Seriously, who could have ever predicted Wayne Kramer speaking (very well, at that) before a University class, 40 years after the MC5??. Very insightful; the students in this class have no idea how lucky they are to have a living rock music legend before them!
Wayne's not stupid .that's why it's being taped.almost 50K now.and the stuff that's popping up on YT will help pass the word. word to the MOTHERFUCKERS
BROTHER WAYNE KRAMER. He walks into room of students. The room is not at full capacity.He graitiiously gives himself as a person , performer and relentless icon. What more can you ask for !This is why for me as a person and time traveler 1970's rock is stellar.
This is a great lecture, especially for those who are young and did not live during the time of freedom of music, before the spirit of the radio died, or was murdered by the corporations.
You must see the July 19, 1970 show on youtube. Wayne was one of the greatest showmen in the history of rock....he made Pete Townsend look like he was standing still !!!! MC5 FOR EVER !!!
Wayne sounds like a really good dude. Such an honest chat, especially the end - people kind of expect their rock idols to still be living that life, but in reality a lot of them are just trying to stay alive and get by. Reminded me of John Brannon from Negative Approach, funnily enough also from Detroit, who despite being revered by punks worldwide had to work in a restaurant to make ends meet. I'm happy to see that Wayne is doing good and working on cool stuff
Hard to believe watchin this just how much this man could rock!..sweet god the MC5 were out and out, balls to the wall rock n roll. I bet those in the audience are thinking ‘who the hell is this old guy’..not knowing exactly who they are talkin to. Not many rocked as good!!..would truly be an honor to listen to Wayne Kramer speak..hope they remember it.
Now THIS GUY is someone I can listen to, not just because I love the MC5, but because He's really been there. He has a philosophically optimistic attitude despite some heavy times in his life. Not easy for me as I am pretty cynical ..but Mr Kramer, WE SALUTE YOU, Ramblin' Rose.
nyantama Tokyo?? That’s awesome! I am a Detroit native and it’s really cool to see people wayyyy over in japan love Detroit rock and roll! Detroit produced the best rock and roll bands of all time!😁👍
What a great conversation!!! The wise elder teaching the youth what they need to know. Wayne should have begun the lecture by playing the video of "looking at You" to provide some context. Some of these kids have no idea of who he is or was and they would be stunned and shocked to the core of their souls to see this old, well spoken gentleman as a kid stoned to the gills on acid, giving the wildest performance of his life. Wayne's posture is excellent. Does he practice yoga? He carries himself with the vigor of a much younger man.
I didn't realize how smart and insightful he is. A guy worth listening to, and I hope he develops his voice as a commentator on pop culture (as well as his kick-ass guitar playing!) Wayne Kramer is a national treasure in the best sense!
It's great to hear Wayne Kramer talk intelligently about how things were in the 1960s. I have only recently discovered MC5 and was amazed that they were so far ahead of the curve in regards to rock music.
This is great bc it's my generation and I remember all of what he is talking about but I don't know how interesting it would be to younger people. Its hard to talk about this without wanting to say "Our generation had so much more than yours" 😀 And I don't think alot of this interests many people less you're a music fanatic like me
What a great overview! I grew up in Detroit and UNLIKE so many, I did not DIG the MC5. I was more of a TOP 40 KId and I did not morph to FM and many of the bands that Mr. Kramer referrs to...however, he is so right. We have REGRESSED in that, unlike the 50s and 60s when ALL music blended together, today, it is so segregated and radio makes it that way too, The days of when Wayne grew up in a major city, where you had music all over the AM dials are gone. So are the many music lesson studios, and the fact that so much today is so technologically blended and gone are the days when groups made music. HE gives a great history lesson that I can relate to, and lived....Those days are sadly over....
Here a big big fan of MC5 in Brazil. No one really knows them. Poor guys, they are missing one of the most influent bands ever. What we know about rock and punk rock was originated there, in the sixties from MC5 songs, and style. MC5 lives 4ever
We lost Brother Wayne only a few days ago. What strikes me ( and makes me laugh inside ) is how both Wayne and Pete Townsend talk of their musical experiences to mostly audiences who've never seen them live when they were younger, and how Goddamn powerful they were, it was glorious. Thank You, Brother Wayne for kicking out the jams.
