Detroit may now look like an urban slum with shuttered store fronts and empty factory buildings. But at one point it was a focal point for some of the most original music to hit the airwaves. This is an oral history of the city and the music that came out of it. Drawing on dozens and dozens of interviews with musicians, club owners, fans, managers, photographers, radio personalities and more, it reveals the history of this fabled location from its beginnings to current day.
Amongst those interviewed here are Ted Nugent, Dick Wagner, Jack White, Johnny Ramone, Don Brewer, Jim McCarty and many others. They talk about the origins in clubs like the Grande Ballroom and the Eastown Theater to more recent venutes like the Michigan Palace, Bookies Club 870, City Club, Gold Dollar and more.
Amongst those interviewed here are Ted Nugent, Dick Wagner, Jack White, Johnny Ramone, Don Brewer, Jim McCarty and many others. They talk about the origins in clubs like the Grande Ballroom and the Eastown Theater to more recent venutes like the Michigan Palace, Bookies Club 870, City Club, Gold Dollar and more.
The history unfolds in the actual words of the people who played and worked there. Here, Ted Nugent recalls a moment.
The Amboy Dukes were invited to play Woodstgock, but we had been burned by all these hippie promoters, where you didn't go on stage on time, sometimes
you didn't go on at all. I'll never forget the Black Arts Festival at Olympia that Mike Quatro put together. He let the stage managers from the Grande Ballroom manage the thing, and they were all so stoned out of their minds that we never even got to go on stage.
So I was so let down by the disrespect towards the music - and the musicians - not just because it was us, but any musician. Look at Hendrix, going on at 6 a.m. at Woodstock. Are you shitting me? Who would do that to Jimi Hendrix?"
It's a vivid and brutal look at some of the edgiest music to come out of an urban American city. If you weren't there, reading this will get you as close as you've ever been.