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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'...
...ah the original mono mix of pipers, the holy grail of available wax from the original floydian cats, syd and his architect friends, the true floyd (overtaken by circumstance has left everyone who cares wondering what might have happened if syd had been allowed to progress organically in his drugged mystical musical trip, not have the pressures of pop and hangers on giving him overdose proportions of the 'dreaded' LSD taking him so far into the void there was no way back to this world, another plain of existence had opened and syd seemed trapped forever in someone elses creation) delivered this mix by themselves mostly, with minimal guidance from the producer...syd worked on the mix in a painting style, putting slight emphasises where they were needed, moving around with the faders digging the moment, listening to the patterns unfold and refold into themselves before breaking free...as is a known actuality the mono joint is more punchy, a post freakbeat sound with an amphetamine coating, much more acceptable to pilled up mods/new hippies as the metallic speed freak noise cuts exploding into the nervous system...the amerikkkan version of pipers is different once more, plus a small deviation in the track line up...the difference here is more down to pressing than intentional alteration, tower records, the imprint that imparted this albion psych slab on the colonials was a low budget exploitation outlet for capitol records, such was the faith of the bean counters in this new sound from across the pond...hours of fun for all layabouts with the right accessories...(these are taken from original vinyl so a few scuffs will reveal themselves, hopefully causing no alarm)...
...MONO alert MONO alert...a couple of years back pipers had once more been issued with 'better' sound and this time as part of a present giving package with the mono given pride of place and well it might be...back in the day every cat would be wanting the newly fandangled stereo groover and not the old dansette mono, that was yesterday and that was a far away place in underground circles...times were moving in various directions and so were the walls in hippy hangouts like the UFO in old london towne where floydian noise and lights mix with substances from the garden of universal id...it was natural to want the disk to sound all encompassing and the way to do it was through two channels to meet a cats dual lobes, to be surrounded by hep sound from the beings of NOW...the mono paints a different picture all together, not only instruments appearing that had been left out/faded from the stereo shenanigans, but there is much more attack, approaching a 'clean' version of the live happening and some jazzy bit in track 5 gives off vibes toward left coast experimental heads spirit, hense spanning the ocean reaching out with their own brand of NEW MUSIC...its much easier to get inside the tunes and hear a band that's got some roots in mid 1960's dance club R'n'B and is progressing without being in full knowledge of their accomplishments so the whole thing is in transgression from one style to another in a fluid sense, it goes where it goes because it does, not because it's been thought out in advance, this is avant garde for the POP generation...this mono disk is like living that flower power floydian summer for the first time, a time to be cherished when hope was in abundance waiting to be channelled into a brave new world...
...these two disks make up a real nice compilation of floydness when syd was happening, when he 'enjoyed' the reputation as numero uno hep cat around the more turned on environs of london town and all points spaceways...two gigs are featured, one from copenhagen (09.13.67), the other, two months later in rotterdam, both of which have been booted many times but even duplicate live syd is worth the effort to get to the heart of the matter...the two gigs show the floyd off to good stead, the numbers are noisy and funky, chaos is barely reigned in as the tunes go ever outward into the ether taking their place in the cosmos...enormous blasts of electric mayhem shower the onlookers at both shows, decibel heavy gloopy LSD madness envelopes the audience as they go into frenzied freakout mode, each participant living in their own space, yet feeling at ease with the unfamiliarity of the new psychedelic sound, connected by the need to be set free from the stricture and structure of their respective societies...theres other groovy stuff in the form of a great interview with the floydian cats for CBC radio which is a great listen and lasts for a good ten minutes, the track prior is 'interstellar' with a voice over courtesy of granada television, again a great trip back to 67...'emily' acetate, 'roll another one' rehearsal, a couple of 'vegetable man' go throughs plus a few other bits and pieces which all add up to a goodly time visiting syd before it all went askew, plummeting into freeform nightmare, ?downhill? forever...
...5 versions of interstellar overdrive is the main thrust of this boot and it ain't any too many as what's happening here is the demo of this tune (recorded in some cats living room on two mono machines) from 31/10/66 with next up two versions from the flick 'tonight lets all make love in london' (the soundtrack mix and the one in the movie itself)...an edited version that appeared on a french E.P, plus one recorded for a TV documentary at the UFO club on 20/01/67...in between are other tunes in various states, acetates/'stereo enhancements'/more teevee docs and it's a real nice peep at the early floyd when they mutate from R&B hounds into proto acid voyagers from the outlying planet psychOdelia...the tracks recorded at UFO are particularly fine even though there's talk over the top as anything from that club is like a pathway to another dimension, a dimension of light and sound away from the squares, away from the uptight yesterday men...dig these cambridge cats when it was all new, no rules to follow just jamming in the surreal moment...
