Eddie Kramer: He Was "Experienced"

It’s said that millions can see Halley’s Comet every 76 years. And it should be said by millions that “never-heard-before-Jimi-Hendrix-music” seems to be sold every 76 days. Such is the case of the recent release of the four-CD set of Jimi’s legendary album, Axis: Bold as Love. The box set contains 40 alternative versions and demos of the original album’s thirteen songs, making the listener feel like a fly on the wall in London’s Olympic Studio.

During these recordings, one could have watched and learned from a genius: Eddie Kramer, engineer and producer of rockers from “A” (Ace Frehley and Anthrax) to “Z” (Zeppelin). His road to recording rock royalty started at his home in Cape Town, South Africa, where, to the delight of his dad, he could expertly play classical compositions on violin. Dad’s delight turned to disgust when Eddie’s musical tastes drastically changed. He remembered: “I started listening to Charlie Parker and Oscar Peterson. It just changed me. My whole musical direction shifted from classical. Much to his chagrin, I got into boogie and jazz and started playing that. My dad was so pissed off at me.”

The Kramers found South Africa’s apartheid system more disgusting than their son’s listening habits, so they moved to England. A 19-year-old Eddie began working at Pye Studios. He recalled, “One day we’re doing the Kinks. The next day, we’re at Town Hall recording a ninety-piece symphony orchestra with three microphones. There were no schools for engineering. You just learned by making mistakes. I was in the studio as a young punk engineer. I just said, ‘This is what I have to do.’”

His engineering expertise caught the ear of ex-Animals bassist Chas Chandler, who wanted Kramer to have a look and then listen to a shy guitarist he was managing. Kramer remembers meeting Jimi Hendrix in January 1967: “He wasn’t saying a bloody word, but once the amp was set up, he wandered over, switched it on, plugged in his guitar, and just as I was setting the mic up, he started playing, and man, my brain froze. In that second, my life changed. I heard that sound, and I don’t know how to describe it other than God himself being in the room.”

It marked the beginning of a beautiful recording relationship, with Kramer co-engineering Jimi’s Are You Experienced?, arguably the greatest debut album ever. He engineered Jimi’s two other landmark LPs, Electric Ladyland and Axis: Bold as Love.

Theirs was a marriage of two great musical minds that had its own language. Eddie stated, “Jimi did have a tendency to describe sounds in colors. If he said, ‘Hey, man, give me some of that green,’ I knew exactly what he meant; it was reverb. Or if he said, ‘More red,’ I knew it was distortion. And then if it went purple, it was really stupid distortion.”

After putting in serious recording time with Hendrix, Eddie added a legendary band to his resume: Led Zeppelin. Eddie wasn’t in love with their name, telling bassist John Paul Jones, “That’s the worst name I ever heard. I thought, ‘Man, how could you be so stupid and wrong?’ But that first record was amazing.” He also engineered their second record, imaginatively titled Led Zeppelin II.

Eddie also made a part of Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti LP memorable by recording the group outside. Eddie noted, “On ‘Black Country Woman,’ we tracked Jimmy and John Paul Jones playing acoustic guitar outside on the lawn with a bloody great big aeroplane flying overhead, which you can hear in the intro. I hit the talk back button and said ‘What about this aeroplane then?’ and Robert said, “Nah, just leave it.”

Eddie later worked at the first Woodstock concert. He reminisced, “I remember standing on the stage before it started and looking out at the sea of people, and [promoter Bill] Graham, who was standing next to me, said, ‘If these people decide to riot, we’re screwed.’ ‘Thanks, Bill. I’m going to go back to my truck.”

In his 65-plus-year career, Eddie has engineered or produced too many hits to name. Kramer said, “We recorded that album (Kiss’ Rock and Roll Over) at the Star Theatre in Nanuet, New York. Ace would come in and say, ‘Hey, Curley. Look at all those lights,’ then he’d pull out a BB gun and shoot the lights out.”

A documentary of Eddie called From the Other Side of the Glass, which Joe Berlinger (Metallica: Some Kind of Monster) has signed on to co-direct, has been in the works since 2020. If it ever gets made, Berlinger should have Eddie retell the events surrounding the recording of the Stones’ “Let’s Spend the Night Together.”

“Halfway through Mick’s vocal overdub, I noticed that there were two individuals standing in the doorway. They were motorcycle cops. And I yelled to Glyn [Johns, engineer], ‘The fuzz are here!’ Glyn hits the talkback button on the headphones only and said, ‘Oi, Mick. The fuzz are here.’ So Mick turns around to the fuzz, and he was just like, ‘Oi, come over here.’ The cops walk over to him, and he says, ‘Listen, I’m having a bit of a problem with me headphones.’ The next thing is one cop puts one finger on one earphone. And the other puts the other finger on the other to hold the phones on his head. Mick says, ‘Alright, play again.’ Meanwhile, in the control room, there’s total freaking panic. All the drugs, everything. It’s like a walking pharmaceutical in there. Smoke and everything. And there’s no bloody air conditioning, and we’re flipping the doors open, the stuff’s being dumped down the toilet – it was fantastic! So Mick says to the cops, ‘Can I borrow your truncheons, the nightsticks? I’ve got an idea. Right, play from there, into the recording.’ Bang! If you listen to the bridge, you hear what sounds like percussion. It’s the nightsticks being banged together. That’s the story!”