July 25, 2015 editorial: comments

Wrecked by the Wrecking Crew?

Have you seen the Wrecking Crew movie? It’s an amazing documentary about the group of studio musicians in L.A. who played on a huge amount of pop records in the ’60’s and ’70s, including the Beach Boys Pet Sounds, Simon & Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water, The Turtles Happy Together, the Byrds Mr. Tambourine Man, and many others. They also played the instruments on the Monkees huge hit album,The Monkees.

They were the first call of L.A. studio players, and included a number of future stars including Dr. John, Glen Campbell and Leon Russell, as well as legendary musicians like Jim Keltner, James Burton, and Jim Gordon.

The Wrecking Crew has been called “the best kept secret of rock ’n' roll,” because their brilliant contributions were largely unknown to the general public (although there were rampant rumors that the Monkees didn’t play their own instruments).

It wasn’t just L.A. where this type of thing occurred. Muscle Shoals had “The Swampers”, Stax records had Booker T. and the M.G.s. Back then producers were king, and they used who they wanted when it was time to record the instrumental tracks on an album. Understandably, they chose musicians they knew and trusted.

For the most part, the artists benefited from having such talented players on their albums, but there were surely plenty of musicians who spent years playing with a singer or a band and then got shut out playing on the album (or albums). For example, Wrecking Crew drummer Hal Blaine has said that Byrds drummer Michael Clarke was very unhappy that Blaine supplanted him on the huge hit Mr. Tambourine Man.

Today, the recording industry is very different. Production is no longer as centralized in large commercial studios, and musicians generally get to play their own tracks. The lone exception is Nashville. Probably because major studios have managed to hang in there better than in New York and L.A., a small group of “A list” studio musicians still play on many of the big Nashville records. They’re highly skilled musicians who can nail amazing parts on the first take consistently.

While I’m glad there’s an area where session musicians are still thriving (in NY and LA, session work has taken a nosedive in recent years), I’ve always thought that relying on a small group of musicians to play on a big percentage of albums tends to homogenize the music scene, no matter how good the players are. I think it was true with the Wrecking Crew, and is true now with the first-call Nashville players. 

I also put myself in the shoes of a band member who’s faithfully toured with a band or artist for years, and when the opportunity to record a major album finally happens, is shut out of the process, like Michael Clarke was. I would hate if that happened to me. 

Wouldn’t you?