There`s only one reason why I own this record. Picked it up decades ago, second hand, for pennies. Way back when I knew next to nothing about `60s / `70s Detroit rock. I knew that Iggy & The Stooges were “proto-punk”. Covered by The Pistols. I had no idea that Danny Fields signed them to Elektra, as part of a package, because they were the “baby brothers” of this band. The MC5. I didn`t know about the revolutionary ideology. The solidarity with The Black Panthers, and manager John Sinclair`s politics, which ultimately got him busted, and sentenced to ten years in prison on a trumped up possession charge. I didn`t know about Sun Ra, his jazz of the outer spaceways, or his influence on the track, Starship. Eight minutes of chants and poetry, set to drum rolls and slashing electric axe riffs. Middle Eastern drones, feedback and improvised, “free” noise, fuelling a group intent on “Leaving the solar system.”
I didn`t know that on its original release this LP was censored and banned. Sinclair`s liner notes removed. That a barmy battle with a big record store chain about it got them dropped from their label. I had yet to discover that Primal Scream had a huge crush on the outfit. Paying homage to the Motor City mob`s heavy, head-banging R`n`B, freaky falsettos and shredding solos, by putting their version of Ramblin` Rose on the flip of their career making hit, Loaded. Sometimes signing off on productions as “Sister Anne”, the title of a subsequent MC5 song (1).
I`d learn all that later. I shelled out for the album solely because The KLF sampled it. 1987. 2024. What The Fuck Is Going on?
“Brothers and sisters the time has come for each and every one of you to decide whether you are gonna be the problem, or whether you are gonna be the solution.”
Passionate and powerful. Simultaneously tight and shambolic. Wild and loud, loud, loud.
KICK OUT THE JAMS MOTHERFUCKERS!
Rest In Peace Wayne Kramer.
(1) Bobby G once put this song on a mixtape for either Melody Maker or The NME. The tape also included James Carr`s Dark End Of The Street, Crazy Horse`s I Don`t Want To Talk About It, Dion`s Born To Be With You, and The Faces` Debris… Can anyone help me fill in the blanks?
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This might be the mixtape to which you refer? Select Magazine February 1992
https://itstartswithabirthstone.blogspot.com/search?q=Bobby+Gillespie+Select+Magazine+Mixtape https://itstartswithabirthstone.blogspot.com/search?q=Bobby+Gillespie+Select+Magazine+Mixtape
Someone created a Spotify playlist
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6fjXRi9z9dMyysiW2l9iIk https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6fjXRi9z9dMyysiW2l9iIk
>
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Bobby G. mixtape some missing
American Dreamer Gene Clark
Ice People Link Wray
Love Hurts Gram Parsons
War In Peace Alexander “Skip” Spence
Phantasmagoria In Two Tim Buckley
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Our posts today have quite a bit of crossover in content. The Bobby G cassette you mention rings a bell- there was a feature for Select Magazine, Feb 1992 (the internet tells me) with BG on the cover holding a tape and a big interview with those songs. There are a few mentions of it on the net. Try this one
and this one
http://itstartswithabirthstone.blogspot.com/2016/03/bobby-gillespie-select-magazine-mixtape.html
and this is a Spotify playlist of the tape
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