Wayne Kramer from the MC5 has left the building, meaning drummer Dennis Thompson is the last man standing from that ensemble. I must confess my first thought on reading the news was an uncharitable one, in that I wondered if this meant A True Testimonial might finally get an actual release now he’s no longer there to stop it, though I do now find that court case he filed against the makers actually went against him, it just still hasn’t come out anyway… whatever. Let us watch the five in full flow back in 1970:
This was shot for a Detroit cable TV show, evidently not the full gig but damn they picked great excerpts for the program. It is probably miraculous that even these clips survive, and in very fair quality at that…
And this is them in France, late in the game (with new bassist Steve Moorhouse replacing Michael Davis’ smack habit), but still, fucking hell. The video and audio were evidently recorded on a potato, and the end result is frankly obnoxious, but at the same time it’s also a perfect artifact and presentation of this sort of rock’n’roll. It’s probably even more miraculous that this survives. I always thought the MC5’s studio records never quite matched up to the on-stage power evinced on Kick Out the Jams; they obviously needed a crowd in front of them to produce their full effect. At any rate, they outlived Hudson’s, and I’m sure that was satisfying…
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