The Wizards of Vision and Sound

Hope your week is off to a good start. This is the second of two parts of this month’s installment of my recurring feature about music producers and sound engineers, which highlights Eddie Kramer. As I noted yesterday in Part I, his extensive credits include both record engineering and production. This part focuses on some of Kramer’s work as a producer.

Prior to getting into music production, Kramer had established himself as a sound engineer, having worked with the likes of The Kinks, The Beatles, Traffic, The Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix. Given this, it’s not surprising that for many albums Kramer produced he also handled engineering and mixing.

His first production work was the second eponymous studio album by Johnny Winter. Released in April 1969, the album lists Winter as producer and Kramer as production consultant. Engineering credits go to Charlie Bragg, Ed Hudson and Neil Wilburn. Here’s the sizzling I’m Yours & I’m Hers, one of Winter’s originals.

Another early example of Kramer’s production work is somewhat surprising: Carly Simon’s eponymous debut album, which appeared in February 1971. The head of Simon’s label Electra, Jac Holzman, had suggested Kramer as the producer. While apparently there was some tension between Simon and him, the album yielded her first top 10 hit, That’s the Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be, and won a Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1972. Here’s the aforementioned song, co-written by Simon and Jacob Brackman. In addition to producing, Kramer also worked on engineering and mixing, together with David Palmer.

Among Kramer’s most significant production work was his collaboration with Kiss. It started in 1975 with the multi-Platinum live double LP album Alive! and included five additional Platinum albums. Alive! also generated the group’s first hit single, Rock and Roll All Nite. Co-written by Paul Stanley (rhythm guitar, backing vocals) and Gene Simmons (lead vocals, bass), the song initially had appeared on Kiss’s third studio album Dressed to Kill but stalled at no. 68 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 when released in April 1975. By comparison, the live version, which I’ve always preferred, climbed to no. 12. It also did well in Canada (no. 13) and Australia (no. 18). Once again, Kramer also handled engineering and mixing.

“The thing with Kiss was we knew we had to get everything down on tape no matter what it took,” Kramer recalled in a recent interview with Guitar World. “It was hard because they were always jumping around, and we had to do a bunch of work on the album after the fact, but that’s how it was. The band may deny it, but the fact remains that on Alive!, we had to fix a bunch of stuff.” He went on: “There were just bits we had to fix for obvious reasons, like the guys being on stage in six-inch boots, bombs going off and rockets and flames shooting to God knows where. [Laughs] It takes a lot of work to keep in time and tune while jumping up and down. They can do it now, but in those days, not so much.”

The final production example I’d like to highlight takes us to October 1988 and the eponymous debut album by Australian hard rock band Kings of the Sun. They were formed in 1986 in Sydney by Clifford Hoad (vocals, drums, percussion) and his brother Jeffrey Hoad (vocals, guitar), together with Anthony Ragg (bass) and Ron Thiessen (guitar). Kings of the Sun was the first of three albums the group released until they disbanded in 2001. In 2010, Clifford revived the band as Clifford Hoad’s Kings of the Sun. Their current status is unclear. Here’s Serpentine. In addition to production, Kramer handled engineering. Mixing is credited to Dave Thoener.

Before wrapping up with a Spotify playlist of the above and additional production examples, I’d like to give Kramer the final word. “Music has been such a big part of my life and still stimulates me,” he said during the above interview with Guitar World. “When I walk into a studio, I still get chills. There’s something about a bunch of musicians – or even one musician – getting in a room and striking that first chord. And when that happens, it all comes back, and I say, ‘Ah, yes, I know what to do with that.’”

Sources: Wikipedia; Guitar World; YouTube; Spotify