wayne kramer and fred sonic smith

Looking at You sounds to me like the prototype for City Slang. It’s also the ultimate blueprint for how to do hard rocking guitar music. There’s a good chance you’ll spontaneously combust if you listen to this one cranked up high on a set of cans, but the sharp burn you feel as the flames lick up your leg will be such sweet pain. Sonic Smith and Brother Wayne Kramer bring out each other’s incendiary primitivism. This has always been the most attractive aspect of the MC5 for me. The fusion of their primal energy and, in this instance, the way they pack so much all-out devastation into three furious minutes of rock ecstasy, is extremely rare in music.  You start thinking about wanting to hear the song again before it’s even fully faded out. But with so much concentrated voltage unleashed so quickly, I fear some of you may not possess the circuitry required to take in a second helping, at least not right away.  Ready yourself is all I’m sayin’…