If you didn't already know that rock bands never quite go away, one look at this summer's concert calendar would convince you otherwise. Fleetwood Mac is all buffed up and out of rehab; Creedence Clearwater Revisited tours without frontman John Fogerty; and the Doors are somehow back together more than 40 years after the death of their lead singer Jim Morrison.
Some groups are made up totally of original members, some have a few originals, and some, such as Otis Williams' Temptations, have just one original member left (former Tempt Dennis Edwards fronts the rival Temptations Revue).
"I'm one of the original voices and that makes a difference," says Edwards, who sang on the Tempts' "Cloud Nine" and other late '60s hits. "But I'm not knocking (Otis Williams' Temptations) because what we're all doing the same thing, keeping the Temptations alive."
Now some of Detroit's classic '60s rock bands are hitting the road again, most notably Iggy and the Stooges. Iggy Pop got back together with Ron and Scott Asheton, two members of the band that put Iggy on the map in the first place, with anthems like "I Wanna Be Your Dog" that defined punk music.
Metro Detroiters will see many of the reunion bands when they hit town this summer. That includes Dennis Edwards and the Temptations Revue, who perform at DTE Energy Theatre Aug. 13 and Iggy and the Stooges play the Clarkston venue on Aug. 14. Tonight, Otis Williams' Temptations are part of the Detroit Music Festival at Comerica Park.
Last March, the three surviving members of the MC5 -- Wayne Kramer, Dennis Thompson and Michael Davis -- played a show in London just as an acclaimed documentary of the band, "MC5: A True Testimonial," has been circulating on the film festival circuit, playing the Tribeca Festival last spring and now the first Don't Knock the Rock film festival in Los Angeles on Aug. 15.
On Aug. 21, some of the top Detroit bands that played the now-defunct Grande Ballroom on Grand River with the MC5 in the '60s will dust off their chops to awe their fans at the Magic Bag Theatre in Ferndale.
Called "Dream Tunes," the show is presented by "Knights of the Grande" and will feature Gary Quackenbush (and maybe vocalist/guitarist Steve Lyman) of the SRC, Dick Wagner of the Frost, Al Jacquez of Savage Grace, Stoney Mazar and Ira Pack of Jagged Edge and Jem Targel of Third Power.
Of course, bands that get back together after years apart risk disappointing longtime fans. Fleetwood Mac looks eerily embalmed in their promo photos, and if their album received lukewarm notices, the live reviews have been even less kind.
But with the increased spotlight on Detroit music, shouldn't the musicians who influenced them get some reflected glory as well?
Quackenbush thinks so.
"You can't help but focus on Detroit now, with Eminem and Kid Rock doing so well," he says. "It brings a focus back to a city that's always been a great place for music."
T-shirts featuring the MC5's image and logo have popped up on some of the unlikeliest people, such as Justin Timberlake on a recent cover of Vibe, and Jennifer Aniston on an episode of "Friends" earlier this year.
Clearly the cultural zeitgeist is tilting in an odd but Detroitcentric way, and a few veterans are poised for a belated moment in the sun.
The surviving MC5 members played the March gig in London, carefully billing it as a "Celebration of the MC5" rather than a reunion, especially since two key members died in the '90s: lead singer Rob Tyner and guitarist Fred "Sonic" Smith.
"I don't in any way want to promote the idea that this is an MC5 reunion or we're getting the band back together," says Kramer, now based in Los Angeles. "That's so Spinal Tap! That's impossible.
"... When we got together in London, there was a whole new generation of people who'd grown up with these songs and knew them, and sang them line for line. It's being able to expose this music to a whole new generation.
"And it's a chance to remind the world that there was a guy named Rob Tyner who was an artist unlike any other artist, a band singer unlike any other band singer, and that there was an artist like Fred Smith who was a guitar player and a songwriter without parallel in the world. (It's) a chance for us to revive the works that they did and that we all did together as the MC5."
Reportedly Patti Smith, who was widowed when Smith died nine years ago, isn't happy about the surviving band getting back together. But many fans are all for it.
"They have more than earned their dues and if they can cash in, go for it!" says former Detroiter Tim Hurley, an intense MC5 fan who now lives in Holland, Mich. "Even if they do nothing other than play those great songs. When I heard they played 'Sister Anne' in London, I cried. It's a hell of a lot better than most of the crap out now. (Rock writer) Dave Marsh was right when he said he would pick the MC5 on a good night over the Stones, any way. The last time the Stones were dangerous was back in '69."
Detroit rock in the '60s was of course more than just the MC5 and Stooges. Quackenbush, who played lead guitar for the SRC, remembers when the band was on top of the world back in 1967, with their version of "I'm So Glad" beating out the Cream's on Detroit radio.
The group came together when the Fugitives, out of Birmingham Seaholm High School, joined forces with two Ann Arbor players.
At a 1967 gig opening for Sonny and Cher at the Masonic Auditorium, frantic female fans of the SRC managed to climb into a second-story window at Masonic to get at the band.
Peter Gabriel of Genesis was an SRC fan and reportedly wore out his vinyl copies of their three Capitol albums.
"And we never opened for the MC5," Quackenbush points out, proudly. The '66 Birmingham Seaholm graduate now teaches guitar for his bread and butter and is frank about his reasons for reemerging to playing the Aug. 21 gig, his first Detroit concert in 30 years.
"I'm not rolling in dough," the guitarist says. "And I can play twice as well now that I could then."
With the SRC music unavailable on CD, copies of their vinyl albums are going for $20 a pop on eBay. Quackenbush hopes to alleviate the demand soon with CD reissues.
One argument for reforming is that Detroit bands such as the SRC made their bones by touring and playing live, more so than today's groups.
Players such as Kramer and the Grande bands can deliver the goods live, some argue, because in the '60s and '70s there were hundreds of clubs to play, compared to now.
"Bands today don't get to play five sets a night in a bar on Michigan Avenue, learning how to do that job," Kramer says.
"And I think when you spend a huge part of your young life acquiring the skills to do something with some level of competence, something in me says I don't want to stop doing that."
Kramer also sees Eminem as helping shed some welcome light on other Detroit musicians.
"After all, the true heir apparent of the MC5 is of course Eminem," he says. "He built something out of nothing. He didn't see a division between their music and our music or black music and white music. He had the courage of his beliefs, to tell the truth about how he felt about things -- not unlike the MC5. He endured the wrath of parents and authorities -- not unlike the MC5.
"UNLIKE the MC5, he was hugely successful," Kramer adds with a laugh.
With songs such as "Lust for Life" used on cruise-line commercials, Iggy Pop has had more solo success than most of his Detroit generation. Fans say his April reunion with the Stooges at the Coachella Music and Arts Festival in California was inspired.
"I always thought, what was the point of a Stooges reunion? It was Iggy who did all those songs anyway," says Los Angeles-based music writer Bill Holdship. "But it really did make a difference to see them together. I think it fired him up more.
"What really surprised me was (Stooges guitarist) Ron Asheton. I don't really think he gets his due as a guitar player. And Scott Asheton is a really great rock drummer.
As for relevance, "Time has caught up with the Stooges," Holdship says. "What they were doing was the blueprint of punk and everything that's going on in music now."
Kramer certainly feels relevant, with those MC5 T-shirts showing up on "Friends" and on Timberlake.
"I know Rob Tyner is laughing his butt off," Kramer says. "It's so subversive and it's perfect. This is exactly the revolution the MC5 was talking about."
You can reach Susan Whitall at (313) 222-2156 or swhitall@detnews.com.
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