Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).
Kick Out the Jams (1969)
When it comes to Detroit and its music scene, one naturally thinks of the Motown label and all the incredible and historic music it produced. But the Motor City should also be saluted for its early contributions to rock and punk music: Iggy and the Stooges, Alice Cooper, Bob Seger, Grand Funk Railroad and not to be forgotten, the MC5.
It's been a tough year for the MC5 because their last two surviving members have died: Guitarist Wayne Kramer died in February, two months before the band was selected for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And just this morning, drummer Dennis Thompson died at the age of 75. The band had a short career but left a lasting impact.
The band was formed in 1963 by Kramer and guitarist Fred "Sonic" Smith, who bonded over R&B, surf music and garage rock. They eventually teamed up with Rob Derminer, who was originally going to be the group's manager and then became their singer, renaming himself Rob Tyner after John Coltrane's pianist McCoy Tyner. He also came up with the name MC5, which stood for "Motor City Five." They added Thompson and bassist Michael Davis to fill out the lineup.
While they're thought of as a hard rock band, the MC5 were also influenced by free jazz as Kramer and Smith tried to imitate the skronky saxophonists they liked such as Coltrane. They started playing covers of artists like the Who, Stones and Hendrix and developed a reputation as a strong live act. They signed with Elektra in 1968 at the same time as the Stooges.
The MC5 soon became known for their left-wing politics and were influenced by the Beat poets and the Black Panthers, so much so that manager John Sinclair formed the White Panthers, an anti-racist political collective. The band performed as part of protests against the Vietnam War at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago; it was a daylong concert at which many musicians were supposed to perform, but the MC5 ended up playing for eight hours straight because most of the other performers didn't show up.
The band's debut album, Kick Out the Jams, was recorded live on October 30 and 31, 1968 at Detroit's Grande Ballroom. It's a terrific album full of raucous performances, but the one that got all the attention was the title track, which Tyner kicks off by hollering, "Kick out the jams, motherfuckers!" The edited single for radio changed this to "Kick out the jams, brothers and sisters!" Whatever the case, the song's a rallying cry for rebellion and it does indeed kick all of the requisite arse.
"Well, I feel pretty good/And I guess that I could get crazy now baby/'Cause we all got in tune/And when the dressing room got hazy, now baby/I know how you want it child/Hot, quick and tight/The girls can't stand it/When you're doin' it right/Let me up on the stand/And let me kick out the jams/Yes, kick out the jams/I have to kick 'em out."
Tyner had heard the expression "kick out the jams" and used it to as a mission statement for the band. Using the word "motherfucker" in a song in the '60s was a revolutionary act and in some areas, was considered a criminal one because it violated obscenity laws. The MC5 didn't even go to some shows where they heard the police were waiting to arrest them.
"You gotta have it, baby/You can't do without/When you get the feeling/You gotta sock 'em out/Put that mic in my hand/And let me kick out the jams/Yeah, kick out the jams/I want to kick them out."
The album also caused controversy because of Sinclair's inflammatory liner notes. Hudson's, a Detroit-based department store chain, refused to stock the album because of the naughty words, so the band responded with a full-page ad in the local magazine Fifth Estate saying, "Stick Alive with the MC5, and Fuck Hudson's!" The store then pulled all Elektra records off the shelves and the label ended up dropping the band, which then signed with Atlantic.
The controversy didn't hurt the album, which peaked at #30 on the Billboard 200 chart, while the title track hit #82 on the Hot 100 singles chart. The album sold over 100,000 copies and spent 23 weeks on the chart.
The MC5's second album, Back in the USA, was produced by future Bruce Springsteen manager Jon Landau and featured shorter, punchier songs that influenced the punk bands that came along later in the decade. It didn't sell as well as its predecessor, only reaching #137 on the album chart, but in hindsight, it was a great achievement. A third album, High Time, followed in 1971 and performed even worse, although it also was critically well received. Atlantic dropped the band after that; the MC5 toured Europe in early 1972 before Davis left the band. The MC5 played a farewell show on New Year's Eve 1972, but Kramer, who was dealing with drug addiction, only played a few songs before leaving the stage.
In the years that followed, Smith formed a few bands, married Patti Smith, retired from music and died in 1994. Kramer put together a new MC5 lineup in 1974 with different members but ended up in jail from 1975-78 on drug charges; he ended up in the same jail as Davis, who was incarcerated on drug charges. After his release, Kramer played in Was (Not Was) and Gang War with Johnny Thunders, then got out of the business and cleaned up before returning to music in the early '90s. Tyner played in a few bands before becoming a producer and promoter in Detroit; he died in 1991. Davis and Thompson both played with numerous bands.
There were several partial MC5 reunions over the years, with other musicians helping out including Mark Arm, Evan Dando, Marshall Crenshaw, Handsome Dick Manitoba, Gilby Clarke, Kim Thayil, Matt Cameron, Brendan Canty and Doug Pinnick. Kramer announced that a new MC5 album would be released in the spring of 2024, but he, Sinclair and now Thompson have all passed away in the last few months.
"Kick Out the Jams" retains all its power and it has been covered by many bands over the years, including Blue Oyster Cult, Afrika Bambaataa, Volcano Suns, Bad Brains with Henry Rollins, Poison Idea, Guitar Wolf, The Presidents of the USA, Entombed, Monster Magnet, Rage Against the Machine, Jeff Buckley, Pearl Jam and the UK Subs.
I'd say the jams were sufficiently kicked out.
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