Title: MC5 - American Ruse Source:
motor city five URL Source:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6pfU9wli8g Published:May 30, 2007 Author:mc5 Post Date:2007-05-30 21:44:53 by Dakmar Ping List:*Music Club* Keywords:None Views:532 Comments:9
One of my fave MC5 songs. Along with Human Being Lawnmower. I only got to see them just before they broke up, when they were, frankly, a shambles, although part of their show really rocked. But all three of their albums are terrific, and now there are several really good live CDs available. Also, the ROIR CD of demos and alternate takes, The Big Bang, has rawer, better versions of several songs, although I think American Ruse on Back in the USA is a better take.
Wayne Kramer, the rhythm guitar player, has several solo albums out, and he's great live, if your're interested.
I remember my uncle turning me on to MC5 when I was like 9 or 10 years old. He had a sort of suite in big old house my dad was renovating, two rooms and a full bath, I vaguely recall the house had been sectioned out as apartments and ripping out a bunch of walls. Anyway, my uncle had recently bought a high-end reciever and turntable, and must have thought he'd struck stereophonic gold with the aquisition of Kick Out The Jams, and looking back I can see how it would have been hard to come by in central Indiana in 1974 or so. MC5 played hard, that appealled to me.
Fast forward twenty years and there I am reading High Times and what is featured in their record review but Wayne Kramer's Citizen Wayne? I was a bit surprised that the big-box electronics outlet had it.
Fast forward to a couple weeks ago, when I posted Wayne's Back to Detroit
Not many comments on that thread either, but I think it's an awesome song.
I'm such a junkie I just bought the Gang War "album" by the band with Wayne and Johnny Thunders and some other junkies. Wayne wrote a song about it, I think on Citizen Wayne, about how they'd steal the club's receipts and rip off anything they could to feed their habits. Wayne eventually took a fall for setting up a big coke deal, and spent several years doing HARD time. It's interesting (recorded live at The Channel in Boston) for its historical role but what a mess.
When the Heartbreakers first came out, they were one of the best live bands I ever saw. When they reformed after Gang War, they were purely playing for drug money.
If you get a chance to see Wayne live, he's pretty terrific. He usually has the guys from Was/Not Was backing him up, and it's a lot of fun.
I have a bootleg of the MC5 movie that was made a few years ago. The filmmakers, some local Chicago people, just assumed that Kramer would be delighted to sign over the rights to the MC5 songs, which was a big mistake. He gave them all kinds of footage and live tapes to put together the movie, and all he wanted was the right to put out the soundtrack himself, since it was all MC5 music. The film guys played hardball, and now the whole thing is in court and probably will stay there forever.
The movie played one time, in Chicago, as a benefit. A friend of mine found the DVD in a store on the South Side and snapped it up. She was kind enough to burn me a copy, and it's one of the best music documentaries I've ever seen, up there with Dig (Brian Jonestown Massacre).
It's criminal that so few people can see it. But Kramer is right on this one; the film people would have made a fortune on the box office and the DVD sales, and I'm sure they could have negotiated a small chunk of the CD sales.