FW: MC5 - Links & Federal Court Ruling ..

[Dennis Moore <clayboy56>]

Jackson Smith @ MotorCityRocks.com: "The suit is for good reason. It
seems people have a hard time remembering that there are people and
families behind the MC5 name. God forbid that they may have real
problems and issues with each other..."

Federal Court ruling details and commentary:   http://tinyurl.com/72tmp


The MC5 risked everything to make great music, even their lives and
careers. As businessmen they were epic failures. Now a fresh flurry of
ugly business squabbles swirls around the MC5... against a backdrop of
controversy and infighting, subjects with which the band became
intimately familiar in its first go-round. A seven-years-in-the-making
documentary about the band's exploits, "MC5: A True Testimonial," has
been derailed in the 11th hour over music licensing issues. Once again
the band is a house divided, with the families of the late Rob Tyner
and Fred "Sonic" Smith pitted against Kramer, Davis and Thompson...

Kramer's battle with Thomas and Legler's corporation, Future/Now
Films, has divided the MC5 camp. Tyner's widow, Rebecca Derminer,
agreed to license her husband's share of the songs to the filmmakers
and joined in their motion against Kramer in bankruptcy court. Also
upset is Patti Smith, the second wife of MC5 guitarist Fred "Sonic"
Smith, who died of heart failure in 1994.

"It's a shame," says Patti Smith, who had two children with the
guitarist. "I understand from my son [Jackson] that it's a wonderful
movie, and I support it. It's being blocked by Wayne Kramer, and I
think that's unfortunate. My son is one of the true guardians of his
father's name, and he felt that the movie served his father well, and
he was hoping that it would come out. These things are always a shame,
when someone is trying to do something good and it gets tainted by
greed."   (from a column by Greg Kot - Chicago Tribune - 30 May 2004)

More on "MC5 - A True Testimonial": 
http://www.sonicsrendezvous.com/MC5/index.html