Heavy Lifting: Release Oct 18th

I’ve been trying to put my thoughts together about this record and it’s been difficult because it just wasn’t supposed to be this way. Wayne was supposed to be alive! He was supposed to be able to enjoy it, talk about it, tour behind it, play some new songs, and we were going to live it, and play it together in the moment. At least that was the intention, but life always seems to have unforeseen circumstances.

All we did was talk about the future and our families, how much fun the band was when we toured live in 2022, and that 2024 was gonna be the year of MC5 “Heavy Lifting” 

and then……………he was gone………….

I’m not even sure how to describe my friendship with Wayne because in some ways it’s just too difficult. I’ve never had a friend like Wayne before who had an uncanny way of breaking down life’s more difficult aspects into easy yet attainable thought patterns that gave you contemplation and positivity. Because he had been through so much and had so many lives, he had a very pragmatic approach to life, music & family. Honestly what I’m missing the most is my friend Wayne! 

He was a true friend who always shot it straight with you, didn’t sugar coat anything, and was as fearless in his actions as he was in his music. He had a wicked sense of humor and was as humble as anyone that I’d ever met. He had the best laugh and I always liked to make him laugh as we talked about the absurdity of life, and a life in music, which we both knew was crazy, but that was also essential to our happiness & creativity. Because we were “cancer brothers” we were able to have a strong connection from the start, and since we met (on his 70th birthday) while he was going through throat cancer in 2019 (I had been through the exact same thing 4 years earlier) we formed a quick and strong brotherhood. I’d like to think that we both helped each other out because before then I didn’t really have many people to talk to about what I had been through. It was also important that he knew that he was going to get through it, and actually become stronger because of it. There was also the mental side of going through it, like anger and depression, and he reached out to me whenever he need a “pick me up.” It wasn’t until later when we started our writing partnership and he asked me to be the singer for the reanimated MC5 “We Are All MC5” tour and we started rehearsing, did I ever meet “Wayne Kramer MC5 guitarist” and what that meant. I only knew Wayne as my friend, and the amazing father & husband to his family. It’s not like we didn’t ever talk about the past, it’s just that our focus was always about life, music and the future! 

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The birth of “Heavy Lifting”:

I co-wrote 10 of the 13 tracks on “Heavy Lifting” writing almost all of the lyrics and melodies to music WK had written, as well as a couple songs where I had sent lyrics and a title, and WK had written the music along with some melodies. He called me his partner (I was pinching myself) and coming out of Covid he started sending me these snippets of ideas in Nov of 2020, and by late summer of 2021 we had written about 16 tunes, with different styles, characters, and all for the fun and the joy of creativity. Having no idea what it would become or where it would go. We had a ball writing these together and we just kept getting better and better at it, as well as making each other happy. There were flat out rockers, heavy bangers, soul ballads, sexy funky jams, a punk pop tune, as well as a dance track called “Blessed Release” that we both loved from the start, even a song that we wrote for Alice Cooper. But as WK had mentioned in an interview in Dec of 2023 in Mojo, it’s a “guitar extravaganza” record, and in my opinion he was playing guitar at the top of his game. Always inventive, always seeking, always loud, never compromising, but with soul. Pure Detroit! 

I was writing about Oakland and the homeless situation on “Change No Change.” I wrote about the insurrection with WK’s title “Barbarians At The Gate.” The song “Blind Eye” is about a homeless girl that I would see with her baby everyday near the freeway in Oakland that WK, I and Bob Ezrin collaborated on the words for along with some lyrics by Jill Sobule in the bridge. There’s also one that Dennis Thompson & Vernon Reid played on called “Can’t Be Found” about just not being able to find any “humility & grace” anymore in the world while it’s going up in flames. It’s turns out that song is just as relevant, if not more, then when I wrote the lyrics in 2021. Another of my faves is “Boys Who Play With Matches” which were lyrics that I wrote that WK wrote the song around, and that could be interpreted as Wayne’s past, but was literally a story about my brother and I and our delinquent friends & youth. It’s also the only song where I contributed any guitar chords to. Stevie Salas also kicked ass on this one with WK, as well as another killer track “Black Boots” with the lyrics & melody coming from Tim McIIrath from Rise Against and one that I sang everything on. It was very close to being one of the first singles and it’s a banger. There’s a fun tune called “I Am The Fun (The Phoney) that has my kids screaming at the beginning because every successful Bob Ezrin record (in my mind) had to have some kids screaming on it. It’s got some “fuck the man, let’s party” vibe and we were thinking about Parliament Funkadelic/Ohio Players as a touchstone with the attitude of Iggy. Another one I like is “Because Of Your Car” which also has the touring band from 2022 on it with Stevie Salas, Vicki Randle & Winston Watson and is a fun romp about a guy in love with his girlfriends hot muscle car. I always pictured Zach Galifianakis from the movie “The Hangover” singing this one in a video. Maybe someday!

