ZUM TOD DES US-AMERIKANISCHEN GITARRISTEN, SÄNGERS UND KOMPONISTEN WAYNE KRAMER (MC5)

05.02.2024 Der am 30. April 1948 in Detroit geborene US-amerikanische Gitarrist, Sänger und Komponist Wayne Kramer (Bild) ist am 2. Februar 2024 in Los Angeles gestorben. Als Mitbegründer der prägenden Detroiter Rock- und Proto-Punk-Gruppe MC5 (Motor City 5) kam er zu grossem, auch internationalem Ruhm. "Diese Band war damals sowohl für ihre energiegeladenen Live-Auftritte bekannt, als auch für ihre extreme linke politische Einstellung. MC5 löste sich (...) bald wieder auf, da viele der Bandmitglieder mit persönlichen, aber auch Drogenproblemen zu kämpfen hatten. Das führte zu einigen schlimmen Jahren für Kramer, er kämpfte sich durch eine lange Zeit der Drogenabhängigkeit, bis er es letztlich schaffte, in den 1990er-Jahren wieder im Musikbusiness Fuss zu fassen." (*) Zwischenzeitlich musste Kramer auch ins Gefängnis; später gründete er die Organisation Jail Guitar Doors, die Musikinstrumente und -stunden für GefängnisinsassInnen vermittelte. Zuletzt war Kramer mit Marianne Faithfull auf Tour und Mitglied ihrer Band.

Bild: Wayne Kramer, 1974 - Foto: Hugh Shirley Candyside, https://www.flickr.com/photos/infinite_monkey/2237695843/in/faves-24788065@N02/ - Lizenz: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en - Datei: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wayne_Kramer_1974_by_Hugh_Candyside.jpg

Wayne Kramer, MC5 Co-Founder and Activist, Dead at 75

The founding member of the legendary Detroit proto-punk band was one of rock’s greatest guitarists.

On Rolling Stone’s 250 Greatest Guitarists of All Time list — with Kramer sharing placement alongside Fred "Sonic" Smith — we wrote, "Forged in Detroit during the 1960s, the MC5 guitar tandem of Kramer and Smith worked together like the pistons of a powerful engine. Combining Chuck Berry and early Motown influences with a budding interest in free jazz, the pair could kick their band’s legendarily high-energy jams deep into space while simultaneously keeping one foot in the groove."

Daniel Kreps

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/wayne-kramer-mc5-dead-1234960020/

Wayne Kramer, Co-Founder of Revolutionary Detroit Rock Band the MC5, Dies at 75

From the late 1960s to early 1970s, no band was closer to the revolutionary spirit of the time than the MC5, which featured Kramer and Fred "Sonic" Smith on guitars, Rob Tyner on vocals, Michael Davis on bass and Dennis "Machine Gun" Thompson on drums. Managed for a time by White Panther co-founder John Sinclair, they were known for their raw, uncompromising music, which they envisioned as the soundtrack for the uprising to come.

https://www.billboard.com/music/rock/wayne-kramer-dead-mc5-obituary-1235597017/

Rockers Pay Tribute To MC5's WAYNE KRAMER Following His Death

Slash (GUNS N' ROSES), Duff McKagan (GUNS N' ROSES), Tom Morello (RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE), William DuVall (ALICE IN CHAINS), Ted Nugent and Alice Cooper are among the musicians who have reacted on social media to the passing of Wayne Kramer, co-founder, guitarist, and singer of the influential Detroit rock band MC5.

https://blabbermouth.net/news/rockers-pay-tribute-to-mc5s-wayne-kramer-following-his-death

Wayne Kramer, Guitarist With the Incendiary MC5, Is Dead at 75

Wayne Kramer, a founder and guitarist of the incendiary Detroit band the MC5, whose furious musical salvos against all things Establishment made them a house band of sorts for the radical left in the late 1960s and early ’70s and helped set the template for punk rock, died on Friday in Los Angeles. (…)

The heart of the wall-shaking sound of the MC5 (the name was short for Motor City Five), formed in Lincoln Park, Mich., in 1965, was the twin-guitar attack of Mr. Kramer and Fred (Sonic) Smith. (...) They would go on to inspire generations of bands, including the Clash, the Sex Pistols, the Ramones and Motorhead.

Alex Williams, William Lamb

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/02/arts/music/wayne-kramer-dead.html

Wayne Kramer, influential guitarist of MC5, dead at 75

Kramer was a musician, activist, onetime federal drug prisoner and a family man during his decades-spanning career. He led the notorious proto-punk band, which disbanded in 1972 after a short run. MC5, which stands for Motor City 5, released their debut album, “Kick Out the Jams,” in 1969; it was recorded over two nights in October 1968 at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit, the band’s hometown.

The MC5 were a pivotal link between blues-based rock and roll, the intuitive inventions of free jazz and the ferocity of punk to come after them. Rolling Stone deemed “Kick Out the Jams” one of the 500 greatest albums of all time, an early document of pummeling riffs, radical politics and self-destructive impulses that would influence generations of rockers, punks and metalheads.

