LOS ANGELES, MAY 2007

THE 35TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION OF GUITAR ARMY FROM AUTHOR AND FORMER WHITE PANTHER JOHN SINCLAIR

Process Media Title Features Bonus CD Featuring Rare Music Recordings of MC5 and Original White Panther Party Meetings as well as 40 Previously Unpublished Period Photographs, a New Introduction and Recent Writings from the Author


LOS ANGELES - The 35th anniversary edition of GUITAR ARMY from author and 1960s activist John Sinclair, who spearheaded the cultural revolutionary vanguard White Panther Party and managed the Detroit rock band MC5, was released this month (May, 2007.)

This new expanded and updated Process Media edition of GUITAR ARMY (publication date May 1, 2007) is packed with 40 previously unreleased period photos, an introduction by Michael Simmons, and a bonus CD with rare music recordings.

Tracks include music from the MC5 and other Detroit-area bands as well as Black Panther Chairman Bobby Seale on the White Panthers and previously unreleased White Panther Party meetings. "The rock & roll revolution posed a threat for a few years there," said John Sinclair from his base in Amsterdam. "But they bought it off, covered up their tracks and pretend it never happened. They won't even let the MC5 into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame! But you can see and feel it happening in the pages of this 35th anniversary edition of Guitar Army—that's why I wrote it. The excitement and thrills of a real rock & roll revolution in progress are still in there." Published in 1972 following Sinclair's release from prison after serving 29 months of a 9 and a half to 10 year sentence for possession of two joints, GUITAR ARMY raised the White `Panther battle flag inscribed Rock & Roll, Dope & Fucking in the Streets and proclaimed "Rock and Roll Is a Weapon of Cultural Revolution". John Sinclair had led that revolt from the ferment of the Detroit riots in 1967 to the Chicago Democratic Convention of 1968, where the band played just minutes before police clubbed demonstrators. The John Sinclair Freedom Rally of December 1971 that starred John Lennon & Yoko Ono, Allen Ginsberg, Stevie Wonder, Phil Ochs and a host of others led to Sinclair's release from prison just three days later. The recently released documentary film THE U.S. VS. JOHN LENNON documents this event.

GUITAR ARMY
Rock and Revolution with The MC5 and the White Panther Party
By John Sinclair
With introduction by Michael Simmons


35th ANNIVERSARY EDITION
* First time in print since 1972
* 40 additional photographs
* Includes 18-track CD with rare recordings

"Guitar Army was our manual for revolt. It's a rainbow-colored Howl, still resonating today with the singular value of idealism."
—Michael Simmons

Guitar Army is the incendiary book that proclaimed "Rock and Roll is a Weapon of Cultural Revolution" for young, revved-up readers in 1972. Author John Sinclair spearheaded the leftist revolutionary vanguard White Panther Party and managed the Detroit rock band MC5, leading them from the ferment of the Detroit riots to the Chicago Democratic Convention of 1968, where the band played minutes before police clubbed antiwar demonstrators.

In October of 1970, the FBI referred to the White Panthers as "potentially the largest and most dangerous of revolutionary organizations in the United States." However, just three years earlier, the group's leaders hosted a "Love-In" on Detroit's Belle Isle, presided over by Sinclair, whom the Detroit News proclaimed "High Priest of the Detroit hippies."

In 1970 he was arrested and sentenced to 9 ½ to 10 years for giving an undercover officer two marijuana joints. Sinclair then became the most celebrated political prisoner of the original war on drugs. After 18 months in prison, John Lennon, Allen Ginsberg, Stevie Wonder, Phil Ochs, and others demanded his freedom with a televised benefit concert attended by 15,000 people. Three days later, Sinclair was released.

Guitar Army chronicles these years of revolution through Sinclair's "street writings" and prison writings, with over 80 photographs, illustrations, concert flyers and comics from the period.

This 35th anniversary edition of 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. Author John Sinclair is the still-charging embodiment of a dazzlingly optimistic time in which change felt necessary and possible.

