A Woefully Incomplete List of Individuals With Some Link to the Michigan Music Scene of the Sixties
And more recently, Kid Rock . . .
No one else had quite the eye for capturing the deeper spirit (and sometimes the humor) embodied in the rock performers of the era than Charlie Auringer. His photos and art direction were as essential to the success of Creem Magazine as the writing and his ever-evolving layout and style codification for the magazine was delivered with the same irreverence as the articles. A master photographer, his work during the seventies and beyond has graced numerous books on rock 'n' roll figures including Led Zeppelin, Alice Cooper, David Bowie, KISS and many others.
The following image and text is excerpted from the official program of the 1972 Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival.
"Master of Ceremonies"
Tom Conner's name may not awaken instant
recognition but back when it seemed that almost nobody had any further
interest in Detroit's native rock music (late1970's), Tom brought the world
"Michigan Rocks" -- one of the two most 
significant
vinyl LP's to chronicle the Motor City scene of the previous decade. Unlike
the bootleg "Michigan Nuggets" LP that showed up a year or so later, Tom
actually got down with folks like Punch Andrews and Jeep Holland and went
the legal distance in getting the proper licensing and rights to compile
the
first genuine retrospective covering music by the Rationals,
MC5, Mitch Ryder, Bob Seger, Third Power, Frost, Amboy Dukes and a
slew of others for Mitch Ryder's fledgling Seeds & Stems label in 1977.
A gutsy move that went mostly without thanks at the time but should be
seen as one of the pivotal points in keeping the Detroit rock flame burning
long enough to be noticed.
Conner was also a legitimate son of the local music scene. In the early-to-mid sixties, he was a notable presence in Detroit's small but ambitious folk music family, leading his own jug-band/blues hybrid group known as "Custer's Last Band" and producing the one and only (?) record album to chronicle local folk music -- "The Detroit Folk Scene, Vol. 1" -- out of his own pocket and sheer love for the music.
As the Seventies ended, Tom continued to work with Mitch Ryder in an effort to resuscitate his career, producing what some consider Ryder's grittiest and most enduring solo records -- "Naked But Not Dead" & "How I Spent My Vacation".
The following is reproduced from the WXYT web site page that appeared following Dixon's passing in May, 1999:
| Radio pioneer and WXYT talk host Dave Dixon passed
away over the Memorial Day weekend. He was 60.
Dave was considered a pioneer in the radio industry from his involvement in the "underground" FM movement in the late sixties. He was the acknowledged leader of the "Air Aces," the on air staff from legendary station WABX, that first brought the sounds of album oriented rock to Detroit in 1968. The station was among the very first in the country to feature long sets of album tracks from artists who did not get play on top 40 radio. The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Cream and many other "underground" acts reached a wide audience through air play on WABX and similar stations. Dixon left 'ABX in 1974 and spent 10 years as the eclectic host of a quirky all night movie program on a television station in the Miami/Ft. Lauderdale market. He spent several years as an on air host at public station WDET in Detroit, playing the same type of unique music mix as he had at 'ABX. He joined WXYT after hosting a "WABX 30 Year Reunion" in June of 1996. He was also a co-songwriter of Peter Paul and Mary's hit, "I Dig Rock & Roll Music." Dave will be greatly missed by all of us at WXYT and by the huge listening audience who were entertained and inspired by his discoveries and explorations. He left no survivors. The friends and family of Dave Dixon have announced that there will be no memorial service open to the public. A scholarship fund will be set up in the next few weeks and an announcement of how the public may contribute is forthcoming. We ask that you join us for a special on air tribute to Dave this Saturday night (6/5) from 9pm to midnight. "From the Tesla broadcast center in beautiful downtown Southfield, we say 'goodbye, Dave.'" |
Jerry Lubin was, with the help of Ben Edmonds, "master of ceremonies," so to speak, and laminated "passes" for the wake were a special piece of artwork by Gary Grimshaw. The Reverend Rodney Reinhart, longtime friend, eulogized Dixon... in true "Dave Dixon" style. For those who ever met or heard, or heard about, Dave Dixon, you will understand, and agree with and smile about "the man remembered," as Reverend Rod bravely and succinctly remembered him for us:
DAVE DIXON: THE MAN REMEMBERED
by The Rev. Rod Reinhart
We are here tonight to remember and honor Dave Dixon: radio personality, Detroit's Culture Czar, song writer, TV producer, supporter of music and musicians, and the man who turned Detroit radio around.
