MACHINEGUN THOMPSON: MAGIC BUS

Can you remember the best time of your life? Try it. It is not the easiest thing to do. After a friend told me it would make a good post, I became obsessed with trying to think of what my best time was. This is what presented itself to me. DKT/MC5’s 2004 World Tour.

It took 38 years for me to finally get the chance to tour on the “Magic Bus”, a song that was popularized by the Who.

That summer of 2004 was the absolute greatest time of my life. Bar none. We toured for almost four months. It also beat the crap out of me, even though I trained at a gym for eight months prior to this assault.

First we toured the USA, starting with rehearsals and a show in Toronto, Canada. Then we drive off to Detroit, then Chicago, and maybe 20 plus something cities total.
New York City was the most important. Mucho press, TV and radio to do there. Then on to Europe, Australia, and Japan.

I was 55 years old when we attempted this once seemingly impossible adventure of the three of us getting back together to play MC5 music again. This time everybody was sober. Wayne, Michael, and I rehearsed in Hollywood, LA for a week or two before this whole odyssey began. We had to use two singers to cover for Rob Tyner as he is one man that cannot be replaced by any one singer.



Very Special Thanks to all the very talented folks that came out to assist DKT:

DENIZ TEK (Iceman) from RADIO BIRDMAN

GILBY CLARKE from GUN'S N' ROSES.

Mark Arm sang lead from “Mudhoney”. They were Seattle’s 1990’s rock scene’s forefathers and still one of the best bands in the country.

Evan Dando sang lead from the “Lemonheads” fame.

Marshall Crenshaw played second rhythm and lead guitar.

Dr. Charles Moore played the trumpet on many shows.

Buzzy Jones played the sax whenever the Doctor played with us. When we had the full troupe, there were eight of us on stage. What a band! I always wished to play in a large orchestra like Buddy Rich, or Gene Krupa, and that wish finally came true.

During media interviews we sometimes referred to ourselves as the “Traveling Repertory Rock N’ Roll Experiment.” Indeed this is what we were. I WAS IN HEAVEN FOLKS…

So many people all over the US, Europe, Australia, and Japan, sat in with us it was positively astounding!

Special thanks to Lemmy from “Motorhead”, and Dave Vanian from the “Damned”. I will write about more of our friends in part two.

I need to preface this amazing adventure with a little history from London, England circa 2003 first.

This all started with us doing a gig at the 100 Club in London in 2003. We partnered with the Levi-Strauss Company to help promote their vintage clothing line connection from rockers from our era (the 60’s and 70’s), through the 80’s and 90’s, the present day era, and off into the future.

Levi’s gave me 2 real cool leather jackets, a generous collection of Levi jeans and sweatshirts. Nice perks if you can get it. They put us up like royalty in one of London’s finest hotels. We were there for a total of ten days and rehearsed at least six or seven of those days for the one-off two hour show.



BACK TO THE MAGIC BUS…

We had a repertoire of maybe 35 songs which every guitarist that joined the group had to learn. This is a significantly daunting task, and hats off to guitarist and back up vocalist Marshall Crenshaw for his excellent work in phase one, the US tour.

More special thanks to Adam Pearson from “The Sisters of Mercy”, and Nicky Royale from the Hellacopters, Handsome Dick Manitoba from the “Dictators”, Lisa Kekaula from the “Bellrays”, and Peter Wolf from the “J. Geils Band”. Last but not least, “basitarist” Chris Ballew from the “Presidents”. All of these musicians and vocalists have toured or sat in with the DKT/MC5 band during the last six years.

Back to the bus. There is only one major rule everyone must adhere to religiously and that is “NO POOPING ON THE BUS!” Immodium AD became my best friend. No s**t….ha, ha, ha.

We had one bus for the US leg and two different buses for Europe. The drivers all have tons of great stories to tell me about the various celebrity tom-foolery they witnessed as they drove them criss-cross the planet. I wrote a journal chronicling the haps each day. There were only a few days off of work smattered here and there depending on the length of the drive.

Okay, here is how bus touring works:

The very first day of the tour, this beautiful double deck bus named the Provost pulls up to my house in the suburbs. I had to help the driver Pete navigate through the darn tree branches hanging overhead. We crunched a few and he was worried about the satellite dish mounted on top of the bus getting broken off the bus.

As the bus pulled up to my house to get me and my Taye drums, tens of neighbors start to come out of their homes to see what the big fuss was all about. Toby, my good friend across the street actually cried he was so happy for me. So did my Patrice. Touching to say the least. Man, I felt like a butterfly flying in the wind.

