Customer Reviews

Big Bang: Best of Mc5

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I love this CD. This is real Rock N Roll. It's all I need when driving down the interstate on a hot summer day. If you're a casual MC5 fan, this is the only CD you really need to kick out the jams.

although it doesnt flow too well until you pass the live tracks. All the recordings are great, and I particularly like the live tracks pulled from the first side of Kick Out The Jams. They have a completely deferent sound than the later studio tracks, but both are good. If you like this band and, like me, are having trouble finding copies of albums except for KOTJ in the record stores, this is a good one to start with to hear some of their later songs.

The MC5 were a band that had no precedent in Rock & Roll at the time of their inception-A politically-charged, high volume ball of energy that turned their amps up to 10 and played their 3 chords deep into the night. Other bands turned up the volume, sure, but the MC5 added the energy and expressed incoherence that turned rock & roll into Punk. As can be expected, record sales went nowhere, but the band was championed by Rock Critics, and later, by the punks of the 1970s. However they did it, they created the throne of "most important Punk Band" that has since been inhabited by the Stooges, Ramones, Sex Pistols, Clash, Black Flag, NOFX, Fugazi, and others.
This compilation is as close as a single cd can get to a "kitchen sink" compilation, but like most "throw 'em together and see if it hangs together" compilations, this one falls short somehow. One reason: the set is tracked very chronologically, meaning that the rare, but unfocused and lo-fi early recordings are front-loaded onto the cd, thus killing any enthusiasm the prospective non-fan buyer has for the band. It takes almost 10 minutes to reach what should have been the great opening track of the disc (and which was the great opening track of their first album), Ramblin' Rose, and almost 15 minutes to reach their first great song, Kick Out the Jams. The solution? Move the rarities to the end of the disc (Rhino, are you listening?). The great music of the '5 is transcendant, but the inferior sound quality of those early singles is bad enough to detract from both those songs and the rest of the set unless it is minimized, and here it is given center stage.
But, disc track programming aside, the songs themselves are as great as I can possibly remember. The 4 tracks (4-7) that comprise the first side of "Kick Out the Jams" are whiplash-inducing adrenaline in song form. Tracks 8 through 15 are the bulk of an uneven "Back in the USA" with only the true clunkers removed. Likewise, tracks 16 to 20 take the cream of "High Time". And the set ends with a "live in the studio" rendition of "Thunder Express" which proves to me that the '5 were best when they were live and recorded properly, of which there is too little on this album and too little in their recorded history, both official and otherwise.

There aren't many bands who would feel at home on the 'Nuggets' box set and a Sun Ra tribute CD. But one, a bunch of radical Detroit garage punks with free-jazz hearts would--the MC5.

Their short-but-influential career was besotted by almost too much choice. Like unruly children, all three MC5 albums go off in different directions. Not the best way to build an audience, even in the anything-goes climate of the early-seventies. But Rhino's MC5 compilation 'The Big Bang!: Best of the MC5' pulls it all together, and builds a powerful case for the Motor City Five's legacy.

Opening with a locally-recorded single, "I Can Only Give You Everything" points the way to 1969's 'Kick out the Jams', with its hard-as-nails riff and pounding beat. Two more singles follow before 'Bang!' sinks its archival teeth into 'Jams'. This is the MC5 at their most feral and brilliant. The transcendant metallic chaos of "Kick out the Jams", "Ramblin' Rose", "Come Together" and "Rocket Reducer No. 62 (Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa)" ensues.

'Bang!' then turns its attention to 'Back in the U.S.A.', a 1970 attempt to focus the MC5's free-ranging muse on a song-oriented album. The collection does a good job of presenting 'U.S.A.'s strengths, and even adds weight to 'U.S.A.'s anemic production. "Tonight", "Teenage Lust", "The American Ruse" and "The Human Being Lawnmower" sound far-better than I remember. ("Ruse" is one example of why the MC5 were the target of so much law enforcement attention.)

But following in the wake of 'Jam's wild-eyed radicalism, the comparatively tame 'U.S.A.' failed to chart. That left the band in dire financial straits, and desperately needing to reconnect with their audience. 1971's 'High Time' was the result. And judging from the material presented on 'Bang!', possibly their best.

