Re: R.I.P. Wayne Kramer

A sucky turn of events.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/02/2024 08:18PM by breno.

I really regret missing that show he did with Pere Ubu last year.

I love all three albums (and the early singles) by the original MC5. Wayne's YouTube channel has collected quite a bit of amazing live footage too:

[www.youtube.com]

I knew this would get posted here when I heard the news.

I’d kinda like to get all of your thoughts on MC5 and your relation to them. How did you get into them? Or did you never get into them?

I was way too young to have known them in their heyday. But as I was discovering punk in the late 70’s, I’d certainly read about the numerous godfathers (mc5, stooges, dictators, etc). Picking up their records was playing catch-up for me… I was never gonna hear the mc5 on any radio station.

Not sure to this day if I ever fully ‘got’ them… but WANT to. (it was more obvious to me with say the ramones). What’s your experience?

(I think ‘back in the USA’ is my fave lp by them).

Pretty boring for me - I just read about them in Clinton Heylin's book From the Velvets to the Voidoids and tracked down Rhino's compilation, The Big Bang! The Best of the MC5. Eventually I got the individual albums, but sorry to say, they've never been served well on reissued CD's. I had to fix the sloppy edit that restored "motherf*****" on that CD of Kick Out the Jams, and I heavily re-EQ'ed Back in the USA just to mitigate Jon Landau's notoriously thin production. Still have those CD-R's.

BABES IN ARMS was my introduction to the band, and even though it's a singles/outtakes compilation, it remains my favorite album of theirs.

I can imagine what might have been if "Kick Out the Jams" became a hit single, Elektra let them release KICK OUT THE JAMS as a double album with "Black to Comm" taking up one side, BACK IN THE U.S.A. were better produced and, most of all, they didn't erupt in a cloud of heroin in the '70s.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/03/2024 03:10AM by steevee.

I never have gotten too much into their studio recordings. But the MC50 tour was incredible.

Rest in peace, Wayne, and thanks.

The problem for me was that the MC5 were much better live and the studio could never capture that.

I only saw him twice (MC50 and Pere Ubu) and he seemed so at ease and glad to be on stage performing. Even with Ubu, where everyone on stage was so serious and dealing with Dave Thomas' outbursts, Kramer just kept smiling as if to say 'Dave's going to do what he wants to but it doesn't matter, I'm here to have a good time'.

I stupidly thought Looking at You was a Damned original, then a friend came to my house with Back in the USA and it's been one of my favourites ever since. I even like the questionable production. Got into High Time much later. I really liked the DTK-MC5 tour here in '03 with Mark Arm, Dando and Deniz Tek. The weird thing was, Arm sang the songs I thought Dando would do (eg Shakin' Street) and vice versa. Tek's addition was seamless.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/04/2024 08:52PM by Aitch.

Still processing this. I first got into Kramer through his solo album The Hard Stuff, which led me to the MC5, and a lifelong love affair was born. I interviewed Kramer for a Pop Culture Press feature in the late 90s loosely referred to as "children of the MC5," talking to him, the BellRays, and the Streetwalkin' Cheetahs in the same afternoon. He was a very articulate and thoughtful interview, pondering each question before answering. One of my favorite interviews ever.

I tried to see him play every time he came to Austin, so that's six counts by my estimation: once with DTK MC5 (with Mark Arm, Evan Dando, and Marshall Crenshaw), once with MC50, and four solo band shows. The last time I saw him was a benefit for Jail Guitar Doors USA. All were great - the man had rock & roll in his soul.