“Guitar Armywas our manual for revolt. It’s a rainbow-coloredHowl,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 Armyis 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The updatedGuitar Armyincludes two dozen previously unpublished period photographs, recent writings from John Sinclair, and an introduction from Michael Simmons that leads the reader through the revolutionary times to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.
Revolutionary writings and images from the man behind the White Panther Party and MC5 rockers.
Manager of the revolutionary rock band MC5 and leader of the White Panther Party. International attention and the support of John Lennon came after his imprisonment for possession of marijuana.