Talk:MC5/Archive 1

Question
Might these guys be considered one of the Pre-Punk Bands? Sjfloat 20:12 23 May 2003 (UTC)

Maybe Pre-Punk but absolutely not punk that's to early. Ericd 20:27 23 May 2003 (UTC)

I would agree, but I suppose it's subjective. Should the article be corrected then? Sjfloat 20:32 23 May 2003 (UTC)

I changed "a great deal of controversy" to "some controversy," simply because I thought that was more appropriate. I heard "Kick Out the Jams" on the radio at the time, in a version engineered to obscure the profanity. Lou Christie's schmaltzy "Rhapsody in the Rain" created more controversy. If I've forgotten some major episode of denial of airplay or something like that feel free to revert. Trontonian 03:38, 15 Oct 2003 (UTC)

The link to the sample is broken. Also, might it be worth mention their performance at the protests about the Democratic convention in 1968 and the ensuing violence? Also, you could mention their relationship with The Stooges

I'm commenting out the reference to Zenta new year in the following sentence because it makes no sense to me as a reader:

Their first album was Kick Out The Jams'', recorded live on October 30 and 31, 1968 (the first Zenta new year). '' --Tony Sidaway|Talk 03:15, 30 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Communist ideology
In the article punk ideology, The MC5 are listed as "socialist/communist." If this is so, it is worthy of note in this article, as well. Wikikrieg 18:18, 29 March 2006

Assessed as Start class
I just assessed the article as start-class. But it's a good start, and I think it could be upgraded to B-class without a whole lot of work. The main thing it needs is references/citations. Remember, one of the keystones of Wikipedia is verifiability. Policy says, "Articles should contain only material that has been published by reliable sources" and "Editors adding new material should cite a reliable source, or it may be challenged or removed by any editor". Verifiability is more important than truth on this site! cheers, Xtifr tälk 04:56, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

Genre(s)
Adding Hard Rock to it, considering most of their albums have hard rock listed on them. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gordomebix (talk • contribs) 03:23, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

Chicago 1968 /
I added a tag to the paragraph about the DNC/Festival of Life in Chicago 1968 for a couple of reasons. First, the MC5 were the only band to perform, but a fair number of individual performers, such as Phil Ochs, showed up and played. I am skeptical that the MC5 played for more than 8 hours. Also, I have never read that Neil Young was in Chicago at all. — Malik Shabazz | Talk 08:46, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

The claim that the MC5 played for 8 hours is suspect: Don McLeese author of the book that is in the References section, The MC5's Kick Out the Jams, was at the Festival of Life in Chicago and saw the MC5 performance; he says they played for about half an hour. Dblobaum (talk) 14:41, 10 December 2007 (UTC)


 * Is it not possible they played more than one set? But controversial unsourced statements should def be removed. Wwwhatsup (talk) 17:34, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

thompson?
Am I having a weird trip or the drummer link is... weird? ;) --82.207.33.223 03:11, 9 May 2007 (UTC)
 * haha, from a drummer too! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Petchboo (talk • contribs) 02:20, 15 March 2008 (UTC)

contradiction
Uncommonly, Elektra's classical division (Nonesuch) was operated on a nearly pro bono basis due to profits generated by popular music releases, and the removal of Nonesuch records from Hudson's represented a significant loss for the corporation. <--- this statement contradicts itself. If they weren't making money from Nonesuch then the removal of them from the store could not have been a significant loss. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.5.188.169 (talk) 10:24, 22 August 2008 (UTC)

Heavy metal?
Someone keeps listing the MC5 as 'heavy metal'. I think it's fairly obvious they aren't. Who agrees? Who disagrees? Tim010987 (talk) 22:47, 25 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Doesn't matter... it's referenced. Also, your edit screwed up the formatting and stuck a bunch of retarded break codes. Libs (talk) 23:42, 25 August 2008 (UTC)
 * So if I find an article calling them a "pop" band, then they're pop? Just because something is referenced by 1 source does not make it the gospel. The amount of sites that refer to MC5 as metal is far, FAR less than those that don't. It's not their genre. Do they sound like Black Sabbath or Iron Maiden to you? This is retarded. Tim010987 (talk) 04:18, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

External Link Suggestion: New Interview with Wayne Kramer
As an editor at Crawdaddy!, and to comply with COI guidelines, I am not posting the link to this new interview with Wayne Kramer. However, I would like to recommend it on its merits, and hope that an editor will find the time to examine the interview and—if he or she sees fit—post it to the external links section on this page. In the interview, he discusses his political and musical involvements both past and present. I appreciate your time. Crawdaddy! Mike harkin (talk) 23:43, 1 October 2008 (UTC)

Recent Wayne Kramer Appearance
I saw Wayne Kramer play with Rage Against The Machine in Denver during the DNC 2008. Should this info be added to this article? Ref: http://www.denverpost.com/ci_10318511?source=rssdp Cowicide (talk) 09:08, 4 November 2008 (UTC)

"Motor City 5"
This is false. Quoted from Wayne Kramer in "MC5: A True Testimonial";

"The name of the band, The MC5, Rob Tyner came up with it. He said it sounded like a serial number, like on a part. 'Gimme two of them shock absorbers, a 4 barrel carborator, and gimme one of those MC5's too.'" —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.244.154.117 (talk) 05:00, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

history?
this article doesn't even mention the bands' history. answers.com has a great article on them.-Joeyramoney 21:13, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

Also, allmusic.com has an extensive article about all the band members, even post-breakup.-someguy 18:53, 27 April 2010 (UTC)

The "heavy metal" troll
Someone please assist me, on behalf of Wikiproject Punk Music, in continually reverting the troll who has been periodically recontextualizing the MC5 (The Stooges too) as a heavy metal band. Tim010987 (talk) 23:20, 14 November 2008 (UTC)

