OT - RIP Wayne Kramer of the MC5
Sad day for rock and roll. The MC5 is no more. Wayne Kramer, founding and last surviving member of the group has passed away at 75 of pancreatic cancer. Though originally from Lincoln Park, the band moved to Ann Arbor in 1968.
They were quite simply one of the most under appreciated bands in history. Along with the Stooges and Death, they laid the foundations for what would become punk rock more than a decade before it existed. And their songs were incredible.
Kramer riffing hard from a concert at Wayne State University:
Still got as part of MC50:
RIP Brother Wayne
February 3rd, 2024 at 4:50 AM ^
A longer set from Germany if you're not in the whole brevity thing:
February 3rd, 2024 at 5:53 AM ^
Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa
February 3rd, 2024 at 6:50 AM ^
As I recall, Kramer spent some of his time after MC5 with Was (Not Was), but he was not with them for the album "What Up, Dog?", which of course contains one of the few songs by them that anyone knows - "Walk The Dinosaur". I am sure Kramer could have improved that song substantially. Great musician and an influence on so many.
February 3rd, 2024 at 7:37 AM ^
Those were interesting times. Remember Pun Plamondon? How about the John Sinclair freedom rally at Crisler? It was something like 3am before John Lennon took the stage. I could be wrong about that given my…ahem…heightened state of consciousness.
RIP, Wayne.
February 3rd, 2024 at 9:10 AM ^
Free John.
February 3rd, 2024 at 10:30 AM ^
The bastards gave him 10 for 2.
February 3rd, 2024 at 2:55 PM ^
The poster for the Free John concert headlined by John & Yoko, featuring a litany of Michigan legends including Bob Seger & Stevie Wonder, has been on our wall since around Christmas 1971.
All we are saying... appropriate then, appropriate now!
February 3rd, 2024 at 4:48 PM ^
BTW...Stevie Wonder stole the show. He was terrific!
February 3rd, 2024 at 7:50 AM ^
Wayne be getting it on with Sister Anne 'bout now. RIP. As a side note, my late brother used to work with Dennis Thomson, the drummer for the MC5, who introduced my brother and I to the fabulous Star Corned Beef Deli at Telegraph and 12 Mile. Still the best corned beef in SE Michigan.
February 3rd, 2024 at 8:35 AM ^
Wow, I grew up only a few miles from there, but somehow never heard of it. Another missed opportunity from my youth!
February 3rd, 2024 at 9:04 AM ^
I've been on a 70s/early 80s punk kick (and before) and have Kick Out the Jams in my playlist. I had no idea MC5 had the A2 connection. I'll have to check out some more of their songs.
FWIW--I always thought that Joan Jett was a one hit wonder with "I love Rock and Roll" but she is pretty fantastic. I didn't realize that she sang "Bad Reputation" and "Cherry Bomb" (with the Runaways) not to mention "Do you want to touch me" and "I hate myself for loving you."
February 3rd, 2024 at 11:15 AM ^
So you didn't watch MTV in the 80s? Joan Jett & the Blackhearts had a number of videos.
February 3rd, 2024 at 7:15 PM ^
Joan Jett was my first crush. It was 1982
I was 3 years old
no one measured up until Kathy Ireland came along in 1985 or so
February 3rd, 2024 at 2:57 PM ^
Welcome to the Good Old Days!
You'll probably never return to where you were before!
February 3rd, 2024 at 9:25 AM ^
RIP, Wayne
February 3rd, 2024 at 10:06 AM ^
Let me tell you 'bout Wayne and his deals of cocaine
A little more every day
Holding for a friend till the band do well
Then the D.E.A. locked him away
February 3rd, 2024 at 2:23 PM ^
AWESOME! Thank you for posting.
February 3rd, 2024 at 10:55 AM ^
Dennis Machine Gun Thompson, while not an original member, joined the band two years after inception and played on KOTJ and subsequent albums.
last living member of the “classic” line up.
MC5 Still not recognized by the farce RnRHOF…
February 3rd, 2024 at 10:58 AM ^
RIP Wayne Kramer, a true musical pioneer. I was a high school freshman in Grand Rapids when word got around about a song by MC5 that starts out with the "f word". You can imagine how difficult it was back then for a school kid to get a chance to actually hear such a song (let alone get your hands on a non-censored copy of it!).
Never saw this band in concert, although I tried to a few years ago when Kramer played a few small Detroit-area venues. But in their heyday, MC5 wasn't all that well-known outside of Michigan. And their original lineup was only in existence as a band for a couple albums.
