Detroit Rock City

by Steve Miller

  Scott Morgan (Rationals, Sonic’s Rendezvous Band, guitarist, vocalist): Fred and I had been hanging out with Gary, establishing a relationship. Then he did that Bad Axe gig, and it was really good. The handwriting was on the wall, and we took Gary. Ron will tell you something different.

  Ron Cooke: Bad Axe. Yeah, I wasn’t in the band then. I had quit. I’ve tried to set this story straight a number of times because this always comes up. After I fucking had done all I had done in my career and I had played with some fucking drummers outside of Johnny Badanjek. I’m in the rhythm section, pal. I got impeccable fucking meter. So my musical mind at that time was, “Am I wasting my fucking time here?” Playing is hanging, and fucking playing, talking to each other musically, man. What do you think jazz cats do, man? They just have a bigger vocabulary, man. I probably said more words to you right there than I ever said to Scotty Asheton in my lifetime, man. God bless him! I’m glad that they got out there and they did their thing. That’s fucking fine. The story of that, and I’ve set it straight that way a number of times. That’s the deal. I did not leave that band because of Asheton. That is not the case at all. They were not trying. Hey, I’m from a working band, man.

  Gary Rasmussen: We made very little money, ever. There were a lot of gigs we did where there was hardly anybody there. The people who were there hated us and said we were way too loud. I used to have to drive to pick up Fred in Detroit for practice because he had his license taken away for a while. He had been drinking all night, and it was like eight o’clock in the morning, and he just plowed into the side of a cop car. Lost his license for a while. Scott Asheton had these weird day jobs. A friend of his did tree work, so he was cutting trees; I had a friend who was doing landscaping, and he would hire me and my friends to come and do awful landscaping work. And he worked at a place called the frog farm for quite a while. It’s a University of Michigan frog farm; actually they grow frogs from tadpoles to frogs for experiments—they send them to schools to be dissected. Then he worked at the tofu place in Ann Arbor for a little while.

  Harold Richardson (Gravitar, Easy Action, Negative Approach, guitarist): Scott Asheton drove a cab in Ann Arbor the same time I did, and he was a disaster. He would take the cab back to his mom’s and just sit. They fired him.

  David Keeps: Scott Asheton was the person out of that whole thing that intimidated me the most because he looked most like the person who would step off a motorcycle and snap your neck like a pencil. So I gave him a wide berth.

  Robert Matheu: The only time I ever got any kind of STD was from Scott Asheton’s girlfriend of the time. She was sixteen, and I got crabs from her.

  Scott Morgan: I was living with my parents at the time. Scott was living with his mom. Those guys would live any place they could. Fred stayed at my parent’s house. Fred and Freddie Brooks, who was managing us, stayed at Gary’s apartment. We were lucky to get Scott a set of drums. We went down to the local music store, and he picked out a set of Ludwigs, and we put them on a payment plan, and his mom signed for it. I don’t know if he ever paid that back.

  Gary Rasmussen: Freddie Brooks was managing us, and he was getting some of the gigs. Sometimes I think he took all of the money. For a while Freddie was living in my apartment hallway. The stairs came up and then this little hallway, and my door, and window—he kind of set himself up there outside the door. He would live there and get up in the morning when we’d get up and come in and use my phone to try to get work. There was a little competition between Fred and Scott Morgan, so it was a good thing for the band, because Fred would show up and go, “I’ve got two new songs,” and Scott would go, “I got three new songs,” and Fred would go, “Well, I’ve got another one too.”

  Scott Morgan: We both had songs. I would write something, and Fred would write something.

  Chris Panackia: Sonic’s Rendezvous Band was really not an Ann Arbor band, but they would play there all the time. They were the kind of band you really had to like to go see. They were just fucking boring. But you got past that because of who was in the band. You would not want to look at that band when they played. They looked like a bunch of fuckin’ drunk hillbillies, God bless ’em. Fred’s a great player, and Scott Asheton is a fucking great drummer. Never hit his rap tom or floor tom. He was always fixing his hi-hat and right cymbal crash. You look at his toms, and they never had dents, they were never dirty. Because he never hit them.

  Gary Rasmussen: We had label interest, but Fred was bitter about being ripped off by the record labels. He made money, because at some point he had a Corvette and a motorcycle and a bunch of guitars and stuff. I think he lost it all. He didn’t have shit.

