MC5 DNC Chicago 1968

[americandiscocrash]

who'd you have to sleep with to get this nugget?

[robrlang]

phil ochs also showed up, probably why john lennon was such a fan of phil

[MrKirkenstein]

back then a lot of people talked the talk.....

these guys walked the walk.

SDS/Weathermen forever ..

[dbell10]

@MrKirkenstein glad i'm not the only one still out there

[MrKirkenstein]

@dbell10

yep.

;-)

[jazzynet1]

Man we were listening to the James Gang in Cleveland at the time. But we knew about MC5, Fuck they were just up the coast :)

[rsohlich1]

@jazzynet1 hell yea I'm from Ann Arbor area and I have an older friend who grew up and hung with a few guys from MC5 and Iggy,

[laughingtiger123]

I won't be answering any calls to your house...

[esslar1]

No protests like this now because middle class kids aren't being drafted and sent off to Afghanistan.

[butterp7]

Wow..old Grant Park was the BOMB!!

[old614]

Radical music - love the MC5 - the USA needed a hit of anarchy back in the 1960s - but we got over it - and today - what do youu want - everything for nothing? Keep dreaming and go to Athens or Vancouver. HAHA HAHA!

[TheBabyboomkidof53]

I cant understand why kids today dont rebell agianst the politiclly conservetive times we have lived in since the 1980s. they dont care as long as they have an iphone and xbox.I hope someone smashes their iphone and xbox.maybe then they'll pour out into the streets and drive conservetism back down to the low estate it came from.

[wizdumb420]

@TheBabyboomkidof53 fluoride...

[the13er]

The mos influential band in the world in1968. Whole bunch of british rockers went to see them and back in homeland formed Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Motörhead etc, etc.

[puffedwheat]

FUCK THE PIGS

[c8udyp]

And there's the soon-to-be completed (1970) Hancock Tower in the background. Wild!

[MyMoppet52]

I am still amazed. Look at how violent and subversive this crowd is! They needed to get the crap beat out of them by the goons! We needed Woodie Guthrie for sure. This was a travesty of the American system. I can't get my kids to understand how divided the USA was back then. I saw someone on a political show talking about 'this is the most divided that America has ever been." and I'm thinking...have they heard about the Civil War? Did they live during Nixon's terms???

[mecormany]

@MyMoppet52 I know, it's very polarized now but I was in Chicago the entire summer of '68. 17 and hating pigs who hated my guts. I remember the day the National Guard showed up, they came in trucks in a row that must have been 5 miles long. Cops waved them through about 15 red lights, turning from Division south onto Milwaukee. Felt like being invaded, we WERE invaded. Cops were bigger thugs than the crooks back then. Unless you went down in the day u couldn't get near the Loop that night.MC5!

[MyMoppet52]

@mecormany Thank you. I was 16 the year of the convention. I still remember Walter Cronkite crying on the national news and "the whole world's watching, the whole world's watching!" They didn't care. I can't get my kids or even other adults to understand how bad it was back then. I am glad you remember! It is NOT as bad now...just different. Today is nothing like the Nixon years. BTW my comment was ironic at the beginning. What I said was NOT what I meant...peaceful kids watching music. My best

[428SCJ]

My MISTAKE Everyone. The MC5 Walked the Walk ALWAYS! My screw up in My earlier post here. I wish this had sound. Great footage anyway!

[428SCJ]

The younger generation would never have the balls today to do anything like this. They would do whatever the Cops told them to do. They would be too busy texting with one hand and their thumb of their other hand up their ass. I agree God bless the MC5. I wish more Bands would have been like. They talked,but did not walk the walk.

[Hister333]

@dlaz0109 Probably for the same reason Huey Long was elected so many times, and Marion Barry. There's no accounting for taste...

[Hister333]

@dlaz0109 So you support your daddy, and the criminal prosecution of Lenny Bruce, and the abuse of the MC5, and Dan Rather. You must be proud of yourself interfering with free speech wherever it exists. God Bless America.

