MC5 “Back in the USA” released 50 years ago today, January 15th, 1970. Back in the USA is MC5′s first studio album release, following their live record Kick Out the Jams from 1969. I love the cover: gritty, sweaty 70′s boozed-up dirtballs who looked like they just crawled out of their tour van after 3 weeks with no showers. It was a commercial flop at the time of its release, but in retrospect has been hailed as among the top 500 albums of all-time and helped to usher in punk a bit later in the 70′s.

Back in the USA has two classic rock-n-roll covers: Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti” and the title track, Chuck Berry’s “Back in the USA.” The rest of the album is MC5 stripped-down originals, including a lovely ballad (“Let Me Try”) and hard rocking tracks with insane guitar (“Looking at You”). Always a highly political band, MC5 included plenty of social commentary on late 60′s/early 70′s youth (“High School” “Teenage Lust”) and anti-Vietnam War songs that ‘condemn a system which eats its young, filling their heads with lies before sending them off to war’ (“The American Ruse”) (Allmusic’s Jason Ankeny).