When you get on this particular bus the first thing you notice is how long and comfortable looking it is. This bus had the sleeping births on the bottom floor. There were 12 births. Six on a side. A lower and an upper like bunk-beds. They were about eight feet long, with a privacy draw curtain, and a little 9 inch TV by your feet. They actually were very comfortable.

You take circular steps to go upstairs, and there is a meeting room in the back with leather bench seats and a long table and another TV, and at the front there was an office set up and a huge window to look out forward from the bus. For about a week my equilibrium was thrown off and when you get off the bus after an eight hour drive, you are still swaying from side to side. Unnerving to say the least.



There is joyful camaraderie as old war stories are popping up during the many hours logged in driving from city to city. We must have hit at least twenty five cities during this leg. The hours are anything but normal and bus touring is not for the weak of heart or mind.

Our show-time was usually somewhere between 10:30 pm to 12:00 midnight. Two hours onstage, then a meet and greet to shake hands and sign albums, CD’s t-shirts and ticket stubs. This was a great deal of fun. We would meet many sets of families spanning three generations.

So now it is around 3:00 in the morning and the trouble was that you get so hyper from the adrenaline rush from being onstage that it would take hours to get to sleep. So you just fall asleep and the bus stops for fuel and you better get up and go to the potty at the gas station because the driver is on a schedule to get to the next destination, and you won’t get the chance to go again for four more hours.

The bus in this regard is definitely for the younger musicians out there. Not many older people are good at this time distortion. It’s a bitch. We read books, watch the countryside, and catch cat naps when we can. We make sure the coffee is plenty strong. I’ll write about the European leg in the near future.

Joyously Yours,
MGT

TO ANONYMOUS: THE POWER OF A MOMENT

Moments. As I travel through time and space, I collect moments. What constitutes a moment we might ask? Probably any interval of time worth remembering. A life can totally change in the blink of an eye. A car crash, a first kiss, a gunshot to the head… On and on…

If I choose to live in the moment, and not in the past, nor the future, am I really more aware of what power moments contain? There is a time to reflect on one’s collection of moments, and there is a time to access past moments, for either amusement, or necessity. If I am awake and in the process of remembering, have I lost some momentum?

We must live entirely in the moment. For if you are spread eagle with one foot in the past and one foot in the future you will most assuredly be pissing on the present.



What it is about conscious awareness that we tend to daydream often-times? Why do people commit suicide, while animals of alleged lower intelligence would find a suicidal moment totally bewildering and downright ludicrous? That thought would never cross their minds. Do animals commit suicide, and if they do not, why? Might have something to do with living in the moment don’t you think? They concentrate on pure survival. So should we.

Life can be overwhelming. Life comes and goes. Mainly, it is short. Somewhere in between today and tomorrow is the glory of it all. Our greatest enemy in the pursuit of happiness and love is our thinking. As you think, so shall you Do. Thousands of lost moments, never to be re-captured, are created right between our ears. The mind is too busy being resentful, angry, fearful, jealous, envious or frustrated.

Seems to me we are here for the flesh and blood experiences existence so offers. In the power of a moment is a choice. Every passing thought can be looked at from you as a second party observer. That second party is privy to immediate reaction. I can have a thought and dwell on it, if it is good, I can expound. If it is negative, I should censor it immediately by looking at the fact it is not beneficial and poisonous to my soul.



Change the direction, and resume towards more meaningful and productive awareness. Or do we do nothing at all and merely speculate? This sounds difficult and indeed it is. “Why am I thinking this way? These thoughts are worrisome, or anxiety laced, or troubling in some matter, yet I continue to give them audience?”

Emotional turmoil. There are three basic instincts, the social, the security, and the sexual. There is an ongoing battle between how I feel in the moment and how I would wish to feel. Oftentimes the moment is not appealing at all. My thinking is being influenced by matters of the spirit. I’ve heard it said that feelings are the language of the soul. So it follows that if I feel troubled, possibly the soul is discontented. What is the source of this soul discontent?
This is the arena where the human struggle rages on. Soul Aches. We all have had a headache. Some get migraines. I never hear anyone complaining of their soul-ache, and I would like to postulate that this dilemma is by far more ubiquitous than any common run of the mill headache.

So here we are in the moment and my thoughts are rampant. You wish to turn to happier thoughts but maybe there is a sense of dread. We need to reconnect with the universal source. This universe was not created out of fear or anger. It was created out of positive love.

Try as you may to change to a more positive field, you are resisting yourself from somewhere and you don’t know where this resistance emanates. Is your soul longing for a better place? Than your soul must be out of the moment!

