[sixties-l] Brother Wayne Lays Down the Truth

From: radman (resist@best.com)
Date: Mon Jan 22 2001 - 22:25:11 EST

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    Brother Wayne Lays Down the Truth

    <http://www.pigdog.org/brother_wayne.html>

    2000-11-24
    By Flesh

    Wayne Kramer has seen it all, and then some. As a member of the legendary
    MC5 <http://www.futurenowfilms.com/> , Wayne helped deliver an incendiary
    sonic assault of revolution, that was unmatched by their contemporaries.
    Even some twenty years later, their seminal music is still used by the
    majority of rock and roll bands. They laid down the blueprints of heavy
    metal, punk and other genres. Their first record, "Kick out the Jams" is
    regarded as an indispensable part of any rock and roll music collection
    worth its weight in salt.
    As the White Panther's
    <http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/rauk/whitepan.htm> house band,
    the MC5 also delivered some of the most charged political messages of the
    60's. Their own label censored their first album, changing Tyner's call to
    "Kick out the Jams Motherfuckers" to the safer "Kick out the Jams Brothers
    and Sisters" to satisfy Hudson's chain-store's refusal to carry the album
    because of the controversial remark (MC5's reaction? They took out ads with
    just two words - "Fuck Hudson's"). They played when Detroit burned (yet
    again). They were on stage in Chicago in '68 when the cops rioted. Their
    music and the message were considered so dangerous by the Nixon
    administration, that a brutal campaign of intimidation was launched against
    them, which resulted in the band's manager receiving an outrageous jail
    sentence for two joints.

    After the conviction of manager John Sinclair, a broken MC5, while still
    delivering their pulverizing trademark brand of rock and roll, began to
    fall apart in a venomous haze of bad drugs, bad advice, and bad blood. So
    bad was the experience, Wayne would not pick up a guitar, much less talk
    about his band or his band mates. Left embittered and without direction
    Wayne slipped down his own path personal slaughter that included drug
    addiction and a stay in prison. It wasn't until the death of lead singer
    Rob Tyner and guitarist & lifelong friend Fred 'Sonic' Smith that Wayne
    would come to terms and make peace with the powerful legacy he was part of.

    Two decades later, a clean, sober, and sharper than a razor Wayne Kramer is
    still with us. He is a man who is not only at peace with himself, but could
    be your next door neighbor. I must admit that Wayne is the first person
    that I was ever starstruck by. And even though I had arranged the interview
    with him, I found it impossible to approach him. Instead, he came up to me.

    "Hi, my name's Wayne, how are you?" he said extending his hand, with a
    smile on his face that could disarm a slave-camp guard. In less than two
    seconds, he shattered all the preconceived notions that I had expected of
    someone who has walked through the fires of hell and back. A few minutes
    later, we sat down to discuss the past, present and future.

    Pigdog: Wayne, Welcome.

    Wayne: Thanks. It's great to be here in this new and improved age.

    Pigdog: Let's talk about your music. How would you describe it?

    Wayne: It's kind of a report from the front. In my continuing work I
    attempt to shine a spotlight on things that I think deserve having
    attention paid to them, and in a way attempt to have the courage to tell
    the truth about things that I see and things that I feel. My work is kind
    of as a messenger. The same work I've been doing all along. But today, I'm
    fortunate to have a label like Epitaph that know how to record the kind of
    music I like, and know how to promote correctly and make sure it gets out
    there to the people. It's not often that an artist gets recognized for his
    work, and Epitaph does that. I'm very pleased.

    Pigdog: In regards to your records, what kind of messages are you hoping
    that people will catch or hear from the recordings themselves?

    Wayne: If anything, it's possibilities. If I can create this music, if I
    can address these issues, and I'm of average intelligence, then imagine
    what you can do. That there's the possibility that you can re-invent
    yourself or you could start your own online magazine, or you could start
    your own record company or your own band. The possibility that you could
    change the world.

    Pigdog: Looking ahead to the future, what kinds of hopes and displeasures
    are you seeing happening, or do you hope will happen?

    Wayne: Well, twenty years ago in the MC5, we weren't too sure that there
    was going to continue to be a planet earth. We were pretty sure they were
    going to fuck it up, they were going to blow it up. But then we figured if
    we made it in twenty years, we'd all go onto this beautiful creative
    existence. Well now it's twenty years later, and it's still all fucked up.
    When you got guys like Dick Armey in positions of power in this country, it
    gets scary.

    Pigdog: What's scares the hell out of you the most in today's particular
    time space?

    Wayne: Fundamentalist knee-jerk Republicanism. Scary stuff. They work this
    fear of small minds, of this kind of bible-belt constituency that they're
    all terrified of, that they think are all ignorant. That are ill informed
    and they play on that. They play on their conservative fundamentalist
    beliefs and I think it's a dangerous precedent. I think it opens the door
    for Draconian measures, because there is no way to deal with their fears,
    because they're just fears, y'know? Out here in reality, there's whole lot
    of problems that need to be dealt with realistically. None of them have
    anything to do with the kind of appeal that the George Bushes are trying to
    deal with. This is the biggest load of horseshit that's come down the pike.

    Pigdog: What do you see as being the hopes for advancements for the human
    mind and the human race in general?

    Wayne: If there's any hope, it's in the concepts of self-determination and
    self-advocacy that you can take responsibility yourself and make things
    happen. I wouldn't count on the government or a system or a corporation or
    anyone else to do anything for us. We have to do it ourselves. We have to
    make this all happen ourselves. We can't depend on big government or big
    brother to do anything for you. If there's any hope, it's in your own
    imagination and your own ability to take responsibility and make things happen.

