Kick Out the Jams

Just about fifty years ago the debut album by MC5, Kick Out the Jams, was released. The band, part of the Detroit rock sound that also gave birth to The Stooges, only made three albums, but had a huge impact on rock, particularly punk and hardcore.

MC5 (Motor City 5) got started with Wayne Kramer and Fred Smith (who would later be the husband of Patti Smith). The band became a local hit, playing many venues in the Detroit area. Their first record was a live album, recorded October 30-31 at the Grande Ballroom. Of course, October 30 has a special resonance for Detroiters, as that is Devil's Night, which came to be a night of destruction, as many buildings burned down on that night of the year.

The album is short, with only eight songs, but is powerful. There is nothing shy about these guys, as the guitars buzz and the vocals of Randy Tyner are not so much sung as expectorated. The band was very much tied to leftist causes, and the title song can be roughly translated as "reject everything your parents told you." In the uncensored version, the word "motherfuckers" is added.

This was proto-punk, and unlike much of '60s music, as good it is,  it is not dated a bit. It sounds like it could have been recorded last night. This type of loud, angry, aggressive music is always current. But they also experimented with other forms of music. The long, weird "Starship" was co-credited to Sun Ra, who was an experimental jazz musician. "Ramblin' Rose" was a cover of a country song.

As with Led Zeppelin's debut album, it was panned by Rolling Stone (Lester Bangs, in his first review for them, to show that even was wrong every once in a while). Later Kick Out the Jams would be on their list of the 100 greatest albums of all time.