Although the album initially received an unfavorable review in Rolling Stone magazine upon its release, it has gone on to be considered an important forerunner to punk rock music, and was ranked number 294 in both 2003 and 2012 editions of Rolling Stone's "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" lists,[8][9] and at number 349 in a 2020 revised list.

And, you know, it might be an interesting footnote to look at it because what happened was we had agreed – we knew that, I mean, kick out the jams MF was not going to be a hit single.

Wait till it starts coming back down the charts before you put the album out ... because then we'll be a bona fide hit band.

And then the controversy will work in our favor ... And the record company, in all their shortsighted lack of wisdom, when the single started going up the charts, they rushed the album out.

[citation needed] To quote MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer from his interview with Caroline Boucher in Disc & Music Echo magazine on August 8, 1970: People said "oh wow, 'kick out the jams' means break down restrictions" etc., and it made good copy, but when we wrote it we didn't have that in mind.

Upon its release, critic Lester Bangs, writing his inaugural review for Rolling Stone, called Kick Out the Jams a "ridiculous, overbearing, pretentious album".

[23] In contrast to this view, modern opinion of the album generally holds it in very high regard, noting its influence on rock music that has followed.

Mark Deming of AllMusic called it "one of the most powerfully energetic live albums ever made" in a retrospective review.

It is a magnificent time portal into the past, a fleeting glimpse of a band that actually had the balls to walk it like they talked it" and that "no live recording has captured the primal elements of rock more than the MC5's inaugural effort.

[25]In March 2005, Q magazine placed the song "Kick Out the Jams" at number 39 in its "100 Greatest Guitar Tracks" list.

"[26] All tracks are written by MC5 (Rob Tyner, Wayne Kramer, Fred "Sonic" Smith, Michael Davis, Dennis Thompson), except as noted