jerry
Full Member
Posts: 60
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Post by jerry on Aug 7, 2012 15:53:44 GMT -5
I finished reading a most fascinating book entitled THE WRECKING CREW by Kent Hartman. During the '60s and the early '70s, a group of session musicians in Los Angeles became the first-call musicians for almost every recording session on the West Coast. Known as the Wrecking Crew, they were the instrumentalists heard on hit recordings by everyone from the Beach Boys, the Byrds, the Monkees, the Grass Roots, the Mamas and the Papas, Simon and Garfunkel, and Sonny and Cher. Many groups were angered when they were not allowed to play on their recordings. But the record labels wanted the best. The Wrecking Crew was the BEST. Glen Cambell and Leon Russell are two Crew members to hit it big on their own. This book is, in my opinion, a great read.
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Post by Allen Wiener on Aug 7, 2012 16:14:55 GMT -5
Sounds interesting. I have vague memories of this topic, so forgive me if I'm confusing things, but there were stories put out that some big stars who were foreign citizens were not allowed to play on their own recordings if they were made in the U.S. due to union rules. Thus, we hear Jim Keltner (many, many times) drumming on Ringo Starr's records. I was later told that this was not true and that Keltner was called in because Ringo was in no fit state to do the recordings himself. This was years before he detoxed himself, of course. Does anyone know if this may or may not have been true, partially true, or total bunk?
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Post by TRK on Aug 7, 2012 18:12:19 GMT -5
Thanks for posting that, Jerry. The Wrecking Crew really did have some of the greatest musicians of their times: just take the drummers alone...Hal Blaine, Jim Gordon, Earl Palmer. That book sounds tempting, and it's currently at about half the retail price on Amazon and it's only been out for less than six months.
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Post by Paul Sylvain on Aug 7, 2012 20:49:39 GMT -5
The concept isn't or wasn't new or unique to the U.S. West Coast music scene. Jimmy Page played on many hit Brit songs by groups and solo artists such as the Kinks, The Who, and Donovan, among others, as I recall.
Interestingly, when Brian Wilson went whacky, Glen Campbell filled in. I saw the Beach Boys perform in West Berlin in 1968 and Glenn was with them in that role.
I'll have to check this book out because it sounds fascinating. Thanks for head's up.
Paul
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Post by mjbrathwaite on Aug 7, 2012 21:16:38 GMT -5
There is also a film about them with that title. I don't have it, but it was on a DVD of AVIs somebody lent me recently. Regarding Jim Keltner playing on Ringo's records, I don't know anything about that, but when I saw Ringo in 1989, Jim, Ringo, and Levon Helm were all playing drums together. Ringo was holding his own, but that was after his detox.
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Post by Allen Wiener on Aug 7, 2012 22:05:24 GMT -5
I actually interviewed Ringo in 1992, when his "Time Takes Time" album was released. He had been clean quite a while and was quite open about it. He looked great and was very optimistic about the album and his upcoming tour (another "All-Starrs" tour). I lost track of him not long after that, and all of the ex-Beatles for that matter. I think he released a few more albums, plus the inevitable album from each of the subsequent "All-Starrs" tours. He was a nice guy and very patient and tolerant with a bunch of people, each waiting to have their 30 minutes alone with Ringo. He was actually just getting over a bout of flu that day, so I was grateful that he didn't cancel the interviews that day.
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Post by mjbrathwaite on Aug 7, 2012 22:16:53 GMT -5
You were fortunate! The closest I've ever got to meeting a Beatle was in 1964: Paul smiled for me when he saw me about to take a photo. Unfortunately, some fool bumped me as I took the picture, and when it came back from processing Paul wasn't in it! When Ringo announced a few years ago that he wouldn't sign things after a certain date, I wrote to him asking for his autograph on a scrap of paper, and enclosed return postage, but never got anything back, although my wife sent him a photo and got that back autographed. Someone gave me his and George's autographs in 1966 and they look genuine, but I've never been 100% certain they were. I have a contact at Warner Brothers who thinks he might be able to get Paul's for me some time when he is in Los Angeles. I gave him a want list of people he might come into contact with, but so far the only one he's got was Selena Gomez's for my son.
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Post by Jim Boylston on Aug 8, 2012 9:18:07 GMT -5
I'll have to pick this one up. The documentary film is excellent, and I'd highly recommend it as well. These guys played on so many hits! I'm currently reading Johnny Rogan's, "Requiem for the Timeless, Vol. 1," a thousand-page history of the Byrds. The wrecking crew were enlisted to play on the "Mr. Tambourine Man" single, with Roger McGuinn the only Byrd that played an instrument on the recording (that's him on Rickenbacker 12 string), though Crosby, Clark, and McGuinn all sang on the record. The Byrds were an exception, in a way, because they played the instruments on all their other records. Jim
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