Kick Out the Jams this ain't. The MC5's second record, and their first studio effort, was a considerable move away from their proto-punk sound (y'know, the sound that made them interesting in the first place...), produced by John Landau. The record opens with a cover of Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti" and closes with a cover of Chuck Berry's "Back in the USA." Between the two, a number of misses, including the ballad "Let Me Try" and weird paeans to adolescence "Tonight" and "Teenage Lust" (can you imagine five grown men in Detroit trying to pass off a song called "Teenage Lust" nowadays? Yuck.) are to be found. "High School" works in a Ramones-y sort of way (but then, the Ramones did teenage anthems with a bit more wink and a bit more nod), and "Shakin' Street," it has to be said, is a power-gum masterpiece, perhaps the best cut on the record. "Call Me Animal" has a nice punch to it. Again, though, I really hope it's not aimed at fifteen year old girls. Thankfully, a few shreds of MC5's (adult) radicalism remain in "American Ruse" and "Human Being Lawnmower." All in all, though, I'm calling Back in the USA something of a face plant. All of this was apparently an attempt on Landau's part to strip down the band's sound to their rock 'n roll roots... Personally, I think it was a misguided attempt and that they had the wrong guy at the desk.
Some other thoughts:
#450, Steve Miller's Fly Like an Eagle: Do college kids still get stoned and listen to Steve Miller? Probably not, huh... Well, we did! "Take the Money and Run" is a stand-out for me.
#449, War's The World Is a Ghetto: No "Low Rider" here, but "The Cisco Kid" is a classic. Rolling Stone called these guys LA's answer to Parliament-Funkadelic... Not so sure about that, but they definitely offered a gratifying brand of So-Cal funk.
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