1972 Orig MC5 - HIGH TIME REVOLUTIONARY HARD PSYCH

$

51

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THE MIGHTY "5" ~ 1972 VINYL ~ HARD AS NAILS BLAZE OF GLORY!

               MC5

              HIGH TIME    

...USA - Atlantic Records = SD 8285

CLEAN Original VINYL 1972 first pressing in thick gatefold cover of the mighty "5" and their last album ...and they go down in a blaze of glory!!!

The testifying begins with “Sister Anne” as Dennis Thompson belabours his no-frills and completely explosive drum kit with cascading, pounding drums and ringing cymbals over twin-engine guitars firing up seering heat. It’s a brilliant cacophony until Tyner steps up to the microphone to begin vocally giving it up as only he can. Fred “Sonic” Smith burns down in the chorus with further full-tilt riffing that anchors everything to a main rhythm axis that rotates continually throughout a series of twists in this depiction of a streetwise nun. “Sonic” then turns up the heat with a blistering solo like he's harnessing a lightning storm while visions of unleashed bladders dance in his head and the following Tyner harmonica soloing keeps the pressure mounting until the break back into his previous begged question: “Sister, won’t you tell me where I went so wrong?” The band keeps nailing it for 7 minutes 23 seconds as though making up for their previous album’s majority of 2 and a half minute pop chart hopefuls. The track soon draws back into the introductory strafe run but with additional female voices and soon crossfades into a rickety Salvation Army band outro. Before you can figure out why, Tyner has already yelped again and it’s straight into another “Sonic” Smith composition, “Baby Won’t Ya.” A drunk as a skunk and wimmen-chasin’ thang, it’s as tight and greasy as a groupie spread on a hotel bed for Fred against a celebratory ’71 Stones groove meets Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Born On The Bayou” sans all the voodoo but plus twice the mojo and every bit as slinky. The twin guitar duels between “Sonic” and Kramer reach a repeating crescendo of unflagging intensity and minimalism pushed to the end of their guitar necks. The (comparatively) romantic “Miss X” follows and this time it’s Wayne Kramer singing of love on the road. Its sound oddly pre-dates Chris Bell’s “I Am The Cosmos” and is heartfelt to the point of bursting while its slapback drums, rudimentary organ make it a highly atypical MC5 moment and indeed it’s the only place on “High Time” to even approach ballad terrain. “Gotta Keep Movin’” by Dennis Thompson draws down side one to a speedy end and it’s one of the most kick ass studio MC5 numbers ever as “Sonic” burns the end of a cigarette down to a half-melted filter with singed fingers. The remarkably flexible musical reflexes shown here are powerful, totally out of control and yet stable as hell all at once (as they are for most of the album, come to think about it.) “The future is now/Yesterday is gone” sings Tyner, referencing his own epic “Future/Now” that will soon enough crack open up the seething second side...

“Future Now” starts with a hypnotically slow bass line and the grinding of harshly funked up, mid-tempo cog-turning of drums and vertigo-inducing, rotary twin guitars that weave and bend as Tyner’s lyrical visions of the here and now get punctuated with funky “Huhh!”s and “Yeaugh!”s. The drums get sucked into a weird, metallic effect for no reason at all only to return back to normal and the twin guitars keep zipping past and into each other, trading off and generally becoming equal parts of the same overall pattern. All dissolves with the last sung line of “The key to the mystery...” which trails off as the song falls away almost completely. A single guitar emerges to echo in a large, darkened space as Tyner returns, now intoning in a voice he’s never explored before: “Confusion and chaos/ The trauma of birth” as “traditions burn away” in a projection of a future beyond words. The guitar silently strums a melody sad with experience, balanced by Tyner’s low, muted vocals reaching for hope. The quiet volume and aching vision are slammed shut with “Poison” erupting with a simple and recklessly yanked out guitar rhythm behind a wall of hissing amps poised to blare. The track gets spat out like blood between broken teeth in a final holdout up against the wall with no backup plan for surrender. Heading towards an imminent, death-grip squeeze until a guitar solo from Kramer releases a furious burst of flurry-fu*king rage that has nowhere to go so it just explodes instead. Dennis “Machine Gun” Thompson truly lives up to his name by unleashing tersely economic rolls upon his kit with tight expertise as the melancholic, rapid-fire turn of the guitar’s melody in the chorus is trapped desperation itself. “Over And Over” is “Sonic” Smith’s fist- and consciousness-raising observation of the 1970 America landscape but it’s no lame lost revolution lament. More a recounting of vicious, confusing times with simple clarity, and they’re all arranged into one of the most realised songs on the album. Tyner’s vocals give it all up throughout but during the middle breakdown when his voice clambers up the soulfully ascending string of “No, no, no, no...!” he's just pushed himself over the wall forever while the rest of the band is totally locked in and are rockin’ up a tight but loose sh*tstorm. “Skunk (Sonicly Speaking)” begins after a minute of getting all shook up with a loose percussion jam with war whoops joined by members of The Rationals and The Bob Seger System. Once more, those Thompson machine gun-like drums rolls spark off his small kit throughout and “Sonic” truly lives up to his name from the moment he first roars into the fray of this album-ending noise-up. The words “Smash it up/Break it up/Start all over again” seems to predict their own imminent split by the following year preceding the counterbalance of lyrics that proclaim, “Oh, baby off we go/ Headin’ for a brand new place.” And with The Contemporary Jazz Quartet contributing a blaring squad of trumpets, trombone and tenor saxophone to shore up The ‘5’s rhythmic racket for the ending instrumental section, it's apparent they already have: kicking it all out in a joyful, chaotic and rambunctious racket and spraying it straight down the line...to the...very end of the "5"

SIDE 1

SISTER ANNE

2.  BABY WON'T YA

3.  MISS X

4.  GOTTA KEEP MOVIN'

SIDE 2

1.  FUTURE/NOW

2.  POISON

3.  OVER AND OVER

4.  SKUNK (SONICLY SPEAKING)

CONDITION: The thick gatefold cover is "EX" (excellent), no seam splits, no writing, has a smallest delete mark at bottom, otherwise solid for sure enough to tuck away in collection ~~ solid all over...

The vinyl is highly glossy on both sides "EX" (excellent) ~~ expect to play excellent and strong. Very shiny grooves and GREAT playback.

      A cool addition to anyone's music library!

SEE: SELLERS OTher items for similar cool sounds for "head" people...

EFFICIENT/CAREFUL GRADING

All imperfections are noted both cover & record