Big Bang: Best of Mc5

MC5 | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 15, 2000)
• Original Release Date: February 15, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Atlantic
• ASIN: B000046PVF
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #74,842 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Arriving a decade before the Clash but every bit as politicized, musically revved, and rife with contradiction, the MC5 scorched the earth in ways that few late-'60s bands ever even imagined. The Big Bang! covers their career from 1967 to '72, collecting early singles (in better sound than on ROIR's Babes in Arms compilation), cuts from the Detroiters' three Elektra and Atlantic albums, and one live in-studio performance. We hear the punk precursors offer a testimonial to sex and rock & roll while damning American prosecution of wars ("The Human Being Lawnmower") and the Vietnam-era draft ("The American Ruse"). Were their twin incursions on U.S. politics and the record industry ultimately failed crusades? Perhaps, but the energy, intelligent attitude, and sheer riff sense encased in this CD's 21 cuts make a mighty case for MC5's sound and stance. --Rickey Wright

Product Description

MC5 THE BIGH BANG! BEST OF

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars MC 5 - 'The Big Bang' (Rhino) 4 1/2 stars, December 7, 2003

By 

Mike Reed (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Big Bang: Best of Mc5 (Audio CD)

Of all the MC 5 compilation discs that I've seen in the last few years,this is one of the better choices.With a total of twenty-one tracks(duration 78:41),you do get your full money's worth.Really dug the uncensored version of "Kick Out The Jams"(what true rocker could resist?),the studio takes of "Teenage Lust","High School" and "Call Me Animal" off the 'Back In The USA' lp,the total ass-kicking "Human Being Lawnmower","Looking At You" and perhaps my all time MC 5 favorite,the slammin' "I Don't Know".Comes with a very informative 24-page booklet packed with rare photos,memorablia and some facts about the band you may've not already known.After hearing 'The Big Bang',you'll know exactly as to where American hard rock had originated.Brilliant packaging.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a decent slice of a good band's career, September 17, 2001

By 

Jarrod (Boston) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Big Bang: Best of Mc5 (Audio CD)

a better slice would have been to include all of Kick Out the Jams, by far their best album. why Back in the USA gets the most attention here is beyond me--too many listless songs that lack any hint of the first album's energy.

Big Bang's first 7 tracks demand 5+ stars, but the remainder is pretty unexceptional (aside from Skunk, Human Being Lawnmower, Thunder Express and Call Me Animal) and therefore knocks it down a peg. Poison from the third album seems like it should have been an automatic inclusion but is curiously absent. a couple of tracks from '66 Breakout, especially Black to Comm, deserve space here as well. still, this is a good representation of a fine rock-n-roll band that was ahead of its time.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars When Rock Really Meant Rebellion, November 6, 2008

By 

Joseph P. Darak Jr. (Gallup, NM United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Big Bang: Best of the Mc5 (Audio CD)

I bought this cd in a nostalgic mood to obtain the notorius song Kick Out The Jams which has stuck in my head since my youth. I had no memory of any other Mc5 song. Wow, what a pleasant surprise to be hit with an hours worth of high energy, blistering, mind expanding, even thought provoking rock with a radical/rebellious attitude. All the songs are good. It's a very energizing experience. You get a garage rock sound on the first 3 tracks, then a fury of revolution rock, then some relatively layed back tracks from their second album that are interesting and stand on their own, a precurser to the punk sound. The tracks from their 3rd album are my favorites. The song skunk attempts with great success to merge hard rock with the free form jazz sound of Sun Ra. I think that ones a masterpiece. The final song was recorded after the third album when they unsuccessfully looked for a new record deal. It's a great high energy driving rock song. This group was talented, and ahead of their time. It's too bad they didn't continue. The direction they were heading in was full of amazing possibilities. This is a great album. I wish there was more rock music today that sounded like the Mc5. They stand the test of time. Rock Rebellion at its best.