DETROIT'S MC5 RECORDED KICK OUT THE JAMS LIVE LP 44 YRS AGO

MC5

Rob Tyner – lead vocals

Wayne Kramer - lead guitar

Fred "Sonic" Smith – rhythm and lead guitar

Michael Davis – bass guitar, backing vocals

Dennis Thompson – drums

Brother J. C. Crawford

The LP peaked at No. 30 on the Billboard 200 chart, with the title track peaking at No. 82 in the Hot 100. Although the album received an unfavorable review in Rolling Stone magazine upon its release, it has gone on to be considered an important forerunner to punk rock music, and in 2003 was ranked number 294 on Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list.

While "Ramblin' Rose" and "Motor City is Burning" open with inflammatory rhetoric, it was the opening line to the title track that stirred up controversy. Vocalist Rob Tyner shouted, "And right now... right now... right now it's time to... kick out the jams, Motherfuckers!" before the opening riffs.

Elektra Records executives were offended by the line and had preferred to edit it out of the album (replacing the offending words with "brothers and sisters"), while the band and manager John Sinclair adamantly opposed this.

PopMatters reviewer Adam Williams wrote, "For my money, Kick out the Jams is one of the greatest records ever pressed. It is a magnificent time portal into the past, a fleeting glimpse of a band that actually had the balls to walk it like they talked it" and that "no live recording has captured the primal elements of rock more than the MC5's inaugural effort."

And with that...it's time to....
In Memory of Rob Tyner, Fred Sonic Smith, and Michael Davis RIP............. xxK