Can we ever hope to synchronize our thoughts, feelings, and emotions, especially on a continuing ongoing basis? Maybe in a coma… This is essentially impossible. Getting all three areas of the human experience to consistently coincide in harmony is where the serenity lies. Think about it for a moment. Have you ever met the perfect human? I have not, and I have been blessed to travel the world meeting literally tens of thousands of people, who have influenced me in one way or the other.



As I grow older, my priorities shift. So does my attitudinal take on what I see around me. In younger days it was the chase of excitement, the zealous pursuit of hedonism. Pleasures of the flesh. Getting high and trying to stay there. Moving fast and talking bold. Copious substance abuse. The adrenalin fix. The juice. Loud music and fast cars. Faster women. Devil may care aloofness. My self centered illusion of living “The American Dream.” While others raised children, I raised hell.

Today, I seek peace of mind. Today I crave balance and harmony. Today I need to love and be loved. Today I need to and want to create. Today I care about other’s feelings and concerns more than my own. You could say this naturally comes with aging and a smidgen of wisdom, but I beg to differ.

As time goes by, one wonders of the truest, most noble purpose of humanity. I know what that is now. It is to connect to and help my fellow man/woman. Period.
So much suffering in the world. So much hatred, anger, and stupidity. So much starvation, corruption, and apathy.

The mind reels. The soul aches. We are measured in our contribution to the evolution of the greater planetary enlightenment. How many moments wasted in self worship? No time like the present to look at the larger picture. Where do we go from here? We go someplace, because if a life lived is unfulfilled, there is an eternity in which to make a difference. Has got to be! This is the journey to enlightenment.

We actually know very little!



Take the moment to be kind to the next person you meet. Take the moment to be kind to yourself. Love yourself regardless of failure or success. Look for the good in people, all people. Failure teaches, success rewards, and both need each other. Today is the only day that matters. Powerful moments make the day. Make the most of yours. Check yourself in, not out. Probably any interval of time worth remembering was a valuable one…

When you have once seen the glow of happiness on the face of a beloved person, you know that a man can have no vocation but to awaken that light on the faces surrounding him.

In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer. Albert Camus (1913-1960)

Great information on living in the moment and practical advice.

6 Steps to Living in the Moment HERE


With Peace and Happiness,
MGT

DENNIS THOMPSON: CREATIVITY PANELIST P.A.H. NATION

I got to see my dear friend Harvey Ovshinsky again as we sat on Christopher Coppola’s Creativity Panel at Madonna University last Friday night. This was one of many festival events during Project Accessible Hollywood’s week long run at Madonna University.



The Creativity Panel consisted of Christopher Coppola as moderator, Eric Bruneau, the executive vice president and creative director of Armstrong White. An award winning digital creative director and animator with four Academy Award nominations. Harvey Ovshinsky, journalist and documentary filmmaker, (amongst his many other talents), Tom Grace, novelist and architect, Douglas Semivan, Department Chair, Fine Art at Madonna University, and myself as the song writer/drummer with the controversial 1960s Detroit rock group The MC5...



Christopher is the nephew of the great Francis Ford Coppola noted director of The Godfather Trilogy, (and as you all know), a boatload of many other excellent movies. By the way, Christopher’s brother is Nicolas Cage the superb actor.

This panel was absolutely educational for yours truly. We discussed the four elements of the creative process drawn from the book, “The RSVP Cycles”, by Lawrence Halprin.

They are:

RESOURCES – These are the human and material resources available to inform and enrich the creative process; the resource base includes a physical inventory and a project program, objectives and expectations

SCORE – As in a musical score or the choreography of dance; the score orchestrates design, participation, events and activities that visibly delineate, generate and sustain a project

VALUACTION – As an integral part of the process, people’s feelings and belief systems, as well as community needs and desires must be integrated with a decision-making process that respects, acknowledges and incorporates these values

PERFORMANCE – Includes the product and its evolution over time; this component of the Cycles anticipates an organic, non-static solution; an environment or result that is defined by those who use it, experience it, and appreciate it.

REFERENCE – The Rsvp Cycles : Creative Processes in the Human Environment – Lawrence Halprin [1969]


We have posted some video clips for your enjoyment.





Stay tuned as the next post is coming straightaway

Yours in Peace,
MGT

MACHINEGUN THOMPSON: PAH NATION PANEL

Don't miss Machinegun tonight on the live webcast of Christopher Coppola's Project Accessible Hollywood (PAH NATION) Dennis will be a member of the Creativity Panel which begins at 8pm Eastern Time

Click this link to see the web cast later tonight

Webcasts

7/17 5PM PST/8PM EST - Creativity Panel Machinegun
Streaming will begin Friday, 4:00 PM US/Pacific 7PM Eastern



VERY FUN PAH NATION FILM

MGT PLAYLIST NEWS

Music creates order out of chaos: for rhythm
imposes unanimity upon the divergent, melody
imposes continuity upon the disjointed, and
harmony imposes compatibility upon the
incongruous.