Nardine Saad, August Brown

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2024-02-02/wayne-kramer-dead

The only thing angrier than Kramer’s left-wing socio-political radicalism was his gruff guitar sound, a powerful feedback-fueled noise with a gutsy swagger that made every track of his – from his famed, first days with MC5 and “Kick Out the Jams” to his searing solo works such as “Adult World” – ring and sting.

A.D. Amorosi

https://variety.com/2024/music/news/wayne-kramer-dead-mc5-1235895922/

Wayne Kramer: a complex and influential musician, dogged by lucklessness

The musician, who has died aged 75, co-founded MC5, a band that for all its undoubted brilliance, lurched from one disaster to the next

Alexis Petridis

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/feb/03/wayne-kramer-mc5-complex-and-influential-musician-dogged-by-lucklessness

Muere el guitarrista Wayne Kramer, líder de la banda de culto MC5

El músico formó parte de uno de los momentos más combativos del rock en Estados Unidos.

Reyna Avendaño

https://www.eluniversal.com.mx/espectaculos/muere-el-guitarrista-wayne-kramer-lider-de-la-banda-de-culto-mc5/

Morto Wayne Kramer, fondatore degli MC5 e inventore del rock di Detroit

Fondati a metà degli anni sesanta, gli MC5 (acronimo di Motor City 5) rappresentarono insieme agli Stooges di Iggy Pop e ai Velvet Underground di Lou Reed la via americana all’hard rock. Nel 1969 pubblicano "Kick Out The Jams!", il loro primo disco: uno dei live album più celebri e influenti della storia della musica rock.

https://www.repubblica.it/spettacoli/musica/2024/02/02/news/morto_wayne_kramer_mc5-422047232/

Mort de Wayne Kramer, rock à tout cramer

Hippies traînés par les cheveux, défoncés à coups de matraque, police armée, jets de pierres, Vietnam, coupes afro, marijuana, LSD, harangues survoltées, guitares qui sonnent comme des coups de mortier, action frénétique, allumage de réacteurs pharaoniques, explosions, nuages pourpres, forteresse cosmique fonçant à travers l’espace. Tels sont, en substance, les images qu’évoque "Kick Out the Jams", premier album du MC5, paru en 1969.

Lelo Jimmy Batista

https://www.liberation.fr/culture/musique/mort-de-wayne-kramer-rock-a-tout-cramer-20240204_UDG7EFREBFCX5BGXJJXN435MUQ/

Poser und Revolutionär

Die Frage, ob er eher Poser oder Revolutionär war, stellte keiner. Schließlich war es das Jahr 1969, als Wayne Kramer in Detroit zu einem der Über-Nacht-Protagonisten des politisch befeuerten Rock'n'Roll wurde. Damals gab es derart viele echte und symbolische Schlachten zu schlagen, ästhetische, sexuelle, philosophische und straßenaktivistische, dass am Ende alles doch irgendwie eins war. Und Kramer - damals 21 Jahre alt und ein süßer, glattrasierter Kerl mit Vokuhila-Mähne - als Gitarrist mit seiner Band MC5 problemlos das Narzisstische mit dem Radikalen verbinden konnte. Das Partykanonenhafte auf der einen Seite. Den latent gewaltbereiten Widerstand auf der anderen.

Joachim Hentschel

https://www.sueddeutsche.de/kultur/wayne-kramer-mc5-tot-nachruf-1.6343391?reduced=true

Rausch, Randale, Revolution – und das beste Riff aller Zeiten

"Kick out the jams, motherfucker!" Mit seiner Band MC5 schuf er die erste Hymne des Punk. Nun ist der Politaktivist, Überlebenskünstler und Riff-König Wayne Kramer im Alter von 75 Jahren gestorben.

Christian Buss

https://www.spiegel.de/kultur/musik/wayne-kramer-der-mc-5-gitarrist-und-punkpionier-ist-tot-a-6ce00d18-b2be-4256-9e1c-ce647b1ec75e

Erfinder des Punkrock gestorben

Kraftvolle Gitarren, schreiender Gesang, politische Haltung: Wayne Kramer prägte mit der Detroiter Band MC5 die Punkmusik.

rga

https://www.zeit.de/kultur/2024-02/wayne-kramer-gestorben-punkrock-mc5

Was genau es bedeuten sollte, blieb stets im Dunkeln. Es war nicht so wichtig, fest stand, das Lied "Kick out the Jams", sehr oft mit einem "Motherfucker!" als Appendix versehen, klang wie ein Befehl zum Angriff. Vielen war es Aufruf zur Randale oder wenigstens zum Widerstand.

Karl Fluch

https://www.derstandard.at/story/3000000206012/der-gitarrist-wayne-kramer-der-bahnbrechenden-mc5-ist-gestorben

Videos:

Diverses

https://www.youtube.com/c/WayneKramerMC5

Remastered Tartar Field - Ramblin Rose/Kick Out The Jams/Looking At You - July 1970

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74jS3dW0DtE

The Good The Bad & Wayne Kramer (MC5) ‘Kick Out The Jams’, 2012

https://vimeo.com/39597356

Wayne Kramer & Tom Morello "Kick Out The Jams" & "Happy Birthday", C.A.P.O Center, LA, 4.29.23

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_mLyDtjhbo

Audio: