Episode #125 | 4.11.23
MC5: Dope, Guns, and F***ing in the Streets
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In this episode
MC5 embodied revolution in a way most bands only pay lip service to. The Detroit cops sent riot squads and even a tank to break up their shows, and even raided their house. They were the only band to play at the infamous protest outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Their radical manager, John Sinclair, wrote manifestos allying with the Black Panthers and declaring rock ‘n’ roll THE vehicle for revolution. But by the 1970s, all that idealism curdled into the classic story of broken record deals, drugs, crime, and jail, with redemption only possible through personal, not political, revolution.
Sources
The Hard Stuff: Dope, Crime, the MC5, and My Life of Impossibilities, by Wayne Kramer
The whole world is watching: how the 1968 Chicago ‘police riot’ divided America (The Guardian)
1968 Democratic National Convention riots (YouTube)
Shattered Dreams in Motor City: The Demise of the MC5 (Rolling Stone)
Inside The Little-Known History Of The White Panther Party (All That’s Interesting)
Do I Remember the ’68 DNC Riots? Dude, I Played Them (The Daily Beast)
On the eve of the 1968 Chicago Police riot, MC5 took a torch to rock & roll (Salon)
Riots I Have Known and Loved (Left of the Dial)
Revisiting The MC5 concert shortly before the notorious 1968 Chicago riots (Far Out)
The MC5 Performs at the 1968 Chicago Democratic National Convention, Right Before All Hell Breaks Loose (Open Culture)
MC5☆ A True Testimonial (2002, dir. David C. Thomas)
Do they still want a revolution? (The Globe and Mail)
Cops Riot at Belle Isle - Issue 30, May 15-31, 1967 (Fifth Estate Magazine)
A radical’s oral history of Detroit in 1967 (Metro Times)
Disgraceland is a podcast about musicians getting away with murder and behaving very badly. It melds music history, true crime and transgressive fiction. Disgraceland is not journalism. Disgraceland is entertainment. Entertainment inspired by true events. However, certain scenes, characters and names are sometimes fictionalized for dramatic purposes.
Credits
Hosted and written by Jake Brennan.
Copy editing by James Sullivan.
This episode was mixed by Matt Beaudoin.
Score by Jake Brennan.
Additional music and score elements by Ryan Spraker.
Additional music services by Bryce Kanzer.
Ad music composed by the late, great Ian Kennedy.
Disgraceland theme song, "Crenshaw Space Boogie" written and produced by Jake Brennan. Performed by Jake Brennan, Bryce Kanzer, Jay Cannava and Evan Kenney. Mixed and engineered by Adam Taylor. Score by Jake Brennan.
*illustrations by Avi Spivak @avispivak