At funerals, we usually forget the bad, and remember only the good, but let us all remember that Dave Dixon pissed off nearly everyone in this room.... and he did it on purpose, and he did it over and over again. And he pissed us off on the air and in person, and he pissed off friend and foe alike.
And all of us had plenty of reasons to tell Dave right where to stick it, and some of us did.... over and over again.... But still, we loved Dave Dixon. And still, we recognized his genius. And still, we listened to him, over and over again, because he was the best darn radio jock, captain of the Air Aces, unpredictable cable TV producer, unrepentant Rock and Roll Wizard, and the most unrelenting Culture Czar Detroit has ever known.
David could sit there at his microphone and spin stories of all the great stars and great low-lifes of the music industry. He kept us mesmerized for hours. He could find just the right record to touch our souls with the tears and tenderness of our youth, or knock our socks off with the scraping rage of today. Dave kept our most ancient memories alive, and always kept us staring over the very edge of the future. For us, for years, Dave was radio and radio was Dave.
Dave enjoyed making us mad, and sometimes, he did it for our own good. but Dave was also kindly and courtly to women, deeply concerned about the well being of artists and musicians, and always a supporter of the cultural and charitable life of our city.
They called him a curmudgeon. They said he was acerbic. They kept telling us he never followed the rules... and all of that was true. But that was his job and he did it mighty well. A curmudgeon is someone who tells the hard truths the way he sees them. A curmudgeon tells those truths well, and tells them with a knife blade wit to make sure people don't forget. That is what Dave Dixon did.
When he was the chief Air Ace on WABX, he had a lot of hard truths to tell. When America was bombing the BEJEZZUS out of Vietnam and American youth were dying by the dozens on the streets, and Nixon was going mad with power and lying to us every day, Dave was there to tell us the truth, and make us roll on the floor with laughter and rage. And he got us "down" with the truth, so we would rise up, and march out to demonstrate and work for peace, and change the world.
When Dave was the top fund raiser and greatest creative mind on public radio, and when most creative radio was dying under the stultifying stratification of homogenous corporate control, Dave Dixon broke the world open with the best new music from the most vibrant scenes and the most brilliant minds any of us had ever heard. He never rested on the familiar and the fashionable. He researched what was good, and he told us why it was good. He cursed out the executors of schlock music and the executives of schlocky songs who forced us to repeatedly listen to second rate sounds and third rate rock.
He stomped the toes of anyone, high or low, who tried to force him to tone down his rhetoric, tie off his musical tastes, muzzle his opinions, or not tell it the way Dave said it really is. Dave fought them and he won, and he won the battle for us.
Yes. Dave was a curmudgeon. Dave was acerbic. Dave didn't always follow the rules. But so what? He was a genius in a time that needed Genius. We are all the better for it.
But Dave suffered. He had arguments with bosses. He lost jobs. He often lived near poverty. He could not always afford medical insurance, and maybe he died much too young. But he still told the hard truths the way he saw them. There are two words for someone who tells the hard truth to people in power. There are two words that describe those who suffer for their vision of what the world should be. Those words are artist, and prophet.
Like the great prophets in the Bible, and like all the prophetic change agents in history, Dave had a message, and he had the courage to speak it. Like all the great artists in history, Dave had a vision of reality and knew how to create it with words and music. He got on the radio and created it.
Yes, Dave pissed us off. We often responded in kind. But still, we cared about him. Still we listened to him and still we gave him his due. Dave was our man - our flaming arrow, our hard rock, love song, heavy metal, hard-nosed guru. In spite of his painful edges, we knew him as a man of true compassion and passion. he was still the man we loved.
And I loved Dave Dixon. when I was just a kid in the far northern suburbs, I listened to him constantly on WABX. He showed me a new world out there and helped me establish a new independence I had never known before.
When I was the pastor of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church on the Wayne State Campus, Rob Tyner, Charlie Gorvitz, Mike Whitty, Susan Sunshine, Craig Shank, and I produced the Community Concert Series. Dave often showed up at the shows and gave us lots of support on the air. When I established a Christmas healing service for people suffering with AIDS, Dave was the first person on Detroit radio to promote us. He challenged this city's prejudices and opinions about brothers and sisters in need and pain. Dave was right there for us and I know he was right there for you when you had important concerts or events and you needed his help. Dave made good things happen for all of us and we will each always be grateful to him.
Dave may have made us mad, and maybe a lot of his bosses had trouble working with him. But we are all grateful to the many radio stations in town who brought him here, gave him a microphone, and gave us the chance to hear his voice. We are especially grateful to the people at WXYT who gave him that gig on Saturday night, and did so much to help him "Keep on keeping on."
But Dave was not concerned only with bare survival. He had his sights set on the stars. Radio is changing, and Dave was changing along with it. He had plans to expand those three hours on a tight signal into a worldwide broadcast roar.
A few days before he died, Dave was talking with an old friend of ours, and a lovely singer, Violet Brooks. He told Violet he had a bead on the new technology that would bring him back to his vision of what radio really ought to be. He was working to get into satellite radio, where he could put his show into syndication across the globe. Then he could say and play exactly what he wanted and , once again, be the true audio artist we all knew he could be.
Dave may not have achieved that vision in this life, but, some time in eternity, some guys show up, and some time down the road, we may hear him again on the wavelengths of heaven, and we will recognize those sounds when they come.
And now, in his death, we can admit that even though Dave pissed us off sometimes, we still loved him. All of us can carry on that legend of great music and acerbic wit, and a deep concern for humanity and truth.
All of us together, WABX, WDET, THE EDGE, WXYT, WADL, Rose and Jerry Lubin, Becky Tyner and her children, Ben Edmunds, John Sinclair, Peter, Paul, and Mary, John Dixon, Vivian Dixon, Carol, Lucy, Mike, Dan, all the rest of his family and friends, and all of us and all of you... We wish him a fond and tearful good-by. We send out our love, and we open our ear, and we strain to hear those final words, "This is Dave Dixon signing off," once again.
The Rev. Rodney Reinhart
The World Sabbath of Religious
Reconciliation
Plymouth, Michigan
Ben arrived in Detroit in the late sixties and gained renown as a Creem magazine editor and widely read music journalist and critic. Edmonds is currently the US editor for British music pulication Mojo magazine. Ben's contributions to music journalism include writings in Rolling Stone, Detroit Metro Times (for which he wrote "Shakin Street" -- an extensive piece on the history of rock music in Detroit), The Los Angeles Times and a host of others which include the e-zine "Addicted to Noise". He has also added liner notes to a variety of recordings -- including those for the "complete" Savage Grace re-issue of a few years ago.
Since the early 1990's Ben has been at work on a book covering the life and times of the MC5, tentatively entitled "No Greater Noise" and he recently completed " What's Going On" (Mojo Books), a facinating look at Motown and the making of Marvin Gaye's album of the same title.
A Gary Grimshaw Profile presented by Poster Planet which has a number of examples of his extraordinary designs available. Emil Bacilla, the original photographer of the MC5 has more about Gary at his web site -- Go visit.
Jeep was among Michigan's first local musical entrepreneurs of the sixties rock culture and his guiding work on behalf of the A² stable of artists such as SRC, The Thyme and, of course, The Rationals is no mere myth. Holland was an energetic (and tireless) manager/promoter who often traveled to gigs with his bands to assure their fair treatment at the hands of the venue operators. In founding the A² organzation, he created a management agency, booking operation, record label and the spiritual home for much of the legendary talent of the Ann Arbor area .