[badgerjohn31]

What is the original source of this video? I'd like to find a copy.

[bluv6]

I believe this film was shot without sound. The DOD wanted to record faces, not rock and roll. Of course the DOD didn't need to worry about 'taking care of' these 'radical' kids (ohhh, peace, what a radical idea!), since Mayor Daley's jackbooted thug cops would do a fine job of beating the crap out of them (and anyone else standing nearby) just a few hours later.

[corndogio1]

Man wish there was audio here. I remember reading once how Wayne Kramer said he liked how the sound of the police helicopters blended in nicely w/ the guitars during "Black To Comm".

[jimmypagefan111]

This video looks awesome no sound don't you know how to put a video toghter

[kieser78]

this is a cruel tease...

[jallendubya]

Its cool seeing the difference in sky line from then to now.

[suzesrc]

no sound you are kidding me!

[musikfanat]

Thanks for posting this...

[musikfanat]

I WAS THERE!!!

[tomlynch42]

How do you like your freedom, Mr & Mrs America. Don't answer that phone that keeps a ringing!

[TheoBurke]

Goddamnit all, Chicago cops all over the place and the MC5 were the only band to show up for this dangerous gig. That's punk!

[1966WAX]

@austingunsmoke

This guys got to be from Austin like me......

[austingunsmoke]

@1966WAX Hey Bro,wasabi?...yesiree,Austin now via San Francisco..this page seems to get visited by mostly cool folk 'cept flagwaver1969 types..on 68 the thing is that the feds got so scared they were gonna lose their power grip so they clamped down x-tra hard.. the end for revolution..it might have took 10 more yrs or so if people had kept protesting but now with the added tools of techno. it's 5x as hard to fight back.There R a lot of freedom fighters still exposing the fraud.Fight the Power.

[bboldt2]

Flagwaver'69 says trash, communist ideologies, welfare fraud, pot smoke, acid trips and emotional instability as if these are bad things. and remember, with veneral disease and brain damage, getting there is half the fun! Or in the words of our now sainted leader, "I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me." -HST (no, not Harry S. Truman)

[ZSOSER69]

@bboldt2 You said it, remember Reality is for those afraid to face drugs. RIP Hunter S.

[flagwaver1969]

Trash, communist ideologues, welfare fraud, pot smoke, acid trips, venereal diseases, brain damage, emotional instability, and it all accumulated to your demise. What an accomplishment.

[chowbok]

@flagwaver1969 The music was good though.

[austingunsmoke]

@flagwaver1969 what???it's exactly the same now!Worse!due to mass blindness slavery to big brother.Over-Diversified,impot­ent masses of people hypnotized by media.doh!Trash,Fear mongering Govt.,Crack,oil wars,techno propaganda,rigged elections,greedy Haliburton/Cheney-Bush's that screw the whole world in their greed.Repubs./Demos who cares,they both get nowhere.We gotta wake up individually,educate,stop letting the same old wheel turn over & over screwing us.

[ZSOSER69]

@austingunsmoke You said it brother. I was at the 68 convention, but unfortunatly I got there the day after the MC5 played. I was a day late because the cops blocked all the easy exits to get to Lincoln and Grant park. I drove a lot of miles around Chicago and had to pull over and sleep at a gas station, and then listen to the radio to get to where all the action was. I watched a lot of people get the hell beat out of them by the people paid to protect us. Thank god for the MC5.

[flagwaver1969]

@austingunsmoke

Trotsky ideologues aren't the answer. Anarchism isn't the answer. More government control certainly isn't the answer. Yet all of the old hippies who whined about freedom in the 60's voted for Obama or joined the ISO. There's a grave inconsistancy there.

[upinhere7]

@flagwaver1969 Absolutely right! I grew up in Kent, Ohio in the late 60s and from what I can see all the "revolutionaries" of that day are Obama-Pelosi supporters. And we all know how those people shut down any and all dissent. Hypocrites.

