MC5

Before punk had a name, MC5 were already kicking the door down. Out of Michigan came vocalist Rob Tyner, guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred "Sonic" Smith, bassist Michael Davis and drummer Dennis Thompson, a loud, back-to-basics rock and roll assault laced with garage, blues rock and psychedelic noise and fired by leftist politics and anti-establishment rage.

Their reputation was built on stage, at shows that were part rock gig, part rally, and one of them became the 1969 debut Kick Out the Jams, a live album with a title track that still sounds like a riot starting in the front row. They landed a major national magazine cover before that record was even out. Back in the USA and High Time followed, and in 1972 they were done. Tom Morello later summed it up: they "basically invented punk rock."

The aftermath was long and sad. Tyner died of a heart attack in 1991, Smith the same way in 1994, both at 46. Kramer, Davis and Thompson regrouped with Handsome Dick Manitoba of the Dictators on vocals and played on and off until Davis died in 2012. The band entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2024, the same year Kramer and Thompson both died, and Heavy Lifting, a final album produced by Bob Ezrin, came out that October.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.