Latest / DISGRACELAND / MC5: Dope, Guns, and F***ing in the Streets

Transcript

MC5: Dope, Guns, and F***ing in the Streets · DISGRACELAND

0:00
Speaker 1: Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. The stories about
0:12
Speaker 1: the MC five are insane. Their music soundtrack the violence
0:18
Speaker 1: of multiple nineteen sixties riots. They were the only band
0:22
Speaker 1: to perform at the infamous protest outside the nineteen sixty
0:25
Speaker 1: eight Democratic National Convention. Their home was raided by Cobbs.
0:30
Speaker 1: Government officials clocked their subversive career moves, and a US
0:34
Speaker 1: Army tank was once deployed to intimidate the group and
0:37
Speaker 1: bring them into custody. Their manager, John Sinclair, aligned the
0:42
Speaker 1: band with the Black Panthers and openly subscribed to a
0:45
Speaker 1: revolutionary ethos of rock and roll, dope and fucking in
0:49
Speaker 1: the streets. The MC five's politics scared the shit out
0:54
Speaker 1: of mainstream white America, as did their music. Great music,
1:00
Speaker 1: unlike that music I played for you at the top
1:02
Speaker 1: of the show. That wasn't great music. That was a
1:06
Speaker 1: preset loop from my melotron called Crock Rock MK one.
1:12
Speaker 1: I played you that loop because I can't afford the
1:14
Speaker 1: rights to Hey Jude by the Beatles. And why would
1:17
Speaker 1: I play you that specific slice of take a sad
1:21
Speaker 1: song and make it better cheese? Could I afford it?
1:25
Speaker 1: Because that was the number one song in America on
1:28
Speaker 1: October thirtieth, nineteen sixty eight, and that was the day
1:33
Speaker 1: the MC five began recording their live debut album, Forever
1:37
Speaker 1: changing the meaning of the word revolution within the context
1:41
Speaker 1: of rock and roll. On this episode, riots Revolution, rock
1:47
Speaker 1: and roll, dope, fucking in the streets in the MC five,
1:52
Speaker 1: I'm Jake Brennan in this this disgraceland revolution. Rachel Greene
2:28
Speaker 1: knew nothing about any revolution. Yet there it was on
2:32
Speaker 1: her T shirt, right there in the central perk. Joey
2:36
Speaker 1: wanted to borrow Monica's Porsche, Chandler wanted Ross to explain
2:40
Speaker 1: the word boohockey, and Phoebe was says to be expected,
2:44
Speaker 1: significantly confused, as was I not over the inane, safe,
2:48
Speaker 1: moderately humorous dialogue. After all, why else do we watch Friends?
2:53
Speaker 1: Why does everyone watch one of, if not the most
2:55
Speaker 1: successful television shows of all time. It's easy come. It's
3:00
Speaker 1: not supposed to make you think. In fact, it's supposed
3:04
Speaker 1: to do the opposite. There are no sharp edges, no
3:07
Speaker 1: real emotional stakes, no struggle, no revolution. Yet again, the
3:12
Speaker 1: revolution was right there on the screen on Rachel Green's
3:16
Speaker 1: T shirt. In the MC five band logo in distressed, red, white,
3:20
Speaker 1: and blue. Three decades ago. That logo maybe still meant something. Today,
3:27
Speaker 1: that logo doesn't symbolize revolution. It symbolizes the all too
3:31
Speaker 1: familiar corporatization of sixties culture. But back in nineteen sixty eight,
3:36
Speaker 1: things were much different. That MC five logo was a
3:41
Speaker 1: testimonial from a Detroit rock band, a revolutionary manifesto that
3:46
Speaker 1: called for American youth to rise up and join the
3:48
Speaker 1: MC five. That logo met something besides corporate greed. In
3:53
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty eight, that MC five logo meant rock and roll, dope,
3:58
Speaker 1: and fucking in the streets. Wayne Kramer, guitarist for the
4:03
Speaker 1: MC five, watched them mount to Detroit police gallop into
4:06
Speaker 1: the so called love in on Belle Isle. The cop
4:09
Speaker 1: could give a fuck about peace and love. This was
4:11
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty seven. There was a revolution going on. Wayne
4:15
Speaker 1: didn't know it yet, but the cops saw him and
4:18
Speaker 1: his friends as a threat to their way of life,
4:20
Speaker 1: a movement away from the Eisenhower era social construct that
4:23
Speaker 1: protected the cops and the establishment. Wayne didn't know anything
4:27
Speaker 1: about that at the time. He just wanted to smoke grass,
4:29
Speaker 1: play guitar, and scam chicks. But The Detroit cops saw
4:33
Speaker 1: it differently. Dope, long haired music, free love. It was
4:37
Speaker 1: all a challenge to their authority under the guise of
4:40
Speaker 1: peace and love. If Heads didn't roll, then violent revolution
4:43
Speaker 1: would displace them. So Heads were gonna roll. His band,
4:50
Speaker 1: the MC five, up on that stage on Belle Isle,
4:53
Speaker 1: played loud and fast on of necessity. They had no
4:56
Speaker 1: other choice, and they knew no other way. But like
4:59
Speaker 1: the best Detroit rock and roll, they had feel to
5:01
Speaker 1: match their fury. That's what happens when you grow up
5:04
Speaker 1: with guitars in the shadow.
