The MC5’s Wayne Kramer Demonstrates the Correct & Official Way to Play “Kick Out the Jams” on the Guitar

If you’re an aspir­ing gui­tar play­er, you’re in luck. In the age of YouTube, there’s no short­age of tal­ent­ed YouTu­bers who will teach you how to play the gui­tar parts of your favorite songs. How to play George Har­rison’s gui­tar solo on “Let It Be”? This video has every lit­tle detail cov­ered. Mean­while, oth­er videos neat­ly map out the fin­er points of Pink Floy­d’s “Wish You Were Here” or Led Zep­pelin’s “Stair­way to Heav­en.” Pick your favorite song, and chances are some­one has cre­at­ed a primer.

Then occa­sion­al­ly you run into videos like this–a tuto­r­i­al straight from the artist him or her­self. Above, Wayne Kramer, co-founder of Detroit’s ur-punk band, the MC5, sets the record straight and shows you the authen­tic way to play the 1969 anthem, “Kick Out the Jams.” “There are guys out there try­ing to show you how to play ‘Kick Out the Jams,’ and they’re all get­ting it wrong,” says Kramer. “They’re all mess­ing it up. None of them are doing it right, and I’ve had enough.” So here is the “the prop­er, cor­rect and offi­cial way” to play it. Let the les­son begin.

For good mea­sure, he includes the lyrics and chords in the YouTube blurb:

You can find more lessons from Pro­fes­sor Kramer here.

This fall, Kramer will be launch­ing a 50th anniver­sary MC5 tour and also releas­ing a mem­oir enti­tled The Hard Stuff: Dope, Crime, the MC5, and My Life of Impos­si­bil­i­ties. You can pre-order it now.

For a very dif­fer­ent set of gui­tar lessons, see: James Tay­lor Teach­es You to Play “Car­oli­na in My Mind,” “Fire and Rain” & Oth­er Clas­sics on the Gui­tar.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

The MC5 Per­forms at the 1968 Chica­go Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tion, Right Before All Hell Breaks Loose

Pete Seeger Teach­es You How to Play Gui­tar for Free in The Folksinger’s Gui­tar Guide (1955)