Jeep passed away in early March 1998 but there is a web site devoted to the life and times of the illustrious Mr. Holland (linked to his name above). Before visiting there, take a few moments to appreciate the depth of Jeep's contribution by reading Ben Edmonds' heartfelt farewell to his friend as well as Tony Reay's reflection on Jeep's profound influence.
Ken grew up south of Detroit in nondescript Monroe but came to prominence in founding one of the premier "underground" newspapers in the area, the Ann Arbor Argus. Ken left Michigan in 1971 for California, most notably taking over as editor of the Berkeley Barb but before leaving, he was closely associated with John Sinclair and the Trans Love/White Panther/MC5 collective that occupied two prominent houses on Hill Street near fraternity row in Ann Arbor.
For all that has been written about the MC5, Ken's memoir of the band and eulogy for "Sonic" Smith appearing in Addicted To Noise - 1.02 may be the most succinct and touching--the words of a friend.
A giant of the Detroit rock scene for many years, first with the Hideout and later Diversified Management Agency -- the man who gave Glenn Frey, Ted Nugent, Bob Seger, Suzi Quatro and many other Detroit notables some of their first stage time passed away in October 1999. Those fortunate enough to get the Free Press were able to read a short but nicely done piece about the the early club scene that Dave managed to spawn with the Hideouts and by clicking the link above, you can read Chris Handysides short announcement of his passing. Leone's last broadcast interview was on Willy Wilson's radio show devoted to the Hideout Records catalog in July of the same year and prior to that Dave did a phone interview with Michael Flores all about the Hideout days which you can read here.
Although
Carl has become quite famous in recent years for his fantasy/science fiction
book covers and action illustrations, his best work (in this context) was
the superb series of handbills and posters he created for the Grande Ballroom
(and other Detroit area concert venues) starting in 1967.
Carl began his illustrating career with the Grande handbills, signing on to assist Gary Grimshaw just prior to Gary's legal troubles which prevented him from devoting complete effort to the Grande's promotions.
"Carl really cared about the work. He wanted to do a beautiful job, and he certainly did. When I left, it became a full-time gig for him, which lasted through the end of the Grande's classic period, until Russ Gibb decided he didn't want to continue spending money on posters."
Gary Grimshaw
...from an interview in The Art of Rock
by Paul Grushkin. Abbeville Press, 1987
Carl's
art came to the Motor City by way of California where he lived for several
years in the middle '60's. There, he observed the beginnings of the
poster art of Wes Wilson, Rick Griffin and Victor Moscoso in San Francisco
and although their influences are readily seen in his work Lundgren's
concert promotions are distinctively original. His Grande-period
work was typified by the use of vibrant colors and astounding collage techniques.
One poster for a perfomance by James Cotton at the Grande which used an
image of Vanessa Redgrave has become one of the classics of our time and
between 1967 and 1970 he created a defining series of works that proved
him to be a poignant, unique and important graphic artist, further establishing 
the
Detroit area's contributions to contemporary rock culture.
A wonderful book of Lundgren's postcards (surprisingly few were ever printed as full-size posters, although Carl is now rectifying that oversight) for the Grande (and elsewhere) was published by Pomegranate a few years ago. Now out of print, copies do show up on eBay with some frequency and this is an essential publication for anybody with a deeper interest in his artwork as well as Detroit's rock history.
For up-to-date information about Carl's current works of fine art, his fantasy illustrations and a place to acquire signed reprints of several of his Grande-era works, be sure to visit Carl Lundgren Art Studios on line.