Yehudi Menuhin


Time for Music 101 class… Do you think my Jukebox/playlist might be slightly eclectic? Really? I thought so. Music has been so important to me. The value we place on the sounds of music defines our character.

Music is intended to entertain, soothe, rabble rouse, spread loving feelings, and to connect to your vast body of emotions and at times your intellectual thought/emotional mood or state of mind. Music amplifies your own feelings.

Mainly it is about

Empathy:

1. understanding of another's feelings: the ability to identify with and understand somebody else's feelings or difficulties

2. attribution of feelings to an object: the transfer of somebody's own feelings and emotions to an object such as a painting

We live in some hellacious times don’t we? We need some order in the midst of all this chaos. Music can provide this order for you. You can use music to lift you right up and out of the doldrums, or some music can put you to sleep. Why does everyone have such differing tastes for various musical styles? Well, that depends on what turns on the pheromones in your brain.

It also depends on the quantity of exposure to a particular song or a particular music genre. That means your environment. Your immediate circle of friends and family can influence your musical bent. It is also your own magnetic draw to a certain emotion or lyric.

Did you ever stop to think why you like what you like? If I were to interview you and ask what are your three favorite songs and why, could you answer me without a little time to pause and think?



When I first heard “My Generation” by The Who, I was working at a gas station a bit north of downtown Detroit. I was driving home listening to the radio when this song came on. I had to pull the car on to the shoulder of the freeway, as I was mesmerized and slack-jawed awe stricken. Who in the hell were these guys? Sounded like The Who to me. Yeah, probably is….Wow!

When their insane drummer Keith Moon explodes in the last two verses I went nuts. I slapped the steering wheel in time and screamed, shouted and whoo-hooed like a madman. A song from heaven was just sent to me personally.

That is the key. That song was written just for me in my mind. The future of drumming in rock had just arrived. No more “Just play the pocket Dennis” crap ever again for me. I was reborn that night. The sky was now the limit.

That is how good music should work for you too. A song that connects so well, that you wish to personally own it. The song is an extension of you, your feelings, and your entire persona. You get it!

When I first heard the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s first album I was high on some great Thai Stick weed and I got it immediately. This band was from another planet. My home planet, wherever that is—I forget. I played guitar with a broomstick for 5 hours listening to every tune over and over and over again. The rest of the guys got quite a kick out of my broom performance because when they walked in on me I just kept playin’ that broom. Whoo-hoo!



When I first heard the song “Afro Blue” and the album, “Meditations” by the John Coltrane Quartet, I lost it again. These f**kers were downright dangerous! I also immediately realized that my drumming was woefully inadequate compared to this master drummer by the name of Elvin Jones. I have studied him all my life. The same for Keith Moon and Mitch Mitchell.


I became time for me to hit the woodshed for the rest of my life.

Now when I first heard Barry Manilow, I was unaffected at all. He had no energy, no lust for life, no juice.

When I was a young tot I heard “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” and I fell in love with that tune. I fell in love with “Quarter to Three”, by Gary U.S. Bonds. The same for the Contours. “Do You Love Me?” The same for the Beatles “She Loves You” and the Stones’ “Satisfaction.”

The point of all this is why my Jukebox/Playlist is all over the map. A good song is a good song and will stand the test of time no matter the artist. The music lives on forever. I imagine they are just starting to hear Kick Out the Jams on a planet in the Alpha Centauri system. This system is closest to our solar system. I wonder if the Centaurian people like it?

Love what you love and take no prisoners. What does it for you may not do it for the next person. So what? Be yourself, always. You are as unique as each snow flake in a snowstorm. I like a lot of different music and that’s the way it is.

Pure and simple.

MGT



SEND US YOUR TOP 3 FAVORITE SONGS!

SONIC REVOLUTION: DKT/MC5 AT THE 100 CLUB LONDON

The reformation of the remaining three members of the MC5 almost never happened. We never get to do things the easy way. Not all the time, but a lot. Too much darn drama. I have learned to accept this over the years. But I feel no need to put my readers and friends through the dirty laundry. That basket is filled up to the brim. Even now, at this very moment. I will write on this down the road. It is over the top, but interesting.



The 100 Club. Home to the Sex Pistols, The Clash, and hundreds more great British local and world renowned groups. This is the coolest place to play in all of London.





