Wayne Kramer

Wayne Kramer

Born: April 30, 1948
Died: February 2, 2024
in Detroit, Michigan, USA
Wayne Kramer (born April 30, 1948 in Detroit, Michigan) was an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, producer and film and television composer. Kramer came to prominence as a teenager in 1967 as a co-founder of the Detroit rock group MC5 (Motor City 5), a group known for their powerful live performances and radical left-wing political stance. The MC5 broke up amid personality conflicts, drug abuse, and personal problems, which, for Kramer, led to several fallow years, as he battled drug addiction before returning to an active recording and performing schedule in the 1990s. Rolling Stone ranked him number ninety-two on their list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of all Time".

Movies for Wayne Kramer...

Angelheaded Hipster: The Songs of Marc Bolan & T. Rex
Title: Angelheaded Hipster: The Songs of Marc Bolan & T. Rex
Character: Self
Released: September 14, 2023
Type: Movie
A musical documentary celebrating the life and work of glam rock pioneer Marc Bolan, combined with a behind-the-scenes look at the tribute album of the same name.
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Algren
Title: Algren
Character: Self
Released: October 21, 2021
Type: Movie
Algren will spotlight the hard-knock life and authentic creative legacy of one of the most underrated writers of the twentieth century, Nelson Algren. Algren's brutally honest portrayal of the American underclass and his hard-nosed lifestyle became his pathway to compassion. Through interviews with Algren contemporaries, experts, and "literary soulmates," as well as through the photography of Algren's friends, Art Shay and Stephen Deutch, the film will tell his story. It will celebrate his tremendous contribution to and influence on American letters, and push Algren, champion of the marginalized, out from the margins.
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The Ventures: Stars on Guitars
Title: The Ventures: Stars on Guitars
Released: February 12, 2020
Type: Movie
Documentary film on the #1 instrumental rock group in the world, The Ventures. The story of their rise to fame in the 1960s right up to now, as they celebrate their 60th anniversary of playing the best guitar-rock of all time.
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Creem: America's Only Rock 'n' Roll Magazine
Title: Creem: America's Only Rock 'n' Roll Magazine
Character: Self - MC5
Released: March 14, 2019
Type: Movie
Explores the seminal music magazine from its 1969 launch in Detroit to the untimely death of its publisher Barry Kramer in 1981.
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Title: Punk
Character: Self
Released: March 11, 2019
Type: TV
Featuring original interviews with America’s punk pioneers and the U.K.’s most notorious bands, alongside a seamless blend of rare and unseen photos, gritty archival film and video, a crackling soundtrack of punk hits and misses, this documentary series explores the music, the fashion, the art and the DIY attitude of a subculture of self-described misfits and outcasts.
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Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World
Title: Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World
Character: Self
Released: September 22, 2017
Type: Movie
Documentary about the role of Native Americans in popular music history, a little-known story built around the incredible lives and careers of the some of the greatest music legends.
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Danny Says
Title: Danny Says
Character: Self
Released: March 18, 2015
Type: Movie
DANNY SAYS is a documentary unveiling the amazing journey of Danny Fields. Fields has played a pivotal role in music and culture with seminal acts including: the Doors, the Velvet Underground, the Stooges, MC5, Nico, the Ramones and beyond.
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Super Duper Alice Cooper
Title: Super Duper Alice Cooper
Character: Self (voice)
Released: April 17, 2014
Type: Movie
Emerging from the Detroit music scene of the 1970s in a flurry of long hair and sequins, Alice Cooper restored hard rock with a sense of showmanship, while simultaneously striking fear into the hearts of Middle America with the chicken-slaughtering, dead-baby-eating theatrics that would cement his identity as a glam metal icon. Meticulously crafted from rare archival footage, Super Duper Alice Cooper tells the story of the man behind the makeup, Vincent Furnier, the son of a preacher, who got caught in the grip of his own monster.
