the MC5 were brought into full effect, their whole 'james brown on acid' wayward dance routines, hamming it up in total old time revival meeting style, preaching the good times come after the revolution overthrows the capitalist piggy state and instigates the 3 point program they have come into possesion of via sinclairs acid munching white panthers...oppressive pig tactics and FBI surveillence makes them hone the whole shebang into one explosive napalm bomb shattering and reconstituting to shatter some more, each time getting stronger and more alive...a brother digs this he's surely part of the solution and thats a stone cold solid fact...
...the concensus of opinion seems to fall into the 'could do better' camp when it comes to this, the second wax from the 5, most cats seem to think that it's a let down after the jams joint which was a riot storm reflecting the detroit times...'back in the usa' is partly taking the 'GET BACK' route, to play some 50's rock'n'roll, much like the flamin' groovies were doing at around the same time, taking pure rock'n'roll back to before the acid washed in and turned the whole joint day-glow...having the manager john sinclair sent down for a 2-10 stretch after getting set up by narco pigs destabilised the combo, the oppressor drew even nearer, they were being targeted by pig forces in different towns and cities as proven when the 5 took a kicking in chicago...playing basic rocking tunes they hoped to keep on rolling, to move ever onward, this time taking the revolution to the kids through the transistor radio which is why the sound has the treble stacked fairly full on...they took the 'get back' parametres to include how the sound must be that came from battery powered AM radio back when they themselves were early teenagers digging the wild boss sounds that came flooding through the ether...dig the lyrics and a cat knows this is directed to the kids, extolling rock roll freedom/rocking the high school in all different forms/getting hip to the amerikkkan ruse/not falling for the pig line, the revolution is pouring off this disk, it's abbie hoffman backed by chuck berry, both of whom themselves suffered pig trouble as they upset the balance of power, they were considered extremely dangerous by the ruling class, trouble rocked (and rolled) the empire...going to europe in 1970 to promote the disk helped them keep the faith where revolution and rocking went hand-in-hand from paris to prague, they were welcomed by leather jacket radicals as well as pure rocking daddios...any cats of a doubtful nature as far as this joint only need to enter into the spirit in which it was made, to party on the ruins of the corrupt system with a reefer in one hand and a transistor radio in the other, pushed tightly on the ear...dig the beat, its the memphis flyer steaming through the night, spreading the word in every direction, giving hope to all that feel the groove...
...third offering from the 5 sees them getting into some hard rocking with explosive missives rolling out all across the land, with the 50s rock'n'roll obsession from the second wax put on hold as they develope a sound more in keeping with the times, sometimes getting busy with their jazz leanings coming to the fore...they come off with a stooges riff more than once but given more flesh than the originals would have had so the years of the stooges supporting the mighty 5 have paid off in reverse, they helped the 5 get back on track as some of their live outings were gettin'g tired, they'd been through a lot in the last four years, being the most politically important band in amerikkka at the time they suffered continual pig harrassment/record co. getting cold feet, which shows up the liberal hippy ethics as shallow to non-existance...some of this disk is heading in the prog direction though this is jazz prog taken further, all sorts of yanquee musics show up if only in feel, fleeting moments of the fading empire, yes, the 5 still knew how to slip the ongoing revolution into tunes but they were warning of the dangers of too much rhetoric and not enough action, the 5 haven't given up looking for a 'better tomorrow' but they realised plenty cats will sell out and make some bread by selling the revolution 'down the river'...even at this late point in their lifespan the 5 are putting more into making this wax than hardly anyone back in the hard rock early 70s, a time of stoner rock/singer songer/glam, all things the 5 had already done back in the whirlwind riot days-their whole trip was full of words backed up by stoned out jazz boogie, draped in the glamest thing ever, the amerikkkan flag made over into a symbol of freedom instead repression (which annoyed the pig no end, proving the 5 were right)...without any hesitation a cat's got to know this is still the real deal, it stands alongside the other two, all allowing the listener to get the full picture, very much an art movement in their own right, they strove to turn on the masses by any means possible, the evolutionary next step from the merry pranksters bus trip of 1964 and the following years acid tests...this was for real in the heart of riot amerikkka, not in suburban bohemia, this was ken keseys vibe taken and expanded on with black panther consciousness/R&B/rock'n'roll/freejazz and mighty amounts of mind altering chemicals/the earths good herb and some old fashion beer...extremely important wax in its own right this is very much the sound of avant rock taking on the main stream as this could have taken off with the great unwashed and not just the underground, it's easy to see this as sound being accepted by the square teenagers in the early seventies and when they'd decyphered the message they be turned onto the revolution, they'd not get drafted, they'd not work for uncle sams autocracy making 'shoddy cars and cheap guitars'...the history of rock'n'roll is littered with great rocking combos who all contibute a little something to make it all bearable in the face of adversity bought on by a dose of 'society' and none moreso than the 5 who took it to the streets and turned on cats planet wide and still to this day inspire all that step within the hallowed boundaries of the grande ballroom of the mynd and groove outer spacesways with in the starship of the MC5...
...the very first thing a cat's going to notice with this outing from the 5 is that the sound is well nice and that's a good and welcome turn up as this mob have been plagued with some sound reproduction so whack, its got to be a ruse by dark forces of oppression and bad vibes hoping to mute the true sound of cats on a mission, a mission to free the people from a life of amerikkkan mind control tyranny...taking a perusal at the tracklist, it's an overview of their noise from start to finish and proves that these cats got a good handle on the high NRG rocking with some improv-jazz moves scattered about...a crucial testament to one of the true exponents of mega blast blaring, pig destroying racket...rama lama fa fa fa...
...first off this reprint of john sinclairs 1972 book comprising rock'n'roll writings and prison missives is a totally right on groove, an overflowingly full bag of serious blabber and smoke from this free thinking revolutionary/MC5 manager/jazz buff and bluesologist and as such it's recommended as a heavy and necessary read, all cats need to set the peepers on stun for a hep trip into the heart of darkness, confrontations with the MAN and a general overdose of straight society oppression...this is direct communication with the front line from a city on fire, literally and metaphorical, the pig is everywhere watching and waiting, destroying what it can't understand, blindly following orders from some unknown dictorate...coming with the book is a cultural snapshot of detroit burning with many fires in the shape of the white panthers/black panthers/bobby seale/allen ginsberg/john sinclair/gary grimshaw/MC5/the UP!/rationals and others, a sock-it-too-'em stoned buzz with the righteous feel, a bong-diddly of psychedelic jazz splatter just perculating and oozing, ready to drop the mind bombs and blow up with a few rocking jams to keep the tribes going through the heavy despair of the square zone that throws endless tyrannies upon the 'different'...
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