March, 2003, I get a call from a Mr. Alec Samway.
He is working on behalf of the Levi-Strauss clothing empire. Would the remaining three of us like to get together and play a one-off gig together in London? I say SURE!



Alec asks me to get him in touch with Michael Davis. I have been waiting for a call like this for 37 years. The call to play with my soul brothers again. Yes! I am immediately on the phone asking Mike if he wants to get on the bandwagon. He says yes too.

One thing led to another and we finally wind up with a show booked at the infamous 100 club in London. We have been selected to represent Levi’s Vintage line of clothing.
The idea was what type of band could best represent the music of the past, the present, and the future as referenced to the Levi clothing line. Who else? The MC5…We became the poster men for the Vintage line for 2003.

Wayne Kramer and his wife Margaret Saadi Kramer did the development of this arrangement. They secured the rights for us to film a DVD release in the future, obtain 4 star hotel rooms for 10 days, a great rehearsal studio, and a thousand interviews, what a Godsend! Way to go Wayne and Margaret!



We (DKT/MC5) rehearsed in Los Angeles first. Then we rehearsed in England with Nikki Royale of the Hellacopters fame, and bad assed Lemmy from Motorhead, Dave Vanian from The Damned and Dr. Charles Moore, horn section leader and trumpet, and Buzzy Jones, tenor and alto sax. Last but not least Ian Astbury lead singer for The Cult and The Doors.

Dr. Charles wrote musical charts for about 5-7 songs for the horn section then. Those charts became invaluable down the road when we added horn sections in various cities.

THE SHOW:

The set list was:
Skunk (Sonically Speaking) Wayne Kramer
Gotta Keep Movin’ Nikki Royale
Shakin’ Street Mike Davis
Tonight Dave Vanian
Looking At You Dave Vanian
High School Dave Vanian
Poison Wayne Kramer
The American Ruse Nikki Royale
Rama Lama Fa, Fa, Fa Wayne Kramer
Sister Ann Lemmy
Ramblin Rose Wayne Kramer
Kick Out the Jams Ian Astbury

This is the order of songs on the DVD and not the real set list. We released the DVD some 6 months after the show entitled “Sonic Revolution—A Celebration of the MC5”.

The night of the show I went outside the club and the queue was two blocks long. Holy S**t! We gotta bring the heat tonight…

SOMETIMES WE WERE RIGHT ON THE MONEY

WE TOOK A STAND!

Other times we made some terrible mistakes. No one can ever accuse us of not exploring the possibilities though. This is our legacy, as I see it.

I have done many things since the breakup of the group. I did stints with Sirius Trixon & The Motor City Bad Boys, lived in Hollywood and played in the original New Order with Ron Asheton of the Stooges and Dave Gilbert of the Rockets. I did a tour in 1981 with the New Race with Ron Asheton & Deniz Tek of Radio Birdman fame. The last pro tour was in 1998 with Wayne Kramer, Scott Morgan , Deniz Tek and Gary Rasmussen as Dodge Main.

I have toured with DKT/MC5 since 2003.

I have programmed and set up CNC machining centers making different prototype parts for everything to the Sidewinder Missile bracket for the F-15 Eagle fighter jet, to the turret gear rack for the M1-A1 Abrams tanks that went to the Persian Gulf War in 1990.

I re-designed the full size animatronic robot animals on the stage at Major Magic’s All Star Pizza Review, co-produced the music and programmed their movements. I was commissioned to hire everybody from machinists, welders, and seamstresses to build, clothe, assemble, and install four more complete stage set-ups of 12 different characters in four other franchise locations in the country.



The last 12 years I have been working hard and fast writing two books simultaneously. Book number one’s working title, “An American Night in The Round”, is a full length novel which I refer to as a cross between satire and speculative fiction. Twelve years in the making, I hope to finish this tome in a year or two.

Book number two is currently titled, “A Walk in The Woods”, and is a generous collection of short stories, philosophical musings, and inspirational essays documenting my spiritual journey, and commenting on the struggles of life in Modern America. Currently in the editing stage, this book should be available for publishing by in 2010 I hope. I will also publish a book of blog posts in a year or so.



And last but not least I started my own production company named MGT Multi-Media LLC. and am looking forward to releasing my first solo music CD next year if time permits. We will be a full range media company. More on this later.

So in summary, I should hope the legacy of the MC5 is that of inspiring and encouraging exploration, using your imagination, and having the fortitude to pursue your hearts ambition.

A legacy of bold pursuit of all things possible and to stand tall for what is right, even if the price seems high.

In closing there is only one thing left to say and that is: “Let me be who I am…and let me “Kick out the Jams! Mother F**ker’s!