5:05
Speaker 2: Of Motown's musical giants and within the industrial echo of
5:09
Speaker 2: the Big three motor companies. The MC five sounded like
5:12
Speaker 2: their hometown, like Detroit, like the perfect mix of American
5:16
Speaker 2: muscle in Hitsville, USA.
5:19
Speaker 1: Willie Billy, Louis Louis. The MC five will content the
5:22
Speaker 1: blasts of bell Ile love him with the frat rock favorites.
5:25
Speaker 1: But the violence of the Bellisle Riot would soon inspire
5:29
Speaker 1: a more radical take on rock and roll. How could
5:31
Speaker 1: it not. MC five members Wayne Kramer, Rob Tyner, Fred
5:36
Speaker 1: Sonic Smith, Michael Davis, and Dennis Thompson watched helplessly as
5:40
Speaker 1: Detroit PD's mobile tactical unit bludgeoned their friends and fellow Detroiters.
5:46
Speaker 1: The cops moved in with a riot squad to disperse
5:48
Speaker 1: a bunch of peaceful high school and college kids who
5:51
Speaker 1: were just there to smoke dope in public, listen to
5:53
Speaker 1: rock and roll, and protest the war in Vietnam. From
5:57
Speaker 1: atop their horses, they swung their billy clubs into Irminently
6:01
Speaker 1: most in attendance. SAT Day made their way to the
6:03
Speaker 1: MacArthur Bridge that connected Belle Isle, situated in the middle
6:06
Speaker 1: of the Detroit River, to the mainland. The police had
6:10
Speaker 1: the bridge road blocked. They had the protesters right where
6:13
Speaker 1: they wanted them. Members of the MC five sat in
6:16
Speaker 1: their van, horrified, watching the scene unfold before them. The
6:20
Speaker 1: riot officers unloaded with their billy clubs from up on
6:23
Speaker 1: high on their horses, walloping the hippies on their heads
6:26
Speaker 1: in some sick version of crowd control. Screams, tears, blood.
6:30
Speaker 1: Cops were merciless unless the hippies wanted to jump off
6:33
Speaker 1: the bridge eighty feet into the water. There was only
6:36
Speaker 1: one way off the island through the Detroit PD meat grinder. Somehow,
6:41
Speaker 1: the MC five knite it off Bellisle relatively unscathed. The
6:47
Speaker 1: police response to the peaceful protest on Belle Isle was
6:50
Speaker 1: totally disproportionate to the threat and posed by the youthful protesters.
6:55
Speaker 1: After the dust settled, it was clear to at least
6:57
Speaker 1: some members of the MC five that the cops weren't
6:59
Speaker 1: out stop long haired adolescents from listening to their brand
7:02
Speaker 1: of soup, dub, rock and roll. They were there instead
7:05
Speaker 1: to stop them from fomenting a revolution, a revolution that
7:08
Speaker 1: was being stoked by a dangerous agitator the likes of
7:11
Speaker 1: whom Detroit had never seen. A tall, long haired, charismatic
7:17
Speaker 1: modern day Ben Franklin minus the syphilis, plus a double
7:21
Speaker 1: dose of dope powered subversion named John Sinclair. John Saint
7:26
Speaker 1: Clair was the unofficial leader of Detroit's nineteen sixties protest movement.
7:30
Speaker 1: He preached revolution, published regularly in underground newspapers, listened to
7:35
Speaker 1: free jazz, got high with Archie Shepp, got high in public,
7:38
Speaker 1: and was a rumored sex maniac. But above all, he
7:42
Speaker 1: showed a pension for real organization. John Sinclair organized the
7:46
Speaker 1: Belle Isle Lovin. John Saint Clair had the year of
7:49
Speaker 1: Detroit's youth. John Sainclair was a threat, John Sinclair managed
7:55
Speaker 1: the MC five. Our program is cultural revolution through a
8:23
Speaker 1: total assault on the culture, which makes us use every tool,
8:27
Speaker 1: every energy, and any media we can get our collective
8:30
Speaker 1: hands on. We take our program with us everywhere we
8:33
Speaker 1: go and use any means necessary to expose people to it.
8:37
Speaker 1: Our culture, our art, music, newspapers, books, posters, our clothing,
8:41
Speaker 1: our homes, the way we walk and talk, the way
8:44
Speaker 1: our hair grows, the way we smoke, dope and fucking
8:47
Speaker 1: eat and sleep.
8:48
Speaker 3: It's all one message, and the message is freedom.
8:53
Speaker 1: So went the opening paragraph of the White Panther Party's manifesto,
8:57
Speaker 1: as written by MC five manager Johnson. It went on,
9:01
Speaker 1: rock and roll music is the spearhead of our attack
9:04
Speaker 1: because it is so effective and so much fun. We've
9:07
Speaker 1: developed organic, high energy guerrilla bands who are infiltrating the
9:10
Speaker 1: popular culture and destroying millions of minds in the process.
