R.I.P. Michael Davis (5 June 1943 - 17 February 2012)

By the time this poor world understands clearly who was who and with who as individuals must deal with, this doomed planet will probably walk his last steps. For days all media jerks ‘round the globe making tributes to Whitney Houston and really makes no wonder to me that legendary MC5’s bassist Michael Davis departure left inconsiderate the majority of our fellowmen… And it’s totally understandable cause from the time IQ tests discovered; the results make happy every dark government around the earth. And I’m not expecting WTS visitors to know who M. Davis was, today and from a sad post. I haven’t replied yet even to my partner’s JP late night email for the sad news. If I had to pick from the two Detroit monsters I’m totally for the MC5. “Kick out the Jams” was for sure in the first ten records I bought. What the MC5 had that Stooges hadn’t was the radical political act and musically speaking, that they got SOUL! Iggy’s comrades had a minimal, almost industrial sound. The 5 proved that rock & roll was not only music to dance by. They wore proudly their black influences, they declared war (and of course have lost…) against everything unethical. I tried some years ago to interview Michael Davis for our fanzine. His wife was manager of the Lords of Altamont and after this, attempted to sneak and speak to him. I didn’t succeed. If my memory serves me well, his wife politely tried to tell me that he wasn’t cool for interviews. At least I tried… No hard feelings for this of course. My faith on the remaining bunch of “5” staggered for a while with the re-union touring (I haven’t regret to this day that I didn’t go see them when they came to Greece) and the Levi’s commercial… This wasn’t for the MC5 and I still believe if Rob Tyner was alive would have killed them. And probably he would be right. In addition we’re talking about the “dope, guns & fucking in the streets” band here, not Aerosmith. He was also jailed in the 70s for narcotics just like Brother Wayne Kramer and to me except for the Destroy All Monsters project with Ron Asheton, all his other activities are just information. Hopefully during the next days along with Jean Philippe, we‘re gonna drive back to MC5, grub into our vaults with the hope to rediscover and offer you something peculiar. Our sincere sympathizing to Michael’s wife and kids.