The MC5 had a profound influence in three ways: their political stance, and us against them attitude, had a major effect on the activist branch of punk to follow. Groups like The Clash and Rage Against the Machine (and many, many others) got their playbook from them. Their sound had a major effect on the work of other Detroit bands like The Stooges and Alice Cooper (and therefore on all the groups that these ones influenced). Also, they had a free-wheeling, daredevilish quality that inspired many other groups, including Sonic Youth (who got their nickname from Fred "Sonic" Smith) and The New York Dolls, who have (I almost wrote "had") the same rare quality of fun-loving confrontation. And despite all this, they are frequently overlooked. But they won't be forever. As the years go by, it becomes clearer that some groups had artistic success without the commercial kind. The influence of The MC5 can still be heard in the best punk bands of today - Against Me! for example - and it will continue.

When rock musicians are called influential, it's usually meant to mean that a lot of other artists learned from them and tried to sound like them, and so on. But this can be a tricky area for a few reasons. One: the artists themselves may not completely understand where certain aspects of their musical conception came from. Even improvisers, who learn their craft largely through the detailed copying and emulation of their predecessors' solos, will not be entirely certain in this regard. Two: music has a much larger sphere of influence than on musicians only. Was the influence of Elvis Presley primarily a musical one? I don't think so - not primarily anyway. Three: when we start to discuss influence, we run the risk of forgetting that great music exists in an eternal present, and that we shouldn't put it in a museum, we should listen to it.

OK, for the next couple of posts I'll be writing about The MC5, and yes, they were influential - I'll go into that tomorrow. But today, with the help of two of their greatest songs, I want to make the point that they should be listened to - period. "Kick Out The Jams", a title that has become a rock and roll idiom, is a ferocious song with a famous, obscene opening that, like the band's stage antics, was meant (at least partially) to taunt the authorities that opposed and threatened them. It was 1968, don't forget. Those were different times, as one of their contemporaries once said, but the song's power and excitement is still there - to the max. And it might have the single most exciting line I've heard in a rock song ("Put that mike in my hand and let me kick out the jams!"). "Looking at You" from Back in the USA (1970), is a blistering two-chord classic. It's amazing that so much melody can unravel from such a small number of chords. The guitar solos, by Fred "Sonic" Smith and Wayne Kramer, are great examples of the way the band was influenced by the spirit of free jazz. Oops, there's that word again. Anyway, check 'em out. More tomorrow.