By 1969 I had attended maybe a hundred teen dances, rock ‘n roll shows or concerts. I had witnessed local & regional heroes such as E.J. & the Echoes, The Bossmen, The Motor City Bonnevilles, The Bob Seger System, Bobby Rigg & the Chevelles, Jay Walker & the Jaywalkers, The Excels, The Frost, The Cherry Slush and the Purple Gang...to name a few. But I’d also seen such pop icons as Simon & Garfunkel, the Turtles, the Association, the Byrds (the original lineup), Gary Lewis & the Playboys, the Kingsmen (of Louie Louie fame), the Gentrys (Keep on Dancing). But I’d never been to a “festival” and the late sixties was THE era of the “Rock Festival”, an indulgence that would culminate in the granddaddy of all rock festivals – Woodstock – only a month later.
A year after that Michigan’s glorious/notorious “Goose Lake Rock Festival”, ostensibly an ode to Peace & Love; it signaled the last gasp of rock culture in Michigan before its moribund decline, a death from consumption and bow to lost promise.
Goose Lake Park is part of Leoni Township in Jackson Michigan. The good folk of Jackson lived a relatively quiet and conservative life and were totally unprepared for the influx of 200,000 people, mostly young adults and teens, streaming in from across the United States and Canada. These interlopers then proceeded to set up a camp called Freedom Land where sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll reigned supreme. Mercy, these hippies, yippies, freaks, druggies, bikers, fast-buck artists and Hare Krishnas simply took over and some of ‘em even had the nerve to walk around NUDE. It sure got Bruce A. Barton’s panties all tied-up in knots and as the County Prosecutor he felt responsible to shepard community decency. Hmm, not this time. Years later the community still seemed divided in its perceptions about the event. Many felt that Goose Lake succeeded as a musical event but also as a symbol of peace and love. Others like Barton saw it as a massive drug infested mess just this side of the 7th ring of hell.
Peace, Love and Dante’s Inferno
Compared to the relative excess of Goose Lake, the Delta Pops Festival was a modest and understated triumph. Housed in the gymnasium at the University Center of Delta Community College, the festival accommodated only a few thousand kids. It would never go down in the history of the “Michigan Rock” era (roughly from 1960-1970) as a major event though it did showcase the incendiary spirit and energy of the MC5.
Before all this the “5” paid some heavy dues, getting’ their chops as the Grande Ballroom’s house band, rehearsing relentlessly, and learning the truth from John Sinclair, local poet and jazz aficionado and the founder of Trans-love Energies and later the Director of Information for the White Panther Party. Sinclair was their spiritual leader and political mentor. The MC5 moved with Sinclair from Detroit to Ann Arbor and found an almost perfect 18 room house in “Fraternity Row” on Hill Street. Women communed together with their men only to find entrenched gender roles. Men were hyper-aggressive and women were expected to be submissive. The men rocked; the women cooked, cleaned and did the laundry. Guess the revolution didn’t include equality. Sinclair suggested that Trans-Love was like Alice in Wonderland. Guitarist Wayne Kramer explained it thusly, “You gotta toke down to get down and in order to toke down you gotta get down, and if you get down, we all get down.” Wonderland indeed. But who am I kiddin’ – getting’ laid, and not just getting’ laid but gettin’ pampered and mothered like ya matter, was every horny, perpetual hard-on first-time-away-from-home adolescent’s fantasy. Yep, I was jealous ‘cos I wasn’t pretty, couldn’t sing and had no discernable talent. What hippie or otherwise kinda chick would wanna ball my brains out?
There was a heavy vibe surrounding the MC5 at the time of the Delta Pops Festival.
Their 1st album had just been released and they were the subject of articles in Time and Newsweek. Norman Mailer even wrote about their iconoclastic performance at the 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention and Mayor Daley’s brutal response to the protestors.
And lead vocalist Rob Tyner was even featured on the cover of the Rolling Stone. Heavy…real heavy.
So we were anticipating something extraordinary in Mid-Michigan, even when we were somewhat ignored as a hot bed for live music - despite the fact that we had one of the most vibrant youth scenes in Michigan with Daniel’s Den, The Y-A-Go-Go, Mt Holly, Sherwood Forest, The Roll Air Rink, and many more. The MC5 did not disappoint.
The show was plagued, in the beginning, with equipment problems. The PA just didn’t seem to function very well.