9:14
Speaker 1: With our music and our economic genius, we plunder the
9:17
Speaker 1: unsuspecting straight world for money and the means to carry
9:20
Speaker 1: out our program and revolutionize its children. At the same time,
9:24
Speaker 1: and with our entrance into the straight media, we have
9:26
Speaker 1: demonstrated to the Honkys that anything they do to fuck
9:28
Speaker 1: with us will be exposed to their children. We don't
9:31
Speaker 1: need to get rid of all the honkys, you just
9:33
Speaker 1: rob them of their replacements and let them breed, atrophy,
9:36
Speaker 1: die out. All of this concluded with We're bad. Then
9:41
Speaker 1: The White Panther Manifesto listed off its ten point program
9:45
Speaker 1: number one full endorsement and support of the Black Panthers
9:48
Speaker 1: ten point Program because John Sinclair started the White Panther
9:52
Speaker 1: Party partly in response to a call from Black Panther
9:55
Speaker 1: co founder Hughey Newton, who was quoted saying that if
9:58
Speaker 1: white people wanted to support the Black Panthers, they could
10:01
Speaker 1: do so by becoming anti racist and starting a White
10:04
Speaker 1: Panther Party. Johnson Clair heard Huey Newton loud and clear.
10:09
Speaker 1: The second point of his ten point White Panther Program
10:12
Speaker 1: stated total assault on the culture by any means necessary,
10:16
Speaker 1: including rock and roll, dope, and fucking in the streets.
10:21
Speaker 1: This is where Wayne Kramer and his MC five came
10:24
Speaker 1: into play. They brought all the rock and roll, a
10:26
Speaker 1: little bit of the dope, and of course some of
10:28
Speaker 1: the fucking in the streets. The brutality the bell Ale
10:31
Speaker 1: riot let the lasting mark on Wayne and his bandmates
10:34
Speaker 1: chuck Berry riffs and teenage lust were no longer enough,
10:38
Speaker 1: no matter how much inmfetamine they threw at them. There
10:41
Speaker 1: was indeed a need for revolution. The cops had made
10:44
Speaker 1: that clear. John Sinclair articulated it, and the MC five
10:47
Speaker 1: were now soldiers in a much bigger war, a war
10:51
Speaker 1: with the establishment, with the pigs, with parents, the government,
10:54
Speaker 1: with any and all institutions, with John Sinclair as their leader.
10:59
Speaker 1: Points three through two hand of Sinclair's ten point White
11:01
Speaker 1: Panther Party Manifesto hardly mattered because the MC five was
11:05
Speaker 1: quite literally the perfect manifestation of the second point, total
11:08
Speaker 1: assault on the culture by any means necessary, including rock
11:11
Speaker 1: and roll, dope and fucking in the streets. This is
11:15
Speaker 1: exactly what the MC five were, total assault. It's hard, no,
11:22
Speaker 1: it's near impossible to explain the raw power of the
11:26
Speaker 1: MC five. There have been nothing like them before, not
11:29
Speaker 1: in Detroit, not anywhere. They were Punk. Before punk, there
11:33
Speaker 1: were a high watt locomotive, doped up on speed and
11:36
Speaker 1: revolution and too young to care and too naive to
11:38
Speaker 1: know any better. John Sinclair's politics infused a sense of
11:44
Speaker 1: purpose into the MC five. It gave them a point
11:46
Speaker 1: of view. Every major city in America at the time
11:49
Speaker 1: had its version of a pre John Sinclair MC five,
11:52
Speaker 1: which is to say, a great little rock and roll
11:54
Speaker 1: band that took Chuck Berry's ref side of the garage
11:57
Speaker 1: and was on the verge of becoming something original that
11:59
Speaker 1: perhaps it didn't sound exactly like a Beatles or Stones
12:02
Speaker 1: rip off. Seattle had the Sonics, Boston had the Remains,
12:06
Speaker 1: New Jersey had the Rascals, hell even Idaho had Paul
12:09
Speaker 1: Revere and the Fucking Raiders. That Detroit had the MC five,
12:12
Speaker 1: but politics would soon separate the MC five from their contemporaries.
12:17
Speaker 1: This is more than just a different lyrical point of view.
