When Rob Tyner wrote about "the dance from which all dances come" in the song "Come Together," he was singing of the act of lovemaking. But lovemaking brings forth life, and life itself can be a dance, a similar process of sliding apart and coming together.

Over the past damn near 40 years, the MC5 have been in the process of sliding apart and coming together, both among themselves and with their fans. And now, with the completed documentary MC5: A True Testimonial playing the film festival circuit, the band is moving toward the front of the collective consciousness again.

"It's a good slice right down the middle. It's a homerun," said guitarist Wayne Kramer in a telephone interview from his current hometown of Los Angeles. "You can't tell everything and every single anecdote and every dramatic event. There are other components in the story that didn't get told. But for all practical purposes, this is the story."

At the pre-party before the film’s premiere at the Chicago Underground Film Festival, MC5 drummer Dennis "Machine Gun" Thompson praised the film for its accuracy.

"All the elements are there. These guys did justice to the film, inasmuch as it's about as accurate as you're going to get, how the story plays out from the beginning to the very end," he said, adding that the MC5 story is hard to tell.

"I have a hard time telling it from beginning to end. I forget a lot of parts!" he added, and laughed. "This is the story of the MC5. This is how it all came together, and how it happened—the glory of it all, the sadness of it all, the tragedy. I love it. It's a great story."

Bassist Michael Davis said the film touches on universal themes.

"I couldn't fathom how it was going to play out as a story on the screen. To understand how it would play out as a story in two hours I just didn't know," said Davis. "But it told a story that is universal, in a way, about young people and how they think, and their ambition and ideals and having an opportunity to go for it."

Those three, along with the late singer Tyner and guitarist Fred "Sonic" Smith, were responsible for the MC5’s "total assault on the culture." That powerful combination of high-energy music, radical politics, righteous weed and sex appeal proved influential. But in many ways, the band has remained a footnote in music history.

The Five is one of the most name-checked bands of all time, endlessly referenced by the hip and wannabe hip. The band even got a shout-out on the WB teen drama Gilmore Girls. But while MC5 worship is all but required in some sectors, it’s still a small crowd. During the band’s run from the mid-60s until it imploded in needles and apathy, it invented an aesthetic that has become manifest in punk rock, heavy metal and today’s garage rock revival. But the band’s massive influence hasn’t translated into mass acknowledgement.

A True Testimonial was the vision of director David Thomas and producer Laurel Legler. The pair framed the story as one of the last great untold stories of the ‘60s and set out to fit the pieces together. Thus began a search for footage and information and willing participants. That search was largely successful, as most of the surviving people from the band’s inner circle participated.

"Five or six or seven years ago (when production on the movie began), I still wanted to be recognized. I didn't want my whole past career to go down the tubes as a footnote," Davis said by phone from his home in Tucson.

Kramer said he wholeheartedly supported the production, and his storytelling provided much of the movie’s propulsion. Plus, having him on board opened some doors for the filmmakers.

"I made many of those interviews happen," he said, noting that ex-manager John Sinclair and Back in the USA producer Jon Landau, in particular, wouldn’t have participated without his encouragement.

Thompson said he wasn't worried about the filmmakers, but he was worried about what he would say.

"It caused me some sleepless nights. I didn’t quite know what delivery system I was going to use," he said. "Would I shit on the MC5 a little bit? Would I say things I shouldn't say? When it came out, I said exactly what I should have said. I wasn't worried about these guys for a minute, because they became my friends."

Singer Rob Tyner's widow Becky also said that the filmmakers were successful in part because they became close to their subjects.

"When I originally met them they talked about the project a bit and [I] moved into a place of trust and friendship with them, and it's really grown over the years and they've really become important people in my life. They're incredible," Tyner said.

The question, Kramer asked, is why should people care?

"You have to answer that question: Why should anyone care?'" Kramer said. "As someone who's near the center of this, I know it's just a small, small percentage of the population [who care]. This is not a big band. This was not a popular hit band that had gold records and millions and millions of fans across the world. This is an insider thing,

"In the end, I think what the filmmakers did that was so good is they presented this as a human story," Kramer said. "It's all messy. It's a messy group of people."

—Brian J. Bowe
October 2002

Photo by Leni Sinclair