Detroit Rock City

Frijid Pink in their heyday.

Even people who aren’t into obscure music have usually heard of the Iggy Pop and his seminal band The Stooges.  By now the Stooges are widely recognized as the punk pioneers they were, and Iggy continues to record and tour, both as a solo artist and with a reformed version of the Stooges, and has enjoyed some well-deserved success over the past few decades.

 

            I was a relative latecomer to the Stooges.  I first got interested in real punk music (rather than new wave) in the early 80’s, particularly the music of the Pistols and the LA punk bands like Fear, Black Flag, TSOL, the Germs, etc.  But it was only in 1985-1986, my first year in college, that I started exploring the antecedents to these bands.  In particular, in 1986 Henry Rollins wrote a short article for the then-recently started music magazine Spin about his favorite albums of all time, one of which was Fun House by the Stooges.  His evocative description of the intensity and energy of that album compelled me to seek it out and I bought it on cassette.  I can still remember how BLOWN AWAY I was that this music had been recorded in THE SIXTIES and still sounded so raw, so contemporary.  I was also struck by the parallels between some of the tracks on it and some of my favorite tracks on my then-favorite Black Flag album, Slip It In.  “Loose” off Fun House, a wild ode to promiscuity (“Stick it deep inside, ‘cuz I’M LOOSE!”), was a clear inspiration for “Slip It In”, and the jealous paranoia of “TV Eye” (which starts with one of the greatest rock and roll screams/yells ever) has clear parallels in Flag’s “Black Coffee”.  

            The next year I bought Raw Power and was again blown away, as much by its incredible power as by how much different it was from Fun House.  Whereas Fun House is all surging power and thunderingly heavy riffs, Raw Power is all about James Williamson’s insanely wild noodling.  From the very first notes of “Search and Destroy” I was utterly captivated, and it remains one of my favorite albums of all time.

            Strangely, I only really got into the Stooges’ first album even later still.  And while “Now I Wanna Be Your Dog” is still my favorite off that album (the huge, ponderous, feedback-laden beginning still gives me chills), some of my favorites are some of the “Side B” songs (for those of us old enough to remember when records/cassettes came with two sides):  “Ann”, “Little Doll”, “No Fun”, etc.  (I clearly wasn’t alone, since “No Fun” was covered by the Sex Pistols, “Ann" was covered by Redd Kross, and “Little Doll” was covered by the fantastic 90's LA band the Miracle Workers).  

            I recently went on an MP3-buying bender on iTunes in which I purchased a bunch of post-Raw Power songs.  For those who aren’t aware, the Stooges recorded a large number of demos before and after they were dropped by RCA after Raw Power failed to sell, and many of these have been widely available as both muddy demos or even muddier live versions for many years.  Several of them have since been cleaned up and digitally enhanced and are of almost passable quality.  I recently downloaded a huge bunch of these, including “Joanna”, “Head On”, “Wet My Bed”, “Cry For Me”, “Rubber Legs”, “Gimme Some Skin”, “Born in a Trailer”, Heavy Liquid”, “I Got a Right”, “Cock in my Pocket”,  “I Got Nothin”, and others.  Interesting stuff; what’s fascinating is how many of those songs had a rollicking, roadhouse blues type of stomp to them that sounded very similar to what the Doors had been doing 5 years earlier—the beginning of “Head On” sounds to me like a re-interpretation of “LA Woman” by the Doors, and other songs feature prominently the rollicking piano work of Scott Thurston that sounds similar to the boogie woogie of “Roadhouse Blues”.  This stuff sounds way more commercial to me than anything on “Raw Power” and makes me wonder if the Stooges might have made it if RCA had promoted them harder.

            Fewer people have heard of the MC5, the other seminal Detroit band (who actually started before the Stooges), though they are still recognized by the alternative music cognoscenti as another seminal influence on punk.  Much more political than the Stooges, the MC5 are a revolutionary relic from the most fiery period of the 60’s (hell, they played a free show outside the ’68 Democratic National Convention in Chicago that escalated into a full-scale riot).  As the house band of manager John Sinclair’s ultra-radical White Panther Party (who’s platform consisted of a call for “rock 'n roll, dope, sex in the streets and the abolishing of capitalism”, the MC5 filled their early shows (and their best album, Kick Out the Jams) with radical rhetoric to go along with their sloppy, intense, and bludgeoningly heavy music.  The chanted beginning to “Ramblin’ Rose” by Brother John Crawford is nothing more than a call to revolution that still sounds intense and moving today, and it remains one of my favorite live tracks of all time.  The 5 would later split with John Sinclair after he was busted for drug possession and they attempted to downplay both the ultra-left polemics and the feedback, though it availed them naught.  “Shakin’ Street”, recorded during this latter period, is a catchy little acoustic guitar ditty though, and remains one of my favorite MC5 songs.

