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MC5 Given The Keys To Their Home Town

07/17/2015
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(TeamRock Radio) Michigan legends the MC5 were presented with the keys to the city of their hometown, Lincoln Park (a suburb of Detroit) on Sunday, July 12, as part of the celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of the band forming. The event took place at the Kennedy Memorial Park, where the band played some of their first shows as teenagers.

Drummer Dennis Thompson, who still lives in the city, arrived to accept the keys from Mayor Tom Karnes, and later performed the band's most famous rabble-rousing song, Kick Out The Jams, with local band Timmy's Organism, while guitarist Wayne Kramer sent a message from his Californian home.

"There was a time when we weren't so popular with the law enforcement here," Thompson said. "Mostly because we said this word. Now this word was not said in a hateful way. It was said to tell people we were with you, it was rough times, with the Vietnam war people were dying, there was a movement with the feminists trying to gain equal opportunity, there was a movement with black people trying to get equal opportunities, and the country was at one point split 50/50 down the middle about the war� And we took a stand against the war. Because we met a lot of intelligent people that said the same thing: what the hell are we doing here? It was insane. So we got chased by the police, the FBI, state police, county police, distress unit. But today I can say 50 years later much progress has been made. What Kick Out The Jams meant was do your best, find out what you love in life and do it with all that you have� Don't settle for less, don't give up, fight." Read more here.

TeamRock Radio is an official news provider for antiMusic.com.
Copyright TeamRock Radio - Excerpted here with permission.

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