[gplito]

@flagwaver1969 And all you got was sarah palin...ha!

[flagwaver1969]

@gplito

I don't vote Republican. Nice try though.

[sleepwalker3125]

Nixon launched Operation Intercept in 1969 to keep imported marijuana out of the U.S. At that time most of the quality cannabis came from over the Mexican border or otherwise from outside the country. It DID severely cut down the pot supply for a while. But the side effect was a sudden boom in heroin use among people who'd only done pot or the psychedelics prior to this time. Huge boom in heroin. That would be around the time various MC5 people started screwing with it.

[teden20]

The MC5, from Lincoln Park, Michigan were the ONLY band to show up and play for the convention. All other bands were too frightened. It was a huge uncontrollable zoo. But, that was what the MC5 were used to. No big deal.

[TrickInsult]

The only band with balls enough to show up. God bless them.

These sheep nowadays can only dream.

Fuck the Police.

[musikfanat]

@TrickInsult That's right! MC5 were real rebels! I was hanging with them that morning and Fred Smith showed me "bops" the original fist bumping that he got from the black brothers in Detroit!

[thejuryissleepless]

@TrickInsult RATM

[blzebra66]

@TrickInsult you got that right, Tricky...the pigs wouldn't allow a stage so Hoffman tried to drive in with another YIP a flatbed truck for the band. Nope. John Sinclair...the real deal.

[dullsvillain]

look at all the people waiting to be bloodied by Daley's pigs!

[eiwaz]

My then nine year old self was there three days later in front of the Lincoln Park bandstand. It was rumored that Peter, Paul, and Mary would be performing and maybe some other big name bands. Unfortunately, the only performance I remember seeing was the pigs swooping in on us.

I was there with my older sister and her husband, a fairly prominent underground comic artist. I had asthma and my sis spirited me out as soon as we saw the pigs form up.

I watched the brutality through a haze of gas.

[betterthanyou2007]

Kick out the strawberry jams, mothertruckers! LOL

[patman5961]

Great footage!

[barnacleboymtk]

Damn commie pinko rock a rollas!! Kick IT!!

[VDGG94ki]

Didn't the Doors play at this gig too?

[hotprofdude]

Yep...sure.

[Beyer160]

Nope, the 5 were the only band that played that day.

[punkace]

I remember reading somewhere that they showed up and were like "where's everybody else... oh shit!"

[doorsbassplayer]

The Doors played in Chicago in May and November of that year.

[gplito]

@VDGG94ki No....

[CharlesKeating]

Too bad some of these POS's grew up to be AIG executives.

[scs3000]

Back when people gave a shit and got out there to show it.

[5winston]

DOD footage of the MC5?? MOTHERFUCKER, that is soooo cool. Somebody out there whos good at editing find the right audio and get to work!!

[xbpzqrz]

power to the people

[ferdzone]

this performance is what legends are made of.  True American Heroes!

[dexamyl]

UAW/MF !!

It's time to start a contemporary version of the White Panther Party !

[webkinzrocks2104]

Great footage...MC5 still rock like no others..

[armthehomelessBW]

no sound

[4211959]

I see the John Hancock building. I thought it was not completely built until 69.

[RedWings1835]

If you look close at like 1:39 it looks like there are still cranes on the top of the building. It looks like theyre finishing the final couple of stories.

[gplito]

@RedWings1835 yea they were, I was 20 and had a job at the site....way up on top spraying rock wool insulation. So I was both a union hard hat and a hippie....so what? I still got beat up by the cops. Didn't matter, that fucking rat Nixon got in anyway, but we tried.These idiots today just fucking do nothing, they fucking re elected Bush twice! Fucking idiots...oh, the MC5 were fantastic,hard fucking core, god damn we were a great generation.

[TheWho1231]

@gplito at least until u grew up then u abandoned it all and became carbon copies of ur parents. P.S not u exactly just the generation at whole.

