MC5 - Ice Pick Slim (Alive)

Far better MC5 albums exist. But this forty-or-so minute slab of propagandistic sonic insurgency still holds a special slot in the band’s discography. The title spins a more aggressive slant on the moniker of ghetto screed orator Iceberg Slim. Under that aegis, grass roots guerilla warfare and hedonistic libertarianism combine in a volatile amalgam. “Motor City is Burning,” pulled from fellow Detroit mainstay John Lee Hooker’s songbook, sparks tinder as the opening anthem. Hook’s original version carried a ballast of fear and the desire to get the hell out of Dodge. The Five’s reading is just the opposite, full of such brio and swagger that it seems they’d just assume stick around to see everything fall apart. Squares and Suits- the mouthpieces of The Man- are the enemies burned in aural effigy. Fidelity on the next two free jam tracks is for shit, though each sprawls over nearly twenty minutes apiece. The tape source for these sounds as if it was recorded covertly from inside some fan’s rusty, reverberating lunchbox. Firing round after round of guitar noise, Brother Wayne Kramer erects a wall of sound alongside fellow fret-splinterer Fred “Sonic” Smith. One that’s eventually toppled by the hollow thrashing drums of Dennis Thompson. “Mad Like Eldridge Cleaver” is even more ragged, with vocalist Rob Tyner turning to twittering flute & John Sinclair (the band’s erstwhile manager & dubious Minister of Information for the White Panther Party) doing a sorry caricature of Coltrane on sax. The improvisation’s core is ultimately nothing more than a wobbly reworking of another Hooker staple, “I’m Bad Like Jesse James.” Even with all the contretemps the Five’s livewire energy spills through and makes this both an entertaining and enlightening artifact.