15 Comments

I’d LOVE to hear a “Sabs” cover of Kentucky Woman!

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More Great Rock Trails Dan +

SUCH a powerful live MC5 performance, both songs!

machine gun’s drumstick flying before the five second Mark and him grabbing the replacement stick, never missing a beat

so to speak! Rock In Peace

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This story still cracks me up 😆

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founding
May 11Liked by Dan Epstein

For what it’s worth, you sang it better than the Money Man!

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Thank you - and you totally nailed the “session guy just phoning it in” guitar lick in the chorus, which was no small feat at the tempo we were playing!

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May 11Liked by Dan Epstein

Pretty amazing that the vast majority of the crowd stood stock still - only a few were movin' while groovin'.

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They were probably really high.

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Sweatiest band ever. I loved them!!!!

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I think the MC5 was one of the first acts of any genre to utter a certain twelve-letter expletive on record...

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They very well could be. Jefferson Airplane also used the same word in 'We Can Be Together,' which was released several months after KOTJ. However, their use of MF'er is buried in the wall of music. Still, in comparison to how they started, by 1968/69 the JA had morphed into a pretty angry band. I know their use of the word on Dick Cavett was the first time it was used on television.

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I’m so glad I had already returned to New York when you “played”

Detroit. I would have really been worried.

While living in Ann Arbor i attended a Pointer Sister’s concert in Detroit Martin Mull was the opening act. The audience was almost entirely Black. Mull lasted about 3 minutes with jokes that no one laughed at. (I thought they were funny.) Then in desperation, Mull looking like a sorry loaf of Silvercup white bread started playing his guitar and singing. It took about 30 seconds for him to be hooted off the stage. But the Pointer Sisters never got such a welcome as when they came on dancing and singing in their matching fuchsia outfits. The audience went wild.

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Rest in Power to Brother Dennis Thompson. I am so glad I had the privilege to see Dennis, Wayne & Michael with MC5/DKT.

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Cheers Dan. Always fun to relive our own onstage mishaps and somewhat naff gigs through the rose-scented lens of history! As for The MC5, the first time I ever saw that footage - probably on the barely-released MC5 documentary? - my mind was truly blown. Having grown up an Ocean oaway from the MC5 and of the next generation, they had always been more of a name than a true influence, and many people who saw them live emphasized that the real experience was to see them play live. This clip confirms as much. It is pretty much the benchmark of live American rock'n'roll on a small stage.

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May 13·edited May 13Liked by Dan Epstein

Another Eddie with R&R potential

I was found abandoned at the theme park, but as fortune would have it...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmkLCRxovIw

Random bits: Salt, Wood, Detroit Leaning, Hold On Loosely, Tandoori Chicken

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May 18Liked by Dan Epstein

My father got his masters in math at WSU

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