The Hard Stuff

Wayne Kramer

Astounding autobiography from revolutionary MC5 guitarist. Beautifully precised by the subtitle

Dope, Crime, The MC5 And My Life Of Impossibilities, The Hard Stuff is the astonishing tale of Wayne Kramer’s emergence from an abusive childhood into a latesixties Detroit torn apart by riots and racism. His formation of high-energy rock‘n’roll revolutionaries the MC5 ignited a spark that latterly engendered punk, the radical libertine politics of the band’s White Panther Party led to FBI surveillance and wire taps, while a post-5 immersion in addiction and crime found the guitarist incarcerated in jail. “At 25, I’d flushed my fine young life right down the toilet. I was a user and a taker, and now I was going to have to pay the bill.”

Kramer learned a lot in FCI Lexington, honed his craft alongside fellow inmate and celebrated jazz trumpeter Red Rodney, but on release hooked up with Johnny Thunders on NYC’s junk-sick Lower East Side.

But there is ultimate redemption: the return of the MC5, his hands-on Jail Guitar Doors programme (getting musical instruments into prisons), a young family. In all, The Hard Stuff is hard-hitting, raw, unflinchingly honest, thought-provoking, inspiring and highly recommended.