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A Band Called Death
Title: A Band Called Death
Character: Self
Released: June 27, 2013
Type: Movie
Before Bad Brains, the Sex Pistols or even the Ramones, there was Death. Formed in the early '70s by three teenage brothers from Detroit, Death is credited as being the first black punk band, and the Hackney brothers, David, Bobby, and Dannis, are now considered pioneers in their field. But it wasn’t until recently — when a dusty 1974 demo tape made its way out of Bobby’s attic nearly 30 years after Death’s heyday — that anyone outside a small group of punk enthusiasts had even heard of them.
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Title: Rock N' Roll Stories
Character: Guest
Released: April 16, 2013
Type: TV
Music Professionals share their most memorable stories of their career in the Rock N' Roll world.
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MC5: Early Video Collection 1967-1972
Title: MC5: Early Video Collection 1967-1972
Released: February 27, 2013
Type: Movie
Detroit legends, MC5, captured live and in-studio performance throughout their short -- yet influential -- career.
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Louder Than Love: The Grande Ballroom Story
Title: Louder Than Love: The Grande Ballroom Story
Character: Self
Released: July 17, 2012
Type: Movie
The greatest untold story in Rock and Roll history as revealed by the musicians,artists and people that lived it
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Detroit Lives
Title: Detroit Lives
Character: Himself
Released: August 30, 2010
Type: Movie
Before its economic decline, Detroit was a major metropolis. Now, in the 2000s, the young people of the Motor City are making it their own DIY paradise where rules are second to passion and creativity. Johnny Knoxville tours the city to meet some of the people who are creating a new Detroit on their own terms, against real adversity.
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It Came From Detroit
Title: It Came From Detroit
Character: Self
Released: July 23, 2009
Type: Movie
It Came From Detroit is the ultimate inside look at the Motor City’s internationally renowned “garage rock” scene. Nearly a decade in the making, this feature documentary chronicles the action both before and after the White Stripes rose to fame and brought an international spotlight on the scene. Beginning with the hugely influential 1980s trio The Gories (and stretching back to a legacy that includes The Stooges and The MC5), the bands of the Detroit garage rock music scene are known for two things: having an impeccable knowledge of the history of rock 'n' roll and putting on a raucous live show. It Came From Detroit documents the evolution of the Detroit scene from underground obscurity to international phenomenon. We watch how, as bands such as the White Stripes, the Von Bondies and the Electric Six started to develop a following overseas, journalists and fans around the world started hyping Detroit as “The Next Seattle” -- before the whole thing nearly imploded on itself.
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The Boneyard Collection
Title: The Boneyard Collection
Character: Wayne Kramer (segment "The Devil's Due at Midnight")
Released: January 1, 2008
Type: Movie
A quirky anthology, consisting of four separate short films connected by host segments. The first one, BOOGIE WITH THE UNDEAD, has an all girl rock band booked to play a gig in a town overrun by flesh-eating zombies. In the second one, THE DEVIL'S DUE AT MIDNIGHT, a coven of beautiful witches conjure up Brad Dourif as The Devil, and endures the inept attacks of witch killer Ken Foree. In the first long segment, HER MORBID DESIRES, an actress gets the lead role in a vampire movie, only to discover that starlets are being murdered on the set. The other long segment, CRY OF THE MUMMY, has the reincarnated mummy, formerly the last Pharaoh of the 4th Dynasty, looking to sue the movie studios because he can't get work as a mummy. His new lawyer offers to represent him as an agent, but the mummy will only work in film if he can direct.
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Punk: Attitude
Title: Punk: Attitude
Character: Himself
Released: July 4, 2005
Type: Movie
A documentary on the music, performers, attitude and distinctive look that made up punk rock.