The title track “Heavy Lifting” is a co-write with Tom Morello who was also a great friend of Wayne’s and it was really the song that set the whole thing in motion. A heavy Morello riff, WK’s killer playing interweaving throughout, and my lyrics screaming about “crime is gonna pay.” It was influenced by a fascinating book that Wayne had given me called “Why They Kill: Discoveries Of A Maverick Criminologist” by Richard Rhodes that dissects violence and offers new solutions to the age old problem of why people kill and what brings people to the point of violence. 

The title of the record “Heavy Lifting” came from Wayne as he was thinking about a “soundtrack album” that was about a drug addled screen writer/movie producer named Carter who suffered from “unrequited ambition.” Carter was indebted to the mob, had a brother who was a policeman, a girlfriend who was gorgeous and ambitious, yet hated him. Carter ends up making a movie about stealing an armored car, yet in the process of shooting the movie, he actually does steal the armored car by helicopter and gets away with it. A happy ending! Wayne had sent me a letter with the short screen play that we would try and write the songs for. He described the main character to me as “Carter’s belief is that fulfillment is always just out of reach. The age-old tension of unlimited human desire battling it out with our built in human limits; Angel vs The Beast.” So some of the songs were written with the screen play in mind and some were written about the current times that we were in. Out of the 16 tunes we wrote, 10 of them made the record. The rest I’m hoping will be released someday as they’re some of my favorites. 

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Enter Bob Ezrin: 

I had never met Bob before but of course you can’t be in music and not understand the impact that he’s had as a producer and legendary bad ass. The records that I had the most questions about were the first Peter Gabriel record, and Lou Reeds “Berlin” which he was gracious enough to talk about. I love all the Alice Cooper records, Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” and Kiss “Destroyer” but the other two were ones I was most curious about because they were so different and weird. 

Bob has a lot of super powers but I think one of his ultimate weapons is his sense of humor. Bob can be “direct,” he can be “questioning” and he can “test” you, and he can even piss you off enough to try and prove him wrong, but his sense of humor and how he gets that point across is one of his true gifts. I never felt intimidated by Bob, but I did want his approval and I also wanted to learn from him. At first I had no idea what he thought of me. I knew that he liked the tunes and that he wanted to work with WK and that it was going to be an MC5 record, but he had no idea who I was, or what I had brought, or could bring to the proceedings. I only knew that Wayne and I felt very strongly about what we had created and we were going to stick to our guns as best we could, but that Bob had a lot to offer (obviously) and that we should listen. Which of course we did! 

What Bob did for me in this process was to force me to be direct in what I was saying. I always liked to be a bit more veiled and to leave more to the imagination but in this case it was extremely important to be direct, and to talk about “NOW” in a very clear way. To Bob’s credit some lyrics were as they were written from the get go, and in others there were a lot of re-writes that always made it better. I learned to not be afraid of the re-write process, but also to stay within the “first thought, best thought” mentality when it came to the soul of the song. He also gave me free rein to sing whatever I heard, or back ground parts that I wanted to try, and he was extremely supportive in that realm and I really appreciated that, and as time passed I felt like I earned his trust, and later on his friendship. The man is a mensch and I’m a better person for the experience. I have no idea what the younger “Toronto Bob” was like, but the person that I met had a strong idea of what an “MC5” record was going to be yet he and Wayne were in lock step on how to accomplish that. When it came time to put together the band to record the basics, it happened pretty fast. There were some names bandied about but WK’s first choice was Detroit comrade Don Was for bass. Wayne and Don go way back (WK played on the first Was/Not Was record, Don was in MC50) and Don had seen the original MC5 quite a few times and is a legend in his own right. He’s also one of the best bass players in the world in my opinion. 

Bob calls Don……

Don is in a session with Abe Laboriel Jr…

Don says he’s in….

Bob knows Abe……

says hello and then says 

“do you want to play drums on the new MC5 record.” 

Abe says “fuck yes” and away we go! 

I’m like holy shit what is happening! 

WK starts laughing my favorite laugh. 

