Michigan Rocks, various Michigan artists, Seeds and Stems, 1977

Detroit and Cleveland, after they stopped being famous for producing cars and steel, wanted to be known for rock and roll. Ian Hunter sang ‘Cleveland Rocks’ and Bob Seger mocked Rolling Stone magazine for being so slow to call Detroit’s audiences the best in the world. Poor Cleveland got the Hall of Fame (Electric Light Orchestra? Donovan? really?) and Detroit got this compilation. The MC5, the Stooges, Bob Seger System, one of Mitch Ryder’s bands, and one of Seger’s guitar player’s bands are great or great-adjacent; there are some lesser bands that are still good. SRC covered Cream covering Skip James pretty well. The Rationals decided to record ‘Respect’ after Aretha Franklin—not a good choice. I bought this for just $3 in 1980 in Philadelphia because they didn’t know how good it was. Something on the innertubes said that Mitch Ryder founded the Seeds and Stems label and that it put out a song by Ryder and Ernie Harwell. Learning things like that keeps me going.