Rob Tyner

Rob Tyner
Fred “Sonic” Smith
Rob Tyner and Fred “Sonic” Smith were members of the group “MC5” (Motor City Five). The “MC5” were radical rock-n-roll revolutionaries who took left-wing politics and the whole anti-establishment movement of the late-sixties very seriously. These guys were so radical that they even went after their own record company ! Legend has it that the entire band all had their penis’s casted in plaster by their hard-core groupie sect. In 1969 their debut album “Kick Out the Jams” was released on Electra records. Recorded live on October 30-31st 1968 at Detroit’s “Grand Ballroom”, “Kick Out The Jams” was a searing pre-punk high energy extravaganza. The album’s liner notes were written by John Sinclair, leader of the “White Panther Party”. (Which was later reissued minus the notes along with the deletion of the opening verse “Kick Out The Jams, Mother Fuckers”). After only one album they got the boot from Electra records after they spray-painted the corporate offices. They finally got re-signed and in 1970 released “Back In the USA” which was a monumental flop. The band broke-up shortly thereafter. On September 19th of 1991, Rob Tyner suffered a fatal heart attack at the age of 46. Fred “Sonic” Smith went on to marry Patti Smith and remained active in Detroit’s local music scene. Fred “Sonic Smith” died November 4, 1994 of congestive heart failure after collapsing at home days earlier. He was 45 years old.