The MC5's Wayne Kramer and Dennis Thompson: "Hard Stuff," Controversy and Influence

The MC5 (Motor City 5) probably was known best for the controversies it created and for the influence it had on other musicians. The band put out three albums, "Kick Out the Jams" (live 1969), "Back in the USA" (1970) and "High Time" (1971), and had one well-known single, "Kick Out the Jams." You can hear various versions of "Kick Out the Jams" on YouTube. Here's one of them (listener beware, the group's controversial profanity is at the beginning). And here's a video about the band itself. Guitarist Wayne Kramer, who spent four years in federal prison for selling drugs, wrote "The Hard Stuff: Dope, Crime, The MC5, and My Life of Impossibilities," a paperback published in 2021. In the chapters, you'll see an image of the book's cover along with shots of the band's albums. All are available on Amazon.For this episode, the pictures in the thumbnail of Kramer and drummer Dennis Thompson are from Wikimedia Commons, attributed respectively to Hugh Shirley Candyside, CC BY-SA 2.0 and Retrokimmer, CC BY-SA 4.0.This tribute is one of 41 stories that Sheldon Zoldan, a longtime journalist, has written about the music notables who passed away in 2024. He's written tributes for other years as well. You can listen to the ones from 2023 on Everyday Creation. Sheldon also created Song of the Day, which was a daily feature delivered to an email list of subscribers. He ended it in early 2026 which, I suppose, means that Song of the Day deserves a tribute of its own. The good thing is that the tributes to music makers live on. Each is a snapshot of the life of one music maker whose work made an impact on the lives of many.Send us Fan MailThis is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to Everyday Creation®, available on YouTube and in major podcast directories including Apple, Spotify, iHeart and Audible.