Wayne Kramer: The Hard Stuff book and a review of the final MC5 album

I read an interview with Iggy Pop awhile back where he said the best guitarists were thugs. He was talking about his Stooges, but given their history, he probably was thinking of the MC5s Wayne Kramer as well. I bought “Kick out the Jams” likely just based on its reputation without hearing it first. 

Although I never liked the MC5 as much as I did the Stooges, there was no denying its energy. There was real anger in its politics. In many ways the first step in the political side of punk. Though arguably its lineage is punk, I think most would agree that it is more accurate to call it proto heavy metal. While the New York Dolls and Ramones picked from girl groups and surf rock, the MC5 pulled from Jazz, Blues, ames Brown and Sun Ra. That said, I think it’s well deserving of its reputation and although it was seemingly downhill from there, there are a few standout songs in their discography like “Looking at You”. 

It is that reputation that made me interested in Kramer’s autobiography- 2018s The Hard Stuff. It’s not a perfect book by any means but Kramer is still a fascinating character. The more interesting parts of the book are unsurprisingly about the 5. Kramer has famously stated that the “Kick out the Jams” performance was not one of their strongest moments and the band’s live performances were even better still. As history has shown, the band was marred by self destructive behavior and record company fumbling. I find it fascinating that since the MC5 were speaking to such highly principled ideas, the fans’ expectations became unrealistic and they turned on them. It’s hard to describe Kramer’s life as anything but starts and stops. It feels like any biography of an addict. With the MC5 no longer a going concern, Kramer takes up small crimes. He famously ends up in prison in the mid 70s. After his stint there, Kramer starts a band with Johnny Thunders called Gang War, writes songs with Mick Farren, and finds some fame in playing with an early lineup of Was (Not Was). But that artistic and commercial well dries up and Kramer finds himself having to go into carpentry and woodwork to make a living. I can’t help but think of Kramer’s time in Key West where he was an anonymous member in a bar band. I was always excited that Kramer got the late life career resurrection. I always found him sort of a mismatch to Epitaph Records label that signed him (home of Bad Religion, No FX and the Offspring). 

This book gives the truth that these years and the MC5/DTK (a partial MC5 reunion) were not quite the Hollywood ending that us fans hoped them to be. This book came out in 2018 and Kramer at age 70 finally seems to have found peace. He’s making jazz music and it’s having success. He has cleaned his life up and he would be taking the MC5 back on the road (as the last active member surrounded by band fans like Kim Thayil, Matt Cameron and Brendan Canty. He also spearheaded Jail Guitar Doors USA- an American branch of the prison social outreach started by Billy Bragg in the UK named after a Clash song that referenced Kramer in its lyrics. In the afterword, he has also adopted a son and became a father. Kramer led an interesting life and he can tell a story. Some reviewers say the book focused too much on his rehab, but it is key to his story and I didn’t find that a negative. 

 It isn’t surprising that there would be a MC5 reunion album. From 2003 on with brief hiatuses, the band was often alive in some form. From 2018 until February of 2020, as the band now celebrated their 50th anniversary, Kramer announced a world tour that was billed MC50 and was the band that was featured in Kramer’s book. Post pandemic, in 2022, Kramer was ready to bring back the MC5, hitting all the media to say We Are All the MC5. With so many members passed away including singer Rob Tyner, it’s not quite the same but you also can’t blame Kramer for keeping the band alive. His plan was a new tour and a new album. The roots of this likely came in Alice Cooper’s 2021 album Detroit Stories. That album was Cooper writing a love letter to Deroit, and in doing so reunited the classic Alice Cooper Band lineup for two of the album’s tracks. The album was produced by Bob Ezrin who had produced the classic Cooper albums. But also of interest, Kramer played on most every track and cowrote three of the album’s 12 original tracks with Cooper. 

Heavy Lifting, that anticipated MC5 release did not see release until October 2024. Sadly, the last two remaining members had passed away- Kramer passed away in February that year followed by drummer Dennis Thompson that May. I am not sure what my expectations of Heavy Lifting were. To be sure, expecting an album like Kick Out the Jams is not realistic. Kramer has put together a real lineup for the band with Arizona based singer Brad Brooks as cowriter for the material, and a band that includes Don Was, 90s guitar hero Stevie Salas, Vicki Randle of the Tonight Show with Jay Leno band and Abe Laboriel Jr who often plays drums for Paul McCartney. Not surprisingly he also find a lot of guests to cameo- Slash of Guns N Roses, Tom Morello, Vernon Reid, Tim McIlreath of Rise Against and William Duvall who is the current singer of Alice In Chains. Ezrin produces and Dennis Thompson plays on two tracks. Not surprising given the guests, I think the sound is probably closer to Hard Rock than Punk. You hear elements of grunge, Living Color and Rage Against the Machine. 

It doesn’t have a ton of personality sadly and falls a bit in my opinion. That said, it does have a certain kick and I think it’s a nice bookend piece to Kramer’s career and life. It hits the mark enough that I can’t help but wondering where it could gain an audience if it had been released in a different era. . There’s not a ton of rock records getting played these days but this certainly is in that category of recent albums by Cooper and Blue Oyster Cult that FM diehards have bought in quantity. There is a heavy blues rock sound that is definitely the 5’s trademark and the current audience of that genre would probably dig it. Stylistically, there is a certain 80s quality. Not unlike Living Colour or The Cult, it might have done well in the era of glam rock. Wanting to overthink alternate history, would this album have given Kramer a resurrection in the Lollapalooza era of the 90s. Given he was signed to Epitaph, it is doubtful that it would have been any different. But it is generally enjoyable. 

At best when it’s straightforward like the opening title track with Morello or the similar or the lead single “Boys Who Play With Matches”. Melodic track “Blind Eye” with Thompson on drums is a particular high point and I wish more songs had a little bit of pop punk sheen like it. Instead it’s probably closer to the post grunge that these days are called (not) pejoratively as Butt Rock. The album included a bonus disc of the MC50 band playing the classics. In 2025, there was an additional release attributed to the MC50 featuring a lineup with Thayill, Canty, Billy Gould of Faith No More, Marcus Durant of Zen Guerilla and Kramer. This album hits the three original classic albums and a cover of Ray Charles’s “I Believe to my Soul”- an old setlist constant that the band played. It serves as a surprisingly good introduction to the band. The band is in fine form with all of the energy one comes to associate with the MC5.