  Robert Matheu: Fred had already done that with MC5 and didn’t want to play the game. I can say that this is why Fred didn’t want a record deal. He already had a shot at a record deal and didn’t want to fail again. He wanted to stay where Sonic’s Rendezvous Band was and say we have a nice little thing here and it doesn’t have to be big.

  Gary Rasmussen: When somebody would come from a label, he’d be rude to them on purpose. He thought, “We’re going to do this, but not now.” Which was Fred’s thing for years. He’d ask me, “We’re gonna do this, what do you think?” I’d tell him, “I think this is gonna be good; I think we should do it. When do you want to do it?” “Well, not this week, but I’ll call you next week,” and that went on for years. It makes you nuts.

  Scott Morgan: Fred met Patti when she came to Detroit on her first tour. We all decided to go see her play, and she was doing a meet and greet at the Lafayette Coney Island downtown. You could see the sparks fly. It turned out really well; they had a good life.

  Robert Matheu: I was talking to Lenny Kaye that night at Lafayette, and I lost his attention because Patti walked over, and Lenny was saying something like, “Hey Patti. Fred Smith’s here. Remember I was telling you about him? He’s one of the guitar players from the MC5.” It’s not like she didn’t remember. It always stuck with me that he was telling her who Fred Smith was. Because I thought, “Geez, everyone should know who he is.” I thought later, “Do you think that there was a period of time, like after Patti retired in the eighties, that maybe Lenny just looked back for a second and kinda regretted introducing Patti to Fred?” You know, because they got married, and he was out of a gig and there was no more Patti Smith Group.

  Gary Rasmussen: Patti and Fred were involved while he was still married. She really loved Fred. It was awkward sometimes too, because we’d be playing someplace, just a club, and then Patti would show up, and then here’s the crowd watching us, and then all of a sudden the crowd is watching her watching us. She was making money. They were connected; they were on the phone together all the time. We played together, and sometimes we’d have rooms, and she’d be somewhere better. The gigs with her were way good gigs for us, at Masonic Temple, the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, she was on that level. And we were in the sleazehole clubs, doing whatever we had to do. Not long after that, Iggy approached us for his European tour. It was his last thing for RCA records. We went three weeks early to rehearse. They were great gigs, like three months’ worth, three or four a week. I was three months behind in my rent when we went over there, but I was sending money home.

  Scott Morgan: We had recorded “City Slang” and “Electrophonic Tonic,” then Fred and Gary and Scott went to Europe with Iggy. Fred told me Iggy wanted them to go to Europe, and I told him that was fine; we’d put the single out when they got back. Iggy didn’t ask me to go. Then the tour ended after three months, and Iggy wanted to keep the band for the US leg, but they had already decided they were coming back. They didn’t just want to be Iggy’s band; they wanted to be the Sonic Rendezvous Band. I don’t know what happened on that tour though, because when they came back, Fred and I had a falling out. They started giving me a hard time because I had been in the studio messing around, doing other stuff, and they were upset about it. So I said, “Well, I don’t want my song on the record”—“Electrophonic Tonic.” That was
the stupidest thing I could have said. It ended up a mono mix of “City Slang” on the other side.

  Bob Mulrooney: We used to call Sonic’s Rendezvous Band “Sominex Rendezvous.” They would play for so long, and they had “City Slang,” which was phenomenal, but they had ten other songs that were just like “City Slang.” They kept giving Scott Morgan, who kind of turned out to be a not-so-great performer, a smaller and smaller role. Freddie Brooks said he was their manager, and he thought Fred Smith was God.

  Gary Rasmussen: At some point Scott Morgan was kind of on the outs; he was not really involved in it anymore. Fred got so involved with Patti that we weren’t playing and we weren’t rehearsing and we weren’t doing anything, although we talked about it a lot, and we went from actively doing things to talking about things, and then it got to be where Scott wasn’t really involved at all anymore. Scott Morgan was a little miffed, I think, when we went to Europe to play with Iggy; Patti and Fred were living in the Book Cadillac Hotel before it was renovated. They had a mattress, basically, living this Bohemian lifestyle. Me and Scott Asheton would go to Detroit, and we’d go to the studio and not do that much, just sort of play some, and we’d end up going to the bar, and getting way wasted. I was stopped a couple of times, and the cops would say, “Can you get home?” I could not drink with Scott Asheton or Fred. They’re serious, professional drinkers, and I’d end up trashed.

  Scott Morgan: The band would have meetings in Detroit maybe once a week and just hang out and talk a bit. Then one day Gary called me and said, “You’re not in the band anymore.” I’m not sure why Fred didn’t call me. I can’t ask Fred.

