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ABSTRACT
This article locates the roots of “punk rock” in the “hippie” counterculture of Detroit, circa 1967–1970. It opens with an intellectual biography of John Sinclair, emphasizing how he developed the principle of Do-It-Yourself (DIY) in his work with the Detroit Artists Workshop and then his management of the band, the MC5. The article then explores the role of the audience in the MC5’s shows and how institutions – including performance spaces and local magazines – helped create a local scene that anchored artists and that became distinct from that found in San Francisco. But the MC5’s rise in popularity brought the band in contact with the “hip capitalism” of Danny Fields and Elektra Records. In releasing the band’s first album, a great deal of controversy opened. The article then turns to the “little brother band” of the MC5, the Stooges. It focuses on the ways Iggy Pop, lead singer of the band, attacked the traditions of macho rock stars who stole the “blues” from African American musicians. Pop too is treated as an intellectual, developing ideas about performance art – especially learning from the Theater of the Ridiculous and the Cockettes. Finally, the article explains how Lester Bangs developed the idea of “punk rock” in the pages of Creem magazine. He attacked the “baroque” feeling of so much late 1960s “prog rock” and then contrasted that with the performances of Iggy Pop, in which he saw “punk rock” emerging in 1969–1970.
Acknowledgments
Thanks go out to Jasper Verschoor, a graduate student at Ohio University, who retrieved for me many materials that helped in writing this article. Thanks also to Shalon Van Tine for her last moment assistance. Numerous librarians and archivists helped me locate materials. Finally, the readers for the first draft of the Sixties Journal provided very helpful advice.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Creem, January 1973, no pagination.
2. East Village Eye, March 1981, 6.
3. Hell, I Dreamed I was a Very Clean Tramp, 117 for Hell’s remembering how he cut his hair by design For a very well-done version of genesis of punk in New York, see McLeod, The Downtown Pop Underground.
4. Mailer, The Time of Our Time, 779.
5. Shelley, Harvey Kurtzman, 258.
6. John Sinclair Papers, held at the University of Michigan, Bentley Historical Library: “Notes for Book, 9–4-69” Notebook, Box 24. From now on, the John Sinclair Papers will be abbreviated as JSP. Also for Sinclair’s biography, see Carson, Grit, Noise, and Revolution, 107. Carson’s book is the best and most comprehensive treatment of Detroit’s “scene” in the late 1960s, and I rely upon it accordingly.
7. Jones, Blues People, 227.
8. Creem, #5, 1969, 13.
9. Notes on the novel Sinclair planned can be seen in JSP: A Notebook entitled “4625 2nd Apr. B2,” Box 23.
10. Notebook entitled “Notebook 4625 2nd Apartment B2,” JSP, Box 23.
11. Kerouac, On the Road, 10.
12. Fiedler, The Collected Essays of Leslie Fiedler, 392.
13. Sinclair, “William Burroughs’ Naked Lunch,” Master’s Thesis, 1966, 7–8, 13, 24. The thesis is in JSP, Box 21 Folder entitled “Master’s Thesis, 1966.”
14. Cary, The Rise and Fall of the MC5, 51.
15. New University Thought, Summer 1965, 23.
16. “Artists’ Worskhop: Progress Report,” in JSP, Box 4, Folder “Arthists Workshop Society.”
17. Wolfe, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, 4.
18. Fifth Estate, August 1–15, 1967, 3.
19. Herron, After Culture, 42.
20. Creem, Vol. 2: No. 8, 1970 (?), 9.
21. Goodman, The Mansion on the Hill, 154–5.
22. Creem, August 31, 1969, 13.
23. VanPelt, “Midwestern Rock and Roll Culture,” Cleveland After Dark, January 7, 1970, found in JSP, Box 27, Folder “Printed Material, Pre-1978, Newspaper articles (2 of 12).”
24. Sheet on Denis Temich, found in JSP, Box 10, Folder entitled “Trans Love Energies Unlimited, MC5, Press Releases (10–22)”.