After the Stooges and the Five broke up, various members re-combined into some interesting groups later in the 70's.  First formed from the ashes of the MC5, Sonic's Rendezvous Band came together in 1975 with Fred "Sonic" Smith of the Five on vocals, Scott Morgan of the Rationals on guitar, Gary Rasmussen of the Up on bass, and Scott Asheton from the Stooges on drums.  Their various singles and live songs have been collected into an album available on iTunes; the best tunes are "City Slang" (which sounds, unsurprisingly, like a cross between the MC5 and Raw Power era Stooges) and "Electrophonic Tonic" which has a strange, almost industrial beginning but then launches into a protopunk blast of driving guitar.

  At about the same time, Ron Asheton of the Stooges formed the band New Order (not to be confused with the English synth band of the same name that grew out of post-Ian Curtis Joy Division).  New Order consisted of Ron Asheton on guitar, Dave Thompson on vocals, Dennis Thompson of the MC5 on drums, a former Stooges roadie, bass player Jimmy Recca, and Stooges pianist Scott Thurston.  New Order recorded a couple of extremely hard-to-find albums in the late  70's and early 80's ; as of this writing only "Rock and Roll Soldiers" is kicking around digitally (on YouTube), and its a solid slab of protopunk sludge (t would eventually be covered by the incredibly rocking Swedish group the Hellacopters) .  Interestingly, at the same time he was in New Order, Ron Asheton and Mike Davis (former bassist for the MC5) also played with the art rock protopunk group Destroy All Monsters with the beautiful and mysterious Niagara; previous members included Larry and Ben Miller, who were in the Sproton Layer briefly and their brother Roger Miller who would go on to form Mission of Burma.  "Bored" is a low key and arty take on post-Stooges, female-sung punk and is worth a listen.  Asheton and Thompson would eventually break up New Order and form New Race with Radio Birdman members Deniz Tek and Rob Younger; they released a couple of also-rare albums, of which several cuts are available on YouTube, including "Gotta Keep Movin'" and "Lookin' At You"; this stuff is even wilder than New Order, as might be expected by the inclusion of the Birdman maniacs, occasionally even sounding like the Misfits.

And finally, Wayne Kramer of the MC5 formed a one-off band called Dodge Main with Scott Morgan of the Rationals (and Sonic's band) and Deniz Tek of Radio Birdman (and Asheton's New Race, it gets very confusing) in the 90's; their cover of Jimmy Cliff's reggae classic "The Harder They Come" is a loud, fun blast of Wayne's massive guitar riffs and Tek's noodling.

            But the Detroit music scene did not begin or end with the Stooges and the MC5 and their various incarnations (or Bob Seger or Alice Cooper or Ted Nugent, all of whom came out of this scene as well).  Over the years I’ve become acquainted with several other excellent bands that often get overlooked from this scene.  For example, the Up were closely affiliated with the MC5 and Stooges; they played many bills with both bands and were also intricately tied up in the White Panther Party (their manager was David Sinclair, John Sinclair’s younger brother).  Unfortunately the Up got lost in the shuffle when Electra signed the MC5 and Stooges and never released a true album.  However, in 1995, the label Total Energy released a retrospective entitled “Killer Up” which collects their various singles and demos, the best known of which is “Just Like an Aborigine”, which is a bass-heavy slice of sludge that sounds like a lo-fi outtake from the Stooges’ first album and is worth a listen.  The Up broke up in 1973; bassist Gary Rasmussen as mentioned above went on to play with Sonic’s Rendezvous Band later in the 70’s with members of the Stooges, MC5, and the Rationals.  

The Frost were another excellent Detroit-area band who played a sludgy form of proto-punk that drew heavily on the heaviness of the Who but was also tinged with psychedelic elements.  “Rock and Roll Music” is a particular standout and has a catchy refrain over a bottom-heavy Live at Leeds-like vibe.  Unfortunately at present few of their songs are readily commercially available so you really need to do some digging.  The Frost released three albums in 1969-1970 then broke up, but some of its members would go on to bigger and better things:  Dick Wagner played guitar with just about every major artist of the 70’s (including Bowie, Lou Reed, Aerosmith, Kiss, etc.) and Mark Farner would join Grand Funk Railroad.