Marsh dropped out of Wayne State University in 1969 to help launch Creem, the legendary Motor City rock and roll magazine and is, at least, the most well-known writer to emerge from the Detroit music scene. Dave also was an editor and feature writer for Rolling Stone where, with John Swenson, he created the Rolling Stone Record Guide. For the past few years he has written for Playboy Magazine and edited the newsletter, Rock and Rap Confidential. Well known as an anti-censorship activist, Dave compiled "50 Ways to Fight Censorship" and also authored several rock and roll books including the best-selling "Born to Run: The Bruce Springsteen Story" and "The Book of Rock Lists"
The rise and fall of Creem, Detroit's infamous home-brewed rock and roll magazine, is a fascinating albeit complicated story and certainly deserves a thorough telling by those more knowledgeable than this writer. However, thanks to several individuals who've been kind enough to provide details over the course of time, its become clear that the origin of the magazine is somewhat different than popular belief.
Most folks with a working knowledge of Detroit's sixties scene, credit the late Barry Kramer as both founder and publisher of Creem. And while there's little doubt that in Barry's entrepreneurial hands the magazine managed to set the music press -- indeed, most counter-culture journalism -- on its collective ass, Kramer’s role apparently did not include its conception. That deed was tended to by Tony Reay, once a nearly forgotten figure in Detroit's musical past.
Like thousands throughout the Motor City and suburbs, Tony was another young soul caught up in the changing social order and possessed a fervor for the music that was swirling around the city which bordered on religious fanaticism. That conviction led him (and wife Donna) to Toronto Ontario with another like-minded soul who shared the dream of forming the next great North American rock ‘n’ roll band. Alas, the "Mouse Evans Blues Mine" never came to fruition and Tony headed back to Detroit after a few months of starving and street living, wiser but no less passionate about music.
Back in the Motor City, Tony and Donna settled in among the community which flourished around the Wayne State University campus. In a short time, he became acquainted with Brandt Marwil, Barry Kramer’s partner(?) and this resulted in meeting Barry and subsequently going to work at Kramer's Mixed Media (Detroit's original "head shop") where Tony began to cultivate the contacts that ultimately made him a familiar co-conspirator in Detroit's developing rock culture underground. His resume grew impressively during this period: Associate music editor for the fabled Fifth Estate underground newspaper with the iconoclastic John Sinclair, writing a music column for the Detroit Free Press and even hosting a short-lived radio program on WABX sponsored by Kramer’s store.
One of the problems that Tony recognized came from the factionalism surrounding the Detroit music scene that had been brewing even before the riots in 1967. The Grande Ballroom was only beginning to emerge as a focal point and with so many clubs and other music venues having sprung up in the previous few years, Detroit seemed to be a community of disconnected suburban music scenes instead of a unified musical town. As one correspondent put it: "...folks in Redford had no idea if the band at Birmingham's hideout was worth going to see.". To connect the dots, Tony envisioned a local music magazine distributed throughout the city as a means of uniting young folks in the city and suburban environs with the entertainment all around them. He approached Kramer with the idea, but according to several others who were there, Barry dismissed the notion as having no merit. Tony decided otherwise and went ahead anyway.
Chuck Pike, Tony's long-time friend and band mate in the abortive Toronto musical effort (also a Kramer employee) was one of the few who understood Tony's desire and, in a combination of two basements -- the first being Tony's apartment on Gladstone Street (the address on the first Creem business cards) the second being under Kramer’s Full Circle record store on Cass Avenue -- Chuck provided assistance with layout, artwork and general coordination to help Tony get the magazine, now officially titled Creem, launched.
As Chuck recalls: "Somehow the first issue was put together and printed . Wow ,what a groove. We actually did it . It was great, but it made it clear to me that I was not a newspaper type guy. My stint as a journalist/ artist was not to my liking. It was apparent to me that it was not something that I wanted to keep on doing. But, it actually was Tony's' baby, and he was not going to stop working on something he had worked so hard to see come to fruition.".
Seeing the success of Creem's first issue, which sold out and went for reprints -- paying its own way from just newsstand sales -- without benefit of advertising, Kramer jumped in just prior to publishing the second basement-created issue and provided the capital to assure future issues would continue to be published regularly and more professionally. Reay continued to write (as Ice Alexander) and put the magazine together under Barry's watchful eye but after a only few more issues, Tony left Creem to Kramer, knowing Barry had other ideas for the magazine. Good ideas as history certainly proved, but far from the ones Tony believed were the mission of a local music magazine.
