Drummer Dennis 'Machine Gun' Thompson has died at the age of 75. Thompson was a member of the MC5, the New Order and the Motor City Bad Boys.
So, the last surviving member of the MC5 line-up that recorded their first three albums has moved on, meaning the band's induction to the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame will be one that's posthumous.
"Dennis Thompson, the drummer for influential Detroit rock band MC5, has died at the age of 75.
Thompson, who was the last surviving member of the group after the death of guitarist Wayne Kramer in February, died in a Michigan nursing home on Thursday. He had been recovering after a heart attack in April, his son Chris McNulty told Detroit News.
“He was a true, free-spirited rock and roller up until the very last day,” McNulty said.
Thompson joined MC5 – short for Motor City 5 – in 1965, at the age of 17. He earned the nickname “Machine Gun” because of his fast and hard approach to drumming, which resembled the sound of his namesake, a Thompson machine gun or Tommy gun ...
... singer Rob Tyner and guitarist Fred 'Sonic' Smith both died in the 90s. Bassist Michael Davis died in 2012. John Sinclair, the group’s manager who was also known as a jazz poet, died in April.
MC5 are set to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame later this year. Thompson’s son McNulty told Detroit News that when his father heard, he said : “It’s about fuckin’ time.”
- Sian Cain, The Guardian
"My mother used to sing on the radio until she got bronchitis. My father back in the '30's played the upright bass in a Slovak band when he was courting my mother - these young drunken Bohemian Slovaks playing traditional music. It was like rock and roll for my dad. It was pretty safe in Detroit back then though.
I started playing drums when I was four. When I was 8 or 9, my family would get together - my brother would play guitar and my sister would play piano so we'd play together. My brother also had a rock and roll band, playing all those instrumental songs. You'd have four guitar players and no bass. They'd rehearse in the basement and leave the drums downstairs. So I'd go down there and play until Mom would say 'get off those drums Denny, those ain't yours!' Little did she know ... To raise a son who plays the drums, you have to be a beautiful and insane parent. I was playing in bars when I was 13 with my brother, playing weddings when I was 10 just to make a buck and be playing.
There were garage bands vis-a-vis the Motor City Five, The Amboy Dukes, Bob Seeger & the Last Heard, Mitch Ryder etc ... Sock hops, high school parties and dances. Really tame compared to the football games - that's where everyone got their ya-ya's out. The big names then were Duane Eddy, the Ventures, early Beach Boys, Motown, Stax, Otis Redding. The Beatles and the Stones were just starting to hit. The first English wave ...
... 'High Time' - it's the best record. That was the only record that we co-produced. We did that with the enginner, Geoffry Haslam, who was what's called a 'stable producer' from Atlantic Records. Geoff was very cool - he allowed us to produce the record more or less ourselves. We would cross talk a lot. Had we been able to do that on the second record, it would have been much different and much better. But it took that much time for us to get to that situation.
It's just good. It's loose and it's strong and it's powerful. It sounds good for those days. There's a quality to it, a timelessness to it, a classic feel to it that you don't have on the second record. To me, it's not just the material, "Skunk" and "Sister Anne" and "Over and Over," the production's correct and the attitude's correct. We didn't have a producer telling us what to do. First record's live - oops, that's us. Second record has a Nazi producer- seig heil! The third record is us producing ourselves after we sort of gained some experience. So that's the best record. Flat out."
- Dennis Thompson, Furious
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Detroit Rock City
'Girl (You Captivate Me)' (1967) - ? And The Mysterians
'Good Kind Of Hurt' (1968) - The Pleasure Seekers
'Missionary Mary' (1968) - The Amboy Dukes
'Call Yourself A Man' (1969) - Grand Funk Railroad
'White Wall' (1969) - The Bob Seger System
'How's That Treatin' Your Mouth, Babe?' - Sky
'Loose' (1970) - The Stooges
'Mr. And Misdeameanor' (1970) - Alice Cooper
'Sister Anne' (1970) - The MC5
"For me, Michael (Davis) was the original cool guy. He was a tall, handsome man who looked great on stage with his bass strapped on, and I always admired his poise and showmanship. He played with a fluid, effortless style that rolled under the beat. The lines he played were always distinctive, like somebody singing. He had a lot of positive energy. Michael had a wonderful smile, and a kind of unflappable manner. I never saw him too upset about anything. He was a nice guy, and although he had plenty of attitude, he wasn’t a prick about it like so many musicians can be.
Check out his playing on Lookin At You (Original A-square release). Especially the bass note he plays just before the end. Wow. He belongs in the Hall Of Fame, along with his whole group, for their contributions to American music and its politics. He was and they were hugely charismatic and influential. Their beliefs and approach had to do with things much larger than music and these things are coming to light more and more today on the world revolutionary stage. There is no band that I know of as dangerous as the MC5 and their manager, John Sinclair. I loved Michael. My condolences to his family, friends, and group and my thanks to him and the MC5 for their generosity and inspiration to me and The Stooges."
- Iggy Pop remembers Michael Davis, Facebook (today he paid tribute to Davis' rhythm partner Dennis Thompson online and shared a video of the MC5 in full flight - Iggy is a drummer himself)
'The Passenger' - Iggy Pop
So, to the relentless pulsebeat of the Motor City Five ... thank you and farewell ... hope to see you all on the other side ...
R.I.P.