12:20
Speaker 1: The political message, the constant call for revolution and radical politics,
12:25
Speaker 1: was the Holy Spirit coursing through the bands and their
12:28
Speaker 1: fans veins. It fused them. They lived and breathed rock
12:33
Speaker 1: and roll, dope, and fucking in the streets. MC five
12:36
Speaker 1: concerts were part protopunk VFW hall madness, part Sunday testimonial,
12:40
Speaker 1: and part political rally. The energy, the excitement, the maximum, sex, drugs,
12:45
Speaker 1: and rock and roll was all too much for words
12:48
Speaker 1: to witness. The band live was to take part in
12:50
Speaker 1: a teenage religious experience. White kids from Detroit's working class
12:55
Speaker 1: packed the band shows. They mobbed the stage. They locked
12:59
Speaker 1: into the energy of the band, into something that resembled
13:01
Speaker 1: the spiritual awakening. They shook, they shimmy, They testified, They
13:05
Speaker 1: drank Budweiser old style, whatever was wet. They smoked, they
13:09
Speaker 1: snorted whatever was available, and they armed themselves, guns, knives,
13:13
Speaker 1: et cetera. They had sex anywhere everywhere with the band,
13:16
Speaker 1: with each other, backstage, in cars, in the street. The
13:19
Speaker 1: kids were pretty fucking far from all right, rock and roll,
13:23
Speaker 1: dope and fucking in the streets for sure. Brothers and sisters,
13:27
Speaker 1: I want to hear a little revolution. Brothers and sisters.
13:29
Speaker 3: The time has come for each and every one of
13:31
Speaker 3: you can decide whether you were part of the problem
13:33
Speaker 3: or part of the solution. You must choose, brothers, You
13:36
Speaker 3: must choose brothers. It's time to testify, and I want
13:40
Speaker 3: to know are you ready to testify?
13:43
Speaker 1: Are you ready?
13:44
Speaker 3: I give you a testimonial d MC five.
13:49
Speaker 1: John Sinclair couldn't have said it better himself. The urgency
13:53
Speaker 1: in those words that served in part as the band's
13:55
Speaker 1: live stage introduction were absolutely necessary. Sinclaire's on it was
14:01
Speaker 1: time for a testimony who was ready? Which side were
14:04
Speaker 1: you on? There was a larger war that was worth fighting.
14:07
Speaker 1: And outside, on the streets of Detroit there was a
14:10
Speaker 1: riot going on. Literally July nineteen sixty seven, the stuffed
14:18
Speaker 1: shirts on the local news predicted a long, hot summer. Boy,
14:22
Speaker 1: howdy were they ever right? Wayne Kramer of the MC
14:27
Speaker 1: five looked out across the Detroit skyline as the evening
14:30
Speaker 1: sun went down above Grand River Avenue. He saw it revolution.
14:35
Speaker 1: Not on a T shirt and not on a handbill,
14:38
Speaker 1: not spewing from the lips of some hyped up hippie Charlton.
14:41
Speaker 1: He saw revolutions smoking from atop the flames that tore
14:45
Speaker 1: through the four and five story apartment buildings on Grand
14:47
Speaker 1: River Avenue. Detroit had had enough, and Detroit was on fire.
14:55
Speaker 1: Destruction was the price Detroit was paying for years of
14:57
Speaker 1: systemic racism and economic hardship foisted upon its black community.
15:02
Speaker 1: Just like Newark, New Jersey, which had recently exploded in
15:05
Speaker 1: urban violence, leaving twenty three dead, all but two of
15:08
Speaker 1: them black, Just like Cleveland, Watts and Philadelphia were rioting,
15:12
Speaker 1: was also exploding over urban frustration. It was just as
15:15
Speaker 1: Malcolm X said, the chickens coming home to roost, Smoke
15:21
Speaker 1: covered the sky, Sirens blasted through the evening air. Young
15:25
Speaker 1: black men and women sprinted down the streets, holding as
15:28
Speaker 1: much merchandise as they could in their hands. Television sets,
15:31
Speaker 1: racks of clothing, cases of booze, food, toilet paper, baby formula,
15:35
Speaker 1: makeshift signs covered shop windows with hand painted slogans that
15:39
Speaker 1: read Black Power and Soul brother. In a desperate effort
15:42
Speaker 1: to deter the looters, Detroit police officers patrolled the streets
15:46
Speaker 1: with shotguns viciously beat down any and all rioters and
15:49
Speaker 1: black civilians they encountered with their nightsticks. Try as they did,
15:54
Speaker 1: the cops could not suppress the rioting. It dragged on
15:57
Speaker 1: for days. Local politicians made them please on television. The
16:01
Speaker 1: mayor enacted a curfew banned the sale of alcohol and firearms.
16:05
Speaker 1: The riots still raged. Community organizers failed to organize a
16:09
Speaker 1: stand down more looting. Detroit Tigers left fielder Willie Horton
16:14
Speaker 1: drove straight into the riot on Twelfth Avenue after a game,
16:17
Speaker 1: stood up on the hood of his car and pleaded
16:19
Speaker 1: with the black residents of the neighborhood he'd grown up
16:21
Speaker 1: in to stop the violence. They didn't listen. Michigan Governor
16:26
Speaker 1: George Romney declared the event a state of insurrection, impleaded
16:29
Speaker 1: with President Lyndon B. Johnson for federal assistance to comply
16:33
Speaker 1: with the Federal Insurrection Act. Romney, a Republican, was a
16:37
Speaker 1: potential presidential challenger of Johnson's in the upcoming sixty eight election.
