BACK TO COMM
Producer BOB EZRIN and vocalist BRAD BROOKS on the now-posthumous MC5 album Heavy Lifting
Heavy friends: (l–r) Don Was, Wayne Kramer, Bob Ezrin, Abe Laboriel Jr and Brad Brooks
THE MC5 have been touring intermittently since Wayne Kramer revived the band in 2003, but the release this month of Heavy Lifting is the first new album to bear the band’s name since 1971’s High Time.
The project came about when Kramer invited producer Bob Ezrin to work on songs written by Kramer with Oakland songwriter Brad Brooks for a proposed heist movie. But Ezrin had other ideas. “After listening to the music, I could hear the spirit of MC5,” says Ezrin. “It’s revolutionary but it’s danceable. Wayne was reluctant. Could he be MC5?