...nice second release in this 22 disk blow out of syd and floyd gubbings, a real monumental piece of work containing cd & dvd disks...this one has the usual tunes for the year in question (arnold/emily/vegetable/scream/controls etc.) all in different states of being (acetates/stereo mixes/BBCsessions) which makes for a hep listening time, like hearing them on a juke-box from the twilight zone where everything is slightly off kilter and wobbly, at first look it's familiar, then certain parts become different until it then becomes maddening getting an ear for things that ain't no longer there, very trippy as well it should be...having all this gear together in chronological order is a real buzz and compliments the mountain of boots that litter most layabouts shelves...clean out the bong and set the controls for the journey back to the summer of swinging london town...
...any live floyd with syd has got to be considered as grail for any heads who dig the psychedelic groove and not just floyd heads, this is for all cats who entered the alternate state and never left, this is the 24 hour dream that's lasted for four decades...2 gigs represented here, the first 6 tracks from the star club (copenhagen 9.13.67), the rest from the hippy happy fair (rotterdam11.13.67) and while the sound quality is as expected (so so) the outer body experience is topsville...both gigs supply wobbly transformations to the beyond-limits of the marvellous, this is tripping in dazed confusion, the R&B that originally informed the combos work is well and truely dispelled, heading off into freejazz outer spaceways bubbles...waves of sound wash from the speakers into marshmellow pillows of hazy groovyness, syd and his architectural friends are building new sonics into the musical landscape, a place that hasn't got a name yet, it's still part of pop, it hasn't been usurped and codified into identifiable consumer product...we can hear vaguely by the audience response that most don't know what to make of this new groove that's been placed before them, it's beyond entertainment for most, reaching into the void, the future maybe leaking through...one thing is for certain and that's these floyd cats weren't no air-fairy teatime sike, they were delivering aural colour patterns of wig lifting heavy crunch, slabs of electric-stoned-buzz setting the controls for tomorrow...dig the last two tracks (10/11), its like if the yardbirds (jeff/jimmy version as in 'blow up') had taken more acid they could have got to this state of being and there be no real need for zepp and hence no downer heavy '70s rock...
...buried under a storm of tape hiss lies a great listen to the floyd as they noodle their way through some space jams that by this time (03.27.69) they were exceeding in like no other acid rock combo...the sound once located under said hiss is a booming rumble in a cardboard box with inaudible mumbling vocals making this a top illicit earful just like the TMOQ cats used to put out back in the day, most likely on a pink wax as was their fancy...there's no deviating away from the idea that the heavy blasting disturbance of air here is like some kind of neanderthal krautrock wastage and not some polite pastoral prog (a cat might want to get thinking about amon duul, if they could really play their axes, getting down with this kind of basement spillage of prime slop)...they were recording the soundtrack to 'more' at the time and this sure is the antidote to that downer folk biscuit, this is more like 'rocket from the tombs' kicking out the jams on a wet thursday night just as the bad acid began to peak...if this had escaped instead of ummagumma the course of rock'n'roll proggy stuff would have been changed, instead of putting out DSOTM they'd be touring with the stooges and grand funk be opening the show with extra special guests stack waddy, the whole thing be like a homage to bad drugs and the wasted hippy-trash life...hotcha...
...there a few different versions of this gig (9th national UK jazz festival held at plumpton race course in '69 after many years at windsor and before it moved permanently to reading) and this one seems pretty complete, including interstellar encore which has been missing from some...it all kicks off with 'set the controls..' then moves into 'cymbaline' from the newly completed 'more' soundtrack...the centre piece is from the 'journey' which they had been taking around the country which luckily turns into some funky avant jam full of stoned doom vibes which is enhanced by the sometimes murky sound (no real tape hiss just a murk)...the 'man&journey' concept was later dumped as they got into doing the 'amazin pudding' (AHM) as their next project...the evening was brought to an end with some groovy space jamming on 'interstellar' where the floydian wander-lust meanders around in fine choogle...not as trance-noodle as some shows but some real nice white light moments appear nonetheless...
...considering the circumstances in which this was recorded, in the open air on a cassette some way from the stage it's not a bad sound and of obvious value as the gigs put on in hyde park london at the back end of the 60s (for free) ain't coming back any time soon...as the title may indicate this was an afternoon of combos affiliated to blackhill management (roy harper/edgar broughton/kevin ayres etc.) who all helped make the sunny day a groovy experience with myriad heads and the 'plain curious all digging the sounds of the underground...floyd do their usual space journeys(controls/eugene) and they also did AHM which does not seem to have survived as that is surely missing from every boot of this gig but the rest is here and it's a great reminder of long ago tymes, tripping in the sunshine with nary a care...as with all these type audience recordings we get to hear the heads chatting and this adds to the listening vibe more than takes away, it puts the listener right there in the sun...very nice addition to vintage floydian grooves...
...hi-fi snobs are really going to freak with this boot from their 'favourite' combo as this ain't the sort of sound they go for AT ALL: rough cut edits/a couple of different sources/tape hiss/audience coughing and all the things that make listening to illicit gubbings the funnest of fun...there's plenty of ace sounding board boots where the band are as lethargic and tedious as the studio versions in the later days but this, from december/22/70/sheffield U.K is prime-post-syd groovage where the sound quality must be of secondary consideration...great spaceways funky jams like embryo/controls/eugene/saucer all make for an excellent 2&1/2hours of floydian wobble...the gig finished up with a 30 minute A.H.M adding just the right amount of topping to a fine slice of vintage floydian pie...
...with all the altercations the things had with the forces of 'law and order' there was plenty of bread to give up in the courts of 'justice' to pay for their misdemeanors , more bread than they had readily to hand so there was some different courses of action to be taken...drug dealing would not really pay the dividends needed and armed robbery takes a lot of effort that may have been beyond their capabilities so those avenues of endeavour were basically closed up tight...there was the unthinkable that could be taken up; make some library music for the squares to use in films/radio plays etc, so the 'electric banana' came into existence to cater for this 'sell out'...psychedelia for the establishment, not for the 'rabid' foaming degenerate hippies that cluttered up their gigs...exploitational certainly, groovy indeed...these discs comprise the tracks they laid down in the years 1967/9 for the dewolfe imprint who specialised in that twilight world of 'ready made soundtracks' for use by anyone who wanted them as background music, atmospherics for artistic concerns...each LP was given over to one side songs with vocals, the other side the instrumental of the corresponding song, so there was a choice to be had by the prospective client who desired some 'youth' action for their soundtrack ...starting in the flower power year the first banana joint was some nice horn driven pop that could easily have reached the lower end of the pop charts had the tunes been given some radio exposure as they are quietly attractive after a few hearings...the second album was really cool, consisting of dark psychedelia with snakey guitar winding its way around the tuneage...this LP was more like dropping a trip and hanging around piccadilly circus grooving on the neon and laughing at the constabulary who knew something was happening but could not quite figure out exactly what it might be...the last LP from '69 is an amalgam of pop and rocking psych which is a fine ending to three 'secret' records (it was a decade after the fact that these joints got any recognition at all and then most ignored them, citing they were old fashioned and woefully outdated)...any and all heads who dig s.f sorrow will want to grab an earful while lighting up some good afghany black and arrive without travelling...
...first LP wax from third world war shows the way they were thinking, anti-rich/anti-boss/anti-union/anti-pig/pro peoples solidarity, all set to the tune of rhythm and blues based thug/thud rock with some doomy, not quite prog style vibes...this is angry prole rock, beating the drum for the underclass, shouting down the established order of government lacky pen-pusher/pig who make life for cats on the block as well as joe public at large as difficult as possible...released on the then cool TRACK RECORDS in 1970 these west london rockers kick down everything in their way, advocating armed uprising of the working class, a better tomorrow, today...cats maybe needing to get a handle on this urgent urban outpouring need only think of the edgar broughton band and then think meaner, angrier less hippyfied, this ain't suitable for geeks and middle class twonks who think there's nothing wrong with the system, it's a full on expression of hatred for inertia, a call to arms, a rallying cry for the truth...to get a proper insight into the historical place and time this platter falls, a reading of the ANGRY BRIGADE manifesto is in order, these cats weren't going take it anymore, the need for real change was in the air and most definitely on this disk...