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Twenty to Life: The Life & Times of John Sinclair
Title: Twenty to Life: The Life & Times of John Sinclair
Character: Himself
Released: June 19, 2004
Type: Movie
John Sinclair first emerged out of his small-town Michigan background to forge a legendary course through the 1960s as a cultural activist, manager of the MC5, and Chairman of the White Panther Party. An early victim of the War on Drugs who faced 20 years to life in prison for giving two joints to an undercover policewoman, Sinclair served 29 months of a 9-1/2-to-10-year sentence before his legal victory on appeal changed the law for good. The long campaign waged by Sinclair culminated in a massive John Sinclair Freedom Rally headlined by John Lennon & Yoko Ono, Stevie Wonder, Bob Seger, Phil Ochs, Allen Ginsberg and Bobby Seale that resulted in Sinclair's release from prison on December 13, 1971-just three days after the event (Clint Weiler)
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Rockin' in the USA
Title: Rockin' in the USA
Released: December 30, 2003
Type: Movie
Twenty-two rare German television appearances from 1960s and '70s American rock and blues acts are featured on this disc, making it a veritable time capsule of rock 'n' roll. Includes performances by The Doors, The Beach Boys, Blood Sweat & Tears, Canned Heat, Chuck Berry, B.B. King, The Grateful Dead, The Byrds, Chicago, The Steve Miller Band, Little Feat, MC5 and Captain Beefheart.
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Sonic Revolution: A Celebration of the MC5
Title: Sonic Revolution: A Celebration of the MC5
Released: November 26, 2003
Type: Movie
Detroit's iconic rock group The MC5 is celebrated in this raucous London concert featuring other musicians and artists who join the band's remaining members onstage for an unforgettable show. The guest list boasts such rock luminaries as The Hydromatics' Nicke Royale, The Cult's Ian Astbury, The Damned's Dave Vanian, Meg and Jack of The White Stripes, Primal Scream, Death in Vegas, Dollhouse, The Go and more.
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Plaster Caster
Title: Plaster Caster
Character: himself
Released: September 1, 2003
Type: Movie
Portrait of legendary artist and groupie Cynthia Plaster Caster famous for plaster casting the penises of rock stars.
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MC5: A True Testimonial
Title: MC5: A True Testimonial
Character: Himself
Released: February 2, 2002
Type: Movie
This documentary, made over a period of eight years, tells the remarkable story of an extremely influential rock'n'roll band. Starting from their mid-60's garage band roots (sounding amazingly like the Sonics), the Motor City 5 deveoped into an icon for a brand of loud, crushing music reflecting their industrial roots. Even if you don't care for their music (and you're bound to like even a few of their songs), their story is fascinating. It combines 60's protest, youthful braggadocio, and a style of music that would help carry one to the likes of Iggy and the Stooges (not to mention certain aspects of punk rock). This film is clearly a labor of love, combining extraordinarily rare live shows, still shots, a nearly-continuous backdrop of MC5 tunes, penetrating interviews with the remaining members and their spouses, and even FBI surveillance shots. It's the ultimate testimonial to a band that only gains in stature as time goes on.
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Born to Lose: The Last Rock and Roll Movie
Title: Born to Lose: The Last Rock and Roll Movie
Released: June 14, 2001
Type: Movie
Veteran documentary filmmaker and hipster Lech Kowalski creates this film about his friend and hard-partying rock god Johnny Thunders, member of legendary proto-punk band the New York Dolls. Through archive footage and interviews with such musicians as Dee Dee Ramone and Sylvain Sylvain, the film details his stint with the Dolls, the formation of his other band, the Heartbreakers; his rise to fame, particularly in Japan; his descent into heroin addiction, and the mysterious circumstances of his death.
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25 Years of Punk
Title: 25 Years of Punk
Character: Self
Released: April 19, 2001
Type: Movie
Lou Reed narrates this Television special that takes a look back at the beginnings of the punk rock movements in New York & England, the underground punk scenes in the 70's & 80's, and the punk resurgence in the 90's. A collaboration between VH1 and Spin magazine.
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MC5: Kick Out the Jams
Title: MC5: Kick Out the Jams
Released: September 7, 1999
Type: Movie
Kick Out the Jams features many never before seen films of the MC5 as created by Leni Sinclair & conceptual artist Cary Loren during the peak of their career.