Einstein's First Law of Thermodynamics asserts that energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed from one form to another. Apparently that applies to high energy, too - in the form of the MC5. Fiftythree years after their third album, High Time, the legendary Detroit rockers have just released the hardly-hoped-for follow-up, Heavy Lifting.
Never mind that everyone in the MC5 had passed away at the time of release (Wayne Kramer, Dennis Thompson and manager John Sinclair all died earlier this year), and that High Time had been heralded as their final album, praised as "one of the most defiant swan songs in rock music". If any band could subvert the timespace continuum, it's these cosmic-argonaut Sun Ra collaborators. Who could doubt that they could transubstantiate and release a new MC5 album from beyond the pale? Overlords of rebellious hard-garage/punk rock, in their early days the MC5 set off the first flares of revolution, exacerbated teenage unrest, and legitimised and elevated the counterculture.
Anyone who ever saw them - singer Rob Tyner, guitarists Kramer and Fred 'Sonic' Smith, bassist Michael Davis and drummer Thompson - couldn't help falling under their spell.
Sonic Youth christened themselves after MC5 guitarist Smith. Lemmy often declared: "Basically, I wanted to be the MC5, playing fast, loud rock'n'roll." Billy Idol said: "I saw the MC5 at a festival outside of Worthing. I saw the future of rock'n'roll." Stone Temple Pilots named a song after the band, and Soundgarden's Kim Thayil said they were "my favourite band ever". The first call Thayil got about resuming playing after Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell committed suicide was from Kramer. "I think if anyone else had called I would have declined."
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Denne historien er fra November 2024-utgaven av Classic Rock.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Joan Armatrading
The singer-songwriter on her new album, inspirations, being a 'band', what her key was about, meeting Nelson Mandela...
Meat Loaf: I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)
It was the power ballad to end all power ballads, and 30 years later people still ponder what the it’ is that the singer wouldn't do.
Kris Kristofferson: June 22, 1936 - September 28, 2024
Kris Kristofferson, the iconic, Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter and actor who played a key role in advancing a strand of country music into a more raw and confessional direction now recognised as outlaw country, has died peacefully at his home in Maui, surrounded by family. He was 88 years old.
"I have come a very long way in the last two-and-a-bit years"
Back from the brink: the Thunder vocalist who survived major medical trauma returns.
EVER MEET LEMMY?
He's heard Lemmy's unreleased solo album, had dinner with Chris Holmes, told Paul McCartney to get a round in, been told gangster Reggie Kray wanted to have a word with him... He is Dogs D'Amour frontman Tyla 7 Pallas, and these are some of his stories.
"LET'S NOT FORGET ABOUT HAVING FUN"
With their ninth studio album In Murmuration, Finnish rockers Von Hertzen Brothers have replaced their erstwhile prog epics for a more honest approach to songwriting reflecting their personal lives.
IN THE BEGINNING
With previously unseen photographs from their early days as featured in the new Queen | Collector's Edition, Sir Brian May talks us through sights of the band in the early seventies.
BASS-IC INSTINCT
Plucked from obscurity in 1975 to be in David Bowie's band, then unceremoniously out of the picture five years later, bassist George Murray looks back on his time with the Thin White Duke.
High Rollers
When Ronnie Wood, the Stones and some A-list mates holed up at his house to help with his solo album, it sparked a days-long party, a Rolling Stones hit and the last album by arguably their finest line-up.
THE NAME OF THE GAM
When ABBA-mad Opeth leader Mikael Akerfeldt met one of their singers, he lost it”. She didn’t sing on their new concept album, but some other, perhaps unlikely, big names did.