MC5….. “KICK OUT THE JAMS “ Best video for me was the live version of Looking at You, your stage presence and playing still gives me goose bumps, outstanding. Love You Wayne!!!!!!!
Why didn't my university have lectures on the evolution of pop music?! Just imagine...Have to drink my beer quickly today...going to a Wayne Kramer lecture. Living musical and social history. That kid sitting there doesn't know how lucky he is. Hope he didn't go home and say...```Had to sit through a talk by some old bloke....who the hell is the MC5?'' Listening to him reinforces to me how utterly crap today's music industry is.
This is a phenomenal lecture. I had no intention of listening to it all and did! If you stumble across this video watch it. Wayne discusses the music industry, creativity, experience, addiction, evolution and reinvention in a very entertaining manner.
I still play all three of their albums regularly, the music stands the test of time. Not all music does. For instance the Beatles Sgt. Peppers is probably a superior LP but I can't listen to it all the way through today. I can listen to any song on it randomly but not the LP from beginning to end. I can with all 3 MC5 LP's. I grew up in Detroit & still live in southeast Michigan.
@Joe Joe I do still get drunk & High. Since I'm retired on a $65,000 annual pension with nothing better to do after I've ridden my hHarley all day or played a round of golf.
This must not have been widely advertised. I was in college at LSU when this was filmed. LSU is an hour-and-a-half drive from New Orleans. If I had known that Wayne Kramer was giving a lecture on rock and roll at Loyola, I could have made that drive in 20 minutes. Oh well. I'll watch it now.
I was fortunate enough to have seen The MC5 in Boston in March of 1979 along with Family and Stone the Crows. The MC5 was the most impressive. During the interim, Rob Tyner was in the audience and no one seemed to know who he was. Tall and intimidating, he walked by me and stared at me. At that moment I thought he either recognized me or knew that I was in a different mindset and I had just been found out. A strange experience that I can recall as if it happened yesterday. Of all the bands I saw back then, three bands that I feel fortunate enough to have seen live are The Beatles, The Jeff Beck Group, and The MC5.
I don't mean to be contrary, but, I knew Rob Tuner, and,he was definitely not tall . Rather short actually.Medium height at best,maybe five foot six inches.I am five foot eight inches, and he was not as tall as me .
A telling sign of what's wrong with contemporary mainstream music is the lack of people in this class listening to this lecture. No one is willing to seek out and discover music, which is strange since the risk is less now that anything is streamable and essentially free.
why do people think that MORE is best? More views, more people in attendance? Contemporary!!? Who wants that? I don't want mainstream...didn't want my parents to dig my scene, my music. I have never been in..always been an outsider and that's what R&R is..it's for us few outsiders. I don't need validation. I know who is great, who is pushin it..innovators like WK and Fred Smith.
WAYNE, RULES, HE GIVES ONE ONE THE GREATEST SPEACHES HERE THAT I HAVE EVER HEARD, THE MC5 SHOULD BE IN THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME, 4 OF THESE GUY'S WENT TO MY HIGH SCHOOL IN LINCOLN PARK MICHIGAN, COUSIN FIGEL
I just couldnt live in america, everytime I was in NY I were always scared , I didnt appreciate as I would like to, always afraid of a lost bullet of some argument near me. I think that John Sinclair lives in Holland now. I'm blessed cause I'm portuguese. Wayne Kramer is one of the better and developed human beings that I know. Thank you!
U.S. isn't like you think it is, if you judge from media then your way off. My wife is Portuguese and from Lisboa. She loves it here and says thats what she thought as well, the violence is everywhere. Its really not like that, i mean the cities have bad areas but bullets are not whizzing everywhere. The U.S. is huge, its not just cities, and we have so many ppl that some bad things are always going on, but you have to understand that in context to how large and vast our country is. Its so beautiful here it would leave you breathless, and so much to see beyond walking the inner hoods of some ghetto where there is no white ppl, and thats where you have potential of getting hurt.
