10 Classic Bands Who Only Had One Classic Album
3. MC5
The MC5 were by far the most raucous band of the ‘60s Revolution. Coming from the mean streets of Detroit, the band combined everything off-the-wall about the Summer of Love movement and blew it up to gigantic proportions, with songs that sounded like Little Richard being filtered through a city punk.
Given their more chaotic approach to their craft, it made sense that the one album that broke them could only be captured live. From front to back, Kick Out the Jams is one of the greatest hard rock albums ever created, with riffs that sound like they’re about to fall apart but end up leaping through your speakers like rabid dogs. Though the sound was just focused on hard rock, the band found fans in everyone from Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains to Slash from Guns N Roses.
With the world waiting for what would come next, their studio followup Back in the USA ended up being somewhat underwhelming. From the more slick production to the different covers they performed, the record left fans begging to hear the songs live rather than being cleaned up in the studio. The MC5 may have folded shortly thereafter, but Kick Out the Jams is responsible for exposing rock and roll at its garage roots.