In the end, when the offspring succeeds
as Creem so wildly did in the seventies, one has to celebrate both parents,
even if they divorced early on. Tony Reay and Barry Kramer may not have
been a partnership for all times but the vision and shaping process by
these two strong wills ended up creating a lasting literary legacy:
A killer music rag, bristling with Detroit attitude that never forgot its
roots (thanks, Tony) and the guts to publish folks like Richard ("R.")
Meltzer, Dave Marsh and Lester Bangs who re-defined the conventions of
music journalism several times over (thanks, Barry). The creation did you
both proud.
Fast
forward a few years since this story first appeared and, low and behold,
Creem
is back. And Tony's there right along with it. If you want
more about the founding and purpose of the magazine, the Detroit
rock culture and everything else related, be sure to check Tony's
rebuttal to Michael Kramer's History of "America's Only Rock'n'Roll
Magazine"
Seymour’s radio and television career 
spanned
everything from the big band era right through the British invasion and
into the psychedelic era with notable stints on WKMH (the precursor to
WKNR) "Bobbin with Robin" in the afternoons and at CKLW where he took to
the video airwaves as well. Robin was pretty generally canny in spotting
hot artists but missed a beat somewhere when he predicted in the mid 50's
that Elvis Presley was a sure loser, who “wouldn’t last more than a year.”
Patterned after the nationally successful "American Bandstand", Seymour’s “Swingin Time,” dance party was a hot commodity on Windsor's Channel 9 from early 1965 through 1968. The show typically featured 50 to 75 high-schoolers dancing six days a week and two were chosen for each show to give “yea” or “boo” opinions on new records. National touring acts -- even Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention -- landed on the his stage as they'd pass through the Motor City, but it was local entertainers, both black and white, including Motown artists such as Stevie Wonder, The Four Tops, Martha and the Vandellas and The Supremes as well as George Clinton's Parliaments along with fresh-faced suburban kids like Seger, Glenn Frey and Ted Nugent which assured a spirited time and really made the show. Nearly every Detroit musical artist or band of consequence with a record (or sometimes just a demo) managed to get booked. But no live performances -- the studio wasn't equipped for that so artists would lip-synch their records, often to inadvertent (and deliberate) comical effect.
Worth noting is Seymour's affection for The Rationals. Not only were they the most frequently booked local group on his show, which contributed greatly to their popularity and record sales in Detroit, but Robin was also instrumental in helping them get their final single and their one and only album to market in early 1970.
He's attended several broadcaster's reunions
in Detroit but Seymour has been retired from the industry for many
years and now reportedly lives in the Los Angeles area.
John Sinclair's partner and wife, Leni was born Magdalene Arndt on March 8, 1940, in Koenigsberg, Germany. Her interest in jazz music and culture brought her to the United States in 1959; she settled with relatives in Detroit and put herself through college at Wayne Sate University (major in geography), where she met her partner John Sinclair while both were students there. She co-founded the Detroit Artist's Workshop in 1964 and was a major moving force in the organization, doing all the printing on the Workshop Book series, co-producing concerts and other events, organizing showings of photographic work by herself and other Detroit camera artists, and serving as president of the campus counterpart Wayne State University Artists' Society.
She also co- founded Trans-Love Energies and organized the Trans-Love Light Company, the Pisces Eyes Poster Company, and handled all the photography work for the MC-5. She photographed and co-produced the high intensity Kick Out the Jams film, featuring the MC-5, which was selected for a national four of films from Ann Arbor Film Festival in 1970.
