What do you think?
Rate this book
Guitar Army: Rock and Revolution with The MC5 and the White Panther Party
“ Guitar Army was our manual for revolt. It’s a rainbow-colored Howl, still resonating today with the singular value of idealism.”—Michael Simmons John Sinclair, manager of the notorious Detroit band MC5 and leader of the leftist revolutionary vanguard White Panther Party, is the still-charging embodiment of a dazzlingly optimistic time in which change felt necessary and possible. Sinclair was the martyr of the original war on drugs, sentenced to ten years in prison for possession of two marijuana joints. Guitar Army is the iconographic book that proclaimed “Rock and Roll is a Weapon of Cultural Revolution” for young, revved-up readers in 1972. Its author was released from prison just three days after 15,000 people came to see John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Archie Shepp, Allen Ginsberg, and other musicians and leaders demand his freedom. The updated Guitar Army includes two dozen previously unpublished period photographs, recent writings from John Sinclair, and an introduction from Michael Simmons that leads the reader through the revolutionary times to Sinclair’s life today. A bonus CD contains rare music recordings of MC5 band members, the revolutionary rock group UP!, Black Panther Bobby Seale on the White Panthers, and original White Panther Party rallies.
300 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2007
7 people are currently reading
187 people want to read
About the author
John Sinclair
226 books7 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
John Sinclair (born October 2, 1941) is an American poet, writer, and political activist from Flint, Michigan. Sinclair's defining style is jazz poetry, and he has released most of his works in audio formats. Most of his pieces include musical accompaniment, usually by a varying group of collaborators dubbed Blues Scholars.
As an emerging young poet in the mid-1960s, Sinclair took on the role of manager for the Detroit rock band MC5. The band's politically charged music and its Yippie core audience dovetailed with Sinclair's own radical development. In 1968, while still working with the band, he conspicuously served as a founding member of the White Panther Party, a militantly anti-racist socialist group and counterpart of the Black Panthers.
Arrested for possession of marijuana in 1969, Sinclair was given ten years in prison. The sentence was criticized by many as unduly harsh, and it galvanized a noisy protest movement led by prominent figures of the 1960s counterculture. Various public and private protests culminated in the "John Sinclair Freedom Rally" at Ann Arbor's Crisler Arena in December 1971. The event brought together celebrities including John Lennon and Yoko Ono; musicians David Peel, Stevie Wonder, Phil Ochs and Bob Seger, Archie Shepp and Roswell Rudd; poets Allen Ginsberg and Ed Sanders; and countercultural speakers including Abbie Hoffman, Rennie Davis, David Dellinger, Jerry Rubin, and Bobby Seale. Three days after the rally, Sinclair was released from prison when the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that the state's marijuana statutes were unconstitutional but he remained in litigation – his case against the government for illegal domestic surveillance was successfully pleaded to the US Supreme Court in United States v. U.S. District Court (1972).
Sinclair eventually left the US and took up residency in Amsterdam. He continues to write and record and, since 2005, has hosted a regular radio program, The John Sinclair Radio Show, as well as produced a line-up of other shows on his own radio station, Radio Free Amsterdam.
Sinclair was the first person to purchase recreational marijuana when it became legal in Michigan on December 1, 2019.
John Sinclair (born October 2, 1941) is an American poet, writer, and political activist from Flint, Michigan. Sinclair's defining style is jazz poetry, and he has released most of his works in audio formats. Most of his pieces include musical accompaniment, usually by a varying group of collaborators dubbed Blues Scholars.
As an emerging young poet in the mid-1960s, Sinclair took on the role of manager for the Detroit rock band MC5. The band's politically charged music and its Yippie core audience dovetailed with Sinclair's own radical development. In 1968, while still working with the band, he conspicuously served as a founding member of the White Panther Party, a militantly anti-racist socialist group and counterpart of the Black Panthers.
Arrested for possession of marijuana in 1969, Sinclair was given ten years in prison. The sentence was criticized by many as unduly harsh, and it galvanized a noisy protest movement led by prominent figures of the 1960s counterculture. Various public and private protests culminated in the "John Sinclair Freedom Rally" at Ann Arbor's Crisler Arena in December 1971. The event brought together celebrities including John Lennon and Yoko Ono; musicians David Peel, Stevie Wonder, Phil Ochs and Bob Seger, Archie Shepp and Roswell Rudd; poets Allen Ginsberg and Ed Sanders; and countercultural speakers including Abbie Hoffman, Rennie Davis, David Dellinger, Jerry Rubin, and Bobby Seale. Three days after the rally, Sinclair was released from prison when the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that the state's marijuana statutes were unconstitutional but he remained in litigation – his case against the government for illegal domestic surveillance was successfully pleaded to the US Supreme Court in United States v. U.S. District Court (1972).
Sinclair eventually left the US and took up residency in Amsterdam. He continues to write and record and, since 2005, has hosted a regular radio program, The John Sinclair Radio Show, as well as produced a line-up of other shows on his own radio station, Radio Free Amsterdam.
Sinclair was the first person to purchase recreational marijuana when it became legal in Michigan on December 1, 2019.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 10, 2008
Tons of fun! The WPP were basically cultural--little actual political organizing but tons of good loud rebel music. But that didn't stop the FBI from fucking with them and trying to send their leader up the river for a few joints.
March 6, 2024
I read this reissue when it was available as an ARC and audio of my interview with John Sinclair is archived to https://archive.org/details/OutsightRadioHoursInterviews2000-2010 as #310.
September 20, 2022
Kind of a chore to read, but historically one of a kind.
July 3, 2008
How to Start the Revolution?Look no further.
Read
May 22, 2019Great book. Got to hear and meet live.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews