The MC5 was founded on the notion that rules are to be broken and the 5 could change the world with their music. "We were the undisputed heavyweights of Detroit in 1966 bar none, and I was proud to be a part of this squad. Damn proud"…MGT
No other band can KICK OUT THE JAMS like the MC5. When I moved to NYC in 1987, I saw a girl with MC5 on the back of her jean jacket and immediately befriended her. She became the Lunachicks guitarist!!
Your music is still the greatest fuc...music to come out of detroit ever 40 some years later my baby granddaughter says kick ou the jams the times on hill street and the grande and cobo and rockii thruout detroit were some of the est times of my life thank you........ peace baby
It's hard to conceive of a time when music meant something important to the culture, I was born in 1968! What does today's music mean? Look at the crap that's popular, it's mindless and that is why the MC5 will always be played, my 2-year old knows what "KICK OUT THE JAMS" means, too! I'm proud to be a Detroit girl and my babysitters played MC5, Stooges, Mitch Ryder and Grand Funk for me when I was a kid!
"It's almost as if no lessons have been learned today. Where was the dialogue and scrutiny when Bush started his shit. No one said anything. When I said something people acted like I was" out there"like some old flake. Dennis we meant what we said and we stood for something."
Hey dennis remember playing at st aquinos high school in southgate i think the look on the nuns faces were priceless but they were still rockin the music one of my best memories
"Christmas 66 I saw you at Cobo Hall Teen Fair, was so amazed I came back the next day with two friends in tow. But management had pulled you from the line up of bands because 'you were to loud' So you plugged in at the Sun Amp. booth and played a few tunes till they cut the power. I was hooked on rock'n roll at that moment and still get a thrill just thinking about it."
I feel fotunate to have lived in that time span, the 5 were a very positive influence on this lost boy, I'm 60 years old now and do indeed have sweet memories. Peace, Man."
Dennis; Ive never seen this photo before. It hit me as so inspirational. Almost at a loss for words its so awesome. But I Will say that not only where you in the DRIVERS seat of the Detroit and Michigan musical revolution, you are the KEEPER of the Flame!! Dennis, Fred, Rob and Wayne, the mighty, MIGHTY MC5!!!!"
I heard KICK OUT THE JAMS as a high school sophomore during the summer of 1980 -- at the dawning of the Reagan Era, long after the '60s had faded into history -- and the minute the needle hit my turntable, I was transfixed. What amazed me then was how little of this incendiary music could be so readily available -- I didn't manage to scarf a copy of BACK IN THE USA, and HIGH TIME, till my college years -- and that it had gone so resolutely ignored by the populace. Once I heard that album, I'd laugh when the likes of Foreigner and Journey boomed through my high school cafeteria, and I'd be thinking, "God, that sounds so turgid and slow...where's the rhythm? Where's the commitment?" And so on and so forth. The MC5 have been responsible for many highlights in my life, starting with my late-night, call-on-a-dare chat with Rob, egged on by my friend --who had his home phone number, believe it or not. I think he'd seen Rob doing his MC'ing gig at the Community Concerts Series, and gotten it that way. Anyway, considering the situation, Rob was cool, and we got a rare, intimate, unguarded chat -- some of which found its way into my massive DISCoveries piece about the Five. Of course, talking with you, Dennis, plus Michael, Wayne and all the different folks associated with the band -- that was another highlight, right there. I was doing research for that story, plus an equally massive Stooges epic for GOLDMINE, which preceded the Five piece by about six months or so. When both those mags came out, I was told that you couldn't find a copy in Ann Arbor or Detroit, for love or money. Whether that's true or not, I have no idea, but it doesn't matter -- I love the idea of that image. One other highlight was seeing Wayne Kramer at the Double Door in Chicago, during the summer of '96 --- which ended with Wayne signing my copy of HIGH TIME (below your signature, Dennis, I might add), and Lisa and I deciding to get engaged...so, one way or another, this music has contributed to many significant moments in my life, money be damned, mass market be damned, trends be damned -- I can't say any it better than that. So thanks, Dennis, for making the music that fueled all those moments!"
