The Hard Stuff, Wayne Kramer
The Hard Stuff, Wayne Kramer
1 Rating(s)
List: $31.99 | Sale: $22.40
Club: $15.99

The Hard Stuff
Dope, Crime, the MC5, and My Life of Impossibilities

Author: Wayne Kramer

Narrator: Wayne Kramer

Unabridged: 11 hr 48 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Da Capo Press

Published: 08/14/2018

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included

Synopsis

The first memoir by Wayne Kramer, legendary guitarist and cofounder of quintessential Detroit proto-punk legends The MC5

"Voyeuristically dramatic."

-THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW




In January 1969, before the world heard a note of their music, the MC5 was on the cover of Rolling Stone. Led by legendary guitarist Wayne Kramer, the band was a reflection of the times: exciting, sexy, violent, chaotic, and even out of control. The missing link between free jazz and punk rock, the MC5 toured the country, played alongside music legends, and had a rabid following, their music acting as the soundtrack to the blossoming blue collar youth movement. Kramer wanted to redefine what a rock 'n' roll group was capable of, and though there was power in reaching for that, it was also a recipe for personal and professional disaster. The band recorded three major label albums but, by 1972-it was all over.

Kramer's story is (literally) a revolutionary one, but it's also the deeply personal struggle of an addict and an artist, a rebel with a great tale to tell. From the glory days of Detroit to the junk-sick streets of the East Village, from Key West to Nashville and sunny L.A., in and out of prison and on and off of drugs, Kramer's is the classic journeyman narrative, but with a twist: he's here to remind us that revolution is always an option.


About Wayne Kramer

Wayne Kramer, as the leader of Detroit's incendiary rock band The MC5, helped form the White Panther Party in solidarity with other organizations working for racial and economic equality during the Vietnam War, making him a target of the FBI's counterintelligence program. After serving a federal prison term, he released ten solo albums. He is considered a pioneer of both punk rock and heavy metal, with Rolling Stone naming him one of the top 100 guitarists of all time. Alongside songwriter Billy Bragg, Kramer founded Jail Guitar Doors USA, a non-profit with a mission to help rehabilitate prison inmates by teaching them to express themselves positively through music.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Bobby on February 25, 2024

Enjoyed the content, just didn’t care for the way the book was written. RIP Wayne......more

Goodreads review by Jeff on July 18, 2024

The Hard Stuff is a run-of-the-mil rockstar autobiography: quite interesting when the author discusses the peak of his career (his time in the late sixties and early seventies as a member of the MC5), and quite a bit less interesting outside of that specific period. Since Wayne Kramer had substance......more

Goodreads review by Alex on September 04, 2018

I wanted to love this book, but I just couldn't. The beginning was okay, when artists go into their childhood, there are parts that can be interesting, but for the most part a lot of it is lack luster. I know they're trying to set the stage for what happens in their adulthood, but that's not what I'......more

Goodreads review by Richard on October 23, 2019

Wayne was kind of a douche.......more

Goodreads review by Heronimo Gieronymus on August 20, 2018

I think it is too perfect for words that Wayne Kramers's memoir has come out just in time for the fiftieth anniversary of the 1968 Democratic National Convention. I wrote my master's thesis on cinematic representations of the events of August 1968, specifically the unrest that broke out in Chicago d......more

Quotes

"Voyeuristically dramatic."—New York Times Book Review

"[This] book comes alive when bringing the reader into the heart of the late-'60s scene, where revolution seemed not just possible but plausible...The Hard Stuff is rarely poetic, but in its brutal honesty Mr. Kramer may succeed in deterring future musicians from contemplating serious drug abuse."—Wall Street Journal

"Kramer has written one of rock's most engaging and readable memoirs."—Rolling Stone

"By the time he turned 30, Kramer had been the lead guitarist in a legendary but star-crossed rock band, a playacting Detroit gangster, and a guest of the American carceral system. All this living is covered in his new memoir The Hard Stuff, along with Kramer's roundabout path to the life he leads today."—NPR Music

"There's nothing like an autobiography when it comes to really digging deep. Kramer's The Hard Stuff does exactly that. It's simultaneously brutally honest, heartbreaking, hilarious, and life-affirming...It's a frankly wonderful read."—Detroit Metro Times

"Often harrowing, sometimes hilarious and always compelling."—Buffalo News

"The 1960s rocker and (sometimes) revolutionary pulls no punches in his autobiography, delivering a detailed look at his life good (leading the rock powerhouse MC5, political activism during the late 1960s and early '70s) and bad (drugs, prison) in a voice as clear as the vocals on MC5's 'Kick Out the Jams.'"—Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

"An honest accounting of everything the title states, from the rapid rise and fall of the MC5 over the course of three albums, the heroin addiction and drug dealing that landed him in prison, and ultimately the defeat of those demons, redemption, and late-in-life fatherhood that he calls 'the most meaningful thing I've ever done.'"—Orange County Register

"The book, while detailing the struggle of an addict and an artist, is layered with the optimism of a man committed to seeing past impossibilities."—South Florida Sun-Sentinel

"For all the hardness of his life, his insights into addiction-drawn from his own, and his absent father's alcoholism-are shot through with an enduring, thoughtful empathy that makes The Hard Stuff such an endearing read."—MOJO

Add to Cart
Add to Wish List