  Mark Farner, 1969 Grand Funk Railroad publicity photo. Farner: “I always wanted to create this atmosphere where the only thing going was the music. That’s why it was important to play really loud. I don’t want people talking while we’re playing.” (From the collection of Jack Bodner)

  MC5, 1969, Michael Davis, Wayne Kramer, Rob Tyner, Dennis Thompson, Fred “Sonic” Smith. Dennis Thompson: “We grew up with the same working class ethic, the same outlook and attitude towards music. It needed to have passion. It needed to have an emotional message. I think these were things that we understood well before our age.” (Lee Short, from the collection of UHF Music Royal Oak)

  SRC on Tubeworks 1968, Glenn Quackenbush, Scott Richardson, E. G. Clawson, Al Wilmot, Gary Quackenbush. Gary Q: “The cool thing about SRC was that we were always playing good shows for good money. For two years we grossed over a hundred thousand dollars a year. So that would be worth a quarter mill now or more? And we didn’t put it up our nose.” (Robert Matheu)

  Rob Tyner with Davison Township Police Chief Ed Boyce, MC5 show at Sherwood Forest, October 1969. John Sinclair: “Tyner was a guy who went way beyond music. Music was his basis, but I mean he had a huge mind. We were a great pair, just flying mentally in the same orbit.” (From the collection of Peter Cavanaugh)

  The Frost playing the Grande Ballroom. Bobby Rigg, Donny Hartman, Gordy Garris, Dick Wagner. Bobby Rigg: “We recorded our second album there. It was 96 degrees outside. There was no ventilation in the Grande Ballroom. The roadies were pouring water over me.” (Photo courtesy collection of Dick Wagner)

  Brownsville Station. Tony Driggins, Michael Lutz, T. J. Cronley, Cub Koda. Lutz: “We had a van for the equipment and we bought a limousine from the old Cadillac Hotel down in Detroit. The limo was great for traveling in because it rode great. The four of us would ride in that and then our two road crew would be traveling in the van.” (Lee Short, from the collection of UHF Music Royal Oak)

  Goose Lake, Detroit’s Woodstock, August 7–9, 1970. Freak flags flying high. Michigan Governor William Milliken: “I do not oppose rock festivals, but I do oppose and will fight drug abuse such as took place at Goose Lake.” (Lee Short, from the collection of UHF Music Royal Oak)

  Ted Nugent leading the Amboy Dukes at the Eastown in 1971. Nugent: “Tune in drop out, but I got news for ya, if what you’re doing is causing you to drop out, you’re not tuning in.” (Robert Matheu)

  Alice Cooper carries old school Michelob bottle and Glen Buxton carries bottle and SG to stage, Cobo Arena, 1972. Alice: “We were driving along to rehearsal one day and CKLW’s pick hit was ‘I’m Eighteen’ and we stopped the car, and just sat there and listened to it and went ‘Well even if that’s the only play we ever get, we heard it on CKLW and a lot of people heard it.’” (Robert Matheu)

  Detroit with Mitch Ryder. Left to right, Steve Hunter, Johnny Bee, Mitch Ryder, Ron Cooke, Brett Tuggle. Shot at local Channel 62 in April 1972. Mitch: “To start the band Detroit, I think somebody just fucking opened the prison doors.” (Leni Sinclair)

  Suzi Quatro center stage at Olympia, opening for Alice Cooper in 1975. Suzi: “We used to practice at the Alice Cooper farm when the neighbors got pissed off around our place.” (Lee Short, from the collection of UHF Music Royal Oak)

  Sonic’s Rendezvous Band, Fred Smith, Gary Rasmussen, Scott Asheton, Scott Morgan, in 1977 at Morgan’s Ann Arbor house. Morgan: “One single in six years of playing together. We weren’t making any money, our touring was sporadic.” (Robert Matheu)

  Ron Asheton and Niagara on the floor of Bookie’s, 1977. Niagara: “I love his solos because they’re like a story, they start out and they have a middle and an end.” (Robert Matheu)

  Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band at the Pontiac Silverdome. Drew Abbott, guitar; Chris Campbell, bass; Bob Seger, piano; Robyn Robbins, organ; Charlie Martin, drums. Drew Abbott: “We were guaranteed a bunch of money, over $100 grand. A lot of money back then, pocket change today.” (Tom Weschler)

  Don Was, leading the Traitors, Bookie’s, 1978. Was: “The punk stuff out of Bookie’s was mostly influenced by New York.” (Robert Matheu)

