The album of the same name caused some controversy due to inflammatory liner notes by the band's manager, John Sinclair, and the track's rallying cry of "Kick out the jams, motherfuckers!".

According to guitarist Wayne Kramer, the band recorded this as "Kick out the jams, brothers and sisters!"

for the single released for radio play; lead vocalist Rob Tyner claimed this was done without group consensus.

[6] The edited version also appeared in some LP copies, which also withdrew Sinclair's excitable comments.

When Hudson's, a Detroit-based department store chain, refused to stock the Kick Out the Jams album 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!