GUITAR ARMY John Sinclair (Douglas)

To most people, John Sinclair looks like just another mutant dinosaur relic of tne First Golden Age of Psychedelic Apocalypse. But that's not any more accurate than the idea shared by a smaller, if more vehement, gang who claim that this whale-bellied "cigarchomping psychedelic gangster" is Chairman Mao with rock'n"roll moxie.

It's harder to write about some old friends than it is about others. For the last five years, Sinclair has been the Titan of Motown, in many ways, and he certainly has influenced me, and CREEM, in some crucial respects. But as an author, John seems to be a better poet than philosopher, better propagandist than political theorist, better band manager than music critic.

The best parts of Guitar Army are the moments when Sinclair drops his guard and lets the emotion of a moment take over: the descriptions of the formation of the Artists" Workshop/TransLove/White Panther/Rainbow Com-

munity (in decreasing order), the orgiastic ecstasy of the MC5 era, the tragicomedy of his sentencing for the dope charge that put Sinclair in the penitentiary for two years.