My God, some heavy metal fans just want to take credit for EVERYTHING in rock, don't they? There's nothing remotely metal about MC5 or The Stooges. Theburning25 (talk) 01:10, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

Are there any photos of the Sixties incarnation available?
While it's certainly nice to have a photo of the most recent version of the band, I thought it a little inappropriate not to have one with Tyner and Smith (and Kramer's afro!) front and center. 71.184.79.70 (talk) 23:52, 28 February 2013 (UTC)


 * It's a consequence of Wikipedia's copyright policy, which requires the use of free images when available. If you know where we can get a photo of the classic line-up that isn't subject to copyright, by all means... — Malik Shabazz Talk/Stalk 02:06, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Should Kick Out The Jams be considered a live album?
It was, after all, recorded in concert. Clearly it can't be called a "studio album" - how is a record made this way classified? 62.190.148.115 (talk) 09:24, 9 May 2017 (UTC)

Influence section
Talks exclusively about covers. Until material about the MC5's influence is added, this section shouldn't be called "Influence" but instead "Covers". To say that an act covered someone's music is to say nothing substantial at all about influence. 68.122.6.56 01:15, 24 December 2006 (UTC)

Begging to differ... the "Wonderful Remix" of "What Time Is Love?" by the KLF prominently has the full, "Kick out the jams, motherfuckers" at it's start. The radio-friendly version merely reversed the end of the sample, so technically it is still on that version also. I'm not sure what the reference to the UK is intended to achieve. I have pretty much everything they released, and it was all available in the UK before being prominently deleted by the Drummond and Cauty, "The White Room" being the exception. sugarfish (talk) 07:14, 20 January 2009 (UTC)
 * This article has ballooned beyond all reason, packed as it is with mentions of other bands. If an entry on Chuck Berry was so constructed it would never end. Nicmart (talk) 05:58, 1 June 2017 (UTC)

Drug Use
"The band members were also all using the drugs -- initially LSD and marijuana -- that would eventually contribute to their downfall." I don't understand how 'drug use' could be credibly attributed to their 'downfall'. It's all really a matter of opinion, but couldn't their downfall be attributed to disagreements in opinion? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Oshuma (talk • contribs) 01:58, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

According to their early road manager, who is a personal friend, the MC5 'downfall' was due to drugs. Some became junkies from moving into hard drugs. Heroin. Miistermagico (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 23:48, 10 April 2018 (UTC)

The statements: "Audiences regularly demanded multiple encores of MC5,and at a memorable series of concerts, Cream — one of the leading hard rock groups of the era — "left the stage vanquished." Cream refused to play. According to the MC5's early road manager, who considered the band terrible, indicated the low quality of talent that was popular at the Detroit's Grande Ballroom, with an audience of wasted stoned kids.

This was also very visible with bands at Detroit's Michigan Theater as my wife and I waited 2 hours to see Tina and Ike Turner perform. We were totally "burned out" by the "noise" of terrible musicians. Miistermagico (talk) 04:49, 11 April 2018 (UTC)

Removed misleading language from Kick out the Jams
Line used to read "praised the Black Panther killers". Removed killers, as this is unsubstantiated and unproven accusations. No one was ever arrested or convicted of the death of an officer. In fact, several police officers were to have killed many civilians, and even one of their own National Guardsmen in the chaos.

Removed for bias. Alaks Hovel 05:00, 10 July 2019 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Alakshovel (talk • contribs)

Refs
We had two sets of refs in a non-standard, annoying, and unclear style, Thompson and McLeese. I have converted these to Harvard style, but since the rest of the article doesn't use Harvard maybe they should be further converted. On McLeese I had to guess what the numbers were, since they weren't years, and decided they must be page numbers. GA-RT-22 (talk) 23:28, 18 July 2021 (UTC)

I took the liberty of adding this page to Category:Yippies
My reasoning: Their manager John Sinclair's name was already added long ago, since he was a Yippie diehard. The band famously performed at the 1968 Democratic National Convention protests, organized by Yippies, and the film clip here originally came from the Yippies page. Many people referred to the MC5 as "a Yippie band" for these reasons. This page is not well-trafficked, so I figured an answer might never come if I asked. I figure if anyone has an objection to this classification, feel free to remove. Thanks much! PB57 (talk) 00:11, 22 February 2022 (UTC)

"MC5" vs "The MC5"
Shouldn't the name of this article be changed from "MC5" to "The MC5"--and their name made consistent throughout the article? I've always heard them referred to with the definite article, just like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.

The lede says "MC5, also commonly called The MC5", but then the cited NPR and Rhino sources use "The MC5", not "MC5". A quick glance through the sources finds that most, if not all of them, use "the MC5."

Thus, I propose:
 * 1) Changing/moving the article title to "The MC5"
 * 2) Changing the lede to "The MC5, sometimes referred to as MC5" (or leaving out the name without the definite article)
 * 3) Changing references throughout the article to "The MC5"

Any objections?

--Jeremy Butler (talk) 12:05, 5 March 2022 (UTC)
 * The band name in their record sleeves is just MC5, no article. I think that is the name we should use here too.--Gorpik (talk) 15:29, 8 March 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the feedback, Gorpik. I checked my copy of Kick Out the Jams and you're right, the sleeve (and also the LP label) does say "MC5" and not "The MC5." Still, it seems to me that the more common use includes "the". --Jeremy Butler (talk) 12:53, 9 March 2022 (UTC)

1974-1975 members
There are four members listed as being in the band 1974-1975 but the article seems to clearly tell a story whereby the band did not exist at this time. Scatterkeir (talk) 20:46, 8 July 2022 (UTC)