THE MC5 are a very good, very determined
rock band. In the old days when people weren't too bothered about listening
to them, they used to leap off the stage and blow a saxophone in people's
ears, or throw money at the audience - anything to get a reaction.
Now, six years after the start, the reaction is beginning
to become more widespread and they are at present over here for the
first time. In fact the reaction they achieve is such that the MC5 seem
to have earned the reputation of being the enfants terribles of America.
"It's the image thing," says
guitarist Wayne Kramer, falling around laughing. "Promoters think
we're going to go out and burn things. They hear incredible rumours
of how we kill cats on stage and run around stark naked. No, of course
we don't do that. But I'd much rather be controversial than safe."
Controversial
rather than safe seems to have been the band's motto from the early
days. They all hail, and indeed are still based, in Detroit - centre
of America's car industry. That's what the MC stands for - Motor City.
"We
grew up in Detroit. We started off playing parties in people's houses,
church halls, but we didn't want to play the kind of songs you hear
on the radio - we still don't and never will. But we knew that what
we were playing was good.
"We
had a terrible reputation with the club owners - we were too late, too
drunk and too loud. By and large a rock audience in Detroit didn't really
exist - we invented it. I mean, who would imagine something happening
in Detroit where they make cars? But we were totally and basically broke
- it's a thing you have to go through and we did for four years. We're
stubborn.
The effect the MC5 must have gradually made upon Detroit must have been
comparable to a bombshell in Dagenham here. Their music than was way
ahead of its time - before any of the West Coast bands had begun. When
the MC5 was shattering and shocking the mid-West there was no Grateful
Dead, no Jefferson Airplane, none of the big West Coast bands whose
reputations and earnings blossomed and overtook those of the MC5 some
time ago. But then music isn't a particularly fair industry.
"I
know most of the people in the West Coast bands personally - I know
Jerry Garcia of the Dead," says Wayne, "and I dig them as
cats but I don't like them musically. In Detroit you could hear all
this big talk about the West Coast and this incredible music that was
happening there - Jefferson Airplane, I was always hearing about them.
I was expecting to hear my idea of what they'd be like - they'd be really
strong. Then someone finally came over to my apartment with a record,
and I heard folk musicians with an electric guitar, with no soul and
totally self-indulgent. I still hear that.
"That's
the whole thing that comes over - 'me and my music man,' and it's all
bull. The important thing is the kids; if they're sitting there falling
asleep then it's a drag - they're not getting their money's worth."
MC5
played round Detroit for four years before making their first album,
which was "Kick Out The Jams," the phrase they originated.
"People
said 'oh wow, kick out the jams means break down restrictions' etc.,
and it made good copy, but when we wrote it we didn't have that in mind.
We first used the phrase when we were the house band at a ballroom in
Detroit, and we played there every week with another band from the area.
"We
got in the habit, being the sort of punks we are, of screaming at them
to get off the stage, to kick out the jams, meaning stop jamming. We
were saying it all the time and it became a sort of esoteric phrase.
Now, I think people can get what they like out of it; that's one of
the good things about rock and roll."
"Kick
Out The jams" has become a sort of MC5 trade mark; they still play
it onstage. The album was also remarkable for its lengthy exhortations
in the "are you ready to testify . . ." vein, and the very
basic sleeve notes - all part of the MC5's policy to make their presence
very much known. From the start they had no wish to be an ordinary rock
band, and they never will be.
Now
they've done a second album - "Back In The USA" - which is
released here soon - and although they're inundated with questions about
it here, their minds are far more into the third album which they're
putting together in various studios round Europe. They recorded some
of it at London's Lansdowne studios last week.
"The
second album has a lot of short songs on it," says Wayne. "The
longest is about four minutes, so I think the third album will have
some longer tunes and the music will be more force and sweat.
"We've
already put one track down - 'Sister Anne' - it's about a nymphomaniac
nun. And we have four worked out onstage now. We always think it's best
to work it out onstage first and see if it fits and what the response
is like. I think our second album is perfect. We wanted to make a perfect
one and I think we did. We're not so interested in making a perfect
one this time, though.
"It
seems funny to me to hear people like the Airplane who are semi into
jazz, really old style jazz. We've been through all that, further than
they could ever go. With us, our music is just a constant process of
re-evaluation."
©1970 by Caroline Boucher