Kick out the jams, motherfuckers!
The title track from the
1968 debut album of The
MC5, and also its first Elektra
45. A
quintessential slice of the raw power on offer in those coordinates of time and space (i.e.
Ann Arbor,
Detroit, ...). The
soundtrack of
revolution, man, albeit a drug-addled one. At least it
rawked, man! Yeah! All right! Let's kick out the jams ah ah ah ah. Let's storm the fuckin'
Bastille, man. Let's stop
the war! We can do it! Anybody got gas money? No? You got the
munchies too, man? Let's get some pizza first,
then we'll go
kick out the jams! All right! We'll make revolution
love in the streets!
Are there any cute chicks we could call up? Damn! Well, after the revolution, then we'll make love in the streets! Yeah! All right!
It was a decided non-hit of legendary proportions; if The 5 got any substantial airplay at all outside of Michigan, it was on FM freeform radio stations. And on any other station, I'll bet you got a censored version; it starts with "KICK OUT THE JAMS!, brothers and sisters..." through the magick of the splice (singer Rob Tyner was hustled into the studio by Elektra, and forced to make an alternate version of the intro; Rob was hassled by The Man, man!) - I wonder how many people out of the 1117 who bought the 45 were disappointed at not hearing the MoFoWord on it. Needless to say, this was an item in the one-way rivalry between The 5 and Elektra; the next LP would be on Atlantic Records. Not a tear was shed.
A record-store chain had refused to stock the LP because of the offending word. The 5, via some White Panther buddies, no doubt, put up signs on some outlets of that chain; the signs read "FUCK YOU!", and had the Elektra logo on them. How nice. There were eventually Clean (no MoFo) and Dirty versions of the LP, to placate the squeamish - shades of later PMRC and Wal-Mart travesties.
It was a good time for the MofoWord: Jefferson Airplane would later say "Tear down the walls, motherfuckers!" on Volunteers, IIRC, perhaps emboldened by or in sympathy with The 5. Or maybe neither band had any knowledge of the other band's MoFo-ing. I don't know.
Was "brothers and sisters" sampled for "Pump Up the Volume"?
C'mon, kick 'em out!