25. Creem, August 31, 1969, 15; and Changes, No. 13, 9.
26. Sinclair, “The New Musics,” JSP, Box 22, Folder: Writings, Pre-1978 Manuscripts, Music (2 of 3).
27. For more on free jazz see Anderson, This is Our Music.
28. Eisen, The Age of Rock 2, 272.
29. Rolling Stone, January 4, 1969, 14.
30. Miller, Detroit Rock City, 31.
31. Rolling Stone, January 4, 1969, 18.
32. Sontag, A Susan Sontag Reader, 104; see also Herbert Marcuse on art in Essay on Liberation, 39 and George Cotkin’s helpful survey, Feast of Excess.
33. “Piece for Creem,” JSP, Box 22, Folder: “Writings, periodicals and newspaper articles, Creem articles (22–28).”
34. Ginsberg in Charters, The Portable Sixties Reader, 212.
35. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, 179.
36. Star Monday, February 17, 1969, found in JSP, Box Ten, Folder: Trans-Love Energies Unlimited, MC5: Clippings (4 of 6).
37. “Piece for Creem,” JSP, Box 22, Folder: “Writings, periodcals and newspaper articles, Creem articles (22–28).”
38. Village Voice, November 14, 1968, 33.
39. Roxon, “Rock Frenzy Points a Way,” found in JSP, Box 10, Folder “Trans Love Energies: MC Clippings, 1 of 6.
40. Clipping found in Jeep Holland Papers, held at University of Michigan’s Bentley Library, Box 6. From now on those will be cited as JHP.
41. “Off the Record,” May 14, 1969, article by Dave Bourdon, found in JSP, Box 10, Folder entitled “Trans Love Energies Unlimited, MC5, Press Releases (10–22).
42. Creem, #3, 1969, 5.
43. Friedlander, Rock n Roll, 196–7.
44. Disc and Music Echo, August 8, 1970.
45. Rolling Stone, January 4, 1969, 17.
46. “Motor City Music?” manuscript, August 8–10, 1970, found in JSP, Box 22, Folder: “Writings Pre-1978 Manuscripts, Music (22–9).”
47. Story in JHP, Box 2.
48. Creem, Vol. 2: No. 10, 1970, 7.
49. Creem, #3, 1969, 2.
50. Fifth Estate, August 15-September 4, 1968, 16.
51. Ann Arbor Argus, February 13–27, 1969, 15.
52. Fifth Estate, February 6–19, 1969, 2.
53. Perlman, Having Little, Being Much, 79.
54. “The Story of Michigan’s Legendary A-Square Records,” booklet and CD, Big Beat Records, 2008.
55. For a good biographical sketch of Fields, see Village Voice, October 24, 1977, 60.
56. Creem, Vol. 2: no. 8, 1969, 14.
57. Quoted from interview, Cary, The Rise and Fall of the MC5, 85.
58. Album found in JSP, Box 29a.
59. Dogget, There’s a Riot Going On, 220–1.
60. Crawdaddy, #21, 1969, 6–7.
61. Story in Variety, January 1, 1969: Found in JSP, Box 10, Folder entitled “Trans Love Energies Unlimited, MC5 Clippings (1 of 6).
62. Time, January 3, 1969, 49.
63. Ramparts, December 1969, 71.
64. Sinclair to Rolling Stone, February 12, 1969, found in JSP, Box 10, Folder “Trans-Love Energies Unlimited, MC5 correspondence (10–21).”
65. Billboard, January 11, 1969, 10.
66. Landy, The Underground Dictionary, 135. Landy reported that the different meanings of the term motherfucker were in the double digits.
67. Village Voice, June 5, 1969, 42; and Rolling Stone, April 19, 1969, 14.
68. Fifth Estate, May 7–14, 1969, 17.
69. Many of these stories can be found in the Clippings in JHP, Box 6.
70. Ann Arbor Argus, February 13–27, 1969, 17.
71. Sinclair to Hudson’s, March 4, 1969, JSP, Box 10: Folder entitled “Trans-Love Energies Unlimited, MC5 Correspondence (10–21).
72. Billboard, March 15, 1969, 68.
73. Berkeley Barb, March 14–21, 1969, 10; Trans Love Energies Release, March 12, 1969, JHP, Box 6; and Rolling Stone, April 19, 1969, 14.