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Tracking at The Way Station: Nov 2021

Dave Way has been tasked by WK & Bob to track the basics at his fabulous studio “The Way Station.”  Dave has his own killer resume of Grammy’s and has worked on some amazing records and he’s a fucking easy hang and a joy to work with and he’s engineering the basics. It’s WK, Don & Abe all in one room, and I’m just outside singing where I can see them using an SM7. I had rented an amazing U47 for the sessions but it stayed in the box as the SM7 worked better for tracking live. 

Bob is nearby by, keeping the mood light, yet keeping it moving. I had never met Don, but I had heard from a mutual friend (Vadim who was his guitar tech) that he is one of the coolest dudes you’ll ever meet and just super chill. When he walks in, I think it’s Waylon Jennings straight off the Highwaymen tour as he’s in all black, but he has sandals on and they immediately come off. I don’t remember him putting them back on for the next 4 days. He reaches his hand out and as advertised he’s cool as shit and a genuine awesome dude. We both almost have the same hat! Later on he tells me that the songs that we wrote were really good and that he was stoked that Wayne and I had found each other, and that it was gonna be fun to play these. I was floored and really appreciated that. He had charted them all out, but had left room for magic within. 

Next in comes Abe Laboriel Jr, whom through another mutual friend (Scrote), we had actually written a song together, but never met. The way I’ve described Abe is that from the first time you meet him, it’s like you’ve known him your whole life. He exudes positivity, fun, adventure, humor and he’s also one of the best fucking drummers in the world. It’s no wonder Paul McCartney has had him in his band for so long and lets him do his thing. Abe has also charted out the tunes but left room for magic within, and he rocks the shit out of every take. 

The other thing to mention is that the 3 of them had never played together before, and although Abe had been on some sessions working for Don, they had never been a rhythm section before. So WK fires up his American Flag Strat (compliments of his tech Mark Rojas) and away we fucking go.

15 tunes were tracked live in only 4 1/2 days, with no more than 3 takes per song. I’m singing live with them (some of which are full takes on the record) and it seems that all we did was laugh, rock out, have fun and enjoy the process. The vibe was incredible and it was a joy to make. We all had some great talks at lunch and seeing Bob & Don talk, was fascinating and enjoyable as there’s a ton of respect and camaraderie. Abe told a great story about going to recording sessions with his Dad and if a take wasn’t that good, he was supposed to jangle his car keys so his Dad knew that maybe they could do a better one. But what Abe would do is pretend to jangle the keys sometimes to fuck with his Dad. 🙂

Bob is steering the ship and has a good handle on when we get the right takes and it’s a band playing in a room all together.

As it should be!

WK and I are beaming and I can’t believe it’s over. 

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A side note which can only happen in LA: 

At the end of the first session there’s a knock on the door and in walks Julian Lennon, who is friends with Bob and comes by to say hello. Julian is nice, super cool, and it also turns out that this is his old house and that he built the original version of the studio. Dave Way gets to ask him some questions about how it was originally laid out and that was a treat. 

Then on the last day Tom Morello comes by to say hello and he’s also a cool hang and we get to kick it with him before heading out. 

And I’m still pinching myself. 

WK says “we did good work this week.” 

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Tracking & ……..time

After the tracking sessions at The Way Station, everyone heads their separate ways and it’s time to do the real work at home. WK & Bob both get busy working on some other projects. Wayne is working on the sound track to two separate movie projects, and Bob is working with U2 to help them with “Songs Of Surrender” which is part of Bono’s book “Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story.” 

As that’s happening, I’m in my studio singing to all the basic tracks and doing rewrites on some of the lyrics to get it right. We’re all in contact with each other but it’s taking awhile with everyone’s schedule. By the middle of 2022 everything is getting closer, but not close enough. There’s still mixing, mastering, the art work, and all the other things that really do take time to collect and get right. Also there’s special guests that need to be added like Dennis Thompson, Slash, Vernon Reid, Tom Morello, William Duvall, Joe Boyd and all that takes time as well. 

There is a tour planned for May of 2022 that becomes the “We Are All MC5” tour which kicks off in Detroit on 5/5/22 and ends in San Diego on 5/15/22. WK does promo for that and talks about the new record, the new band, with hopes of “Heavy Lifting” being released later in the year. Part of the new band (Stevie Salas, Vicki Randle & Winston Watson) also get to be on some of the record, which is awesome. There’s a snippet of the new song “Heavy Lifting” that comes out and we play it every night on the tour and we can see that it’s resonating with the crowd. The tour goes extremely well, WK is in top form and it feels like there’s some momentum but as with any record, or piece of art, as well as dealing with the label, it sometimes just takes more time than you think and life keeps getting in the way. 