One by one, we're losing the musicians of the 60s and 70s. See the old performers while you can---I'm going see Peter Frampton at Soaring Eagle next month and to Chicago this summer to see The Stones. And it's sounding very likely The Who have reached the end of their road: according to Roger Daltry, there's nothing scheduled for 2024 other than a couple benefit performances next month at Royal Albert Hall.
Just last week we lost Woodstock legend Melanie Safka (today would have been her 77th birthday). In honor of Melanie, here's a short clip of her Woodstock performance:
February 3rd, 2024 at 12:20 PM ^
Yet amazingly Iggy Pop is still alive.
February 3rd, 2024 at 3:11 PM ^
If you watch old Stooges concerts (or were fortunate enough to see them then) it would not surprise you to find that Iggy is superhuman & will out live everyone!
From 1st note to last he was a perpetual motion machine; the 1st to crowd surf & stage dive, rolling around the stage, humping, grinding, cutting himself on mic stands or such & just letting it bleed.
Drugs, booze and recklessness couldn't kill him - what could?!
For a more MC5 focused memory from Olde Ann Arbor, there used to be free concerts at the West Park band shell in the 60s, when I was a dirty little hippie kid running around. Seger, Stooges, SRC, Rare Earth, Grand Funk and of course MC5 all played them.
The song Kick Out the Jams became such a cause celebre, with all the children of all ages screaming out "Mother Fuckers" in unison, that the residents around West Park demanded the free concerts be relocated! And so they were, to Gallup Park, until they died a natural death with the onset of disco...
February 3rd, 2024 at 4:08 PM ^
Iggy, Ozzy & Keith Richards will outlive us all. They’ll survive the zombie apocalypse, sleep through the end of days & take nuclear winter as a good opportunity to work on their tans. And even when the eternal darkness comes for the cockroaches, it won’t survive a night out Ozzy, Iggy & Keef.
February 3rd, 2024 at 5:11 PM ^
I saw Iggy warm up for the Stones at the Silverdome. I think it was 1980.
We got there super early and were very close to the stage. Iggy warmed up, and no one came to the show to see him. It was maybe the only time I ever felt sorry for a performer, because some of us made it quite clear that after a long day of sitting on the concrete we were not into waiting any longer. I’ll never forget, he sarcastically said “thank you so much, you have been so kind,” or something along those lines. It was kinda sad, really, but he also wasn’t very good.
The Stones, though, were amazing.
February 3rd, 2024 at 6:10 PM ^
Amazing. Iggy & The Stones would be a dream lineup for me, but I can’t imagine they had a lot of mutual fans in 1980.
I’ve see the ‘Stones 3 times - each show very different from the others and all of them fantastic.
I have only seen Iggy once - when the Stooges reformed in the early 2000s. There was a documentary crew filming, including a dolly/track set-up on the stage - I can remember him jumping on the Dolly rig (singing to the camera) and shaking it so hard it jumped the tracks. Will never forget the poor camera op holding onto his seat for dear life.
Iggy got super annoyed with security because they stopped kids from climbing on the stage & repeatedly shouting “this isn’t nazi germany!!”.
Needless to say it was one of the best shows I’ve ever been to. I had tickets to see the James Williamson lineup about a decade later, but bailed at the last minute, because I had an early meeting the next day. I have never felt like such a sellout in all my life. Watching video of that show brings sorrow and shame.
February 3rd, 2024 at 6:39 PM ^
I was there too, Santana was 2nd on the stage and gave us a great show that evening.
But not only did the restless crowd NOT want Iggy that night, he reportedly wasn't wearing anything under the robe-like outfit he showed up wearing. The fans weren't impressed with Iggy's junk.
February 3rd, 2024 at 2:20 PM ^
Rob F - Thanks for posting. This whole thread is a trip down memory. I particularly enjoyed your comment about our ability or lack thereof to get proof that such an event took place which for me happened in middle school.
Also, I didn't know that Melanie performed at Woodstock. (I was at Woodstock expect it 15 years after the event was over.) Oddly enough, my mom and dad were big Melanie fans.
Interesting times, there was an empty church at the end of our street. Bands used to practice in it. I know for a fact that Frijid Pink played there but there are rumors of the MC5, Bob Seger, and Vincent Furnier practiced there also. There were several night clubs in the area with live bands. I suspect some memories have overrun each other.
