Okay, being from Detroit I may be biased, but I firmly believe the MC5 to be the greatest American rock'n'roll band of all time. And very sadly, their extraordinary bass player Michael Davis died today at age 68.
Davis and drummer Dennis Thompson gave the MC5 their skin tight, soul-based Detroit bottom that solidified the crazed dual guitar attack of the great Wayne Kramer and Fred "Sonic" Smith.
The MC5 were avant, aggressive, tuneful, soulful, creative and totally original. They sound as fresh and revolutionary today as they did 40+ years ago.
Davis did some important work in later years, creating Music is Revolution Foundation in 2006, which supports music education in public schools, with the goals of raising public awareness about the ability of music education to increase cognitive ability and test scores, reducing drop-out rates, and inspiring a new generation to develop greater understanding of the world around them and express themselves through music.
Here's The MC5 "Looking at You" live in Detroit in 1970. The section between 1:39-1:49 is as good as it gets.
Here's a well done obituary for Michael Davis:
Michael Davis Obit at Huffington Post
MC5 Band web page - fittingly, "mc5.org"
1 comment:
Damn right about that dual guitar assault at 1:39
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