The MC5 Semi-Complete Rarities

Well, I love the MC5, one of my faves.....only three proper albums to their credit (all 3 classics, "Kick ot the Jams", "Back in the USA", and "High Time" and like my other favorite cultish bands of the early 70's, such as the Stooges and the Dolls, there is PLENTY of obscure material available, problem being, many of them are not so great, sound quality varies, etc......still this is THE FIVE, and I probably have something of an obligation to get a bunch of this stuff out to you, quality be damned.....I have (long ago) done what I think, at least was an interesting post, "The MC5 Next Generation", which included some great stuff like the Wayne Kramer Band,  Sonic's Rendezvous Band, Rob Tyner Solo, and the DTK band (Michael Davis, Rob Tyner, and the late Dennis Thompson)......enjoyable stuff all, but this is a LITTLE different, this is stuff that the FIVE did while active......a lot of it AIN'T GREAT, but it is INTERESTING and significant........see what you think, but this stuff is for MC5-junkies only (sort of like myself?)

Where do I begin? Well, we have a four-disc set, the "Purity accuracy Box Set", which attmepts to include anything the boys ever committed to vinyl, INSTRUMENTAL versions of "Over and Over", "Teenage Lust" and more, lots of alternate versions "Shaking Street'" with Sonic on vocals, and rarities such as "What is Zenta?" and "Baby Won't Ya"......for lovrs of the Five (like ME) it's a treasure trove, others might think of it as sloppy mess, but a laobur of love for one of the greatest of American rock bands. Disc 2 delves deeper.....rehearsal tapes from Mrs Kramers basement, ("Little Red Riding Hood", "Baby Please Don't Go", more).....tons of early live tracks, ("Born Under a bad Sign", eg).....Look if you are a fan of the Five, YOU WANT THIS......PLENTY of gems here, you ARE going to love this, if you love obscure MC5 material (be forewarned, all of this is NOT top-notch quality stuff, more interesting than enjoyable)

Disc 3 is a live set from the Grande Ballroom from 1968 before the band had broken, it is still frantic as hell and check "I'm Mad Like Eldridge Cleaver" and "Ice Pick Slim", not the greatest sound quality, but the FIVE is the FIVE! Disc 4 is a gem, who wouldn't KILL for a version of "Sister Anne" with LEMMY (!) guesting, also "Gotta Keep Movin" wiwth Nick from the Hellacopters.....THis is from 2003, Sonic and Tyner were gone by this point, but again the Five is the Five!

From 1968 we have a sludgy livt from 1968 "Srugis Armory", not bad if you can deal with the sound, the "energy" as they say, is certainly there.....it's easily available but I thought I'd throw it up here too.

"Babes in Arms" was a ROIR cassette only release, this is a cassette-rip of the original, unsure it was ever released on CD or not (Guessing it was....) there are a LOT of good sounding alternate versions here, but be forewarned, while they are INDEED "alternate" versions, some of them are SO close to the originals that you may not notice without CAREFULL listening....a  few tracks...."one of the GUys", "Gold", etc, are unique to this set.

 A REALLY early, and sloppy set is "1966 Breakout!", quite hard to listen to, actually, it would be a couple more years until the developed thier political stance, but his is NOTHING if not an intersting "stepping stone" type piece.

We have another "odds and sods" type comp, "The Human Being Lawnmower", outtakes, live stuff, an alternate "Borderline" that I don't THINK I have anywhere else, for completists! The Five were baddassese, and "fans" (ME!) will take anything!

Another sludgy live set, "Phun City  Festival 1970"....it's a bit rough, but the material is from aFTER they became the FIVE, interresting versions of "Rama Lama Fa fa Fa" and "Sister Anne" as well as the liv-only "Black to Comm".......LOooooooooove Me some Motor City Five!

"1972 LIVE IN THE STUDIO Thunder Express" is a decent one, alternate versions of "Kick out the Jams" and "Ramblin Rose", kind of sloppy here and there, but as a FAN of this band (can ya tell?) I really enjoy THIS set as well......

The two-disc "Shakin Street' Is not spectacular, lots of repeats from the three "legit" albums, with a few unavailable elsewhere live tracks on disc 2 ("Lemmy" guesting on "Sister Anne", a lot of crossover with some of the other stuff here, but these lads had a pretty limited material base....

"The Motor City Burning" is another collction, not much you couldn't find in better company, but still, a  version of "Born Under a Bad Sign" and "Black to Comm" gotta make it worth a spin, right?