February 3rd, 2024 at 3:50 PM ^
Wow, Frijid Pink. I haven't seen or heard mention of that band in a decade or two. Best known for a kick-ass version of House Of the Rising Sun, they were damn good.
You mentioned Bob Seger---my first Seger concert was at Riverside Park in Grand Rapids at the annual WLAV Raft Race. A free concert, too: Seger played for about an hour that afternoon.
I honestly don't remember the exact year he played (other bands I remember seeing besides Seger at the annual Raft Race include John McLaughlin /Mahavishnu Orchestra, Lobo, and the Bay City Rollers, all of them in the early to mid-70s) I was a 3-time participant there, floating down the river while floating on beer and another substance.
Footage of the "race" from 1972, I believe the first year I was on the river.
February 3rd, 2024 at 11:14 AM ^
Looking at the crowd in the first video you posted reminded me of Marty McFly jamming at the high school dance.
They were ahead of their times for sure.
February 3rd, 2024 at 11:28 AM ^
What I've always like about that Tartar Field video (among other things) is that after "Ramblin' Rose" (in which a very high Wayne Kramer struts and preens and sings falsetto to a not very receptive audience), they then go into "Kick Out the Jams" which causes the crowd to get out of their seats like there has been an electric shock delivered...and then they don't do anything! The crowd was leaving it up to the MC5 to do the rockin' out, because the crowd was sedate as hell.
February 3rd, 2024 at 12:26 PM ^
LOL, you could see the cars whipping by in the background on the Lodge.
February 3rd, 2024 at 11:25 AM ^
E=MC5
Rest Triumphant, Brother Wayne.
February 3rd, 2024 at 11:31 AM ^
To paraphrase a critic, punk was born in Detroit in the late 1960s. Fuck Hudson's.
February 3rd, 2024 at 11:33 AM ^
RIP I saw them in the Grande Ballroom. Kick out the jams motherfuckers.
February 3rd, 2024 at 12:02 PM ^
MC5's cover of Chuck Berry's "Back in the USA" (produced by Jon Landau who once managed MC5 and Bruce Springsteen as well James Cameron's films, Titanic and the two Avatar films) was among songs in my college radio show's regular rotation back in 1970-71.
February 3rd, 2024 at 12:20 PM ^
I did not know about this band until the late 70s. A high School friend had some of their records and I thought it was great rock. In the early 70s I liked Zep and PF but these bands got a lot more radio play in the early 70s.
February 3rd, 2024 at 12:30 PM ^
The Rolling Stones continue to tour and now all their band members are in their 80s. From my perspective, just turning 60 last year, 75 seems kind of young. RIP Kramer.
February 3rd, 2024 at 3:15 PM ^
Well, 75 is not young in drug years!
That's like Wayne lived to 100!
February 3rd, 2024 at 12:31 PM ^
Sad day for sure.
We also are confirming who are the older posters on this board.
Here's that John Sinclair rally with John and Oko. Stevie Wonder and Bob Seger performed as well. Love the 70's.
https://youtu.be/Yi4VDlQviqY?si=h7Qvpr9NQUyMOsJ6
February 3rd, 2024 at 3:17 PM ^
Zoltan, most of the younger Mgoblogosphere didn't click this link because they don't know who Wayne Kramer was!
They think The Killers are oldies!
February 3rd, 2024 at 3:13 PM ^
This hidden gem is an absolute JAM!
February 3rd, 2024 at 4:09 PM ^
I enjoyed the documentary, A Band Called Death, very much.
February 3rd, 2024 at 3:55 PM ^
played them regular on my show on WCBN in the 80s but always w a bit of fear from the Man as the F bombs were the sort of thing the FCC was using to fine stations. but you know, F em.
February 3rd, 2024 at 8:16 PM ^
I took full advantage when I was on the “safe harbor” night shift.
February 3rd, 2024 at 11:29 PM ^
Same, alongside the Stooges and lots of metal.
also this was back when Ron Ashton was occasionally dropping in for, fuck, forget whose show it was he’d swing by for but there’s another punk rock legend gone to dust.
February 3rd, 2024 at 4:53 PM ^
A sad day for us Punk enthusiasts for sure. To the MGoBoard member that has Iggy's high school picture as their avatar...hats off to you my friend.
February 3rd, 2024 at 5:04 PM ^
James Osterberg, Pioneer class of '66.
I've heard Jimmy was on the golf team too?! A natural athlete, but not born to follow rules...