Eddie Kramer—From Jimi Hendrix To Woodstock

This August marks the 40th anniversary of Woodstock, the original event spawning two multi-record sets and a feature-length movie (recently restored and expanded). Leading off with Richie Havens (he was the first artist on the scene with an intact band), a few of the other acts included Jefferson Airplane, Crosby, Stills & Nash, a pregnant Joan Baez, Country Joe & the Fish, Santana, Sha Na Na, Sly & the Family Stone, Ten Years After, Janis Joplin, the Who, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Joe Cocker, the Band and the Grateful Dead. What is burned into everyone's consciousness, however, was the show-closing set by Jimi Hendrix (sans Experience) and his interpretation of The Star-Spangled Banner.

What is not widely known is who was in charge of recording the music for all to enjoy long after Max Yasgur's farm had been turned into a sea of mud and debris. Running on adrenalin and vitamin shots for those three mad days was the legendary Eddie Kramer, audio engineer extraordinaire. From the Beatles to Traffic, Led Zeppelin to Kiss, Rolling Stones to Ted Nugent, Kramer was often the guy behind the studio mixing desk, soldiering on to this day.

...I felt intimidated...when the Beatles came to Olympic on
two separate occasions to record All You Need Is Love
and Baby, You’re A Rich Man with George Martin.

Eddie Kramer, on taking rock photographs

By chance it was young Kramer—then a budding engineer with Olympic Studios in London—who was called upon to record the first tracks featuring a sensational guitarist just over from America—none other than Hendrix. The two formed a bond that lasted the duration of the latter's career, with Hendrix following Kramer's lead in the production of the star's albums—including several posthumous releases.

In 1992 John McDermott collaborated with Kramer to write Hendrix: Setting the Record Straight. Not only is this account the most accurate of the many Hendrix tomes, the book features many of Kramer's photos taken during Hendrix recording sessions. Also included are several by the late Linda McCartney.

Kramer continues to consult with Experience Hendrix; a recent project involved updating original VH1 footage to produce an enhanced At Last...The Beginning: The Making of Electric Ladyland DVD. Notable album "session musicians" interviewed for the video include the likes of Dave Mason, Steve Winwood and Jack Casady, the latter with whom Hendrix had jammed backstage at the '67 Monterey Pop Festival.

Bassist Noel Redding having walked out on the Experience at that point, here Kramer discusses All Along the Watchtower in this video segment:

Ryan Sparks, writing for Classic Rock Revisited, recently interviewed Eddie Kramer about how he came to be chosen to record the '69 Woodstock Festival and what that experience was like. A portion of that interview is presented here (by permission of the author).

[Sparks] Woodstock was a truly unique, one [of] a kind festival. How did you become involved?

[Kramer] I knew that Jimi was going to be playing up there and the film company called me and said, “Hey, you record Jimi, why don’t you come up and record the whole thing?”

Continued...
[Sparks] After you surveyed the scene, did you think you’d have enough time to get everything in order to be fully prepared for when things started?

[Kramer] No way. I had doubts that we were ever going to get anything, but…[the] crew was tremendous and they pulled it together. We got going and three days of drugs and hell became part of American history.

[Sparks] Tell me about your recording setup.

[Kramer] [We had] two eight tracks, a twelve channel board and some little Shure mixers. [To call it] primitive [would be] a mild understatement.

[Sparks] You and your crew had to stay awake for three days straight. Was it just Lee Osborne and you?

[Kramer] Yeah... The stage crew…were the ones who we were trying to communicate with, which was rather difficult. We had vitamin B12 shots to keep us all going [and] slept on the floor of the truck for a few hours. [We] rolled tape all the time, whereas the poor film guys they were struggling with five cameras trying to keep it all going.

[Sparks] You’re not only a legendary producer/engineer, but you’ve also captured some great images of some of rock’s greatest musicians with your camera…In addition to Jimi, did you manage to shoot anyone else at the festival while they were performing?

[Kramer] No…Once the recording had settled down on Jimi I said ‘OK, guys, watch the meters, watch the machines, I’m going to run out for like ten seconds.’ I ran out with my camera and shot about two or three pictures of Jimi and then ran back to the truck.

[Sparks] [Did] any of [the groups] pose any kind of challenge?

[Kramer] Every artist presented his own peculiar set of challenges. You’re dealing with battlefield recordings here; these are not for the faint of heart [laughs]. You had to figure out where each microphone was, which band was coming out, what they were going to be playing, who’s playing, what’s playing. You know that old Abbott and Costello routine, "Who’s On First?" It was just like that.

[Sparks] With such an impressive and extensive back catalogue of work, where does Woodstock rank on your list of achievements?

[Kramer] Woodstock has to stand out; [pauses] how does one even begin?

[Sparks] You’ve captured some of rock’s most iconic live albums; how would you compare it to some of those?

[Kramer] It was the most difficult, but it also yielded some of the great performances of our time. It certainly stands out in my memory....It continues to influence subsequent generations, which I’m very pleased about.

[Sparks] [In] that moment, did you think you were capturing something magical that people would still be talking about forty years later?

[Kramer] No. I was only too concerned about getting the…stuff to record and making sure it appeared on tape; that was my main concern. Who cared about history then!

Dylan Goes Electric (Hats Off To Mike Bloomfield)

JFK had been assassinated, civil rights were anything but, the U.S. had sent “advisors” to Vietnam and we periodically practiced climbing under our desks should Khrushchev decide to vaporize Southeastern Michigan. Yes, there was plenty of fodder for protest songs in the early '60s.

I missed the Bob Dylan folksinger hoopla by about seven years, however. There was a fair amount of Kingston Trio and Peter, Paul and Mary being played at home, but no Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger or... Bob Dylan. And once I heard Bobby Darin, Ray Charles, Dave Brubeck and the Beatles, I never felt compelled to investigate folk music. To my ear, even the most poignant lyrics have always been incidental to the instrumental accompaniment.

It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.

My introduction to Dylan has been circuitous. It started in the late '60s with debut albums by two then-new groups: Blood, Sweat & Tears (with founder Al Kooper on keyboards and vocals) and the breakout group, Electric Flag (led by guitar phenom Mike Bloomfield). A couple of years before, both musicians found themselves playing on Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited, featuring such tracks as Like a Rolling Stone and Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues. Their appearance on a Dylan album, then backing him up onstage, led to a public uproar.

Free! Listen to Like a Rolling Stone
in its entirety. Download it here (99¢).

In the DVD, Bob Dylan—The Other Side of the Mirror: Live at the Newport Folk Festival 1963–1965, we get to see early footage of Dylan the solo artist—singing, playing acoustic guitar and playing harmonica. The emcee reminds us that Dylan has “captured the essence of today’s (that of ’63) youth.” Later, we see him in a duet role with his then-girlfriend, Joan Baez. (Seeing Dylan playing a year after his Newport debut, it's interesting to note that at about this time he first met the Beatles and introduced them to "The New Mary Jane.") This is all interesting in its historical context, but it makes for a rather sleepy home concert video.

But then the REAL show starts. It’s 1965 and Dylan has “gone electric,” daring to show up at Newport with the Highway 61 Revisited musicians. While the crowd is busy booing, the viewer is treated to but a glimpse of the genius of Mike Bloomfield, as well as that of Dylan’s for including the guitarist in the controversial lineup.

For footage of Bloomfield leading Electric Flag, see The Complete Monterey Pop Festival, also featuring a performance of Kooper’s earlier group, The Blues Project. And we also recommend Martin Scorsese’s DVD biography of Dylan, No Direction Home, available in at Amazon in Video On Demand format.