16:41
Speaker 1: Fuck Romney, fuck Michigan, and fucked the people of Detroit,
16:45
Speaker 1: or so went the Democrat Lbjays. Thinking the president did nothing,
16:49
Speaker 1: the insurrection raged on. Then more people died, panic in
16:54
Speaker 1: the streets, widespread looting. Black owned establishments suffered the worst
16:58
Speaker 1: of him. Eight hundreds over two five hundred guns were
17:02
Speaker 1: stolen from local shops. Four hundred and eighty three fires.
17:06
Speaker 1: Firefighters who attempted to call the flames were shot at.
17:09
Speaker 1: President Johnson finally gave in to his political opponent, Governor
17:13
Speaker 1: George Romney, and at one thirty am on July twenty fifth,
17:17
Speaker 1: sent in the National Guard to crack skulls. In the end,
17:21
Speaker 1: seven thousand Detroiters were arrested, forty three were dead. Police,
17:26
Speaker 1: fearful of rioting snipers on rooftops, went on a rampage
17:30
Speaker 1: during the insurrection. They discarded legal police tactics and toura
17:34
Speaker 1: by any means necessary. Page out of the Black Panthers playbook.
17:38
Speaker 1: Illegal searches and police brutality became the order of the day.
17:43
Speaker 1: Wayne Kramer and his bandmates in the MC five were
17:46
Speaker 1: not immune to the abuse and oppression from local law enforcement.
17:50
Speaker 1: Eight thousand National Guard troops nearly five thousand paratroopers US
17:54
Speaker 1: Army tanks rolled down Detroit streets flanked by local police.
17:58
Speaker 1: To Wayne and his band mates, it was an unimaginable scene.
18:02
Speaker 1: The power and reach of local, state, and federal authorities
18:06
Speaker 1: was downright shilling John Sinclair's rented home on Warren Avenue,
18:11
Speaker 1: who sat just down the block from Wayne Kramer's. On
18:14
Speaker 1: the roof of the home, John placed a large sign
18:16
Speaker 1: that read burn Baby Burn. The police raided his home
18:21
Speaker 1: without a warrant, guns drawn. Sinclair refused to back down.
18:25
Speaker 1: He held his newborn baby up in front of him
18:27
Speaker 1: in the faces of the cops with their drawn shotguns.
18:30
Speaker 1: He dared them to shoot. Either shoot me or get
18:32
Speaker 1: the fuck out of my house. The cops back down.
18:37
Speaker 1: It was fucked up, all of it, the entire scene,
18:41
Speaker 1: but it was a win. Wayne Kramer knew it then
18:45
Speaker 1: the revolution was on. Days later, after the rioting had subsided,
18:51
Speaker 1: Wayne Kramer slept quietly in his apartment just down the
18:54
Speaker 1: street from John Sinclair's place. He awoke to the sound
18:58
Speaker 1: of his German shepherd whimpering and on the receiving end
19:01
Speaker 1: of a Michigan State police beating. Stadies were flooding his
19:05
Speaker 1: home now with guns drawn, ripping long hairs out of
19:07
Speaker 1: their slumber by their scalps, rousing them awake, naked and confused,
19:11
Speaker 1: and demanding to know where the guns were. The cops
19:14
Speaker 1: wanted to bust some snipers, except Wayne and his roommate
19:17
Speaker 1: didn't have any guns. The cops had confused the telescope
19:20
Speaker 1: in an upstairs window for a shotgun. It didn't matter
19:24
Speaker 1: Wayne and his roommates were arrested anyway, and they were
19:27
Speaker 1: let out of his house and handcuffs. What Wayne Kramer
19:30
Speaker 1: saw blew his mind. There in his front yard the
19:34
Speaker 1: US Army tank with his cannon pointed straight at him.
19:39
Speaker 1: Wayne Kramer, John Sinclair, the MC five were officially at war.
19:49
Speaker 1: We'll be right back after this word were were. The
19:57
Speaker 1: arrests didn't stick. A couple nights in local cooler and
20:00
Speaker 1: Wayne and his roommates were released without being charged charged
20:04
Speaker 1: for a crime. That is, in another way, Wayne had
20:08
Speaker 1: been completely charged. He took the shock and awe of
20:12
Speaker 1: government power and authoritative overreach and used it to power
20:15
Speaker 1: him creatively. He and his bandmates in the MC five
20:19
Speaker 1: in those early days, they took their roles as revolutionaries seriously.
20:23
Speaker 1: As a rock and roll band and political functionaries of
20:26
Speaker 1: John Sinclair's movement, they were uniquely suited to reach and
20:30
Speaker 1: inspire American youth for the cause toward revolution. This task
20:35
Speaker 1: became a lot easier when the MC five were signed,
20:38
Speaker 1: along with their little rock and roll brothers from Detroit,
20:41
Speaker 1: the Stooges, to Electra Records. With a record deal. The
20:44
Speaker 1: MC five had money coming in, money that John Sinclair
20:48
Speaker 1: managed sort of, with much of it funding is trans
20:51
Speaker 1: Love Energy and a narcosyndicate commune slash boarding house slash
20:55
Speaker 1: MC five production team in that order. Kind of. I
20:58
Speaker 1: guess I'm not really, but the band isn't mind. That's
21:01
Speaker 1: the point. They wanted John Sinclair to manage them. They're
21:04
Speaker 1: on the road spreading their message, performing alongside bands like
21:08
Speaker 1: the Velvet Underground in the Jimmy Hendricks Experience, blowing Eric
21:11
Speaker 1: Clapton's cream off the stage, refusing Janis Joplin's drunken advances backstage.
