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“The original Motörhead was a five-piece band. I wanted to form the MC5 of Britain. They were such a great band, the MC5.” – Lemmy
“Before the Ramones, before the Sex Pistols, before the Clash, there was the MC5, inventing the template of raw power and irreverent attitude that became punk rock.” – Tom Morello
Tom Morello’s quote came from his speech when he recently inducted MC5 into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame. Given that the RRHOF was established in 1983, it’s piss-poor that it took them 41 years to recognise one of the most pioneering acts in Rock history, ever. The fact that it happened after the deaths of the last two surviving members of the Michigan proto-punk outfit merely rubs salt into the open wounds. But, since the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame is on the same level of “Rock” as the Hard Rock Cafe and Joe Browns t-shirts, is it such a big deal? As Bruce Dickinson succinctly summed up the Rock Hall: “an utter and complete load of bollocks … run by a bunch of sanctimonious bloody Americans who wouldn’t know rock ‘n’ roll if it hit them in the face”.
With the sad passing of Wayne Kramer (lead guitar, backing vocals), and Dennis Thompson (drums) earlier this year, the last embers of MC5 burned out, but what a legacy they left behind. Overseen by MC5 torch-bearer Kramer (with Bob Ezrin at the production helm) before pancreatic cancer cruelly took his life at age 75, ‘Heavy Lifting’ (the first MC5 album for 53 years – and the final one) is a strong way to bring down the curtain on such an influential band.
The long list of all-star guest performers add their touches (Slash, Tom Morello, William Duvall, Vernon Reid, Don Was), but it’s the guitar work from Kramer that lingers on, with ‘Change, No Change’ particularly sticking out thanks to its cinematic short bursts of energy from Kramer and a delightful slice of doodling on the solo. Before this lands, there is the opening one-two of the explosive title track (featuring Morello) and the insane ‘Barbarians At The Gate’ which certainly blow the cobwebs away; the latter is especially noteworthy for the sheer exuberance that it offers up – fiery guitar from Kramer, pulsating percussion (courtesy of Paul McCartney’s drummer Abe Laboriel Jr), sizzling harmonica, thick bass licks, all in among a stellar vocal performance from ‘Heavy Lifting’ co-writer and lyricist Brad Brooks (MC5’s last frontman). Damn, it is catchy.
The thrilling ‘The Edge Of The Switchblade’ (feat. William Duvall & Slash) pays homage to MC5’s 1969 debut album ‘Kick Out the Jams’ and features for the most; Slash at his most restrained, partnered with ‘Black Boots’ it’s MC5 at their hard-rocking finest. ‘Blind Eye’ (feat. Dennis Thompson) is such fun. Think the Beach Boys on a 6-day bender and you are almost there. Changing it up with some heavy funk on ‘I Am The Fun (The Phoney)’, a dazzling cover of Edwin Starr’s ‘Twenty-Five Miles’, and ‘Because Of Your Car’ (featuring Stevie Salas, Vicki Randle & Winston Watson) – the traditional mid-album slump fails to materialise, instead, it highlights the variety to be found on the album; a fact rammed home by the delicious strut of closing track ‘Hit It Hard (feat. Joe Berry)’ which comes packed with horns and Motown-like female backing vocals.
In a heartfelt post on his website, Brad Brooks sums up the passing of Wayne Kramer in a way that nobody else can, and also offers a fascinating insight into how the album came to be and how each party got involved, the opening sentences are below, but the entire post is highly recommended:
“I’ve been trying to put my thoughts together about this record and it’s been difficult because it just wasn’t supposed to be this way. Wayne was supposed to be alive! He was supposed to be able to enjoy it, talk about it, tour behind it, play some new songs, and we were going to live it, and play it together in the moment. At least that was the intention, but life always seems to have unforeseen circumstances.”
As eclectic and in-your-face as you would expect an MC5 album in 2024 to sound like, ‘Heavy Lifting’ is a triumph from start to finish. A fitting swansong.
‘Heavy Lifting’ is available now on multiple formats via earMUSIC
Review – Dave
Group photograph: Margaret Saadi Kramer
Wayne Kramer black and white portrait: Jim Newberry
Live images: Rob Wilkins/Dave Jamieson
