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“Kick Out the Jams” – MC5
(Words/music: Michael Davis/Wayne Kramer/Fred “Sonic” Smith/Dennis Thompson/Rob Tyner, available on Kick Out the Jams, Elektra 1969)

One of the (admittedly few) things I remember from my high school physics class is the law of conservation of energy.  Specifically, it suggests that energy can be converted but can never be created or destroyed (Einstein connects this to mass as well – that energy may be converted into mass and vice versa, but the basic idea remains the same).  Regardless, this sat dormant in my brain until I put on the MC5 a little while ago.  Its primal energy and bluesy guitars must have knocked this loose, because it made me start thinking about “energy” as it relates to this song.  “Kick Out the Jams” remains one of the most commonly credited predecessors to “punk rock,” but that’s little more than an intellectual exercise.  I’m sure that someone with a more extensive knowledge of the 1960s (specifically garage rock) could trace this thread deeper to find the first proto-punk record, be it “Kick Out the Jams” or something from the Stooges or whatever, but I’m more interested in the spirit of punk rock – or, in this case, punk’s “energy.”

Thinking of it in that sense – of the spirit of punk rock as “energy” – it stands to believe that it’s always existed, only in different shifting forms.  If it came to New York and London in three chord romps in the 1970s, as hardcore in California in the 1980s, and to the radio in the 1990s, the spirit and undercurrent remain consistent as the sounds change.  In 1969, punk rock sounded like Detroit garage rock; it morphed into the joyful chaos provided by these crashing cymbals, sped up blues riffs, and Rob Tyner’s profane proclamation to start the music.  As hesitant as I am to declare this punk rock (as I think this sounds equally like AC/DC), this is the same joyous spirit founds in its descendants.  Regardless of its label, “Kick Out the Jams” still sounds riotous forty years later no matter what you call it.

More on MC5: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm