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.