This lecture made me think some things over about myself. SInce the 1980's when I was an adolescent, I found the music of my generation boring because most of it didn't "address" some things that had to be changed: it sounded all dance music to me. Of course I now realise that I was mighty biased, but the main artists of my generation who did address important things to me came from Germany (I was born and bred Dutch) like Nena and Döf, but they sounded like exceptions to me...little did I know about hardcore punk then. But anyway, the society changing attitude of the 1960's generation still resounds to me: make the change yourself, organise things, address bad things to be changed in your lyrics etc. . It now looks to me I am a generation-less person because I still can't feel a 1980's attitude within myself: it is mainly the attitude of a need of change that inspires me and I got proof of it: the release of Nelson Mandela and the fall of the Berlin Wall were very important proofs of the fact that idealism pays off, in the long term, maybe , but it ALWAYS pays off and I got to make a long nose to conservative pubic who tried to tell us otherwise....so you may say I experienced a reversed generation feeling. But it surely still inspires me to this day, even in my work at daycare where I try to get the children experienced with music by making musical instruments with them from recyclable plastic and other so called waste material. To me, that material is not waste but creative material waiting to be used, and if I educate the next punk rockers with a broader attitude than that what Wayne Kramer describes here from the post 1976 punk community, then I have done my work well. And BTW, mr Kramer proves still an inspiration to me. A good dude. This lecture moved my emotions on a deep level. Thank you, Wayne Kramer.
I remember it like it was yesterday buy my first MC% 8 track tape. I think the year was 1969 'Kick Out The Jams I could not play it loud enough. I really like Wayne's lecture and it is a shame there was not more people there but it did not seem to bother him. I have to laugh at how my friends and I loved the motherfucker back then it was unheard of.. My cousin said it once and it like she committed a crime. If her parents found out she was dead.
You're right + Wayne Kramer looks like like nothing but a narrow-minded American businessman in 2011, he always seems apologize without having been asked/forced to apologize to anyone. He probably needed MONEY to survive with such a silly prostitution claptrap. The college kids in front of him are similarly dumb assholes. No pleasing view. Post from Germany.
That would be the case if he lectured in Michigan. The MC5 were huge there back in the day and everyone of us old fogies who saw them in concert all have a story.
For anyone who thinks the class is nearly empty - check out 39:09 - a wide shot of the whole class which shows that most of the desks have someone sitting at them - just more towards the middle/back of the class.
*TheVoxOfReason* song should be played after each time a Justin Bieber song is played so that young fans of computer pop can appreciate rock and rock performances
I was around then, 23 in 1970, and I was aware of the MC5 and the Stooges, but I never heard their music. Why? Because I was into Crosby Stills and Nash and Jackson Browne and the Doors and of course the Stones and Beatles and stuff. They sound great now, the MC5 do.
hehe so correct, we did play in our garages, and yes we did ride to hear bands play in their garages, and kids came to see us...I had an old Kent, probably a 66
There are not a lot of kids in this class because kids today are being “asked” to truly listen to music anymore. The MC5 are dismissed by modern music conglomerates because they spoke out against control and all about freeing minds…which to me is what “truly living” is all about.
The stuff he said about punk is true, with the exemption or rage against the machine I think, they made their own distinct sound within punk, and was one of the first really politically bold and alighted bands in a while
At 16:55 Little does Wayne Kramer realize...Panning into view at front row left is an avid fan of the MC5. Study his facial feature's, he wishes Brother Wayne would discuss how many chicks he Balled on that hidden Mattress in the upper part above the Grande Ballroom stage. And would You please go into a blow by blow description Brother Kramer! "KiCk oUt tHe JaMs M.F." *P.s. Look at the colors in Brother Wayne's attire--Can You say..."WHITE PANTHER PARTY"? *P.p.s. Overall, this is very cool Brother Wayne.