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Bob’s Super Power #2: Mixing. 

By 2023 the mixes are starting to come in and holy shit they are slammin’ and everyone is getting super pumped. Mixing really is one of Bob’s ultra super powers and it’s been that way for a long time in my opinion. It’s clear and fuckin rockin. The label Ear Music is excited, WK and I are beside ourselves and we can’t wait for this thing to finally come out.

But when is it coming out? 

No one knows yet. 

After a few months of blowing through some deadlines the label decides to do a full campaign but not until the beginning of 2024. WK and I are devastated but it makes some sense since it’s already been this long and it would be better to do some press in December and then have it come out early in 2024 and then tour around it. 

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The Test Pressing: Oct 2023 

I get a phone message from WK. 

“Hey Brooks, Kramawitz here. I sent you a test pressing of your new record today. We just got them in the mail. It sounds fantastic. You sound fantastic so keep an eye on the mailbox. It’s comin”

When I finally got it, like a little kid I put it on and holy shit there it was. All of our hard work distilled into that wax. All the love that we put into it, our friendship, our sweat, our heart & soul all there, and it sounds amazing. I cried a little that night out of happiness and Wayne’s ability to see in me something that I never could see in myself. He gave me confidence to dare to be great and I think he did that for a lot of folks in his life. It’s Wayne’s lasting super power and it spreads to everyone that he touched. 

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He should be here: 

By December of 2023 WK is doing press and talking about the new record, that it will be coming out in the spring of 2024, and how much he enjoys it and is looking forward to touring behind it as much as we can. I’m ecstatic and can’t wait to get back with the band and we’re talking about getting together in LA in late January right after NAAM weekend to get together, play, and get the mojo back together. By the first week of January a little birdie tells me that we will be back in SF for a show in May and I can’t wait. It’s all going to happen finally. 

I get a message from WK around Jan 15th and something doesn’t sound right. I just think it’s another delay of the record, but what he tells me makes my heart crack open. I won’t go into the details but it’s not good news and all I can think of is for him to get as much time as possible with his family and to fight like hell. I try to keep his spirits up and remind him that he’s beaten cancer before and that there are new chemical trials daily and to stay positive, and that I’ll come out and help take him to appointments if needed. He says that would be nice and then tells me that they were just about to sign a contract for 8 West Coast dates and that he feels bad about it. I tell him to just focus on what’s in front of him and not to worry about any of that. The last thing I tell him, and it’s really just to make him laugh, I say “God dammit Wayne, you have to live longer than John Sinclair & Dennis” and with that I get one of those full Kramer laughs that anyone who knows him has heard. It’s the one that reminds you that life is absurd but it’s also has to be lived to the fullest. 

Wayne does his final interview with Jaan Uhelski for Creem Magazine, who has known him from way back in the day at the Grande Theater since she was 15 and it’s good one!

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Feb 2nd and he’s gone:

The news wasn’t unexpected as we knew it could happen fast but I didn’t think it would happen that fast. I wasn’t able to talk to him again but his wife, and the love and rock of his life, Margaret kept friends up to date, even when it was hard, and I’ll always be thankful for that. 

With Wayne’s passing it’s been extremely rough on all who knew him. I can’t say that he was larger than life, but once he found his own life and became a great husband and father, he wanted to help as many people as he could by telling his story and empowering others that they could do the same, and in doing that, he enriched lives. I know that he did that for me and I think about him daily, trying to remember our conversations about life, and still learning from him even in his passing.

Jail Guitar Doors & The CAPO center, will be his true lasting legacy and nothing was closer to his heart to than to go into a prison and give hope to those like himself, who had none. 

With (finally) the release of this record that he and I made, I hope that the spirit of empowerment, fighting against injustices, and the spirit of commitment to live your lives to the fullest is what you get out of it. Maybe that’s too much to ask in this day and age, and if that is the case, just remember that the muthafucker could play guitar like no one! 

The Rock n Roll spirit is in there and we did our best which is all that he and I wanted to do.

“Heavy Lifting” comes out on Oct 18th the day before the original 5’s induction into the Rock n Roll Hall Of Fame and I couldn’t be more happier for the original MC5 families.

There are 2 singles out already on Ear Music.

Can’t Be Found

Boy Who Play With Matches. 

I suggest you get the vinyl and crank that shit up! 

BB’