A bonus CD contains rare recordings of MC5 and other Detroit-area revolutionary bands, Allen Ginsberg, Black Panther Bobby Seale on the White Panthers, and original White Panther Party meetings.

GUITAR ARMY: ROCK & ROLL REVOLUTION

By: Kayceman from Jambase.com

On May 1, 2007 revolutionaries (and hippies) around the world celebrated the 35th anniversary and re-release of John Sinclair's book Guitar Army (Process Media). Originally published in 1972 following Sinclair's release from prison after serving two and a half years of a 10 year sentence for possession of two joints, Guitar Army served as an entire generation's handbook for revolt. So popular - and controversial - the book quickly went out of print and developed into a cult classic. Thanks to Process Media, the new expanded 35th Anniversary edition features 40 previously unreleased photos from the heyday, a new intro by Michael Simmons and a nifty bonus CD with rare recordings from MC5, Uprising, John Sinclair, Allen Ginsberg, Black Panther Bobby Seal, Up! and more.

As a young man growing up in Detroit in 1966, Sinclair became the manager of the hugely influential band MC5 (Motor City 5). "The Five," as they were often called, would not only help set the stage for punk and hard rock, they would become the house band of the revolution. In 1968, the MC5 recorded their first album, Kick Out The Jams, which would help ignite a fire that raged against the political and social climate of the day. Coinciding with the album, Sinclair released a statement of the declaration of the White Panther Party. Sinclair, along with the members of MC5 and a select group of fellow revolutionaries, created the White Panther Party to oppose the U.S. government and support the Black Panthers through a "total assault on the culture by any means necessary, including rock & roll, dope and fucking in the streets."

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John Sinclair

So, how did a young kid from a nice family in Flint, Michigan turn into a revolutionary hero and political prisoner with the likes of John Lennon and Stevie Wonder fighting for his release?

"I just started smoking joints and taking acid and peyote and it lead me into something completely different from where I started from" says Sinclair. "Between that and the black music, I was in a different world. And I've been there ever since, and I ain't leaving!"

Inside this world of mind-expanding drugs and black (blues and jazz) music, Sinclair was transformed. He became a beacon of light, "the leading intellectual of long-haired people," he claims. And that's exactly what opened up the MC5 to his influence. "John Sinclair was the first guy who wasn't a music business type guy. He was like us, and we respected him," says MC5 guitarist and co-founder Wayne Kramer. "He agreed to join with us to try to see if we could combine our efforts to push our various interests to a higher level."

These were the seeds of the rock & roll revolution. The years that followed are chronicled in Guitar Army. Although Sinclair says, "It's not something I'd write today, but I thought I got my hands on the moment," the book is a necessary record of a movement that changed America.

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Detroit :: 1970

In 1969, Sinclair was sentenced to almost 10 years for giving two joints to undercover narcotics officers. In 1970, the FBI declared the White Panthers "potentially the largest and most dangerous of revolutionary organizations in the United States." All this during a time when approximately 58,000 American soldiers were dying in Vietnam, and a rough estimate of one million Vietnamese combatants and four million civilians were killed in the war. This was also the time period when John F. Kennedy (November 22, 1963), Malcolm X (February 21, 1965) and Martin Luther King (April 4, 1968) were assassinated. With these events as a backdrop, it was excessive to declare the White Panthers a major threat to America, and it was beyond comprehension to go one step further and send their leader to jail for 10 years for two joints. With blood flowing at home and overseas, America's citizens simply wouldn't stand for it.

In a true testament to the power of rock & roll, The John Sinclair Freedom Rally at Crisler Arena in Ann Arbor, Michigan on December 10, 1971 would be the final step in setting Sinclair free. The eight hour event featured John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Stevie Wonder, Allen Ginsberg, Phil Ochs and many others speaking and performing in front of 15,000 people. Three days later the Michigan Supreme Court released Sinclair and overturned his draconian conviction.