74. Creem, #3, 1969, 26.
75. Ibid., 19, 26.
76. Berkeley Barb, March 28-April 3, 1969, 5; and Creem, #3, 1969, 26.
77. DeRogatis, Let It Blurt, 47.
78. Bangs, “The MC5: Kick out the Jams,” reprinted in Lester Bangs, Mainlines, Blood Feasts, and Bad Taste, 33–4.
79. Clipping found in JHP, Box 6. Letter reprinted in The Rollling Stone Record Review, Rolling Stone editors (NY: Pocket, 1971), 382–3.
80. Found in JSP, Box 10, Folder “Trans Love Energies, MC5, Legal, Performance Contracts and Union Reports (10–23).”
81. Ann Arbor Argus, May 8–22, 1969, 21.
82. Rolling Stone, May 7, 1969, 10.
83. Sinclair, “Liberation Music,” found in JSP, Box 22, Folder: “Writings, pre-1978, Music (3of 3).”
84. Clipping found in JSP, Box 24, Folder: “Trans Love Energies Unlimited, MC5 Clippings (5 of 6).”
85. See note 23 above.
86. Fusion, October 16 and 30, 1970, 16.
87. Changes, Vol. 1: No. 8, 1969, 7.
88. Creem, Vol. 2, No. 3, 1969, 9.
89. See in Fifth Estate, August 21-September 3, 1969, 18.
90. Changes, December 5, 1970, 5.
91. Punk, #4, July 1976, 28.
92. Rolling Stone, April 2, 1970, 30.
93. Search and Destroy, #4, 1977, 65.
94. Pop, I Need More, 51; see Russolo, The Art of Noise.
95. See note 92 above.
96. Jones, Blues People, 169.
97. McNeil and McCain, Please Kill Me, 37.
98. Kerouac, On the Road, 180.
99. Creem, June 1970, 29.
100. Quoted in Trynka, Iggy Pop, 92.
101. Adlington, Sound Commitments, 181; and Piekut, Experimentalism Otherwise, 178.
102. Cagle, Reconstructing Pop/Subculture, 104.
103. Nietzsche, The Portable Nietzsche, 518.
104. See note 91 above.
105. Roszak, The Making of a Counterculture, 265.
106. Crawdaddy, August 12, 1970, 38; Trynka, Iggy Pop, 72–4; and Creem, June 1970, 30.
107. Hopkins, The Lizard King, 259.
108. Crawdaddy, August 12, 1970, 39.
109. Changes, 1969, 7.
110. See note 108 above.
111. Creem, Vol. 2: no.3, 1969, 9.
112. Ibid.
113. Entertainment World, May 29, 1970, no pagination.
114. Samuel, The End of the Innocence.
115. Quoted in Ambrose, Gimme Danger, 64.
116. Fusion, September 19, 1969.
117. See note 23 above.
118. Fusion, October 17, 1969, 7.
119. Changes, vol 1: no. 8 1969, 7.
120. Ibid., 6.
121. On the Rockette routine, see Big Fat Magazine, March 1970, 27, 28.
122. See note 119 above.
123. New York Times, September 8 1969, 49.
124. See note 119 above.
125. Nobackht, Suicide: No Compromise, 19.
126. Originally published in Gay Power, the interview was reprinted in Eisen, Twenty Minute Fandangos, 213, 209, 210, 213, 215, 214.
127. Martin Elsslin in Cardullo and Knopf, Theater of the Avant-Garde, 501.
128. Watson, Factory Made, 218.
129. Quoted in Kaufman, Ridiculous!, 161.
130. From the script reproduced in Highberger, Superstar in a Housedress.
131. McNeil and McCain, Please Kill Me, 90.
132. Hopkins, Lizard King, 244.
133. Crawdaddy, August 12, 1970, 38.
134. Tony Reay in Miller, Detroit Rock City, 68.
135. Matheu and Bowe, Creem, 37.
136. Barry Kramer in Creem, March 1969, no pagination.
137. See note 63 above.
138. Weingarten, The Gang That Wouldn’t Write Straight, 240.
139. Creem, Vol. 2: No. 18, 1970, no pagination.
140. From “Creem Magazine Statement,” found in the Rock Hall of Fame Library and Archives (Cleveland, Ohio) (from now on listed as RHOF): Creem Collection, dated March 1, 1971.
141. Marsh, Fortunate Son, 27.
142. “Midwestern Jewish Punk,” from statement of publication, dated March 1, 1971, in Creem Collection, RHOF.
143. Creem, Vol. 2: No. 9, 1970, 7.
144. Clipping found in JHP, Box 2.
145. Creem, Vol. 2, No. 10, March 1970, 7–9.
146. Felton et. al., Mindfuckers.
147. Creem, May 1970, 42.
148. Ibid., 12.
149. Creem, June 1970, 32.
150. Ibid., 14.
151. Popped, no date, no pagination, found in JHP, Box 6.
152. For more on this interesting transformation, see Blauvelt, Hippie Modernism, 83–84.
153. Gold, Total Chaos, 146.
154. Village Voice, November 25, 1971, 68.
155. Ramparts, December 1971, 53.
156. Quoted in Tent, Midnight at the Palace, 146.
157. Gamson, The Fabulous Sylvester, 50–5.
158. Datebook, October 3, 1971: Found in the San Francisco Public Library’s Clippings Collection (from now on SFPL).
159. Tent, Midnight at the Palace, 180.
160. Crawdaddy, August 12, 1970, 40.
161. See note 113 above.
162. Popped, #1, 7, JHP, Box 6.
163. Landy, Underground Dictionary, 155.
164. Rolling Stone, June 25, 1970, 56.
165. For more on bop prosody, see Watson, The Birth of the Beat Generation, 62.
166. Kerouac, On the Road, 8.
167. Quoted in Neville, Play Power, 34–35.
168. Cotkin, Feasts of Excess, 76; see also Morgan, I Celebrate Myself, 209.
169. Rolling Stone, March 4, 1971, 60.
170. See Kellow, Pauline Kael.
171. Kael, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, 56, 49.
172. Kael, Going Steady, 123–4.
173. Ibid., 92.
174. Rolling Stone, May 14, 1970, 56.
175. Rolling Stone, February 7, 1970, 42.
176. Rolling Stone, November 26, 1970, 38.
177. Rolling Stone, February 7, 1970, 40.
178. Rolling Stone, October 1, 1970, 48.
179. Creem, October 1970, 6; on Deep Purple’s first album see Rolling Stone, May 25, 1972, 64.
180. Creem, August 1970, 40–1.
181. Fifth Estate, June 1–155, 1967, 4.
182. See Bangs, Psychotic Reactions, 84.
183. Fletcher, All Hopped Up and Ready to Go, 259.
184. Creem, March 1971, 76–7.
185. Creem, May 1970, 27.
186. Joel Selvin, the most recent book about Altamont, clearly places blame for the event at the footstep of the Stones, no matter how much the band tried to back away from such a conclusion. The movie Gimme Shelter was released in 1970, and it started the tradition of trying to take the blame off the Stones. See Selvin, Altamont.
187. Meltzer, A Whore Just Like the Rest, 329.
188. Bangs, “Of Pop and Pies and Fun,” reprinted in Lester Bangs, Psychotic Reactions, 38, 36, 38, 37. This essay was originally published November-December 1970.
189. Bangs, “Of Pop and Pies and Fun,” 38, 34.
190. Stoogeling in Eisen, Twenty Minute Fandangos, 191. Stoogeling often described as “groupie” (and she appears in the movie by that title). But she’s really more of a rock intellectual with a well-defined focus.
191. Wet, September/October 1980, 48.
192. Lester, “Of Pop and Pies and Fun,” 32.
193. Rolling Stone, June 25, 1970, 26.
194. L.A. Free Press, November 27, 1970, 18.
195. Popped, no date, etc., found in JHP, Box 6.
196. Gold, Total Chaos, 112.
197. See note 113 above.
198. Fusion, July 1970, no pagination.
199. Changes, December 5, 1970, 6.
200. See note 90 above.
201. See note 199 above.
202. Needs, Dream Baby Dream, 94.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Kevin Mattson
Kevin Mattson is the Connor Study Professor of Contemporary History at Ohio University. He is the author of numerous books that examine the intersection of culture and politics in post-World War II America, including, “What the Heck Are You Up To, Mr. President?”: Jimmy Carter, America’s Malaise, and Speech that Should Have Changed the Country and Just Plain Dick: Richard Nixon’s Checkers Speech and the “Rocking, Socking” Election of 1952. He is currently writing a book about American punk in the 1980s.