  The Romantics at Bookie’s, 1979. Mike Skill: “We’re playing all these clubs everywhere and there’s an energy right in front of the crowd. The crowd’s right there and you’re playing off the crowd, real close.” (Robert Matheu)

  Cobo Arena, from the stage outward. Robert Matheu: “Until ’77/’78 there was no such thing as a photo pass. Detroit crowds were notorious for rushing the stage within the first three or four songs, so it was about position and hoping to get a good spot while you remained salve to the crowd.” (Robert Matheu)

  Bookie’s, a former burlesque/gay bar turned into the city’s punk rock joint in 1978. Scott Campbell: “They had these different managers running Bookie’s. They would play Donna Summer while we were trying to set up for the night. I would get there early with my PA and they would bitch at us.” (Courtesy of Scott Campbell)

  Mark Norton, singer for the Ramrods, at Concord Castle, an apartment building off downtown Detroit. Gary Reichel, Cinecyde: “I just sat there and shouted and went ‘Oh my God. This stuff is great!’ And it was like brothers-in-arms. I couldn’t believe it. There was someone else who’s doing it.” (Katy Hait)

  Gary Reichel, vocalist for Cinecyde, at the Kramer Theater. The band led off the Detroit wave of late seventies New Wave bands with a DIY single, “Gutless Radio.” Mark Norton, Ramrods: “You can’t talk about seventies punk in Detroit without talking about Cinecyde.” (©2013 S. Kay Young Photography, LLC)

  Iggy singing “Empty Heart” with Sonic’s Rendezvous Band, November 1979, at the New Miami in Detroit after Iggy’s New Values tour show at the Masonic Auditorium. (Robert Matheu)

  Nikki Corvette, leader of Nikki and the Corvettes. Nikki: “I went every place when I was a kid, they all thought, ‘There’s this crazy sixteen-year-old girl who’s at all of these shows.’” (Robert Matheu)

  Crowd, Negative Approach at the Freezer, 1982. Corey Rusk: “The Freezer was like a sort of hippy, poetry slam, sort of place.” (Davo Scheich)

  Corey Rusk, the Necros. Rusk was a driver of the hardcore movement that Detroit predictably did better than anyone else. Touch and Go Records founder Tesco Vee passed the baton to Rusk, who took the label To Indie Valhalla. (Davo Scheich)

  The Laughing Hyenas, Kevin Mo
nroe, John Brannon, Larissa Strickland, at Staches, Columbus, Ohio, 1989. Monroe: “A guy came out to look at this house we were renting in Ann Arbor, he was thinking about buying it. He said the owner told him we were a cult.” (Jay Brown)

  The White Stripes, Jack and Meg White, backstage at the 40 Watt in Athens, Georgia, September 1999, opening for Pavement. The headliners loved the Stripes enough to give them a bonus of $500, which covered the minivan they had to rent for the weekend. (Photo courtesy of Ben Blackwell)

  Human Eye: Bottom, left to right: Brad Hales, Johnny LZR. Top, left to right: Timmy Vulgar, Hurricane William Hafer. (Lindsey Muliolis)

  The Go, John Krautner and Bobby Harlow, at the Beechland Ballroom in Cleveland, second US Tour, 1999. Harlow: “If you take young guys with shaggy hair and tight pants and baby faces and leather jackets and put them in front of teenagers I think that it just kind of works.” (Keith Marlowe)

  Mike E. Clark’s mom bequeathed him $500 on her deathbed so that he could take some classes in audio production. He’s the go-to producer for Insane Clown Posse. Kid Rock is lucky to have him. (Photo courtesy of Mike E. Clark)

  The Dirtbombs ending their set at the Detroit Institute of Arts, October 2006. The show was a party for the film It Came From Detroit, which documented the Detroit music scene in the late nineties. Pat Patano, Mick Collins, Ben Blackwell, Ko Melina. Obscured by Patano, Troy Gregory. (EWolf)

  The Dirtys play the Shelter, 1996. Joe Burdick: “We eventually realized the backlash of all the shows we had played in Detroit and all the shit we had broke. We had destroyed the whole back room of the Magic Stick doing body prints in the dry wall. We had to give up our whole pay that night.” (Amy Cook)

  Bantam Rooster at Zoots. Eric Cook, drums, and Tom Potter, guitar. Potter: “Girls didn’t even have jobs then, except for being secretaries. In our day and age women can have real jobs cause I’ve lived off plenty of them.” (Amy Cook)