For a band that never had a hit single, the Detroit rock band MC5 managed to be one of the most influential groups in music history. Countless artists, from Motörhead to The Clash to The White Stripes to Alice Cooper, were influenced by MC5; Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine once said they "basically invented punk rock."
Sadly, by the time Morello inducted MC5 into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2024, all of the band's original members (Rob Tyner, Fred “Sonic” Smith, Michael Davis, Wayne Kramer, and Dennis Thompson) had passed away. But their legacy lives on, particularly in the band's signature song: "Kick Out the Jams."
Released as a single in 1969 (and included on the album of the same name), the song's title was inspired by an expression the band used when they were disappointed by other musicians, as Kramer told Songfacts in 2018.
"We were using the expression for a long time, because we would be critical of other bands that came to Detroit that the MC5 would open for. They'd come into town with this big reputation, and then they'd get up on stage and they weren't very good. So, we used to harass them. We'd yell at them, 'Kick out the jams or get off the stage, motherf—ker!' Finally, one day we said, 'I like that expression. We should use that as the title of a song.'"
Kramer went on to recall how he and Tyner wrote "Kick Out the Jams" after the band members took up residence in a former dental office.
"We were going through a very creative period," Kramer explained. "The band had just moved in together for the very first time. There used to be a building in downtown Detroit that was a dentist's office on the second floor, and we all moved into different rooms in the dentist's office as our bedrooms. And then downstairs was a storefront. I covered the walls with egg crates and made it a rehearsal studio, so for the first time we could rehearse whenever we wanted to — all day, all night if we wanted to — and we all lived there."
"So, it became possible to really develop some songs and some music," he continued. "And Tyner and I developed a little habit of sitting down at the kitchen table with a couple of joints of reefer, a little amp, my electric guitar. He'd have a notepad, I would just play guitar riffs, and he would listen and say, 'Wait, wait...play that one again. No, change that a little bit. OK, play that again. Play that four times.' And then we would start to cobble the songs together. That was where 'Kick Out the Jams' was born."
MC5 recorded the Kick Out the Jams album live at Detroit’s Grande Ballroom over the course of two nights on October 30 and 31, 1968. They even recorded two versions of the song "Kick Out the Jams" in an effort to avoid backlash from radio stations...but according to Kramer, the record label made a decision that landed the band in hot water anyway.
"We knew ‘Kick out the jams, motherf—ker’ was never going to get played on the radio, so we recorded a ‘Kick out the jams, brothers and sisters’ version for the single," Kramer told Classic Rock in 2019. "We instructed Elektra to wait until it peaked in the chart before releasing the album. Because when the album’s released the s—t’s gonna hit the fan, but we’ll have won already by having a hit single. Well, once they saw the single taking off they rushed the album out. And when kids came home with this record and mom and dad heard ‘motherf—ker,' you could hear the outrage reverberate across America."
Gijsbert Hanekroot / Getty Images
MC5's relationship with Elektra deteriorated rapidly after that.
“Elektra asked us, could they put out a clean version of the album," Kramer said. "We said no and they did it anyway. We’d already had a major disruption in our relationship, and then, because our contract said we had control of our advertising, and a local store refused to carry our records and we called them on it in very graphic street language and sent Elektra the bill. That was the final straw and Elektra fired us.”
Following their split from Elektra, MC5 signed to Atlantic. And despite the controversy, "Kick Out the Jams" went on to become one of the most iconic songs of the era, not to mention one of the most covered: Blue Öyster Cult, Pearl Jam, Jeff Buckley, and Suzi Quatro are just a few of the notable bands and musicians who've recorded their own versions of the tune.
In 2014, Paste ranked "Kick Out the Jams" at #15 on a list of the "50 Best Garage Songs of All Time."
"There’s a reason the Motor City Five named its debut after this punishing song, and that reason is a battle cry that would ring on for decades after its release: 'KICK OUT THE JAMS, MOTHERF—KER!'" wrote music journalist Tyler Kane.
"These proto-punks are the reason Detroit is a firm pin in the Map of Classic Garage Rock, and you can see the city’s effect in the band’s very qualities," Kane continued. "The MC5, aside from being the most brutal band to emerge from the ‘60s, was a blue-collar, rowdy, thoughtful, soulful, political act, and 'Kick Out the Jams' is undoubtedly its best-known offering."
Related: 1969 Hit, Written on an Organ, Changed Hard Rock Forever
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