Wayne Kramer's Flagrant Disregard For Authority - The 'Lexington' Interview

Wayne Kramer sat down with staticbeach.com 's Andrew Shaw on Record Store Day 2014 at Fingerprints in Long Beach, CA to talk about the thread linking the MC5 with that new album, his efforts to spotlight and improve America's prison system, the role of the community record store, and his childhood obsession with Sea Hunt...
See this interview as part of Static Beach's audio, video, text and photo coverage of all things beach - from music to film, tv and the arts, and from comedy to sports and lifestyle at http:staticbeach.com
Influential guitarist, proto-punk icon, Motor City legend and humanitarian. Subversive, addict, agitator and revolutionary. Since co-founding the legendary MC5 in the late 1960's, Wayne Kramer has been called many things. Since his stay in a federal correctional facility in the mid-1970's, he has changed many lives. As a 66-year-old musician, now based in Los Angeles, Wayne's music appears in films and on television, and in partnership with his wife Margaret Saadi Kramer, he runs his own Jail Guitar Doors foundation providing instruments, workshops and concerts to prisons across America. Many of these diverse threads are pulled together in Wayne Kramer's new album Lexington, which looks back to the place and time in which he was incarcerated.

[@ronnie5129]

WAYNE, I GREW UP IN LINCOLN PARK, AND I USED TO BUY ALL MY RECORDS AT TOWN AND COUNTRY MUSIC, I LIVED ABOUT 5 BLOCKS AWAY FROM THE STORE ON FORT ST. YOU JUST BLEW MY MIND WHEN YOU SAID THIS, I AM 63 YEARS OLD AND YOU JUST TOOK ME BACK TO WHEN I WAS 12 YEARS OLD, THANK YOU BROTHER, MY YOU LIVE IN PEACE AND LIVE A VERY LONG LIFE, THE GRANDE BALLROOM WAS THE LAST PLACE THAT I SAW YOU, CHEERS MAN, THE DETROIT RIVER RAT, COUSIN FIGEL

[@ZoSo1973]

Cousin Figel Are you blood related to Ronnie Van Zant?

[@laurastrobel718]

What a down to earth humble man he was in Nashville tn recently to salute the 50th anniversary of kick out the jams along witj kim thayil from soundgarden and others they played at the legendary exit/im club i so wanted to go being a huge mc 5 fan but the ticket prices were to rich for my blood anyway im glad wayne is still rocking and rolling and im wowed by his work on behalf of our incarcerated brothers and sisters blessed be wayne!

[@YGroadcapitain]

original video witch is showin at beginning, kick out the jams in beat club germanny tv show kzbin.info/www/bejne/bonLgoV8hJmAbaM

[@gwendolynbrown8348]

I f**kn LOVE this man!!!🎸🎸❤️❤️❤️ Mr. Kramer, you are TRULY a MADMAN of music and I LOVE YOU FOREVER!!!! MC5, so underrated. #MC5Forever ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️🎸🎸🎸🎸🌹

[@ericmoreton3650]

Such a cool and intelligent guy. Glad you are still here Wayne.

[@tonym994]

I hope he lives to 100 .maybe balance out the tragedy of the 5.

[@boomer3150]

@@tonym994 R.I.P. Wayne Feb 8 2024.

[@markmorris8532]

​@@boomer3150 😢

[@incumbentvinyl9291]

R.I.P.

[@56cadd]

Wayne is down to earth.

[@khalgarrison]

R.i.p. Wayne Kramer

[@kevinbarry3548]

Guy had a big heart.....took him years to let it out and years for us to recognize that quality in this man.

[@patricksullivan7140]

RIP BROTHER WAYNE KRAMER. A TRUE ROCK AND ROLL ICON

[@thetriumphofthethrill2457]

Good to see him move on and turn out well.

[@mikefelix6338]

Wayne Kramer is such an awesome guy - true story my punk rock friend went to juvenile hall for drug abuse l. He said he met Wayne Kramer inside juvie and that Wayne was his sponsor and he had his phone number. lol he called up Wayne on speaker phone in front of about 10 of us and Wayne answered! He talked with Wayne privately for a few minutes but that always blew my mind. My buddy is doing fine now btw and the MC5 are still the godfathers of punk.

[@beweinstein]

Brother Wayne Kramer...keeping the faith!

[@jennifferramos9462]

Take action guys: use this link ...before they runs out !! Links Here!! --- facebook.com/1735744196649637/photos/a.1735748939982496.1073741828.1735744196649637/1735748863315837/?type=3&pidid=842b75a8-fbdf-433b-9215-68c111c247fd === !! Guides placed right here commonly working. Just got that 9999999 Credits Wayne Kramer's Flagrant Disregard For Authority - The 'Lexington' Interview

[@incumbentvinyl9291]

What faith?

[@Lengsel7]

2:48 ....That photo.....THAT'S Rock'n Roll.

[@melissatyree566]

I love you Wayne 😍

[@TheRandyDowning]

What decent, kind, intelligent, bad-a$$ man! Thanks, brother!

[@robertbishop5357]

I'll bet that writing that music score and the album Lexington was very cathartic.

[@shruggzdastr8-facedclown]

I was living in Ky. while you were in prison at Lexington. My dad was stationed at Ft. Knox at the time -- from 1976-'78. Of course, being 4-6 then, I was too young to know about you or your music and especially your groundbreaking band -- turns out, though, that my dad had MC-5 albums in his collection (as well as fellow proto-punk Michiganders, The Stooges'). When I discovered those albums back in the '80s when I had to alphabetize his collection as punishment for some now long ago-forgotten infraction, I was instantly taken in by the energy and attitude of the music.

[@klaasj7808]

no, you could have known them, but your parents decided against it. you have to blame your parents. my son knows mc-5, the stooges, the ramones, sex pistols, he knows them all. as every child should, because its the bible to them.

[@shruggzdastr8-facedclown]

@@klaasj7808: Dude, I discovered the Ramones and Sex Pistols (as well as The Damned, Dead Kennedys, Minor Threat/Fugazi, Black Flag, et. al. thru my school peers

[@danielstoddart]

My left ear thanks you.

[@harrisonr1069]

thank you for the tip !

[@lynnpehrson8826]

He's a hero

[@keithamesj2147]

Thank you professor, it seems as you have become a great credit to our society ✌️

[@steven2212]

Living time capsule.

[@stevekosak389]

This guy is a fucking G man!!!!!

[@raymondkitchen6137]

T&C in L.P. has been gone for many years. I believe it closed sometime in '94. It became a junk/collectables store that was only open one day a week, but as of '17 or '18, that too finally went out of business. Building is still there.

[@revwahfair]

Those people that owned it probably died. I used to go there. I live in Taylor. Sad it's gone.

[@snuffygrunt2842]

I was working in a fab shop in Lima, Ohio. This cat came in on some kinda work release program. This fucker could weld. Better than I've ever seen. He was on his third stretch for heroin. He'd been clean about eighteen months. He told me once "I think about doing it every day... almost all day long."

[@LetsGoMetsGo33]

WK reminds me of John Waters here.

[@bobdennison207]

r i p friend .

[@cookmoore3736]

Very cool important insight

[@augustees]

Can anyone share info about Swedish Artist that been mention on his interview? tq

[@QuarrellaDeVil]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/iqq7fX2phMSootk

[@hamkimj65]

Danish - not Swedish; Jørgen Ingemann

[@olebjrnhansen5860]

Jørgen Ingemann was Danish, not Swedish - here's Ingemanns 1961 take on Apache, Kramer refers to. Rest in peace, brother Wayne! kzbin.info/www/bejne/iqq7fX2phMSootk&ab_channel=60s70sTheBest

[@vincesarmento4854]

Love records, I collect records, have my first 45, l was 6, Funny Face, Donna Fargo!

[@ronnie5129]

WAYNE, REMEMBER, ''PLUM STREET'', BACK THEN, OR DOES ANYONE WATCHING THIS REMEMBER PLUM STREET, THE SAME AREA, COUSIN FIGEL

[@jeff1586er]

I crashed on Plum Street for about a week in 1968.

[@snakewhitcher4189]

I love Wayne Kramer, but he's slowly becoming Mr Burns. The transformation should be complete by 2026.

[@ronnie5129]

BROTHER WAYNE, REMEMBER PLUM ST. I KNOW YOU DO, BECAUSE THAT'S WHERE PEOPLE LIKE ME AND YOU WENT BECAUSE YOU COULD BE YOURSELF DOWN ON THE PLUM MAN, MY BEST TO YOU ALWAYS, THE LINCOLN PARK RIVER RAT, COUSIN FIGEL

[@jeff1586er]

I remember crashing on Plum Street in 1968 although happily only for a week. That's how I know what it's like to have nothing. I was saved by having a bottle broken over my head and when I called my parents they arranged for a flight home. I had to cut my hair, long story.

