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MOTOR CITY FIVE (MC5)
1969 - Kick Out The Jams.
way more Helter Skelter.

February 1969 - 2024: 55 years of: Kick Out The Jams.

Beyond rocknroll: a revolution !

Eons before SYSTEM OF A DOWN, RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE, DEAD KENNEDYS and the smelly SEX PISTOLS ...some punks were punks before punk was punk.

Detroit, the birthplace of garage-rock and American rebellion, all made from proud US-of-A steel and fine mechanics. Five young hooligans would break the hazy hippie counterculture and bring it down, into what matters: the working man streets. World ...here is the rocknroll assault of the Motor City Five ...the MC5.

The ravaging guitars wipes the floor with their overdriven version of Ted Taylor's "Ramblin' Rose". Intensity and adrenaline, decibels and destruction, the ultimate recipe for domination. Domination ensued. Speakers burst under both the weight and sheer force of "Come Together" and the robust power-punch of "Rocket Reducer No. 62 (Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa)". Think you'll make it thru the night ?

Digging in the blues, the crew slows down for an electrified rendition of John Lee Hooker's "Motor City Is Burning". Both crude and historic, these recollections of the bloody Summer 1967 Detroit riots are cold reminders that the United States Of America ...weren't always united between all social-classes.

The loudest war-cry of this generation. Laying a line in the sand, you are either with us, or against us. It takes five seconds to realize "Kick Out The Jams" is the track that broke America in half, with it's swinging riff and commanding vocal-delivery. Tired of the Vietnam war, the Red Scare and the inner-cities inequality, it's time to kick out the jams. Kick out the old and kick out the hate, this is the rawest exhibition of both love and anarchy, packaged in an easy-to-swallow 2:37sec punk-pill.

Pushing the envelope and melting Marshalls, this is one of hard-rocknroll's most iconic and pivotal song.

The Motor City is burning ...loved by teens and monitored by the Authorities, MC5 were the spark that lit the gasoline. Changing society and shedding skin, one shout at a time ...this is a revolution. Pushing the Conservative Establishment to the breaking point, their proud rocknroll was the voice of a disgruntled generation: the essence of punk-rock.

Recorded live at Detroit's Grande Ballroom on a cold 1968 Halloween night, the power and might of this performance was hot enough to be immediately released on tape, before the band had an actual full-lenght studio-album out.

Censored in stores, the LP was refused retail-showcase by Detroit's chain Hudson's. Worried the "F-word" in the title-song might damage their puritan-profanity-protected customers, the rock-boys retaliated with a full-page advertisement that clearly displayed their state of mind on the matter and reads as follow: "FUCK HUDSON'S !". The store then threaten to boycott Elektra Records releases from their shelves, a controversy that didn't pan with the label that soon dropped the band from it's roster.

Closing the lid on the 60s, no record is as chaotic and unexpected as Kick Out The Jams. An immovable monument in rebellion, a landmark in hard-rocknroll. MC5 is the definitive nuclear assault America needed to branch out of the sterile baby-boom status-quo. The revolution would focus and these white panthers would fire again, with 1970's Back In The USA and 1971's High Time LPs. But by late 72, the band was no more. Like a flash, in a mere three years, they were gone ...so punk.

FUCK HUDSON'S !

RIP Brother Rob Tyner (1944-1991)
RIP Brother Fred Smith (1948-1994)
RIP Brother Michael Davis (1943-2012)
RIP Brother Wayne Kramer (1948-2024)

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Kick Out The Jams = 50 years video montage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c57qLiskcYk
Kick Out The Jams = full LP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUzgztAtezo&list=OLAK5uy_mm71NFGqX-8Y9tZIEA4ieHE91uJKNbXuY
Live in Detroit's Tartar Field in 1970
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74jS3dW0DtE
Professor Wayne
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwfpU6X6Hr4