Bob Seger, playing organ, attempted a song or two before he gave up and stomped off stage. Just wasn’t his night. I’d seen Seger a coupla times before with mixed results. The rap was that Seger couldn’t play guitar and sing at the same time. I never knew that to be true but I did see him perform a few mediocre shows as well as deliver a few brilliant performances. Seger was known to possess an incredible work ethic and he often appeared to be playing everywhere at the same time.
Ted Nugent & the Amboy Dukes also struggled with “sound” problems and during a 20 minute delay, Nugent, dressed in Native American regalia, sat cross-legged on the stage, rocked himself to & fro, and proceeded to pound the crap outta a pair of maracas until the stage crew fixed the problem. He played well but “the Dukes” sorely missed their former lead singer John Drake. They performed their hit Journey To The Center of Your Mind and newer songs such as the fabulous instrumental Migration. It was a pretty courageous show for a band that seemed to be on their last legs. Hey, whaddo I know?
The Rationals gave one of the strongest performances of the night. The band was tight, the harmonies were spot on and Scott Morgan’s soulful voice was simply magnificent. They did all of their hits - Respect, Hold On Baby, Leavin’ Here, and the glorious I Need You. Great performance.
SRC put on one of their classic performances. Along with the Frost and the Rationals, SRC was one of the more musical bands of the era, certainly head and shoulders above the night’s headliners. They played most of their Milestones album, considered by many to be a stone masterpiece. They performedNo Secret Destination, Checkmate, The Angel Song, Eye of the Storm, even their first big hit Black Sheep. But the highlight of their set was their incredible take on In the Hall of the Mountain King/Bolero. This was Michigan Rock in its finest hour!
Iggy & the Stooges stunned the crowd with a maniacal, one chord feedback-drone, nihilistic push-all-the-buttons performance. Iggy was over-the-top, spittin’ at the audience, and cuttin’ and scratchin’ himself until he drew blood. He even sang and groaned a little. Finally he grabbed a girl from the audience, carried her through the crowd until he stumbled back, then forward, and deposited her on the gymnasium floor where proceeds to dry hump the hell outta the poor girl. A plant? Rumor had it that he humped the Dean’s daughter.
Make yo daddy proud!
But this night belonged to the MC5
There was a hush in the crowd as we anticipated the “I Wanna Testify Gospel” of Brother J.C. Crawford:
Brothers and Sisters
I wanna see a sea of hands
Let me see a sea of hands
I want everybody to kick up some noise
I wanna hear some revolution out there, brothers
I wanna hear a little revolution
Brothers and sisters the time has come
For each and every one of you to decide
\
Whether you are gonna be the problem
or whether you are gonna be the solution
You must choose brothers, you must choose
It takes 5 seconds, 5 seconds of decision
Five seconds to realize that it’s time to move
It’s time to get down with it
Brothers, it’s time to testify and I want to know
Are you ready to testify?
Are you ready?
I give you a testimonial, THE MC5!!!!!
The MC5 scrambled up to the stage and we all went wild. They were ON. Wayne Kramer opened up with his classic scratchy falsetto (almost in key) reading of Ramblin’ Rose, a great rockin’ tune by anyone’s standards. They ripped off the Troggs on I Want You (Right Now) which is only right and good. Rocket Reducer (Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa) simply exploded.
Fred "Sonic" Smith and Kramer led a guitar assault against the masses on Borderline - Powerful like a slug in the chest. Motor City Burning is an electric urban blues out of the streets of Detroit, the riots of ‘67. But my favorite of this show, just because it’s one of the best ROCK songs ever written, was Kick Out The Jams
This song remains the perfect vehicle to showcase Rob Tyner's power as a vocalist - a great tune; a greater performance. They even tried some jazzy Sun Ra licks on Starship that almost worked.
I left the Festival with a feeling that I witnessed something important. In hindsight it was important because only a year later, the scene would be all but finished and Michigan Rock would become a highly debated and disputed memory. I did a phone interview with former MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer on January 28th, 2002. When I asked him about the Delta Pops Festival this is how he replied,
“It was a pretty good show for the MC5, at a timewhen the band was sharp. I smashed my new Fender Stratocaster that night. Later I learned that the smart thing to do was to buy knockoffs. It was an explosive time for Michigan rock – no one knew we had something new and unique. The MC5 music was an amalgam of diverse influences from the free jazz of Sun Ra, Coltrane combined with evangelistic gospel fervor and raw rock ‘n roll. Back stage(that night) was a neighborhood. We knew each other for years. It was very organic, very natural. We knew each others parents and dated each others girlfriends. It was all before anyone was famous – a lot of fun, no rancor.”
Amen Brother Wayne…Amen
Peace
Bo White
November 27th, 2005
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