The Up - Rising

CD
Catalogue Number: CPSSPCD002

out this summer !

The Up have always gotten short shrift in the rock cosmology. Conventional wisdom would have it that they were nothing more than the MC5's "little brother band" after the Stooges took off on their own wild trajectory. They're often dismissed as nothing more than the band that stuck by John Sinclair and the White Panther/Rainbow People's Party after John went off to jail and the Five turned their backs on the revolution and went off to pursue more conventional rock stardom under Jon Landau's tutelage. But as the interview with Up bassist Gary Rasmussen, included in this package, attests, they hardly sprung, Athena-like, from Sinclair's august head. On the contrary, the Rasmussen brothers (Gary and his guitar-slinging brother Bob) were veterans of the band wars from as far back as 1962, sharing a sock hop/teen club/band battle heritage with slightly older Detroit rockers like the Five and the Rationals (who actually hailed from downriver Lincoln Park and the sleepy college town of Ann Arbor, respectively).

While it's true that the Up might have lacked the star-spangled psychedelic whirling dervish flash of the Five or the distressed charisma of the Stooges, to understand their true nature, it's useful to put them in a wider frame. In the fullness of time, it's clear that the Up's raucous primitivism had more in common with then-reviled, now-revered contemporaries like San Francisco's Blue Cheer or across-the-pond kindred spirits, the Deviants and the Pink Fairies. They were the first generation of white rock ‘n' rollers to draw as much inspiration from their peers -- in the Up's case, Detroit-based Rolling Stones copyists the Lourds (the band that would become the Amboy Dukes under Ted Nugent's leadership) and later, the MC5 themselves - as they did from the music's black originators. Viewing the Up's performance in the opening scene of Ten for Two, the documentary record of the 1971 Sinclair benefit at which ex-Beatle John Lennon appeared, rockers of a certain age will find the vibe familiar. The previous summer, of course, the festival-going kids of America had been exposed to high-energy Detroit ramalama at both its most sublime (the Stooges) and ridiculous (Grand Funk). The Up's performance has the same manic fever and intensity.

More than the Five or the Stooges (each of whom managed in their own way to transcend it), the Up were a band of their time and representative of its Zeitgeist. Thus, while the Five's lyrics (at least until Landau coaxed them into penning cod generational anthems) were primarily concerned with what they knew best -- namely, um, fucking and being in a band -- the Up dealt in topical material ranging from the self-explanatory "Free John Now" to the feminist diatribe "Sisters, Sisters (Sisters Rising)" (and this from a crew who were accused of "macho cock-rockism" by the Students for a Democratic Society!) and the William Burroughs-inspired "Hassan i Sabbah." Unlike the Five (who were already a popular and successful local act with a residency at the Grande Ballroom by the time they encountered Sinclair), and in common with the Devies and Fairies (with their origins in the same Ladbrooke Grove squats that'd later spawn the Clash), the Up were a true "people's band," maintaining their organic connection with Sinclair's tribe until after John's jail release.

Disc 1

1 Just like an aborigine - The A Squared 7” single release
2 Do the sun dance - Recorded at Head sound studio Ypsilanti 1970-71
3 Free John Now! - Recorded Morgan Sound Ypsilanti , mixed 20th Sept 1971
4 Come On (Earl King) - Recorded Morgan Sound Ypsilanti , mixed 20th Sept 1971
5 C’mon and swim (T.Coman & S .Stewart) - Recorded at Head sound studio Ypsilanti 1970-71
6 Just like an aborigine - Recorded Morgan Sound Ypsilanti , mixed 20th Sept 1971
7 Hassan I Sabbah Single version - Recorded & Mixed at SRC studios Ann Arbor 1970
8 Sisters, Sisters (Sisters Rising) - Recorded at Head sound studio Ypsilanti 1970-71
9 Together - Recorded Live at the Agora Ballroom 26th September 1972
10 Train kept a rollin’ - Recorded Live at the Agora Ballroom 26th September 1972
11 Just like an aborigine diff mix - Recorded Morgan Sound Ypsilanti , mixed 20th Sept 1971
12 I don’t need you - Recorded at Zenta sound studio Ann Arbor MI
13 Never say die - Recorded Live at the Agora Ballroom 26th September 1972
14 Free John Now! - Recorded Morgan Sound Ypsilanti , mixed 20th Sept 1971
15Prayer for John Sinclair
16 Train Kept A Rollin' - live recording at Ann Arbor 1970
17 Free John Now - live recording at Ann Arbor 1970
18 Just Like an Aborigine - live recording at Ann Arbor 1970
19 Free Marajuana - live recording at Ann Arbor 1970

Disc 2

Dvd of rare footage

Frank Bach –lead vox, Bob Rasmussen- Electric Guitar, Gary Rasmussen – Bass Guitar, Scott Bailey – Drums