“Look, I really don't want to wax philosophic, but I will say that if you're alive, you got to flap your arms and legs, you got to jump around a lot, you got to make a lot of noise, because life is the very opposite of death. And therefore, as I see it, if you're quiet, you're not living. You've got to be noisy, or at least your thoughts should be noisy and colorful and lively.”

Mel Brooks

Next post is pure rock ‘n roll!
MGT

A HIGHLY CRITICAL FORK IN THE ROAD

I am truly a lucky man, for I think I have been spared the fate of many a rock and roll “star”, that of a lifetime of resentful obscurity and pain, addiction, and for many, a sad and premature death, as many of my friends and contemporaries died at a very young and tender age. Life in the fast lane is exciting and glorious at its best, and brutal and destructive at its worst.

When I was in high school from 1963 through 1966, I maintained a 3.5 grade point average. I made the National Honor society in my junior and my senior year. My parents were very much like your parents. They knew of the value of a good education. Much more so, than myself, I now understand. I was young and full of energy and enthusiasm, thinking that I was immortal, and that I would live forever.

This is really quite normal for a teenager. My father was a toolmaker who worked two jobs for twenty years to save enough money to put me through college. He wanted a better life for me, like any good father wants for his children.



I enrolled at Wayne State University in the fall of 1966. I had not made up my mind yet about making music a full time career. I was truly torn up inside. I became the drummer of the MC5 in the fall of 1965 when Wayne Kramer came to my home in Lincoln Park on his motorcycle and asked me to play with his new band at the Crystal Bar, a seedy shot and beer joint on Michigan and Central in Detroit. When I graduated in the summer of ’66, my band the Five played at my all night party. That was a blast!

Well like I said, I attended WSU and chose Physics and chose engineering as my field of study, with a particular fascination with physics and astronomy. Turned eighteen that year in September and managed to complete the first year with a 3.0 average. Towards the end of my second year, I was living with the band above the artist’s workshop, doing my best to attend classes and rehearse and play gigs with the band. In my second year, this division of commitment caused my grades to suffer as I plummeted to getting C minuses and incompletes in my course studies.

I found myself at a highly critical fork in the road. The band issued an ultimatum to me, that if I did not quit college, I would have to quit the band. I knew as well as they, that no man can serve two masters without the both of them suffering. It was my time to testify, to put up or shut up, and to commit myself 100%, either to the band or to my continuing education.



I had to choose one or the other, and if you were to ask me if today I would have made the same choice I made then, I would honestly have to say yes, I probably would have. This was an agonizing decision for me, because I wasn’t ready to quit school at all. If I had chosen school, the MC5 would have gotten another drummer to replace me for sure.

The reason I am telling you this is, because to this very day, I am not exactly 100% sure I made the right choice. But this is my past, there is no changing it, I had to go through exactly everything I went through to be the man you see standing before you here and now. Life is all about the choices we make, and the consequences we must embrace as a result of those choices. This is one of the first great lessons I learned being in the MC5. The decisions you make control your destiny. There is no one to blame. You always have a choice, an option.

WHAT DO WE DO? CONFORM OR REBEL?

Iraq is just another debatable war raging right now, with the possibility of Afghanistan, India, and Iran becoming the next new fronts. What do we do? Conform or rebel? What about that a**hole in North Korea?



This country is again becoming polarized. On this issue of conformity versus rebellion, every American citizen must do his own soul searching as to where he or she draws the line for him/herself. The MC5 were undeniably rebellious. We were radicals, only in the sense of doing what we knew how to do, to defend our rights and privileges under the freedoms provided by this First Amendment. It became our calling, whether we liked it or not.



We were young and inexperienced. We fought with music, lyrics and emotional rhetoric, and the powers that be retaliated with censorship, FBI Surveillance, local police harassment, violence, tapped phones, numerous arrests of band members, infiltration by undercover cops, imprisonment of our manager John Sinclair, and ultimately arrests and prison sentences for many of our peers and friends. Once we committed, then the press exacerbated and embellished that commitment, there was no turning back. It was all out WAR.

The Vietnam war had to end, laws had to change, peace had to be restored, and equal rights had to finally be achieved to some degree of compromise. Out of conformity, and out of rebellion, we made changes together. We found new solutions together. Albeit not without some nagging growing pains though.

Me? Today? I am first and foremost a survivor. I am a very lucky and a very blessed man. It has been 37 years since my band the MC5 played our final show at the Grande Ballroom in December of 1972. Peering into that past from the auspicious vantage point of 20-20 hindsight, there are many life lessons I have learned.