21:17
Speaker 1: How did it come to this, Wayne Kramer wondered. Months
21:20
Speaker 1: ago they were being harassed by police and throne in jail.
21:23
Speaker 1: Now there were celebrated rock stars I'm gonna come up
21:25
Speaker 1: at the vanguard of sixties culture and politics. So when
21:30
Speaker 1: they were asked to perform at the nineteen sixty eight
21:32
Speaker 1: Democratic National Convention in Chicago on August twenty fifth, they
21:36
Speaker 1: of course said yes. Bob Dylan and Jefferson Airplane and
21:39
Speaker 1: Country Joe McDonald and his band The Fish were all
21:42
Speaker 1: invited to perform, but no one except the MC five
21:46
Speaker 1: showed up. There were rumors that the whole scene was
21:48
Speaker 1: going to go bust. Abby Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, leaders
21:52
Speaker 1: of the Yippie movement countercultural Front of the decade's New
21:55
Speaker 1: Left specializing in media circuses, had organized a protest outside
21:59
Speaker 1: the invention called the Festival of Life. I used the
22:02
Speaker 1: word organize loosely. There was barely a stage in zero
22:07
Speaker 1: production that didn't stop the MC five. There was a
22:10
Speaker 1: show to put on, and there were thousands of kids
22:12
Speaker 1: there at the convention who had been promised life minded entertainment.
22:16
Speaker 1: The revolution must continue to turn. So at four PM
22:20
Speaker 1: the MC five took the stage. Immediately they felt it
22:27
Speaker 1: an overwhelming sense of tension and violence in the air.
22:31
Speaker 1: From the stage, Wayne Kramer and his bandmates could see
22:34
Speaker 1: them in the crowd, real jughead Joe square types riling
22:37
Speaker 1: the hippies up, dudes with flattops and military fatigues, black
22:41
Speaker 1: shoes and white socks. It was plain as day to
22:44
Speaker 1: anyone with eyes and not completely stoned out of their minds.
22:47
Speaker 1: These squares in the crowd were government plants, Asian provocateurs,
22:51
Speaker 1: placed there by the FBI to create problems, to egg
22:54
Speaker 1: on the hippies, to get the kids to overreact, to
22:57
Speaker 1: take the first swing and justify our government beat down
23:00
Speaker 1: the likes of which this generation had never seen, which
23:03
Speaker 1: is exactly what happened. While the MC five stormed through
23:08
Speaker 1: a manic Detroit powered rock and rolled barnburner of a set,
23:11
Speaker 1: the government plants and the crowd cheap shot hippies in
23:14
Speaker 1: the ribs, spit on them, pushed them around. Little skirmishes
23:17
Speaker 1: broke out. The hippies pushed back, the agents got ugly
23:21
Speaker 1: fists started to fly more freely. Up above the stage,
23:24
Speaker 1: a police helicopter flew low, buzzing the band and adding
23:28
Speaker 1: a sonic world at Wayne Kramer welcomed it had perfectly
23:31
Speaker 1: augmented the electric torrent. He bent out of his red,
23:33
Speaker 1: white and blue stratocaster. The helicopter took off, turned and
23:37
Speaker 1: came thrusting back towards the stage, its giant propellers grinding
23:41
Speaker 1: through the Chicago air, sending anything not bolted down on
23:44
Speaker 1: the ground to tumble you throughout Lincoln Park. It was
23:47
Speaker 1: an intimidation tactic and it worked. The sense of fear
23:50
Speaker 1: on and off stage was very real. Everyone felt the
23:54
Speaker 1: same sense of impending doom. The MC five wrapped their set,
23:58
Speaker 1: hopped into their van, and got the hell out of there.
24:02
Speaker 1: In their wake, the FEUs they helped ignite would later
24:05
Speaker 1: explode in violence. The nineteen sixty eight Democratic National Convention
24:10
Speaker 1: would go down as one of the most disastrous events
24:12
Speaker 1: in American political history. The protest, organized by Abby Hoffman,
24:16
Speaker 1: Jerry Rubin and the rest of their political pranksters, would
24:19
Speaker 1: result in more rioting and clashes with the police. Skulls
24:23
Speaker 1: were cracked, heads rolled six hundred and sixty eight were arrested,
24:27
Speaker 1: two more than the Devil himself could have managed. A
24:30
Speaker 1: similar number were injured, along with one hundred and ninety
24:33
Speaker 1: two police officers. Hoffman, Reuben and five other organizers who
24:37
Speaker 1: had converged on Chicago were charged with conspiracy and crossing
24:41
Speaker 1: state lines with an intempt to start a riot. They
24:44
Speaker 1: would be tried together as the infamous Chicago Seven. The
24:48
Speaker 1: conspiracy charges didn't stick, though, because the seven had barely
24:51
Speaker 1: coordinated anything. They barely even knew each other. Five were
24:54
Speaker 1: convicted on the riot charge, facing five years in prison each,
24:57
Speaker 1: and the judge convicted all seven and their attorney's on
25:00
Speaker 1: contempt of court charges thanks to the Yippi's publicity stunts,
25:04
Speaker 1: which meant even more jail time. Ultimately, it was a
25:07
Speaker 1: lot of sound and fury signifying nothing, because in the
25:12
Speaker 1: end nothing changed. The Democrats nominated Hubert Humphrey, even his
25:17
Speaker 1: name was square. The revolution hit a wall. Wayne Kramer
25:21
Speaker 1: and the rest of the MC five made it back
25:23
Speaker 1: safely to Detroit, but their manager, John Sinclair was eventually
25:28
Speaker 1: arrested and it looked like he'd be going to jail
25:30
Speaker 1: for a long long time. Revolution was stressful business. More
25:53
Speaker 1: stressful than robbery. The Revolution came and went, but Wayne
25:57
Speaker 1: Kramer's heroin addiction didn't seem to be going anywhere. It
26:02
Speaker 1: was nineteen seventy three, five years removed from the heady
26:05
Speaker 1: days of the MC five's peak. In only a year
26:08
Speaker 1: since they'd broken up. Wayne Kramer was a broke and busted,
26:13
Speaker 1: unreliable junkie musician. He put the revolution down. Breaking and
26:17
Speaker 1: entering was this new hustle. Wayne could tell the owners
26:22
Speaker 1: of the massive house on of the outskirts of town
26:24
Speaker 1: weren't home, no cars in the driveway. He and his
26:27
Speaker 1: partner rang the doorbell to be sure, buckus, so they
26:31
Speaker 1: broke into the garage. First, located some tools and used
26:34
Speaker 1: them to pry open the door of the main house.
26:37
Speaker 1: Once inside, the liquor cabinet was the first stop. Big
26:41
Speaker 1: gulps of the brown wet stuff to drown the sinking
26:43
Speaker 1: feeling that being alone in someone else's home usually gave
26:47
Speaker 1: to Wayne. It was wrong, no matter how he tried
26:49
Speaker 1: to justify it. Deep down, Wayne knew what he was
26:53
Speaker 1: doing was fucked up. He went through the motions, trying
26:56
Speaker 1: to locate jewelry, expensive rocks, television sets, and high five equipment.
27:01
Speaker 1: He led his mind wander back a couple of years
27:03
Speaker 1: to a better time. So much had happened since his
27:09
Speaker 1: days in the MC five. They had appeared on the
27:12
Speaker 1: cover of Rolling Stone before their first record, Kick Out
27:14
Speaker 1: the Jams, was even released. When it came out, all
27:18
Speaker 1: their dreams of revolution and rock and roll rebellion seemed inevitable.
27:22
Speaker 1: Then Electra Records dropped them over a skirmish with a retailer. Next,
27:26
Speaker 1: John Sinclair got sent to jail over him easily two joints.
27:30
Speaker 1: Saint Clair wanted more support from the MC five, more money,
27:33
Speaker 1: more revolution, more more more. Wayne and the band offered
27:37
Speaker 1: to help, but what they brought to the table wasn't
27:40
Speaker 1: enough for John. Sinclair skewered the MC five in the
27:43
Speaker 1: underground press. He said the band wanted to be bigger
27:46
Speaker 1: than the Beatles, but he wanted them to be bigger
27:48
Speaker 1: than Chairman Mao. That stung, but John Sinclair was stressed.
27:53
Speaker 1: He was heading to prison. He had a wife and
27:55
Speaker 1: a young child to take care of from behind cell doors.
27:58
Speaker 1: Then the White Pant There's got indicted for the bombing
28:01
Speaker 1: of a CIA office in Detroit. The evidence was questionable
28:05
Speaker 1: in several of the Chicago Seven's attorneys represented the white Panthers.
28:08
Speaker 1: Now this time they would score a cleaner victory, and
28:12
Speaker 1: presenting their case, the government was caught using warrantless wire
28:15
Speaker 1: tabs to spy on the white and the Black Panthers.
28:19
Speaker 1: The Michigan judge overseeing the trial even sued the federal
28:22
Speaker 1: government to force them to reveal their warrant with surveillance,
28:25
Speaker 1: and the nixt administration appealed the case all the way
28:27
Speaker 1: to the Supreme Court, before the Panthers, in the Fourth
28:30
Speaker 1: Amendment of the Constitution, got their ultimate vindication. In the process,
28:35
Speaker 1: the MC five fell apart, their records bombed, their record
28:39
Speaker 1: labels gave up on them. They became known as unreliable drunks,
28:43
Speaker 1: too fucked up to make it to the gig on time,
28:46
Speaker 1: and they broke up. In nineteen seventy two, Wayne took
28:49
Speaker 1: up a heroin abbit. He no longer hung out with
28:52
Speaker 1: rock stars and revolutionaries. Instead, he spent his days with
28:56
Speaker 1: reprobates and thieves, hustlers, pimps, dealers, anyone who could go
29:00
Speaker 1: up a scam that will result in him staying high.
29:02
Speaker 1: And the revolution was dead and Wayne Kramer was barely alive.
29:08
Speaker 1: He was busted and, like John Sinclair of a Forum,
29:11
Speaker 1: heading to jail. His life as a low down being
29:16
Speaker 1: e Man came to an abrupt halt in late nineteen
29:19
Speaker 1: seventy four when he was busted for some serious narcotic
29:22
Speaker 1: way while on probation for a previous bust for possession
29:25
Speaker 1: of stolen goods. The DEA kept his latest arrest out
29:29
Speaker 1: of the news, hoping to gain Wayne's cooperation as an
29:31
Speaker 1: undercover informant, but Wayne decided to face the music for
29:35
Speaker 1: practical reasons. He wanted to move past all this Sunday
29:38
Speaker 1: and he knew the life expectancy of snitches. So Wayne
29:42
Speaker 1: was sentenced to four years at the Federal Correctional Institution
29:45
Speaker 1: in Lexington, Kentucky, commonly known as the Narcotic Firm, with
29:49
Speaker 1: its history of housing addicts, including many of them the
29:52
Speaker 1: most famous Jasmine of the nineteen thirties, forties, and fifties
29:57
Speaker 1: in prison. Especially in this prison, Wayne Kramer was able
30:01
Speaker 1: to get his hands on a guitar. Playing music with
30:03
Speaker 1: a clear head and a renewed focus helped him do
30:06
Speaker 1: his time, But when he was released on parole three
30:08
Speaker 1: years later, he was truly rehabilitated. Through the power and
30:12
Speaker 1: the saving grace of music. After his incarceration, Wayne teamed
30:17
Speaker 1: with the great musician Billy Bragg to expand Bragg's charity organization,
30:21
Speaker 1: Jail Guitar Doris, named after the clash song that Joe
30:24
Speaker 1: Strummer and Mick Jones wrote in part about Kramer's incarceration.
30:29
Speaker 1: Jail Guitar Doris' mission is to help rehabilitate incarcerated individuals
30:33
Speaker 1: through the transformative power of music. Fittingly, Wayne Kramer of
30:38
Speaker 1: the MC five is its executive director. Post prisoner, Wayne
30:42
Speaker 1: Kramer kicked his addictions and started a family. Now he
30:46
Speaker 1: leads the Jail Guitar's organization and his image and through
30:48
Speaker 1: the example he set by providing guitars and rehabilitative programming
30:52
Speaker 1: for prisoners throughout the United States, Wayne himself has personally
30:56
Speaker 1: led many music lessons in songwriting sessions for the org.
31:00
Speaker 1: Program overall has expanded to include artists, mentor in convicts,
31:03
Speaker 1: and wrap piano and more, extending its reach into over
31:06
Speaker 1: one hundred and forty prisons in jails across the US.
31:09
Speaker 1: The revolution may have failed, but Jail Guitar Doors, like
31:13
Speaker 1: Wayne Kramer of the MC five, is a success. Because
31:16
Speaker 1: the only revolution that really matters is a personal revolution.
31:21
Speaker 1: You say you want a revolution, you want to save
31:23
Speaker 1: the world. Change yourself, then change your family, then your friends,
31:28
Speaker 1: then your community. Changing the world is impossible. It's juvenile folly,
31:33
Speaker 1: a utopian hippie dream that America is still unfortunately hung
31:37
Speaker 1: up on from the nineteen sixties. Society doesn't change, doesn't
31:41
Speaker 1: matter the error, It'll always be unjust. Politicians don't change.
31:45
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter what party. They will always be corrupt individuals.
31:49
Speaker 1: So they can change revolution from the inside out. Real
31:55
Speaker 1: change the power to change yourself, to break your own
31:58
Speaker 1: cycles of narcissism and selfish and make yourself a valuable
32:01
Speaker 1: contributor to society. This is extremely difficult, but change revolution
32:07
Speaker 1: on a personal level is always possible. Sure, it isn't
32:13
Speaker 1: as sexy as rock and roll, dope and fucking in
32:15
Speaker 1: the streets, but Wayne Kramer of the MC five he
32:19
Speaker 1: proved that personal revolution can deliver one from disgrace. I'm
32:25
Speaker 1: Jake Brennan, and this is Disgraceland. Disgraceland was created by
32:44
Speaker 1: Yours Truly and is produced in partnership with Double Elvis.
32:47
Speaker 1: Credits for this episode can be found on the show
32:50
Speaker 1: notes page at disgracelandpod dot com. If you're listening as
32:53
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32:57
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33:33
Speaker 1: Rock a Roller he thedan Man