...more righteous anger pouring out, the revenge of the underclass, rich beware, there's a new wind blowing through the cities and the pig can't help but wonder who the new boss might be, who will pull the strings when the old system collapses...no one is safe from the wrath of THIRD WORLD WAR, they speak for untold millions who suffer under the downpressor, the underclass will RISE ABOVE and take their place in the sun, no more toiling for the right to buy shoddy goods/unhealthy food...the time is NOW and forever more...cats who got a buzz off the first LP will flip with this the second and last wax, which will blow a hole in the stereo with its mind-bombs and sten guns blazing...
...after living with a wizard in paris (or least in his own mind and myth) the young mod chancer marc got together with ladbroke hooligan steve took and started playing some folky vibed acoustic sound...though this was settled on the folky tip this weren't no wooly jumper trad yodel but much more in the crushed velvet dusty garret poetry and wine folk including bongos and bells with the guitar strum...acid munching pixies strolling through sunlit forests of middle earth was how they were percieved by some underground zoned heads and for a while it seemed as this might well be true but this was to be the last LP these two put out before the nature of the combo started to alter radically and then change forever, the sound becoming harder as tolkienland vanished from the maps and radar of subterrania boho minded wasters...
...recorded over the '69/70 time period, steve hanging with paul rudolf and twink in a couple of london studios, 3 tracks for twinks 'think pink' and some demos of four tunes from steve...the twink vehicles are on the psychy shambolic side, nice and wobbly as expected, with steves numbers being spazzed-out acoustic numbers that takes a cat back to those tripped out nights at the middle earth club, a stoned buzz coming right off the wax, a hep bongs worth of grooves with that streak of meloncholic madness that takes tookys work into the higher stratosphere of london town looners, hooligan bohemia comes sliding along and creeps up when least expected...
...apart from the blantantly obvious fact that a lot more care and attention could been garnered on the presentation this cd is a real nice groove over a few evenings down ladbroke grove way circa 1972...taped at wild drugged get-togethers with larry wallis and twink in attendance at steves basement flat there's nice acoustic grooves with guitar/bongos/melletron, explosive amphetamine blare and generally a cloudy haze of whiskey and reefer flowing through...psychedelia pops up here and there and they are reminding the listener that the age of hippy aquarius, though having taken a beating from the pig was still a viable concern, at least with these cats who had the aquariun groove rolled together with motorcycle boots and leather jackets...there's the ocassional marc bolan riff floating, some heavy pink fairy damage blasting its way to the surface, it's possibly the best expression of london hippy-hooligan blast since the deviants ptoof (this obvious overstatement must somehow include AMM/sam gopal/third world war), it's real people on the cusp of showbiz going for their dream, their approximation of communication, street level cantankerous beatnik shenanigans of the first order...comatose in dark, dank and dirty corners or reaching for the end zone with space rock (hawkwind had some influence on steves outlook with floaty electronics, the type of wasted noise del detmar/dikmik were churning out for the early 'wind)...although not planned as any sort of commercial release back in the day these tunes hang together nicely, making it all a hazy dreamscape, after a few spins this takes on a weird life of its own, seemingly going where it pleases, the listener has no control, the remarkable power of 'groveness', the communal vibe reaching out down the years...cats who dig the basement style of freeform, plug in and sees what happens way of doing things are going to dig this the most, a stoned blast of mind melt, a one way ticket to the ever elusive 'otherside'...
...starting off in the stage hit hair in old london towne marsha not surprisingly soon found herself shaking it with the movers and groovers and got herself a band together and was going to play at the stones hyde park bash in july 1969...in the end she didn't get to do said gig for reasons that are not precisely clear four decades later (though not to be thwarted by any attendant-lackey-square trying to dampen her moment of rock'n'roll glory she may have garnered as wild she devil, it was the stones after all, she did pick up audience attention by suggestively climbing around the speaker towers for what seemed eternity to the amused onlookers)...anyhow later on she got herself some chart action with the 'walk on gilded splinters' 45 and suddenly she was big news with pop watching citzens aswell as heads and socialites...by '71 it was time for marsha to grab some more studio time and knock out a LP full of great cover songs all done in a funky/real vibe...put out by the wonderful track label who had seen better times and by now where coasting on cheap compilations and thunderclap newman and the whole shebang just disappeared from view, gone without a trace, not even many copies in the deletion bin so she never solidified the rocking credentials that looked to be hers for the taking 18 months earlier...
...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'...
