'They were the real essence of rock 'n' roll': How revolutionary band MC5 soundtracked US counterculture

They emerged from 1960s Detroit with an explosive sound that paved the way for punk. As a new LP is released, those who knew them explain how they changed the shape of music forever.

Detroit has a staggeringly rich history of music. From soul to techno via blues and garage rock, the US city has been a hub of innovation for the best part of the last century. While the sound of 1960s Detroit may have been dominated and epitomised by Motown, the era-defining soul label and production team, another band emerged in that decade who would help shape the sonic legacy of the city: the MC5.

They are a group that have just been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and who, a remarkable 53 years since their last album, have just returned with a new one, Heavy Lifting, as well as being the subject of a new book, MC5: An Oral Biography of Rock's Most Revolutionary Band. However, the celebrations of their legacy and impact are deeply bittersweet, as the two remaining founding members – Wayne Kramer and Dennis Thompson – both died this year.

Their influence is vast. Loved by everyone from Motörhead to The Clash, they have been sampled by the KLF and covered by The Stranglers and The White Stripes. They were even the reason that Alice Cooper moved to Detroit to start a band. "There was nothing like it anywhere else in the USA," he says in a quote on the biography's jacket. Their sound, a fiery mix of hard rock, blues, free jazz, touches of psychedelia, and a blisteringly unique tone – complete with James Brown-like showmanship – would later have them called proto-punk, which is to say: punk before punk. Following Kramer's death in February, Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello, who features on Heavy Lifting, wrote in an Instagram post that the band "basically invented punk rock".

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