[gplito]

@TheWho1231 maybe so, maybe not we invented a lot of stuff,we wrote the Whole Earth Cat., made the best fucking music, invented the "fest", and through protest changed the course of history,at least for a while. But in the end the majority did sell out, gotta eat right?, like every other generation in the past. It just took us a little longer.But lots of us didn't abandon it all and are still very active protesting the idiocy and trying to get America to take alternative energy seriously.

[OscarBullFrog]

wehere is the audio for this clip? good pics; no sound.

[PoserExposer]

Nobody else played that day,the riot squad put a end to the set.I dont know about that asshole Neil Young,but fellow Detroit white panther band The Up were also supposed to play

[DillonJersey]

Phil Ochs played, too.

[BobTheRecordGuy]

Phil Ochs got gassed in Chicago. he played somehwere... I think.. maybe in the street. Don't think he played at this concert though. A hell of a guy, he was. Ochs & the MC5 were for real, Jimbo and the Doors were posers.

[rottfeast]

Neil Young showed up but never got the chance to go on stage becuase the MC5 played for over 8 hours.

[hotprofdude]

1:39...does anyone know if that's the Sears tower in the top right hand section of the picture?

[Deutsch1975]

It's the John Hancock building. The Sears Tower wasn't built until a few years later.

[Slig77]

The MC5 were so badass that the U.S government considered them a threat and made this movie. What current bands scare the establishment like that? If that isn't punk rock then I don't know what is.

[mindgame554]

rage agaisnt the machine (who cover kick out the jams)

[BobTheRecordGuy]

RATM are total communist losers. The MC5 had all kind of confusion about political philosophies, though they were roughly part of the radical edge of the counterculture (though more libertarian than many believe, and not as radical as their handlers). But RATM are just pure anti-American doctrinaire facists-of the-left. They WOULD turn in people to the new Obama whitehouse snitching site, and they support any third-rate third world tyrant if he's anti-American.

[monkeywithsoda]

actually RATM are anarchists. They dont believe in states and you are an idiot.

[BobTheRecordGuy]

hahaha. bet you're wearing a Che Guevara t-shirt, aren't you?

[zosothedestroyer]

Tom morello is a hardcore marxist dude. Don't know where you get your info at

[MattDylan420]

STFU you dont know anything about RATM or The MC5. Keep your opinion to yourself, im sure there is alot of RATM fans that check out the mc5. Keep your ill minded comments to yourself your stupid fuck

[rocknrolla81]

man where did this come from? Is this from the kick out the jams dvd? I wish there was some good concert of the five on dvd because the kick out the jams dvd is just footage with a soundtrack.

[PRETALIATION]

It came from the PIG U.S. GOVERNMENT who were doing their best to smash youth culture and true revolution - of the self.

Hell - I'll bet the MC5's heroin dealers were on a CIA payroll.

No better way to ease them outta the spotlight then assisting them in self destruction via smack.

[gorblimey61]

Was the whole band hooked on junk?

[PRETALIATION]

Everyone but the singer Rob Tyner eventually had a bad heroin habit.

LONG LIVE THE MC5

[gorblimey61]

I had read that Michael Davis got booted from the band because of his habit, but it seems ironic if the other guys were into H themselves.

[PRETALIATION]

I think Mr. Davis drug problems contributed to his loss of interest in the band - I think that's why he was asked to leave.

Rock N Roll Forever

[1966tempest]

anyone else play that day?

[hotprofdude]

Not sure, but the MC5 were one a very few bands that had the balls to play...a lot of ignorant Americans have no idea what this band went through just to play at the DNC...Neil Young was supposed to play, but he wussed out.

[punkace]

From what I understand they were the only ones that showed up. Idk about Phil Ochs or whatever- but according to "Please Kill Me" they were the only ones performing there.

[RamonePinhead]

Wow! Very very cool to actually see some footage from this legendary show.

Thank you very much!

[juanburnproper]

working on it

[pauliem]

Cool stuff. Man, wouldn't it be great to have footage of the entire concert?  and with sound?