OK, what else "The Motor City Kicks out the Jams", a live set from somewhere/sometime in which they tear through their normal set, with extra versions of "ramblin Rose" and "Kick out the Jams", I Know this stuff overlaps a good bit, bit let us put ALL our cards on the table shall we?

OK, one more "Greatest Hits Live" God knows what THAT is, pretty much their standard repertoire, with a few oddities thrown in there ("Cold Sweat/I Can't Stand Myself"/There Was a Time", It's a Man's World"....it is in a word unlistenable, but if you "gotta' you gotta".....


OK, enjoy if you dig the Five......go back and see if my links for Sonic's Rendezvous Band and Rob Tyner and DKT are still active, if not, lemme know, and we'll put em up again......one of america's finest bands, The MOTOR CITY FIVE, deserve to be heard, and I'm here to help as best I can!

OK, quality here is sporadic, but I love me some FIVE, and check the archives and if your are lucky some coll stuff from Wayne Kramer or Sonic's Rendezvous Band or even DTK are there......they were fantastic musicians, period, years ahead of thier time.....some of their political stances seem a bit odd these days ("dope, guns, and fucking in the streets"), but what the hell, at least they gave us a soundtrack for should such of a scenario occured.....perhaps my favorite band of the era, and as you know I like a BUNCH of music from that era. Sift through these and find whatever buried nuggets you may find, there are one or two here, amongst the sludge.....again, like the Dolls or the Stooges, MANY rarities EXIST due to their rabid cult following, BUT due to the technical limitations of the era, the sound can be limited (especially "Greatest Hits Live", listened today and WHOA, rough, as are other things here)......nonetheless, they are the 5....legends, and deserve to have EVERY note that we can scrape up on their behalf to be heard. One of my very favorite bands growing up, RIP to Rob Tyner, Sonic Smith, and Machine Gun Thompson, great musicicans all, and best of health and happiness to the two survivning memebers, Michael Davis and Brotha Wayne Kramer, thank you for the loud, rocking, ANGRY music.......loved you guys wok, and wish I had some better rarities with with which to tribute you, sorry.......anyway, you guys were the greatest!

PURITY ACCURACY DISC 1-01 Skunk/02 Poison/03 Gotta  Keep Movin/04 Baby Won't Ya (Sonic Vocals), 05 Sister Ann/06 Future/Now/07 Over and Over (Inst)/08 Train Music (unreleased)/09 The Pledge Song (early version of "Sister Anne")/10 Power Trip (Early Version of "Skunk")/11 Tutti Fruitti/12 Tonight/13 Teenage Lust (inst)/14 Looking at You (alt Version)/15 High School (inst)/16 Call Me Animal (inst)/17 The American Ruse/18 Shakin Street (Sonic Vocal)/19 Human Being Lawnmower/20 Back In the USA/21 Looking at You (inst)/22 What Is Zenta?/23 Kick Out the Jams

PURITY ACCURACY DISC 2- 01 Looking at You/02 Borderline/03 Looking at You (inst)/04 I Can Only Give You Everything/05 I Just Don't Know/06 One of the Guys/07 Little Red Riding Grmph/08 I Don't Mind/09 Look What You've Done Done/10 Baby Please Don't Go/11 Break  Time/12 I'm a Ma/13 Looking at You/14 Black To Comm/15 I Put a Spell On You/16 Born Under a Bad Sign/17 I Want You Right Now/18 I Beleive To My Soul

PURITY ACCURACY DISC 3-01 Brother JC Intro/02 Motor City Is Burning/03 I Beleive to My Soul/04 Rocket Reducer No. 62 (Rma Lama Fa Fa Fa)/05 I'm Mad Like Eldridge Cleaver/06 Ice Pick Slim/07 Black to Comm

PURITY ACCURACY DISC 4-01 Sister Anne (With Lemmy)/02 Gotta Keep movin (with Nick From the Hellacopters)/03 Looking at You (With Dave Vanian)/04 Skunk

1968 STURGIS ARMORY-01 Kick Out the Jams/02 Come Together/03 Revoulutionary Blues/04 Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa/05 James Brown Medley/06 Upper Egypt/07 Tutti Frutiit/08 Borderline/09 Born Under a Bad Sign/10 I Want You/11 Starship/12 Black To Comm