    Pigdog: Shortly before he died, Richard Nixon said that he would like to
    have Pete Wilson for president. Do you have any comments on this?

    Wayne: Pete Wilson is the West Coast version of Dick Armey. They all
    operate on a fear basis. Fear is what motivates them. What grinds my balls,
    is there are brilliant managers in this country. There are brilliant
    strategists; there are very wise people. There are qualified people who
    know how to run things, to organize systems and make things
    happen. Unfortunately none of them go into politics. They all take shelter
    in academia. They find a nice college campus somewhere and they sit in the
    background and they write books and they teach people. The people that end
    up going into politics generally have the mentality of street-rats, because
    it's all about self-aggrandizement and power. This is what makes the future
    scary to me. Wise people and knowledgeable people aren't encouraged to take
    responsibility and to serve.

    Pigdog: Since the days of MC5, how have your personal views and politics
    changed, if any?

    Wayne: They haven't changed all that much, y'know. Once an anarchist,
    always an anarchist. A couple of things. I now know how to act with the
    police now. I will not deal narcotics again in my life. I will not provoke
    a police officer again. But besides that, my basic stances have remained
    the same.

    Pigdog:You spent some time behind bars...

    Wayne: Yeah, just over two years in the 70's for illegitimate capitalism.
    It was after the breakup of The MC5. I was only 24 years old at the time,
    and the loss of the MC5 left a tremendous hole in my life, so it was all
    part of a downward spiral of loosing my band and my brothers who I had gone
    through the fire with. And all of a sudden one day they weren't there
    anymore. It took a long time for me to work through all that, and be able
    to accept the end of the MC5 and to be proud of being a member of the MC5
    as being one of the greatest bands of all time. But to reconcile that with
    who I am today, and the work I do now. Make peace with The MC5, and free to
    do 'The Hard Stuff', and do my work today. Great history will not get me
    through. Like having a great story to tell, that's not going to pay the
    rent. The important thing for me is the work I do today, and records I
    make tomorrow. That's what counts.

    Pigdog: Fred "Sonic" Smith. Do you miss him?

    Wayne: Of course. But I have him. He's here. We had our life together; we
    had our times together. We grew up together; we were little boys together.
    I have him back in my heart and in my mind, even if he's not here on this
    physical plane. I have him back.

    Pigdog: I'd like to get your view on this, the FBI planting marijuana in
    the hubcap of Rob Tyner's car.

    Wayne: The government would stoop to no limit of lowness to harass, repress
    and interfere with the MC5. When we said we wanted to corrupt the youth of
    America, and send them screaming into the streets to tear down anything
    that would stop them from being free by any means necessary, including this
    powerful weapon Rock and Roll, they took us seriously. We smoked a lot of
    pot in those days, and we laughed it up pretty good. But some people in the
    Justice Department - John Mitchell, G. Gordon Liddy, J. Edgar Hoover and
    Spiro Agnew all took it seriously. So they used everything they could
    against us. Ultimately they jailed John Sinclair our manager on a 9 to
    10-year sentence for two joints. So that effectively broke the back of the
    MC5. It was like they were sending a message. To us, 'don't fuck with us',
    to the Black Panthers they sent death squads.

    Pigdog: In today's politics, is there anything you would encourage people
    to do as opposed to twenty years ago?

    Wayne: I always encourage people to think. I think thinking is where it's
    at. This is one of the elements that make it real and make it work; that
    it's about thinking. That the songs are trying to deal with reality on some
    level. We have to chart our own way out of all this mess; we have to
    figure out our own path. There's no rulebook. There's no guidebook about
    how to do any of this. That's where the concept of self-advocacy comes in,
    that we have to take responsibility and make it all happen through our own
    sheer force of will. There's no other way that it's going to happen. You
    have to make this happen. It's the same as it was then, and it's the same
    as it is now.

    Pigdog: Is there a god?

    Wayne: I don't think so. Me and my wife argue this non-stop. And like the
    question of faith, I'm not sure
    about faith either. I'm just not sure, I'm not convinced. The idea of blind
    faith, of obediently following some dogma just doesn't sit right with me. I
    realize people find comfort in it, but it just doesn't work for me. To me,
    when you say "god"; it smells like the Catholics. Even though there was an
    evolutionary break when Christianity broke from the Roman Empire. The
    Romans were pragmatists. All their gods represented something specific,
    something that made something happen. The idea of Christianity, and the
    idea that there was one god and that there was a higher idea than "whatever
    worked," that there was a concept of grace. It all smells like Catholicism
    essentially to me, and the Catholics are not to be trusted. They are very
    scary people. All those fundamentalists are scary. I just don't go for it.
    I'm a Zen Buddhist; I'm a beatnik. I don't buy it. I think you're here for
    this one bit of time that you get, that you have to make the most of it,
    and you're dead for a long time. I think you need to make the most of time
    you have here. If you're going to make a contribution, then now is the time
    to get down with it. My friend Henry Rollins likes to say that there's no
    such thing as spare time. That might be a little bit right of my position,
    but I think he's essentially on the money. I think your time is the most
    valuable thing you have. It's the only thing that any allegiance is owed to.

    Pigdog: What do you think of The Internet?

    Wayne: We want a free media for a free people. It's part of the White
    Panther's ten-point program.

    Pigdog: Do you have an email address or a web site?

    Wayne: We're hooking one up. <http://waynekramer.com/> We're into the
    technology.

    Pigdog: How do you feel about all the pirate radio stations that are
    popping up?

    Wayne: It fits right into my idea of self-advocacy, of possibilities of
    making things happen on your own, and I encourage it. I support it.

    Pigdog: Any last words, or final thoughts?

    Wayne: Yes. Just remember, when you're smashing the state, keep a song in
    your heart and a smile on your lips.



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