[@St_Yerbouti]

Jørgen Ingmann was Danish, just like Bent Fabric.

[@tonym994]

Typing as I listen to Wayne, I wonder when more people will support the Libertarian Party, who wants the drug 'war' sham to end. when you say 'Lexington' I think of the town a few miles from where I'm sitting where poor farmers had the balls to fire the shot heard 'round the World .but I support WK's Lexington. big fan of the MC5 .we pay cops to look under people's car seats for a little powder. hell, I don't advocate driving impaired, but I ,like he, am disgusted over the amounts of people who want stimulants -for good or ill, being thrown to the rabid anti-stimulants legal system. prohibition was a dismal failure, and we walk around like it never happened. wannabe bootleggers made gin that blinded and killed 10,000 people or so. rich gangsters got you the real thing, and got filthy rich, and the feds send Capone to Fed/pens for income tax evasion. did you ever hear anything so ridiculous? too much red bull for me today. the reefer's balancing it out.

[@charleswinokoor6023]

Music is music is entertainment. It doesn’t propel anything, including “discussion.”

[@simpevision9675]

lmao ok dude

[@charleswinokoor6023]

@@simpevision9675 Zappa used to call it “product.”

[@seanhammer6296]

2.3m people in prison is a very small percentage. Less than 1%.

[@seanhammer6296]

@clariboia anal According to Wayne, only half of the 2.3m are there for drugs. But if you think drug addicts don't hurt anyone I can tell you you are sorely mistaken.

[@ledaswan5990]

Sean Hammer Not everyone who does drugs is an “addict”

[@seanhammer6296]

@@ledaswan5990 Did I say all drug users are addicts? Or did you mean the occasional meth or heroine user?

[@Marine_Ret]

This guy is only a victim of his own lack of self control. There’s a reason Zeppelin sold more than 300M albums worldwide - they didn’t try to make Leftwing social or political statements with their music.

[@wpl6661]

You have part of the answer but not all of it. The MC5 were a political band. They didn't care anything at all about money. They chose a non agent to be their agent. They had no clue about how to make a record in a studio setting. But for a period of time they were as strong a live band as any other including Led Zeppelin. They had as much power as Zeppelin. But they lacked their refinement and their desire to make money. What they were doing musically was as influential as Zeppelin. Motorhead was started by Lemmy after seeing the MC5. They played at the Grande Ballroom and headlined it along with Iggy and the Stooges. So Zeppelin was always a commercial band. Good at recording albums. Hyped up and made even bigger by a strong professional manager. And they made a lot of money that way. MC5 was never a commercial band. They didn't care about money. They were not good at recording albums and they had a terrible unprofessional manager. They cared deeply about making a change in their world. In their country. They were the only band to show up at the Chicago convention in 68 and play in the park and they played for hours. You may not like that but that isn't about lacking self control. Shit. Zeppelin were as wild as any band of the late 60's and 70's. What the MC5 had that Zeppelin didn't have was commitment to a cause. And because of that, they are timeless. The revolution they wanted to start, the causes they were fighting for, still exist. Are still relevant. Wayne Kramer may not have Jimmy Page's money. But among rockers he has a whole lot of respect. PS: Go listen to Skunk from High Times by the MC5. Watch their 1970 Wayne State Concert videos. Hear and see the talent that was there. The power. They had a bad ass band. One that blows away any band today.

[@MrCtsSteve]

@@wpl6661 very well put .

[@vhliv]

WPI makes many good points. Saw Zep in 1977 with Page strung out and basically rehashing the show he had been doing for years, but without the novelty. Won’t say that show was without its moments, but they foundered because they had nothing new to say. It is no coincidence that it is Plant not Page who has been the musical survivor. Kramer served his time and has found a way to be a live as a musician and continue to do innovative stuff. And there is his non-profit helping to turn lives around, seems a lot better than getting lost in Aleister Crowley’s house.

[@lastnamefirst4035]

My impression was MC5 didn't aspire to being the worlds biggest rock band. They did what they did and it was great

[@lastnamefirst4035]

@@vhliv 😀