Remembering Rob Tyner

Robert W. Derminer was born December 12, 1944, in Detroit, Michigan. Not much is know about his life but we were able to uncover that his parents were Jacqueline and William and he had 2 brothers, Richard and David.

The MC5 or Motor City 5 was formed sometime in the 1960s. The main lineup was Rob Tyner, Wayne Kramer, Fred “Sonic” Smith, Dennis “Machine Gun” Thompson and Michael Davis.

Playing almost nightly any place they could in and around Detroit, MC5 quickly earned a reputation for their high-energy live performances and had a size-able local following, regularly drawing sellout audiences of 1000 or more.

Street Orgy

Contemporary rock writer Bill Bixby stated that the sound of MC5 was like “a catastrophic force of nature the band was barely able to control”, while Denny McLain notes that fans compared the aftermath of an MC5 performance to the delirious exhaustion experienced after “a street rumble or an orgy, or for that matter, a street orgy. You ain’t lived until you attended a street orgy.”

Remembering Rob Tyner - MC5 Illustration By Paul King Art — MC5 Illustration By Paul King Art

MC5 earned national attention with their first album, Kick Out the Jams, recorded live on October 30 and 31, 1968, at Detroit’s Grande Ballroom. When Hudson’s, a Detroit-based department store chain, refused to stock Kick Out the Jams due to the obscenity, MC5 responded with a full page advertisement in the local underground magazine Fifth Estate saying “Stick Alive with the MC5, and Fuck Hudson’s!”, prominently including the logo of MC5’s label, Elektra Records, in the ad. Hudson’s pulled all Elektra records from their stores, and in the ensuing controversy, Jac Holzman, the head of Elektra, dropped the band from their contract. MC5 then signed with Atlantic Records.

Punk Before There Was Punk

Rob once described the MC5 as, ”We were Punk before there was Punk. MC5 were New Wave before there was New Wave. Metal before there was Metal, and we were MC before there was Hammer. We were either the electric, mechanical climax of the age, or we were some sort of cruel, counter-culture hoax. We were Killer, Righteous, high energy dudes who could pitch the whang-dang doodle all night long.”

Tyner died in 1991. He was survived by his wife Becky and his children Robin, Amy and Elizabeth. With a huge afro, snazzy stage outfits, stage moves reminiscent of James Brown, and a soulful vocal style, Tyner quickly became an integral part of the MC5 sound and live experience. The MC5 were so ahead of their time, that we still have not caught up. There will never be another MC5 or another Rob Tyner.

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