One of my favorite recent finds is Frijid Pink (whom I learned of while reading Joe Carducci’s excellent book “Rock and the Pop Narcotic”).  This band is even less well known nowdays than the Up or the Frost even though they actually had a certified top 10 hit and gold record with their cover of “House of the Rising Sun”; they were supposedly so big that Led Zeppelin opened for THEM at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit in the early 70's!!  But their fame was fleeting and few remember them now.  Much of their stuff is very blues and boogie oriented.  But anyone who loves the Stooges’ first album will love “Crying Shame” and “Tell Me Why” both from their eponymous first album, which are really big on shouted bluesy lyrics, frantically pounding drums, and heavy, doom-laden riffs that sound straight out of “Now I Want to Be Your Dog” and “Little Doll”. “End of the Line” is slightly bluesier but still sounds like one of Blue Cheer’s fuzzed-out blues romps.  Other songs from this and subsequent album are more introspective and even feature some cool organ work.  Their second album, “Hibernated”, moved away from the feedback and fuzz (though they occasionally reared their heads in muted form on some songs) and sounds like much more mainstream early 70’s blues-based hard rock a la Mountain, Free, and the Guess Who.  Not bad but it doesn’t blow the top of your head off like their early work.

The Third Power are another semi-legendary Detroit band.  Their sound hewed closer to the heavy blues of other 60's bands like the Yardbirds, Cream, Hendrix, and so forth, but it also had a raw Stooge-y edge to it.  "Gettin' Together", and "Persecution" off their one and only album Believe, released in 1970, are incredible songs.  "Gettin' Together" sounds like Jack Bruce singing for the Jimi Hendrix Experience, while "Persecution" cuts loose with a harsher Detroit vibe closer to the MC5's "Come Together" or "American Ruse" but still has that Cream heavy blues sound.

Though they eventually moved to Los Angeles (just prior to that city’s incipient punk explosion in the mid/late 70’s), The Dogs started in the late 60’s in Lansing and went on to open for many of rock’s biggest acts of the 70’s, including Kiss, AC/DC, and the Ramones.  Alas, there is not a lot of information about them, but they have several songs on their MySpace page and a little band history as well.  They have one album on iTunes, Fed Up, which collects some of their singles as well as some live performances from the later 70’s.  “Sleaze City” has that classic Detroit sound, a driving blast of supersonic guitar with elements of “Come Together” by the MC5 and “Death Trip” by the Stooges.  “Younger Point of View”, “Black Tea”, and “Fed Up” sound more like “TV Eye” era Stooges with that classic Fun House rumble and snarl.    "Black Tea" is my current favorite, a driving, intense song that bludgeons your ears with that fantastic Detroit sound.  "John Rock and Roll Sinclair", and obvious tribute to the former MC5 manager and White Panther Party founder, rocks in a less heavy manner and sounds similar to "American Ruse" by the Five.  Great great stuff.

Perhaps the most fascinating (and obscure) Detroit band is Death, an incredible power trio and one of the few African-American (proto) punk bands.  The band, which consisted of siblings David, Bobby, and Dannis Hackney, started playing with various funk and soul bands in the late 60’s but rapidly gravitated to the heavier music of their white brethren.  The album “For the Whole World To See” collects their various demos and singles into an incredible document.  “Keep On Knockin’” is an INCREDIBLE song that captures the freewheeling and soaring aspects of some of the stuff Iggy eventually released on his Kill City album in the late mid-70’s, with lyrics that sound eerily similar to those of Rob Tyner of the MC5.  “Rock and Roll Victim” is an insane song, with hand claps a la the Stooges, a funky rhythm, and frenzied lyrics that almost sound like Fishbone.  “You’re a Prisoner” and “Freakin’ Out” are two other songs with strange, syncopated rhythms and shouted lyrics that in this instance remind one of Bad Brains.  Anyone who wants to hear an amazing record should pick this one up ASAP.

Many many many bands have tried, with widely varying levels of success, to emulate the simple-yet-powerful music of  the Stooges and the other Detroit bands.  Most, unsurprisingly, fail to truly capture their bludgeoning vibe.   Perhaps the band that came closest was the Dead Boys, though they will be the focus of a future post.  More recently, the Living Things have recorded some songs that really recapture the manic energy of the Detroit sound, particularly that of the Stooges.  Their 2005 album Ahead of the Lions has several standout tracks that evoke Iggy and Co.; hell, even the album cover recaptures the swirling psychedelic vibe of Fun House.  "I Owe" is a fantastic, driving rock anthem, and lead singer Lillian Berlin's deep tenor is eerily similar to Iggy's vocals on Fun House; he even perfectly captures Iggy's "Come Ah-on!" from "Now I Want To Be Your Dog".  "Bombs Below" also has that Fun House vibe, and "Bom Bom" "End Gospel" and "God Made Hate" also have a Detroit roar to them, but to me "I Owe" may be the best song the Stooges never recorded.