Sunday, July 5, 2020

shaking pt 2



“I’ve always found in rock’n’roll post-1962, ever since the English Invasion started, a tremendous amount of dead weight, a lot of it is just so leaden and boring. It brings you down, it does not bring you up. And I like stuff that ROARS! Like a dragster, like Jerry Lee Lewis, like Link Wray, like Little Richard, like fucking Gary U.S. Bonds  like the Orlons – like yeah, let’s get some fucking action here! Like Cannibal & the Headhunters, now that’s the kind of shit that would light a fire under my tree. And suddenly everything’s got more and more scholastic. Academic, if it’s real academic, fine. But faux-academic, nuh-uh" - Iggy Pop on "Shake Appeal"


Not sure about this as a historical statement (what about the Stones? The Who? He probably never heard John's Children).  Brit beat boom is high-energy surely...  the "leaden" bit really starts with Cream, and then Vanilla Fudge. But it's a point of view. 


One of the great disappointments, finally hearing MC5

On a par with the New York Dolls, in terms of shortfall between reading-stoked expectation and actuality

I mean, you want to talk "leaden'


Virtually Nugent

Somebody named a zine after this one didn't they? I mean, why?



People also use this one as a benchmark of their sonically radical side



Not convinced.

Plus there's the group's image. 



6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Phil Knight sez:

I think Americans tend to hear "authenticity" - as an actually existing thing that is audibly traceable - in a way that British people don't.
The cult of Robert Johnson is a classic example of this.

So what sounds a bit tinny and crappy to Britons is like a holy relic to Americans. This is the only explanation I can come up with for why they over-value so much ricketty sounding shite.

Ed said...

This live show from 1970 gives you a bit of a sense of why people rate the MC5, I think. Especially the performance of 'Kick Out the Jams' that starts at 2'55".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74jS3dW0DtE

There image was not always terrible. Smith and Kramer on guitars both look great here. And Tyner has a Bez-level ratio of enthusiasm to talent.

They had a great way with a logo, too:

https://mcfive.bandcamp.com/album/babes-in-arms

As with the Ramones and AC/DC, their T-shirts have had a life as free-floating signifiers far beyond the relevance of the band.

Ed said...

*Their* image was not always terrible...

Ed said...

Oh and why did someone name a zine 'Black to Comm'? Was it because Spacemen 3 stole the riff almost note for note on 'Revolution'?

The lyrics are clear MC5-pastiche as well. That line about "I suggest to you..."

Anonymous said...

The zine predates "Revolution" by a number of years, so that's clearly not the case

Ed said...

Yes sorry I see the zine was launched in 1985.

A bit of parallel evolution, I guess, in the general revival of interest in psych / noise rock in the mid-80s.