Wayne Stanley Kramer (born Kambes; April 30, 1948 – February 2, 2024) was an American musician, songwriter, producer, and film and television composer. Kramer came to prominence in the 1960s as the lead guitarist of the Detroit rock band MC5.
Kramer and guitarist Fred "Sonic" Smith co-founded the MC5 in 1963, with vocalist Rob Tyner, bassist Michael Davis, and drummer Dennis Thompson joining shortly after. The MC5 became known for their powerful live performances and radical left-wing political stance. The group broke up amid government harassment, poverty, and drug abuse. For Kramer, this led to several fallow years as he battled drug addiction before returning to an active recording and performing schedule in the 1990s. In 2009, Kramer founded the independent initiative Jail Guitar Doors, USA with Billy Bragg and Margaret Saadi Kramer. The project was named after a song by The Clash, which the band had written as the B-side of "Clash City Rockers" in dedication to Kramer and to raise awareness of his term in prison. The song opens with the lines "Let me tell you 'bout Wayne and his deals of cocaine", which is a reference to Wayne Kramer's imprisonment.
Rolling Stone ranked him among the "100 Greatest Guitarists of all Time".
Wayne Stanley Kambes was born in Detroit on April 30, 1948. His parents divorced when he was young, and he was thereafter raised by his mother and stepfather. He was abused by his stepfather, and turned to music as an outlet from the situation. When he was a teenager, he began performing with Fred "Sonic" Smith as MC5. He used the surname Kramer as part of an effort to form an independent identity.
In 1967, the MC5 were designated "House Band" at Detroit's famous Grande Ballroom and were managed by John Sinclair, a radical left-wing writer and co-founder of the White Panther Party, until 1969 when Sinclair was sentenced to nine and a half years in prison for giving two joints to an undercover police woman. Sinclair became a mentor to then 20-year-old Kramer and introduced him to the world of free jazz, poetry, and progressive political awareness. They remained close friends.
The MC5 recorded three major label albums including Kick Out The Jams (1969) on Elektra records before moving to Atlantic Records for Back in the USA (1970) and High Time (1971). The MC5 toured the United States extensively and ultimately faced insurmountable challenges both from being banned from the radio and government police agencies for their militant political stance. Unable to tour or sell records and after a last-ditch effort by Ronan O'Rahilly that included a move to London, England, by 1972, the original group disbanded.
After MC5's demise in 1972, Kramer ventured into other musical projects. He also, by his own admission, became a "small-time Detroit criminal."
In 1975, while working with Detroit soul great Melvin Davis in their new group Radiation, he was convicted of, among other charges, selling drugs to undercover federal agents, and was sentenced to four years in federal prison. While incarcerated at FMC Lexington, he befriended Red Rodney, the American jazz trumpeter who played in the Charlie Parker quintet. They studied music and played together in the prison band Street Sounds with Rodney becoming "my musical father", said Kramer.
Upon his release from prison in 1979, Kramer began touring as a solo artist leading to a succession of working trios, quartets, and larger groups. He joined Was (Not Was) as their first studio and touring guitarist. Kramer plays on the album Was (Not Was) and the hit single "Wheel Me Out," 1983's Born to Laugh at Tornadoes, and their 2008 release Boo on Ryko Records. Kramer also performed on Don Was's Orquestra Was.
In 1979, he moved to New York City and briefly teamed up with Johnny Thunders in the ill-fated band Gang War. He also played with and produced bands on the Lower East Side of Manhattan such as Marc Johnson and the Wild Alligators, The Cooties, The Rousers, The Terrorists (which included JoJo Hermann on keyboards), The Boyfriends, Fats Deacon and the Dumbwaiters With Drummer “Paul Blackard”and Bassist “Anthony Lavalier Lombardo”(featuring Bobby "Slacks" Brunswick of Dungaree Dogs NYC), GG Allin, Mark Truth and the Liars, and Viva LaRue and others, as well as working as a freelance studio guitarist. In New York, in the late 1980s, Kramer co-wrote with Mick Farren the R&B musical The Last Words of Dutch Schultz, and performed it regularly at Tramps, The Pyramid Club, and other NY clubs.
Kramer also spent much of the 1980s working as a carpenter in the city, for Mattiello of Manhattan.
In 1982, Kramer married photographer Marcia Resnick, but they divorced a year later.
In 1988, Kramer relocated to Key West, Florida. and worked in local musical groups on the island and continued woodworking and building custom homes in the Keys.
In 1990, Kramer moved again to Nashville, Tennessee. He continued to do custom woodwork, played sessions, produced local rock bands, and played bass with Henry Gross.
Kramer with Fred "Sonic" Smith, Michael Davis, and Dennis "Machine Gun" Thompson temporarily reunited in Detroit in 1991 for a memorial and fund-raising concert for the family of lead singer Rob Tyner.
In 1994, Kramer, now residing in Los Angeles, signed to Brett Gurewitz's punk rock label Epitaph Records and began a chapter of his solo career. He released four records, including 1995's self-produced The Hard Stuff, which features the band Claw Hammer on most songs, along with appearances from members of The Melvins and The Vandals. In 1996 he released Dangerous Madness. In 1997, he released Citizen Wayne, co-produced by David Was. He also played on the song "Incomplete" off of Bad Religion's 1994 album Stranger Than Fiction. In 1998, he played with Pere Ubu. In 1999, he released the live record LLMF. In 1998 Kramer stopped using alcohol and illegal drugs.
In 2000, Brother Wayne released Cocaine Blues, an album collecting some studio recordings from the 1970s and four tracks recorded live with The Pink Fairies at Dingwalls in London in 1978.
In 2001, Kramer and his wife and manager Margaret Saadi Kramer launched MuscleTone Records, an independent label. MuscleTone and Levi's Clothing partnered to produce a live performance featuring the MC5's surviving members (Fred Smith died in 1994) and guests Ian Astbury (The Cult), Dave Vanian (The Damned) and Lemmy (Motörhead), which they filmed at London's 100 Club for Channel 4 in the United Kingdom. The event generated worldwide press coverage and prompted a world tour. The tour spanned several years.