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The Neon Boys tracks are from much earlier, back when Tom Verlaine and Hell were still together (along with drummer Billy Ficca) but before Television formed (adding Richard Lloyd on guitar into the mix). The classic early punk track “Love Comes in Spurts” was recorded by the Neon Boys in ‘73 (probably “That’s All I Know (Right Now)” was as well). The tracks are raucous and raw, more garage rock than punk but with a definite snotty attitude. It’s especially interesting to hear the earliest version of “Love Hurts” – the guitar and brightness have a more 60′s psychedelic flavor than the more well-known later version of the song that appears on Blank Generation.

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I’m a bit less clear on the background of their cover of Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze.” It only appears on posthumous Stooges anthologies and the 7″ liner notes simply state that Iggy is on vocals and Williamson plays lead guitar so it’s probably also from the Kill City sessions. It’s super-muddy, fuzzy and raw with Pop’s vocals kinda faded through a dark echo chamber.

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Kramer compiled an all-star alt-rock backup band who totally nailed the music and energy of the original MC5. Kim Thayil of Soundgarden killed it on guitar, replacing the legendary original Fred Sonic Smith.

On bass was Faith No More’s Billy Gould (replacing original Michael Davis) and  on drums (replacing Dennis Thompson) was Fugazi’s Brendan Canty. On lead vocals was someone I’ve never heard until now, Marcus Durant of Zen Guerrilla, but holy shit – he was everything Rob Tyner was: messy and frizzy ‘fro’d, intensely soulful, flamboyantly bursting with energy and simply amazing. All those shoes were tough to fill and these guys did it and then some.

My friend Chris snagged the setlist after the show.

The bulk of the show was a fairly exact recreation of the original Kick Out the Jams, MC5′s debut originally recorded in the fall of ‘68 at Detroit’s Grand Ballrooom. It hit #30 on the charts and the single “Kick Out the Jams” hit #82. The entire album – and concert – is dirty garage proto-punk at its absolute finest. Highlights of the show of songs from the album for me were “Rambling Rose,” “Kick Out the Jams” and “Rocket Reducer No. 62 (Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa).” Non-Kick Out the Jams songs at the show were “Shakin’ Street,” “Call Me Animal,” “Let Me Try” and “Looking at You” – all from MC5′s first studio album Back in the USA. My favorite of the night was “I Can Only Give You Everything,” originally by Them, and released by MC5 as their debut single in ‘67.

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Allmusic says “Teenage Head was the Groovies’ alternate-universe version of Sticky Fingers, an album that delivered their toughest rock & roll beside their most introspective blues workouts. (In his liner notes to Buddha’s 1999 CD reissue of Teenage Head, Andy Kotowicz writes that Mick Jagger noticed the similarities between the two albums and thought the Groovies did the better job.)” Teenage Head is listed in the 2006 book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

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No fun my babe
No fun
No fun my babe
No fun
No fun to hang around
Feelin’ that same old way
No fun to hang around
Freaked out for another day
No fun my babe
No fun
No fun my babe
No fun
No fun to be alone
Walking by myself
No fun to be alone
In love with nobody else
Well maybe go out, maybe stay home
Maybe call Mom on the telephone
Well c’mon, well c’mon
C’mon c’mon
Now Ron, I say Ron
C’mon and lemme hear you tell em
Lemme hear you tell em
Now I feel
I say lemme hear you
Tell em how I feel, yeah, my man
No fun to be alone
It’s no fun to be alone
Hang on
Don’t you lemme go
It’s no fun to alone
To be alone

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My favorite song on Horses is the loose cover of Van Morrison’s “Gloria.” Smith retains the original’s music and chorus, but completely revamps the lyrics. Allmusic reviewer Stewart Mason writes about the track, “Bearing probably the most famous opening line of the entire American punk scene – ‘Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not mine’ being every bit as corrosive a start as ‘I am an Antichrist/I am an anarchist’ – Patti Smith’s complete re-imagining of the ‘60s garage classic ‘Gloria’ both sums up her entire persona and sets a standard that was so hard for the next generation of punks to live up to that most of them didn’t even try. More poetic than Jim Morrison, and far less prone to idiotic drunken rambling as well, Smith was the first mainstream rock and roll poet to deserve both sides of the appellation: the song’s first section, Smith’s own ‘In Excelsis Deo,’ features some haunting imagery, but it’s also so rhythmically interesting that the shifts into and out of Van Morrison’s cocksure strut ‘Gloria’ are utterly seamless. Further, Smith performs the oldie with more intensity, humor and openly sexual hunger than anyone since Morrison himself back in the days of Them, helped immensely by her stellar band, almost certainly the best group of musicians (Television was their only real competition) to unite under the rubric of punk.”

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“Tonight” and “Success” are the most obvious Bowie-influenced tracks on the album, the former a deep blue tinged mid tempo rocker (Bowie covered the track on his 1984 release Tonight) and the latter infused with funk-jazz experimentation that disintegrates into hilarity with a call-and-response of “oh shit.” “Sixteen” is awesomely raw, vaguely dangerous in a funky bar wearing leather boots. “Fall In Love With Me” is cocky and jaunty, painting the picture of the girl he likely just saw pass by some Berlin club that he totally crushed on (“your plastic raincoat and your plastic shoes, they look good too standing in the snow..”). “The Passenger” is one of my all-time favorite songs that has made it on to many mix tapes over the years. It is perfect for long road trips: a relentlessly hedonistic and buoyant beat written for cruising. And of course the title track, “Lust For Life” rates up there as one of the best songs ever. I’ve kinda kiddingly over the years imagined that if I had a theme song – the one that would be played when I walked on set, for instance – it would be “Lust For Life.” Not so much because the lyrics match me (I’m not so into beating my brains with liquor and drugs, stripteases or hypnotizing chickens, though maybe I am worth a million in prizes) but rather the exuberant urgency of the music and excitement for just living life.

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