BABES IN ARMS (ROIR CASSETTE RIP)-01 The American Ruse/02 Future/Now/03 Gold/04 Gotta Keep Moving/05 I Can Only Give You Everything/06 I Just Don't Know/07 Kick Out the Jams/08 Looking at You/09 One of the Guys/10 Poison/11 Shakin Street/12 Sister Anne/13 Skunk (Sonically Speaking)/14 Tonight/15 Tutti Fruitti

1966 BREAKOUT!-01 Looking at You/02 Black to Comm/03 I Just Don't Know/04 Little Red Riding Grmph/05 I Don't Mind/06 Break Time/07 One of the Guys/08 Look What You've Done/09 Baby Please Don't Go/10 I'm a Man/11 I Can Only Give You Everything

THE HUMAN BEING LAWNMOWER-THE BADDEST AND MADDEST-01 Skunk (Outtake)/02 Brother JC Intro/03 Motor City Is Burning/04 I Beleive to My Soul/05 Looking at You (Inst/alt)/06 Gotta Keep Movin (outtake)/07 Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa/08 Borderline (Studio Flat Mix)/09 Over and Over (Inst/demo)10 Over and Over (inst/demo)/11 James Brown Medley/12 I'm Mad Like Eldridge Cleaver/13 Human Being Lawnmower (Outtake)/14 What is Zenta?/15 Thunder Express/16 I Just Don't Know/17 Rock N Roll People

PHUN CITY FESTIVAL 1970-01 Rambling Rose/02 Tonight/03 Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa/04 Miss X/05 Looking at You/06 I Want You/07 Sister Anne/08 Kick Out the Jams/Black to Comm

THUNDER EXPRESS LIVE IN THE STUDIO 1972Kick Out the Jams/02 Ramblin Rose/03 Thunder Express/04 Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa/05 Motor City Is Burning/06 I Can Only Give You Everything/07 I Just Don't Know

SHAKIN STREET DISC 1-01 KIck Out the Jams (Original Uncensored Version)/02 Shakin Street/03 The American Ruse/04 Skunk/05 Tutti Fruitti/06 Poison/07 Gotta Keep Moving/08Tonight/09 Sister Anne/10 Future/Now/11 Gold/12 I Can Only Give You Everything/13 I Just Don't Know/14 Looking at You (Original A-Square Single Version)/15 I Don't Mind

SHAKIN STREET DISC 2-01 One of the Guys/02 Black to Comm/03 High School (Instrumental)/04 Come Together (live)/05 Rocket Redeucer No. 62 (live)/06 Baby Please Don't Go (live)/07 I'm a Man (Live)/08 Look What You've Done (live)/09 Ramblin Rose (live)/10 Sister Anne (Live with Lemmy)

THE MOTOR CITY IS BURNING-01 Kick Out the Jams/02 Come Together/03 Revolutionary Blues/04 Human Being Lawnmower/05 Tonight/06 Teenage Lust/07 Looking at You/08 Shakin Street/09 Ramblin' Rose/10 Tutti Fruitti/11 Borderline/12 Born Under a Bad Sign/13 I Want You/14 Starship/15 I Beleive My Soul/16 Black To Comm

THE MOTOR CITY KICKS OUT THE JAMS-01 Ramblin Rose/02 Kick Out the Jams/03 Empty Heart/04 Motorcity Is Burning/05 Black To Comm/06 Ramblin Rose #2/07 Kick Out the Jams #2/08 Looking at You/09 Tonight

GREATEST HITS LIVE-01 Ramblin Rose/02 Kick out the Jams/03 Come together/04 Revolutionary Blues/05 Rocket Reducer No. 62/06 Looking at You/07 Cold Sweat/I Can't Stand Myself/There Was a Time/08 Human Being Lawnmower/09 Tutti Fruitti/10 Borderline/11 Born Under a Bad Sign/12 I Want You/13 Tonight/14 I Believe To My Soul/15 Black To Comm/16 It's a Man's World

SOoooooo, one of America's finest rock bands, with a VERY small out, nonetheless, all GREAT......these rarities are VERY hit-and miss, likely you'll find 20 dogs for each gem......nonetheless, the MC5 were bad ass, and even this stuff, as bad as it can be, deserves to be heard at least once.........SONIC, BOB, and MACHINE GUN, RIP, and Michael/Brotha Wayne, thanks for being a part of a revolutionary, and great band, often copied, NEVER equalled.......one of the moost important and influential bands ever cranked out by the US of A, and one of which I at least, will NEVER grow tired! Baby Baby hlep me, you really really must I need a healthy outlet.....for my teenage LUST!