"The Wrecking Crew!" film is finally being released

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by bosto, Mar 10, 2015.

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  1. I know the main purpose of the film is to serve as a tribute to Tommy Tedesco, great musician and a really nice and funny guy, but where's Larry Knechtel, Jerry Cole, Billy Strange, Mike Melvoin, Joe Porcaro and many, many others?

    Nice movie, but I was a bit disappointed.
     
  2. Jason Manley

    Jason Manley Senior Member

    Location:
    O-H-I-O
    First, a little context. But, before the context a heartfelt bit of gratitude to Denny Tedesco for spending much of the last 20 years of his life putting this film together and sinking his own personal wealth into making sure this film received a proper distribution. I'm grateful that after all these years of hearing about the film, I was finally able to see it.

    Now, the context. I came to be aware of The Wrecking Crew during my late teen years in the early 1990's. I had asked for and gotten the Phil Spector "Back To Mono" Box Set for Christmas in 1991 and that was probably the first time I had my first real dose of the Los Angeles sound. I later learned about the Brill Building and came to the conclusion that that big booming sound I was so enamored with had originated in New York with Leiber and Stoller and not Phil. Spector took that sound from records like "There Goes My Baby" and "Spanish Harlem" and amplified them; made them bigger with a more foreboding sound.

    At roughly the same time I was working in a record store and happier than a kid in a candy store. Almost by chance or maybe it was the Don Was documentary "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times", perhaps a combination of both, I reconsidered the Beach Boys. I got to hear "Pet Sounds" for the first time, roughly 20 years ago and it was revelatory. I had this whole backstory in my head of Brill & Spector and then came realization that Brian Wilson had taken the Beach Boys on a sonic white water rafting ride in the mid 1960s. Using the blueprint of Spector's 'swimmy' soundscapes and using them to uplift rather than to beat you into submission.

    The Wrecking Crew "sound", though, went far beyond Sounds with Walls and Sounds with Pets. As Dick Clark says in the trailer and the film, "they played in so many different styles and for so many different people". When one realizes, for instance, that Hal Blaine was the drummer on the Grammy's "Song of the Year" for six years in a row — how can you not be blown away?

    In the decades since "The Golden Era" of popular music things really haven't changed all that much. There are still roughly half a dozen hot producers that most everyone works with on some level. Much of popular music sounds the same, just as perhaps it did in that bygone era. Motown was copying Spector, Spector was copying Motown. But this was more about a chase to the top of some etherial pop music valhalla. Seeking perfection. I'm sure it's much the same today amongst contemporary producers. What is missing nowadays though seems to be a certain bit of earthiness and perhaps the increased reliance on rhythm over harmony and melody.

    After so many years of waiting on this doc to come out it was a pleasure last Friday night/Saturday morning to rent the title from iTunes and just watch it straight through. I'm happy the film finally got a distributor so the general non-festival going public could finally have fairly easy avenues of seeking the film out.

    Did I learn anything I didn't already know? Not really but that's not really the point. It was, as others have mentioned, a tribute from a son to a father and a true labor of love for the son. He's not trying to be the next Errol Morris or Les Blank. Although I'm sure this project may eventually afford him the opportunity to be involved in other similar documentaries. If nothing else, I'm glad this documentary exists for someone that is like I was 20+ years ago when I had to start from scratch distilling all of this popular culture into some linear progression that made sense . For that, Denny Tedesco should be commended.
     
  3. Bob Belvedere

    Bob Belvedere Forum Resident

    Location:
    New England
    -Well put, JCM.

    -When you tell a story, be it fictional or true, you have to find an entry point into the story that will draw the viewer/reader in. Mr. Tedesco chose his Father and, I think, it works. You certainly could choose another way, but this one is as legitimate as the others and has the side benefit of offering a tribute to his beloved Old Man, who happens to have been as great a guitar player as Al Viola and Tony Mottola. Would I have approached it differently? Sure, because my Father was not a member of The Wrecking Crew.

    -It took a long time for this documentary to reach it's final cut and I'm glad it finally did. These people deserve to be remembered and honored.

    -I never realized just how many cuts they played on until I saw this - and I've been a musician for four decades who prided himself on his knowledge of the History Of Music.

    -As for the conflicting recollections among the musicians, well, they played on so many recordings - they were, obviously, that good - that that was bound to happen and, also, it's Basic Human Nature, The Rashomon Effect, if you will. Besides, their success in their professions means that have to have more ego than the average person [to put it mildly].

    -Thank you, Mr. Tedesco and all the others involved for making this gig happen. It is very much appreciated by this aging musician and music lover.
     
