Are You Ready To Testify?

Over at the Drowned In Sound website (check it if you like - it's average, really) there's a list of issues available for comment. I like that sort of thing, if only to see peoples' responses so I can raise my blood pressure. One of the topics is "what album defined your mid-teen years?". Hoo-boy, that's a good one. My answer is always the same:

"Kick Out The Jams" by MC5.

Released shortly before I turned Sweet 16, KOTJ defined much of my ensuing years (yet and still!). It also defined my hometown and even my country. The Five were polarizing. For all intents & purposes they were the first punk band (if you exclude Presley, Little Richard, The Stones or even The Velvet Underground, and for the sake of argument I guess I do) and if that's your calling card in 1968, well then, you may as well wear a suit of swastikas to your mother's funeral.

Here's the thing: their leftie manager John Sinclair subscribed to and aggressively employed a cultural/political agenda deemed to make The Five stand out in a crowd. His efforts shot them to the forefront of youth culture (briefly) and arguably brought them worldwide fame (marginally) and notoriety (er...marginally). This anti-war/anti-government agenda coupled with being the progenitors of the absolute highest-energy rock & roll ever - EVER - was quite appealing to a large percentage of Motor City youths. On a national level, however, people didn't really want to know. The 5 made people uncomfortable debunking the peace & love ethic as they did, and while most weren't ready for that right about then, give 'em two years and Kent State, they'd open their eyes. But by that time it was too late. The Five were a footnote by '72 (thankfully the punk explosion of '77 made people aware of them again).

BUT on to the essence of The Five. Most "progressive" musical combos of the day were shoegazers and guitar masturbators, but The Five brought the visual with the cerebral: they DEMANDED both an open mind AND open eyes. When it was time for the Five, people would stand and necks would crane to watch it all unfold. First their rabble-rousing MC, Brother Jesse Crawford would appear to work the crowd like Elmer Gantry on speed, a most sanctified preacher in a church full of sinners. (example: "it takes five seconds! five seconds to move! five seconds to realize your purpose here on the planet! brothers and sisters it's time to move! it's time to get down with it! brothers it's time to testify and I want to know - are you ready to testify? ARE YOU READY? I GIVE YOU A TESTIMONIAL! THE MC5!!!) People would yell, shout, scream, the only thing missing was the old ladies with the fans. Then the MC5 would hit the stage running like they were being chased by the cops, do the splits, Rockette-style high-kicks, James Brown slides, all the while generating the fiercest ear-splitting rock & roll in existence, featuring the twin guitar attack of Brother Wayne Kramer and Fred Sonic Smith. They covered James Brown, The Troggs and Sun Ra (SUN RA!!!). They copped their riffs from The Who and Coltrane (COLTRANE!!!). You didn't get that from Eric Clapton or Grace Slick. They deconstructed the whole hippie lifestyle. It was a new day.

The 5 were always in deep with the law, usually on trumped up obscenity charges or inciting a riot most often related to what would be by today's standards laughable at best: performing their signature tune "Kick Out The Jams", which began:

"KICK OUT THE JAMS, MOTHERF@%KERS!!!!!!"

Not only did that get them in trouble with the law, it got me in trouble with my mother. She actually took away my MC5 album like a teacher confiscating a slingshot.

The 5 had to get their message to the people, so they released a radio-friendly edit of that song replacing the objectionable word with "brothers & sisters". No matter, we all knew what was going down.

The album I started out discussing before I got carried away was recorded live on Halloween 1968 at Detroit's premiere rock dive The Grande Ballroom, which was across the street from the original Hockeytown, Olympia Stadium. There is no way you could come close to understanding the sound and power of The Five from this album, but at the time it was the only artifact available in the privacy of a teenage bedroom. Everyone complains about the sound of this album but I wonder if today's recording equipment could even retained the scruffy dirty feedback-laden sound The Five produced. There was absolutely nothing like them. Many have tried, but The Five are still The Best.

So this album certainly epitomized my early teens, even more than my all-time favorite album, Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited, because it came from my streets, from my town, and it was (for its time) so damn bad & nasty and against every f@%king thing one's parents ever wanted for their children. It was part of a cache of records that came at just the right time for me, alongside Highway 61, The Velvet Underground, The Stooges ... I was damn lucky.

What was I saying? Oh yeah, Kick Out The Jams, Motherf@%cker!