As a surviving member, I have to be grateful to be alive given the numerous brushes with the police, the FBI, the court system, the revolutionary gangs, the racists, bigots and bullies who we had to physically fight at times to protect ourselves from physical harm.

More to come… Peace Brothers and Sisters.

MGT

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY FOLKS!

CONFORMITY VS REBELLION in its Purest State.

Remember Thoreau saying that for “A Government to be strictly just, it must have the sanction and consent of the governed.” What does a democracy do when Fathers disagree with Mothers, Sisters argue with their Brothers, and the neighbor next door shouts, “Kill all the damn hippies, commies, draft dodgers, and uppity blacks! Nuke Vietnam!

The neighbors across the street just lost one son in The Tet Offensive, and now they secretly plot the escape of their youngest son from the draft by literally driving him across the border to Canada.

Ultra-violence erupted in many cities. Watts, Harlem, Chicago, Detroit and more. These cities were on fire literally! Right here in Detroit in 1967, John Lee Hooker wrote the song “The Motor City Is Burning” and we (the MC5 did a version of it on our first album release.



The press dubbed it a race riot, but many, many people knew the real truth. That we were a nation under siege, and that every citizen became a hostage to both sides. The Conformists versus the Rebellious ruled the era,

The United States National Guard we’re just following orders in doing their duty to try and preserve order. They realistically faced the looming possibilty of total and runaway anarchy brought about by the eruptions of violence in urban black communities, allied with small groups of white freedom fighters, who were burning, shooting, and looting at will.

At Kent State University, four students were shot and killed by the Ohio National Guard, and those Gaurdsmen who pulled the trigger could just as well have been a blood related brother to one of the kids that they shot and killed that day. Boston Massacre all over again.

Chaos and confusion reigned supreme. It was all pretty frightening, surreal, dangerous and strange. We were a nation spinning dangerously precariously out of control. All this was just some forty years ago people.

You know, wars, and rumors of wars will never end as long as there is greed and money involved. They will never end as people continue to fight over territories, power and natural resources.

This will never end as long as ignorance and lack of education and true communication between people are not the rule of the day. They will never end as long as racism, bigotry and chauvinism in all forms are eventually wiped out over time with love, and understanding and changes in each and every individual on this planet.

The end to hatred is an inside job and that is only achieved on an individual personal basis. You can change the world. The change is a revolution in thinking, in the way we live and act as individuals and how we blend together collectively as a society. We have a long, long way to go to be sure.

But where are the protests?
MAN, HOW SOON WE FORGET!

Terrorism. The new war. How does a nation with a democratic belief system stand tall against peoples who are willing to die for there leaders, leaders who twist religious dogma to conform to there way of hateful thinking while recruiting young men and women to commit suicide for “The Cause.” Twenty seven vestal virgins my a**! And these leaders hide. Typical…

These terrorists remind me of the Viet Cong in Vietnam. You did not know whether they were your enemy or your friend, until one of them smiled at you then shot you in the face. Kids walk up to you and drop a grenade in your foxhole.

Terrorists appear almost invisible until the latest atrocity is reported on CNN and the 5:00 news. Kill and hide. Generate the fear. This fear, growing and spreading, leads to the creation of an atmosphere of distrust, racial profiling, and along with it, the threat of diminishing personal freedoms in the world, as we try to combat this modern day plague.

These terrorists remind me of the Viet Cong in Vietnam. You did not know whether they were your enemy or your friend, until one of them smiled at you then shot you in the face. Kids walk up to you and drop a grenade in your foxhole.

Terrorists appear almost invisible until the latest atrocity is reported on CNN and the 5:00 news. Kill and hide. Generate the fear. This fear, growing and spreading, leads to the creation of an atmosphere of distrust, racial profiling, and along with it, the threat of diminishing personal freedoms in the world, as we try to combat this modern day plague.

Stay tuned...

CONFORMITY VS REBELLION PART 2

Nightsticks, shields, horses, and guns, vs. rocks and bottles. Brutal in the most extreme. Scary, and mighty damn surreal.

Norman Mailer wrote a piece about the MC5 at Lincoln Park Chicago Riot in 1968 .



We were, and still are, a nation in hellish turmoil. Many factions running counter to the laws of the establishment simultaneously. Understand this, segregation was the way of the day (mid to late ‘60’s), and we participated in a massive minority rights movement on two fronts.

Martin Luther King’s peaceable non-violent “We Shall Overcome” approach, diametrically counter-pointed by the Black Panthers and their willingness to use force and violence to get out from underneath the dreaded oppression of the establishment culture of that time.

Concurrently, there existed a white youth counter culture expressing their anti-violent credo of “Turn On, Tune In, and Drop Out.” This phrase was invented by Dr. Timothy Leary.

