MC5 - KICK OUT THE JAMS @ 55

 

Celebrating its 55th anniversary this month is the debut LP from the notorious MC5, with Kick Out the Jams being released in February of 1969. With its revolutionary stance and biting raw edge, it became a crucial foundation stone for what would become "punk rock" within a few years.

The roots of the band go back to their initial founding in 1963, which grew out of a childhood friendship between guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred "Sonic" Smith. As well as being aficionados of the blues, Chuck Berry, Dick Dale and The Ventures, the pair were also enraptured by the cutting edge frenzy of free-jazz, with its wild flights of dissonance being incorporated into the their soloing styles. The group's name is an abbreviation of the term "Motor City Five", a reference to their hometown stomping ground, Detroit, MI. They'd play there almost every night, at any venue they could get a booking.

The group's high energy style quickly earned them a lot of recognition as they began to tour around the US, often upstaging the established acts they opened for. Fans would demand encores before allowing the headliners to take the stage. A trio of singles released throughout 1968 further bolstered the band's popularity, while their hard-left politics raised eyebrows and stoked paranoia about the radical nature of the band and its followers. A fanatical, reverential cover story in Rolling Stone cemented their position as emerging messiahs of Rock 'n' Roll.

Through their activities, MC5 would become mentors to fellow Detroit bands like The Stooges, while the band were, in-turn, being politically influenced by the Marxism of the Black Panther Party and Fred Hampton, and poets of the Beat Generation such as Allen Ginsberg and Ed Sanders, or Modernist poets like Charles Olson. Black Panther Party founder Huey P. Newton prompted the band's "manager", John Sinclair, to found the White Panthers, a militant leftist organization of white people working to assist the Black Panthers.

The band began to perform at various protest rallies, especially in opposition to the Vietnam war, appearing most notoriously at an event against the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, which ended in a police riot. The event is also notable for the duration of the MC5 performance, which went on for an astonishing 8 hours! At the height of this publicity and mayhem, MC5 recorded their debut album, Kick Out the Jams, live, on October 30 & 31, 1968, at Detroit's Grande Ballroom. With the band performing at their best in front of a rabidly receptive audience, the decision to release a live album as their debut was an easy one. Culling the best from the two nights, what ended up on vinyl was nothing short of sheer, ferocious genius.

With the album bursting out of the speakers with the declaration, "KICK OUT THE JAMS, MOTHERFUCKERS!", it was inevitable that controversy would flare up in its wake. An alternate rallying cry of "Kick out the jams, brothers and sisters" was used on the single release of the title track, and also some versions of the album after retailer, Hudson's, refused to sell the album with its original expletive spiked incitement. This substitution was bitterly objected to by the band and their management, who fought tooth and nail to have it preserved. The title was a phrase that had originated while the band were touring and working with a variety of bands who were noted for their languid, extended improvisational performances, with MC5 blasting the stage free of the self-indulgent hippy jamming, in favour of their high octane garage rock. The phrase was somewhat appropriated 20 years later by the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, aka, The JAMs / KLF for somewhat more esoteric purposes.

The album sold well upon its release, quickly cracking over 100,000 units and peaking at #30 on the Billboard charts, though there was some critical lack of consensus. Yet the legacy of the album has helped it retain its status as a constant reference point when musicologists attempt to trace the roots of the punk and alternative rock movements that evolved in the ensuing decades. Most of those roads invariably lead back to the MC5, alongside a small cadre of other foundational bands like the Velvet Underground. Essentially, anyone who takes proper, soul satisfying rock 'n' roll music seriously has this record in their collection, likely right next to the first New York Dolls and Stooges LPs.