The MC5 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

In memory of Wayne Kramer.

Author’s Note: On February 2, 2024, Wayne Kramer, lead guitarist of the MC5, passed away with a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer at the age of 75. He was co-architect of the MC5’s music and their free-jazz-influenced sound, along with Fred “Sonic” Smith on guitar, Rob Tyner on vocals, and Michael Davis on bass. Kramer was the longest-lived member of the band, outlived only by their drummer, Dennis “Machine Gun” Thompson. The other band members have been dead for years.

The MC5 has often been described as the forerunner of the punk movement in rock music. They were trailblazers, and they were unique. What set them apart from their followers was a dedication to incorporating free jazz into rock music. Free jazz is a form of jazz music that is without rules and seeks to achieve transcendence through chaos (my interpretation). The MC5 was influenced by free jazz masters such as the perenially weird Sun Ra, among others. Jazz great Charles Moore can be heard playing trumpet over a Salvation Army band during the extended fadeout to Sister Anne on the High Time album.

In tribute to Wayne Kramer, I decided to reprint this article from 2022 when the MC5 was once again nominated to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Once again, they were not inducted.

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Here’s some exciting news: the MC5, the greatest rock band Detroit ever spawned, has been nominated to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, for the 6th time. Wayne Kramer, one of two surviving members of the seminal Detroit rock group, calls them the “Susan Lucci” of the Rock Hall. Other acts with the most nominations without being inducted are Chic (11) and  Chaka Khan (6). One month after their nomination they received the least votes of all the nominees, except for afrobeat titan, Fela Kuti. 

I care about the MC5 because they were local rock heroes when I was a teen. They played at all the venues where I saw bands in those days. Hundreds of bands, probably. The first time I heard Kick Out the Jams was on a local Top 40 station. It made the hair on my arms stand up, made me grab my radio, and say “Who is this??” We had local rock heroes in those days. Bob Seger, who we thought should have broken through to the big time long before “Live Bullet.” The Rationals. The Frost, SRC, Third Power, Brownsville Station, The Psychedelic Stooges, All the Lonely People, and many more. They played in our high schools and then they played on the circuit of the “pleasure palaces of America,” as Leon Russell once called them—teen-oriented rooms where no alcohol was served. 

Why should the MC5 be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Well, maybe they shouldn’t. The band has always been a strong anti-establishment voice, usually to their detriment.  Back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when they were at their peak, there was no strong independent music business. To get along in the music business you had to get along with the corporate giants. The MC5 were so full of revolutionary zeal that they couldn’t bend to the corporate will. Their single from their debut album was Kick Out the Jams, and the title song was kicked off by Rob Tyner shouting, loud and clear, “Kick out the jams, motherfuckers!” The biggest department store chain in the Detroit area was Hudson’s, and they refused to carry the album due to profanity. The band retaliated by purchasing a full page of a local hippie newspaper featuring the words “Fuck Hudson’s!” The store responded by refusing to carry any records put out by Elektra, the label the MC5 was on. Elektra also had big sellers like The Doors and a long history of records by a roster of folk music legends. Rather than lose a profitable account like Hudson’s they dropped the MC5. 

The MC5 showed so much potential (they had already been on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine) that they were almost immediately picked up by another label, Atlantic. 

In the end, the MC5 had to be written off as a commercial flop. Their second album, Back in the USA,  was produced by rock critic Jon Landau. Landau did not have a strong track record as a producer. A misguided search for a hit single resulted in an album that lacked the thunder the MC5 was noted for. They were reduced to a tinny clatter and covers of 50s rock songs. The song chosen as the lead-off single was Tonight, not exactly the best song on the album. The clear choice for a hit single was The American Ruse, but it must have been deemed too radical. The audience the band had built over the last few years was disappointed, now seeing the group as sell-outs. Dennis Thompson, the drummer for the MC5, said that their second album “...cut our audience in two, and we didn’t have another audience to replace them.” (“The Rise and Fall of the MC5” by Ian Fines, on Furious dot com.)

Jon Landau went on to other things and the MC5 continued their journey. Their third album, High Time, was an unqualified triumph in every way except sales. It was a resounding flop commercially. It was their best album. The thunder was back. The band had learned how to use the studio to harness their sound and they wrote some great songs. I saw the band around this time, and it was one of the most exciting shows I have ever seen. High Time was everything an MC5 album should be, but when it was released the audience for it had dwindled to almost nothing. In a commercial sense, there was simply no interest in the MC5 anymore. The band drifted apart. They have since been credited with influencing everybody from the punks to the hair-metal movement to grunge. They were a momentous force, and their impact far outlived their career. 

So now they are at the bottom of the vote tally for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, again. The fact that they have garnered 5 previous nominations and, frankly, any votes at all, speaks for their ongoing impact and influence.

The Rock Hall doesn’t deserve the MC5. They’ve got their spot in Rock and Roll Heaven already. 

Why do I think that it is time to write about the MC5? This is a time when we are more aware of freedom in our world, and the degree to which it is challenged. Freedom can be lost. Don’t take it for granted.