  4. pablo fanques

    pablo fanques Somebody's Bad Handwroter In Memoriam

    Location:
    Poughkeepsie, NY
    Does anybody know The 'Records of the Year' Hal Blaine played on? The only one I recall from the movie is "Love Will Keep Us Together" which also has a Beach Boys connection thanks to Darryl Dragon. There's a lot going on in that track
     
  5. The Panda

    The Panda Forum Mutant

    Location:
    Marple, PA, USA
    Saw it today, excellent. Everyone stayed til the every end, listening to every excerpt, waiting for Hal's dumb joke.
    The only thing I'd have changed was to insert Lee's story about Some Velvet Morning and spend a minute on the song and play an excerpt
     
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  6. ronbow

    ronbow Senior Member

    Location:
    St. Louis MO
    Not really the same. Producer Terry Melcher used the Crew for their first Columbia session for the "Mr. Tambourine Man" / "I Knew I'd Want You" single, but as far as generally known, the Byrds functioned as the recording / performing entity after that initial session.

    I did manage to catch the film last night, and it is just truly delightful. It really is mind-blowing when you realize the extent to which this small group of musicians impacted the sound of so much of the popular music of the 60's and 70's. And, it was especially nice to see Carol Kaye and Ray Pohlman playing their classic iconic basslines.
     
    Last edited: Mar 28, 2015
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  7. Atmospheric

    Atmospheric Forum Resident

    Location:
    Eugene
    I watched it last night. Very well done.

    I met Tommy Tedesco once... NAMM some time in the '80s. It was the high point of my day. His son's recollection of Tommy saying that his stroke came at the right time, after the phones had stopped ringing for session work... I just about lost it.
     
    Last edited: Mar 28, 2015
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  8. Hawkman

    Hawkman Supercar Gort Staff

    Location:
    New Jersey
    I saw a cut of this film a few years ago here in New Jersey at a Rock and Roll convention of sorts. I sat a few seats away from Steve Holley and behind Bernard Purdie. I bought a great Wrecking Crew bowling shirt from Denny at the table that he had set up in the dealer's room trying to raise money for the film. I have to tell you that I saw nothing but dedication and conviction in his eyes and I was happy to jump in on the Kickstarter campaign when it went up. Think about it. The man spends two decades of his life putting together this film, interviews people who have since passed on, and kept plugging on trying to get it done while films like 20 Feet From Stardom and Standing In The Shadows Of Motown sailed in and got the attention of the same crowd that that likes this film. These are musicians whose story needs to be told and it he did it wonderfully. His heart and soul went into this film and it shows.

    Good for you, Denny!!
     
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  9. mavisgold

    mavisgold Senior Member

    Location:
    bellingham wa
    LA Times article picked up the Daily Herald, Everett WA

    Showing: March 29 through April 2 at SIFF Cinema Uptown, Seattle; April 3 through April 9 at Pickford Film Center, Bellingham.



    Published: Friday, March 27, 2015, 12:40 p.m.


    ‘The Wrecking Crew’ documentary is affectionate tribute to hit-backing musicians
    Magnolia Pictures
    Tommy Tedesco (left) and Hal Blaine in “The Wrecking Crew.”
    ">[​IMG]

    Magnolia Pictures


    By Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
    To Beach Boys guru Brian Wilson, “they were the ones with all the spirit and all the know-how.” To Nancy Sinatra, they were “unsung heroes,” to Herb Alpert, “an established groove machine.” And to celebrated songwriter Jimmy Webb, they were simply “stone cold rock and roll professionals.”If the history of rock music means anything to you, you know the individuals in question could only be the Wrecking Crew, a legendary group of Los Angeles-based studio musicians, and though their story has taken decades to reach the screen, it has been worth the wait.Providing backup on hundreds if not thousands of songs, the Wrecking Crew was responsible for the musical DNA for so many of the anthems that ruled the airwaves from the 1960s through the early 1970s that it makes your head spin.That list includes the Phil Spector-produced “Be My Baby,” the Beach Boys’ “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” the Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’,” the Byrds’ “Mr. Tambourine Man” and Sinatra’s “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’.” If you listened to the radio during that period, these musicians created your world.Which is one reason why “The Wrecking Crew” film has taken so long to appear. A version of it played extensively at film festivals in 2008, but for it to be shown in commercial movie theaters, hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of licensing fees had to be paid for the use of those hit songs, and until that money could be raised (via donations and a Kickstarter campaign, as it turned out) this movie could not be seen.The Wrecking Crew was a fluid group — no one seems to know exactly how many people were considered members (20 is a rough guess), but key among them was Tommy Tedesco, a.k.a. “The King of L.A. Session Guitarists.”Tedesco’s son, director Denny Tedesco, made putting this film together a years-long labor of love. Though a few of the resulting personal moments feel extraneous, Tedesco’s heritage gave him special access to producers and musicians, and he has used it well.Tedesco began filming in 1996, when his father was diagnosed with cancer; seven of the people whose memories he recorded, including his father’s, have since died, making this genial, unpretentious film an invaluable record of a kind of rock golden age.Something like a “Twenty Feet From Stardom” for session musicians, “The Wrecking Crew” contains its share of surprises, including that many of these individuals came from a jazz background and didn’t necessarily care for rock, at least at first.The Wrecking Crew started to get a reputation inside the music business after Spector used the musicians as the key component of his celebrated Wall of Sound.That success so impressed Wilson (he recalls pulling off the road and stopping his car the first time he heard the Ronettes’ “Be My Baby”) that, once his Beach Boys compositions got more musically complex and the group’s touring commitments grew, he used the Wrecking Crew to anonymously record the tracks for the Beach Boys albums.That kind of clandestine work became the Wrecking Crew’s bread and butter. The musicians recorded for the Association, Gary Lewis and the Playboys, and with the exception of former studio musician Roger McGuinn, they recorded for the Byrds on their breakthrough cut “Mr. Tambourine Man,” which, McGuinn recalls, made everyone else “livid.”We meet ace drummer Hal Blaine, one of the busiest in rock history, and we learn that Tommy Tedesco played the opening notes on the theme for TV’s “Bonanza” and that saxophonist Plas Johnson did the same for “The Pink Panther.”Perhaps the most intriguing member of the Wrecking Crew was its only female, nonpareil bassist Carol Kaye, who made more money than the president in her best years and demonstrates how she souped up the bass line for Sonny and Cher’s “The Beat Goes On.”Once the singer-songwriter model became the norm for the rock business, the Wrecking Crew’s star began to wane, but seeing this film makes it clear what its members accomplished in their prime. As Tommy Tedesco said to his colleagues when the topic of writers came up, “They put notes on paper. That’s not music. You make the music.”“The Wrecking Crew”Showing: March 29 through April 2 at SIFF Cinema Uptown, Seattle; April 3 through April 9 at Pickford Film Center, Bellingham.
     