Hippies were everywhere espousing their belief system of “Peace & Love” that later morphed into “Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll.”

There was the also the Women’s Rights Movement. We were experiencing the birth of the feminist movement, as women began demanding equality, equal pay, and freedom to be what they wanted to be. The antiquated Norman Rockwellian version of American women as contented happy homemakers was all but over.

This was all happening at the same time!

But the biggest movement of all, the one which acted as The Nucleus, the one unifying element of all these similar, yet at times conflicting points of view, was the umbrella that all protest resided under in harmony, and that was the Anti Vietnam War Movement. This was the unifying thread for all disenchanted American citizens passionate desire to stop the War in Vietnam , (or the “Police Action” as the administrations liked to refer to it.)

The movement started out small, mainly with semi-extremists like the SDS (Students For A Democratic Society), Black Panthers, white counter culture youth, the Mother F***ers’s in New York City, Feminists, along with hosts of underground newspapers.

Increasing numbers of rock and roll bands and folk singers began singing songs of protest, while hippies and college students protested the war with demonstrations on every campus in the nation. I mean every campus!

Many young men fled to Canada and many burned their draft cards. Many parents supported these alternatives to conscription, which by the way, might happen here again. Hope not…

Bumper stickers were everywhere proclaiming “My Country Right Or Wrong!” and “Stop The War Now!” Polarization of the nation right down to the 50-50 proposition.
Resistance to the war grew day by day as the war escalated over the years with no hope of victory in sight, and the body bags came home in increasing numbers.

CONFORMITY VERSUS REBELLION

The middle to late sixties were a maelstrom of riots, marches, peace rallies, sit-ins, four students shot dead at Kent State University, US flag burnings, political prisoners, assassinations of heads of movements, wiretaps, The Chicago Seven, and pot was just about legal in the city of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Life in America was literally on the brink of all out anarchy.

The First Amendment to the US Constitution states: Amendment I - Freedom of Religion, Press, Expression. Ratified 12/15/1791.

Note : “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”



In 1854, Henry David Thoreau wrote:

“But, to speak practically and as a citizen, unlike those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government.
Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it.” Taken from “Civil Disobedience”

He also said, “For a government to be strictly just, it must have the sanction and consent of the governed, and all men must recognize the right of revolution…”

Conformity vs. Rebellion.

To accept the status quo, or to defy the status quo. That is the question!

The infinite and ongoing struggle for social balance. This is basic democratic dichotomy 101.

The Right To Redress.

Webster states;
Redress: 1.To set right, remedy or rectify. 2. To make amends for. n. 1. Satisfaction for wrong done; reparation. 2. Correction. [
The First Amendment clearly stipulates the right of the people peaceably to assemble. This was hardly the case in the late 1960’s.

Those assembly’s were undoubtedly more often violent than peaceful. We used to call them “Police Riots”, as they had the weapons, not us.

I cannot tell you the feelings you get in your gut when your city is occupied by the National Guard, and there are gunshots and fires everywhere. When you are standing on a rooftop (my home then) and a tank is menacingly parked right on the corner of John C. Lodge & Warren in Detroit (The Artists Workshop and our rehearsal studio) and its 80 MM cannon is pointed right at our home.



Or when you are on a flatbed truck (just the MC5, no other bands dared to play) just trying to play your music in Lincoln Park, Chicago (1968). The audience was about 3500 people, and that audience was laced with police agent provocateurs disguised as regular folk, and they were inciting the people to get violent.

A police riot ensued halfway through our show and now we are surrounded by mounted, armed police smacking people with three foot batons, and literally beating the crap out of unarmed people while helicopters hover in the air and you are circled by a fleet of paddy wagons and police cars. More to come...

MGT NEWS: VIDEO PRODUCTION and P.A.H. NATION PANEL

Before I begin, I wish to tell you that I am back and great things are on the way. Video clips, more music and posts will be here soon. I will be on a Creativity Panel with Eric Bruneau, Tom Grace, Douglas Semivan, Harvey Ovshinsky and with Christopher Coppola as moderator. P.A.H. Nation is scheduled for July 17th .

Next up is a long awaited video production of MGT classics like Skunk (sonically speaking), Sidewinder, and more so stayed tuned for that video! It will be filmed live on July 11 at Brother Crimewave's Studio

The band backing up MGT with be Circus Boy! Great band from Motown. Read the article our friend Brett Callwood wrote for Metrotimes HERE

There is more, but just keep coming back, and be sure to post those comments please! Dad has been having a series of good days lately, and I am relieved. Let’s go!