An organizer of and principal driving force behind the Free John Sinclair movement and the John Sinclair Freedom Rally, she served as chief photographer for RMM's Productions and Management divisions as well as coordinating the company's Rainbow Video division. She was darkroom manager and layout artist for Rainbow Productions until September 1975, when she became production manager for the Detroit Sun newspaper, acting also as photo editor and chief photographer. When the paper suspended publication in October 1976, she returned to Rainbow productions, Inc. where she served as Director of Agency Services including design, lay-out, printing, typesetting, photography, silk-screening, publicity, promotion, and advertising.
John and Leni Sinclair were married
June 12, 1965. Their union produced two daughters, Marion Sunny Sinclair,
born May 4, 1967, and Celia Sanchez Mao Sinclair, born January 17, 1970.
Sinclair was one of the co-founders of the Detroit Artists Workshop in 1964, a social collective which sought to provide music, poetry and avant arts for an emerging "hip" community in Detroit. John's organizing on behalf of the Workshop and support of social causes became a major component of the Detroit underground scene of the mid-60s. From these endeavors, he met and began to work with the MC5.
After repeated run-in's with police in Detroit, he relocated to Ann Arbor with the Trans Love Energies collective formed--almost literally--from the ashes of the Artists Workshop. While Ann Arbor was more tranquil, the confrontations with law enforcement continued and John's already leftist political bent became increasingly radical, culminating in the formation of the White Panther Party (later, Rainbow People's Party) for which he was Minister of Information.
Sinclair had already produced the MC5's historic early recordings of "Borderline" and "Looking At You" (released on Jeep Holland's A-Square label) and he promoted the Five ceaselessly, finally getting them signed to Elektra Records for the "Kick Out The Jams" LP in 1968. At this point the Five were a central element in the politics of the White Panthers--check John's liner notes to the LP and the Party Statement here. John was also influential in launching the career of Up, an equally energetic and politically-charged rock band, who also resided at Trans Love for a while.
Although the story is well known,
John's radical politics remained a magnet for police and he ended up in
Michigan State 
Prison
for an offense that would have brought no more than a stern warning to
almost anybody else--10 years for possession of a couple joints. After
incarceration, his imprisonment became a cause celebré in the music
community (not just locally but worldwide) and several legendary "Free
John" political organizing/fund-raising events followed, including one
at Crisler Arena which featured John Lennon and Yoko Ono. The scope of
these rallies was impossible to ignore and had a huge impact on mandating
his release. Following that, with the MC5 unfortunately disintegrating
internally and something of a political backlash toward the radical movement
at hand, John remained active and true to his causes but kept a lower profile,
primarily as a promoter and racontour. 
Sinclair
made several more dramatic statements in the music community with his promotion
of the legendary Ann
Arbor Blues & Jazz Festivals and, later, by opening the short-lived
"Rainbow Room" nightclub at the old Fort Shelby Hotel in Detroit.
To say that the MC5 cemented John Sinclair's place in Michigan rock history would be to severely understate his many contributions. His story is a remarkable and complex odyssey and one hopes he will someday write an autobiography that nails it all down. To this day, he remains prolific as a writer covering musical subjects, hosts a radio show in his adopted home of New Orleans and has released a couple CD's with his own band John Sinclair and His Blues Scholars. He has also been a driving force behind Total Energy Records, releasing materials from the MC5, The Rationals, Up and, based on the name, hopefully other Detroit area acts in the future.
For the best introduction to John and a wealth of historical perspective on the Detroit/Ann Arbor music and social scene of this era, nothing else comes close to chronicling the period as well as his own work; "Guitar Army", now back in print and available from a variety of sources. Also worth reading are John's liner notes to the various MC5 compilation CD's such as "Power Trip"".
John also has a biographical page at his Big Chief Productions web site that provides some up-to-date information on his current activities.
Mail contributions to:s.m.geer@worldnet.att.net
Dixon
was the host of "Dave Dixon's Radiomagazine," an arts and entertainment
program heard on WXYT every Saturday from 9pm to midnight, for the last
three years. Referring to himself as the "Culture Czar," Dave's acerbic
wit and sharp critiques were part of what brought him to cult status with
his listening audience and among entertainers and writers in the metro
Detroit area.