Abandoning the concise song structures of 'U.S.A.' (and producer Jon Landau), the MC5 stretched out and followed their free-jazz desires. "Sister Annie", "Over And Over" and "Skunk (Sonicly Speaking)" shine with inventive arrangements and instrumentation, and the blistering guitar tandem of Fred "Sonic" Smith and Wayne Kramer. But ultimately, 'High Time' failed to chart as well, providing the end, if not the means, for the MC5.

The MC5 never enjoyed a high profile front man ala the Stooges' Iggy Pop, making it unlikely their albums will ever see the remastered and expanded treatment accorded '1969' and 'Funhouse'. Which makes 'Bang!' all the more critical. It integrates material from five different sources into one cohesive document. One that secures the MC5's place as one of the most-influential bands to ever plug into an amp.

Pay whatever you need to get it, but get it. Yeah, it's that good.

There aren't many bands who would feel at home on the 'Nuggets' box set and a Sun Ra tribute CD. But one, a bunch of radical Detroit garage punks with free-jazz hearts would--the MC5.

Their short-but-influential career was besotted by almost too much choice. Like unruly children, all three MC5 albums go off in different directions. Not the best way to build an audience, even in the anything-goes climate of the early-seventies. But Rhino's MC5 compilation 'The Big Bang!: Best of the MC5' pulls it all together, and builds a powerful case for the Motor City Five's legacy.

Opening with a locally-recorded single, "I Can Only Give You Everything" points the way to 1969's 'Kick out the Jams', with its hard-as-nails riff and pounding beat. Two more singles follow before 'Bang!' sinks its archival teeth into 'Jams'. This is the MC5 at their most feral and brilliant. The transcendant metallic chaos of "Kick out the Jams", "Ramblin' Rose", "Come Together" and "Rocket Reducer No. 62 (Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa)" ensues.

'Bang!' then turns its attention to 'Back in the U.S.A.', a 1970 attempt to focus the MC5's free-ranging muse on a song-oriented album. The collection does a good job of presenting 'U.S.A.'s strengths, and even adds weight to 'U.S.A.'s anemic production. "Tonight", "Teenage Lust", "The American Ruse" and "The Human Being Lawnmower" sound far-better than I remember. ("Ruse" is one example of why the MC5 were the target of so much law enforcement attention.)

But following in the wake of 'Jam's wild-eyed radicalism, the comparatively tame 'U.S.A.' failed to chart. That left the band in dire financial straits, and desperately needing to reconnect with their audience. 1971's 'High Time' was the result. And judging from the material presented on 'Bang!', possibly their best.

Abandoning the concise song structures of 'U.S.A.' (and producer Jon Landau), the MC5 stretched-out and followed their free-jazz desires. "Sister Annie", "Over And Over" and "Skunk (Sonicly Speaking)" all shine with inventive arrangements and instrumentation, and the blistering guitar tandem of Fred "Sonic" Smith and Wayne Kramer. But ultimately, 'High Time' failed to chart as well, providing the end, if not the means, for the MC5.

The MC5 never enjoyed a high-profile front man ala the Stooges' Iggy Pop, making it unlikely their albums will ever see the remastered and expanded treatment accorded '1969' and 'Funhouse'. Which makes 'Bang!' even-more critical. It integrates material from five different sources into one cohesive document that secures the MC5's place as one of the most-influential bands to ever plug in to an amp.

Pay whatever you need to get it, but get it. Yeah, it's that good.

From a band that exerted an enormous influence on the
punk/hard rock scene from the 70s onward I found this best of compilation to be well worth the wait.
From the sheer live energy of Kick Out the Jams to the more
measured progressive riff driven rock of the later `Sister Ann` I think the listener who is willing to give this disc a few
spins is in for a real listening treat.
A unique revolutionary band which were a true sign of the times and also possibly a sign of the things to come,its rather sad in the way that they could not have gone on to develop and further refine their music,but I guess that has been the fate of many a promising and talented rock band.
The 5 were indeed a formidable act and even if you did not get the privilege to see them live this well thought out and digitally remastered compilation should be more than enough ample compensation

if you are in to the 5 this album is a must have! astounding! absolutely! many of my personal favorites included kotjmf! it doesn't get much better than this!