I have mentioned John Sinclair and his book Guitar Army in previous posts.
I was given a copy of the book recently and I started reading it last night. I can tell already it will be a must-read book for anyone interested in both the history of Ann Arbor-Detroit area rock and roll and also the history of the 60s and 70s social revolution in the Ann Arbor-Detroit area.
So far, I love Sinclair’s writing style. It is very Kerouac-like in stream of conscienceness, with long, excited, jazz-like passages. He began the book by describing the music he grew up listening to that influenced the 60s and 70s rock and roll movement: 1950s artists and groups, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Elvis, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, The Moonglows - he made the pages come alive with images of 45s spinning, rebellious teenagers dancing, the music jumping out at me in rhythm, putting the songs in my head. It actually made it hard to sleep afterwords. He described the youth’s consciousness as being off-limits to anyone with supposed authority, and with this birth of this incredible new rock and roll music out there, they had little interest for anything else. It reminds me again of Robert Jr. Whitall, founder of Big City Rythym and Blues magazine, who was himself a John Sinclair follower, telling me about how much they loved the blues and black music in general in those days - and that is what inspired the Ann Arbor-Detroit punk based rock and roll, which is still being emulated by today’s local bands.
Another exciting part of the book is that it comes with a CD of rare recordings of speeches and music by bands and influencial leaders during the time of the movement he was leading. I noticed it has Allen Ginsberg’s “Prayer For John Sinclair” as well as “Free John Sinclair Now” by the band Up!. We actually had a copy of a 45 that had “Prayer” on one side and “Free” on the other on a private label. We came across it a couple years ago and foolishly sold it - for good money - but now of course I wish I had it to display on this site.
Anyway, when I am done reading it I’ll post an official review - I’m just excited about starting it. Justin is anxious to read it after I’m done.
2 comments
Comments feed for this article
July 20th, 2007 at 11:14 am
Katy
Awesome - I’m adding this to my “to read” list right now. Jon Sinclair played a big role in Pun Plamondon’s bio that I just read, so it should be interesting to hear the account of some of the same events from a different view.
July 20th, 2007 at 11:35 am
admin
I’ll have to check out that bio…yeah - the White Panther Party was certainly interesting! They had some good points, but were pretty radical. What was really interesting was reading about the organization from the perspective of a conservative Ann Arbor historian through a book that is used in the Ann Arbor Public School’s 3rd grade curriculum. The author thought that the White Panther Party was a huge threat to the well being of Ann Arbor. As it turns out, Sinclair’s ideas were way too far out there, and this author had a point, but Sinclair was instrumental in decriminalizing marijuana and promoting freedom of expression. I’m still reading the book, and it is quite good. I’ll be interested in reading about Plamondon - thanks for the tip and thanks for stopping by!