Wayne Kramer had the crunch. He could make his guitar shriek, crack and explode, like rocket fuel igniting during a crackling launch. As the guitarist of punk group avant la lettre MC5, Kramer was the driving force behind a groundbreaking rock sound, which preached the youth revolt of the late sixties in both lyrics and guitar noise. Punk groups like Ramones, Sex Pistols, Black Flag and The Offspring picked up where MC5's three-chord revolution left off.
It only took five years for the MC5 (Motor City Five), led by poet/activist and manager John Sinclair, to go down in history as the founders of punk. It was no coincidence that groups like MC5 and The Stooges flourished in Detroit, the city that was home to both the American car industry and the Motown label. Detroit was a city of hardworking people, Wayne Kramer (born as Wayne Kambes) said about the high standards his fellow citizens set for the music they heard on their evenings off. Eager rock musicians listened to Chuck Berry and James Brown, but also to Motown hits and the jazz of John Coltrane. Rhythm and improvisation were the key words. The electric guitar also became a weapon for the group in the fight against the establishment.
Jail
With its incendiary lyrics and deafening guitar music, the live-recorded debut album was released Kick Out the Jams (1969) a rock classic. The introduction “Kick out the jams, motherfuckers!” had to be censored for radio use. MC5 identified with the far-left, anti-racist White Panther Party, co-founded by band manager John Sinclair. He went to prison for possessing a small amount of hashish. The albums Back In the USA and High Time did not have the same impact as the debut and the group soon collapsed due to chaos and drug use. Possession of “a mountain of cocaine” earned Wayne Kramer a four-year prison sentence. With the sixties ideals of love & peace he never had much to eat. “We were the anti-hippies,” he said. “We shouted from the rooftops that the system had to be overthrown.”
In prison Kramer met the trumpeter Red Rodney, who had played with Charlie Parker. They continued to make music for their fellow prisoners. Once free, Kramer joined Was (Not Was) and Johnny Thunders, before releasing the albums as a soloist The Hard Stuff, Dangerous Madness and CitizenWayne released on the neo-punk label Epitaph. Record boss Brett Gurewitz thus recognized the indebtedness of new punk bands such as Bad Religion, NOFX and Rancid to Kramer's pioneering work. Bassist Randy Bradbury of Pennywise was part of Kramer's live band for a while.
In 2008, Kramer played as a guest musician for Rage Against the Machine at a war protest where 'Kick Out the Jams' was performed. With Rage Against The Machine's Tom Morello and other younger musicians, Kramer led new incarnations of MC5, including for the band's anniversary under the name MC50. Wayne Kramer died on Friday at the age of 75 from complications of pancreatic cancer. Throughout his life, he continued to believe that rock & roll was the ideal medium for activism and contradictory ideas.
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