Hey,I've got a signed copy of High Time too..by Dennis Thompson and Mike Davis when a pick-up band I was in opened for DAM at East Quad cafeteria fall, 1977 IIRC. Ran over to and from my apartment with the LP jacket when I saw who was hanging out.Shortly after I was tasked with borrowing Mike Davis' bass since it turned out our "bass player" didn't show up with one.
How about that Wayne Kramer signature stratocaster Fender just debuted at the NAMM show?
No other band is more closely associated with the 1960s hippie, free love, abundant drug, activism movement than Detroit's MC5. The hard rocking five-piece band poured body and soul into formenting a social-psychoactive revolution that they hoped would reshape the buttoned down, conventional landscape of contemporary American culture. The MC5 was founded on the notion that rules are to be broken and they became the very embodiment of no-holds-barred rock and roll.
Click Triangle To Start the Music
MGT TALKS WITH KEN SHIMAMOTO
Welcome to Machinegun's Blog
The Rock & Roll Dictionary states that a “machinegun” is a drummer from Detroit, Michigan who employs a battering style of rapid, hard strike drumming whom is also a founding member of the legendary MC5 Jarrod Dicker
Gary Grimshaw Poster
Great Interview with Mike
MACHINEGUN'S GALLERY
Ron Asheton and MGT
Ron described playing with Machine Gun, compared to others, as "like driving a Ferrari" ... unlimited power, speed, and you better know what the f*ck you are doing. --Deniz Tek
THE MOTOR CITY FIVE
Each MC5 record showed a chronological maturity based on growth from our first records to the next one. We went through so many experiences from the bizarre to the sublime. The 5 encountered the dangers of being so politically and musically honest & forthright. Changes we were uncontrollably thrown into, so we morphed like butterflies to survive! We rolled with the haymakers...MGT
The Motor City's Burning
MGT Plays Taye Drums
Taye Drums Studio Maple Stage 20 Drum Set in Piano Black
33 comments:
Amen :-)))
Dennis - all I can say is THANKS!
we need a band like the MC5 NOW...
the rocky marchiano of rock bands.
As Detroiters...we're Proud of you & the MC5!!!
well you guys DID break the rules and y'all certainly DID change the world - so, goodonya mates.
Kick em out Dennis!
Thanks for that. In the 70's "MC5 spirit" was very important in France too.
Amen...that's the spirit, Kick out the jams brother Dennis!!!
No other band can KICK OUT THE JAMS like the MC5. When I moved to NYC in 1987, I saw a girl with MC5 on the back of her jean jacket and immediately befriended her. She became the Lunachicks guitarist!!
Your music is still the greatest fuc...music to come out of detroit ever 40 some years later my baby granddaughter says kick ou the jams the times on hill street and the grande and cobo and rockii thruout detroit were some of the est times of my life thank you........ peace baby
Well said Dennis,proud to have been a part myself...
It's hard to conceive of a time when music meant something important to the culture, I was born in 1968! What does today's music mean? Look at the crap that's popular, it's mindless and that is why the MC5 will always be played, my 2-year old knows what "KICK OUT THE JAMS" means, too! I'm proud to be a Detroit girl and my babysitters played MC5, Stooges, Mitch Ryder and Grand Funk for me when I was a kid!
"Dennis, the MC5 will always be the Heavyweight Champions of Detroit to me....."
"It's almost as if no lessons have been learned today. Where was the dialogue and scrutiny when Bush started his shit. No one said anything. When I said something people acted like I was" out there"like some old flake. Dennis we meant what we said and we stood for something."
