Goodbye to MC5, the holiest holy cow in rock

Grade: D+

Ah, the original Linkin Park, except even more spavined. MC5 came outta Detroit in the mid 1960s and their shrieking blues metal ur-punk was afforded unnecessary respect because of their agitprop politics. Sucking up to the Black Panthers and running a bit foul of the law can do wonders for a slightly below-average blues band whose songs had energy and attitude — but nothing else.

Here they are, back with their first studio album in fifty-three years: thanks for the merciful interregnum, if nothing else. When I say “they,” I mean the half-decent guitarist Wayne Kramer and, on one or two tracks, their original drummer, Dennis Thompson. Both have bought the farm since this album was recorded, so it is entirely posthumous except for, Christ help us, Slash adding his characteristically unimaginative guitar and even worse, Rage Against the Machine’s godawful Tom Morello.

This is a tidier MC5. “Barbarians at the Gate” sounds like a Whitesnake offcut. “The Edge of the Switchblade” resembles an album filler by the Ian Gillan Band. There are nods to rap. I quite like the squalling chaos that begins “I Am the Fun.” But that’s it. They’re annoying now and they were annoying back then, when their politics had a certain frisson. Although in retrospect, did it, really?

It’s worth noting that their first album, full of righteous Marxist fury, was recorded just before Richard Nixon secured a landslide victory and their last — this — two weeks before Donald Trump achieved not far short of that. That’s how influential on a national scale they were.

So say goodbye to one of rock’s holiest of holy cows — who were always full of BS.

This article was originally published in The Spectator’s UK magazine. Subscribe to the World edition here.