That was only that one studio album where their nutty manager (John Sinclair) wanted an extremely bright, "it jumps at you from the turntable"-sound. The band themselves were distraught about the production. Was it
Back In The USA or
High Time, I don't remember ...
I remember hearing Kick Out The Jams for the first time in the mid-70ies - it was for me at that time the most aggressive, heaviest piece of music I had heard (and I was reared on Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and the Grand Funk Railroad Live album).
BÖC would do a credible version of it though the song (albeit non-political in nature) is invariably tied to MC5's pronounced counterculture shtick & John Sinclair's romantic/half-assed concept of lefty-anarchist ideology - BÖC aren't really a political enough band to do it justice. Also, I guess that preaching revolution and (by today's standards: slightly sexist) wild abandon when you're playing an Alembic bass raises general credibility issues.
That's probably two more reasons why the MC5 didn't make it: They were overtly political (though GFR in their early days dabbled with counterculture too - before Farner's reborn christian beliefs and his "
the only way to keep America free and Number One, is for every brother to have a gun"-nationalism set in) and then of course ... DRUGS!!!