Hey dennis remember playing at st aquinos high school in southgate i think the look on the nuns faces were priceless but they were still rockin the music one of my best memories
I'll always be proud to say I was there many times when the MC5 "done kicked 'em out"...thanks MC5!!"
i was also so pround to be there in the beginnig as a rock n roll great began........ travis***
"Christmas 66 I saw you at Cobo Hall Teen Fair, was so amazed I came back the next day with two friends in tow. But management had pulled you from the line up of bands because 'you were to loud' So you plugged in at the Sun Amp. booth and played a few tunes till they cut the power. I was hooked on rock'n roll at that moment and still get a thrill just thinking about it."
The MC5 are world champions!!
you were n should be dennis...u guys were the best n kings of the show!!!..w/o a doubt!!!
I thought of you guys when looking at some of the abandoned concert halls in downtown Detroit recently. What shall become of the Motor City?"
Detroit will reinvent, as this city has always done and maintain focus on it's fantastic music and film industry.
and a kazillion fans love everything that the "5" represented!
Long live Detroit Rock n Roll!
You and your four Brothers will always hold that Gold Belt Gun...
We Were ALL Proud Of You...I just got a Sweet Copy Of The First Issue Of The First Album...Thats a Keeper For Sure
Eric Rasmussen, John Carr, John Griffin and 86 others like this
I feel fotunate to have lived in that time span, the 5 were a very positive influence on this lost boy, I'm 60 years old now and do indeed have sweet memories. Peace, Man."
Couldn't agree more
Dennis; Ive never seen this photo before. It hit me as so inspirational. Almost at a loss for words its so awesome. But I Will say that not only where you in the DRIVERS seat of the Detroit and Michigan musical revolution, you are the KEEPER of the Flame!! Dennis, Fred, Rob and Wayne, the mighty, MIGHTY MC5!!!!"
I heard KICK OUT THE JAMS as a high school sophomore during the summer of 1980 -- at the dawning of the Reagan Era, long after the '60s had faded into history -- and the minute the needle hit my turntable, I was transfixed. What amazed me then was how little of this incendiary music could be so readily available -- I didn't manage to scarf a copy of BACK IN THE USA, and HIGH TIME, till my college years -- and that it had gone so resolutely ignored by the populace. Once I heard that album, I'd laugh when the likes of Foreigner and Journey boomed through my high school cafeteria, and I'd be thinking, "God, that sounds so turgid and slow...where's the rhythm? Where's the commitment?" And so on and so forth. The MC5 have been responsible for many highlights in my life, starting with my late-night, call-on-a-dare chat with Rob, egged on by my friend --who had his home phone number, believe it or not. I think he'd seen Rob doing his MC'ing gig at the Community Concerts Series, and gotten it that way. Anyway, considering the situation, Rob was cool, and we got a rare, intimate, unguarded chat -- some of which found its way into my massive DISCoveries piece about the Five. Of course, talking with you, Dennis, plus Michael, Wayne and all the different folks associated with the band -- that was another highlight, right there. I was doing research for that story, plus an equally massive Stooges epic for GOLDMINE, which preceded the Five piece by about six months or so. When both those mags came out, I was told that you couldn't find a copy in Ann Arbor or Detroit, for love or money. Whether that's true or not, I have no idea, but it doesn't matter -- I love the idea of that image. One other highlight was seeing Wayne Kramer at the Double Door in Chicago, during the summer of '96 --- which ended with Wayne signing my copy of HIGH TIME (below your signature, Dennis, I might add), and Lisa and I deciding to get engaged...so, one way or another, this music has contributed to many significant moments in my life, money be damned, mass market be damned, trends be damned -- I can't say any it better than that. So thanks, Dennis, for making the music that fueled all those moments!"
Hey,I've got a signed copy of High Time too..by Dennis Thompson and Mike Davis when a pick-up band I was in opened for DAM at East Quad cafeteria fall, 1977 IIRC. Ran over to and from my apartment with the LP jacket when I saw who was hanging out.Shortly after I was tasked with borrowing Mike Davis' bass since it turned out our "bass player" didn't show up with one.
How about that Wayne Kramer signature stratocaster Fender just debuted at the NAMM show?
Post a Comment