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  10. Larry Loves LPs

    Larry Loves LPs Forum Resident

    Location:
    Alexandria, VA
    Likewise. We supported this thing months ago and don't get to see it until June.
     
    Last edited: Mar 30, 2015
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  11. dprokopy

    dprokopy Senior Member

    Location:
    Near Seattle, WA
    I never really heard anything in "Rock'N'Roll Star" that specifically calls them out for not playing their own instruments. It's more just about the general phenomenon of them being a "manufactured" band/phenomenon. The Byrds might have used studio musicians on "Mr. Tambourine Man" (and on some later stuff, particularly on Notorious Byrd Brothers), but they were in fact a real band.
     
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  12. dprokopy

    dprokopy Senior Member

    Location:
    Near Seattle, WA
    She doesn't say anything about Motown in the movie. Her claims about playing on various Motown songs were made in other places. (Don't have any sources, sorry.) The problem was, most of the songs she claimed to play on were most definitely done by the Funk Brothers in Detroit, not in L.A. Again, I have no doubt she probably played on cover versions later and just got confused. And/or worked on some later L.A. Motown sessions.
     
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  13. chacha

    chacha Forum Resident In Memoriam

    Location:
    mill valley CA USA
    Right
     
  14. gottafeelin

    gottafeelin Forum Resident

    Location:
    Georgia
    The first verse in the song is this:

    So you want to be a rock'n'roll star
    Then listen now to what I say
    Just get an electric guitar
    And take some time and learn how to play
     
  15. supermd

    supermd Senior Member

    Location:
    San Jose, CA
    I watched this over the weekend and loved it! :)
     
  16. BadJack

    BadJack doorman who always high-fives children of divorce

    Location:
    Boston, MA
    Chris Hillman did admit to Peter Noone on the VH1 "My Generation" show that that song's lyrics targeted the Monkees, though the clip doesn't seem to be online. All I can find is another guy saying that he saw the same interview.

    The interesting thing to me is that aside from Nesmith productions, the session players on the first two Monkees albums are very often NOT Wrecking Crew guys, but that's probably another documentary.
     
  17. Thom

    Thom Forum Resident

    1966: Herb Alpert "A Taste Of Honey"
    1967: Frank Sinatra: "Strangers In The Night"
    1968: The 5th Dimension: "Up Up And Away"
    1969: Simon & Garfunkel: "Mrs Robinson"
    1970: The 5th Dimension: "Aquarius/Let The Sun Shine In"
    1971: Simon & Garfunkel: "Bridge Over Troubled Water" (that's 6 in a row)

    and then the Captain & Tennille hit in 1976 (for a total of 7). I think that's all of them?
     
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  18. gottafeelin

    gottafeelin Forum Resident

    Location:
    Georgia
    Exactly. I'm not a big Monkees defender. They are what they are and I like them for what they are. They hold a strange and intriguing position in music history. However, I am just slightly put off by the elitist attitude displayed in the "Rock n Roll Star" lyrics. Now knowing that the Monkees and the Byrds employed some of the same session musicians, there is a new, delicious irony added to the mix.

    The Beatles were at the top of the heap and they always seemed very empathetic to the Monkees for having been thrust into a weird situation of instant fame combined with confusion about what they actually were (are they actors or musicians, etc). But the Byrds wanted to assert some kind of superiority I guess.

    It's like in High School. The people that most brutally pick on the Freshmen are usually Sophomores - the ones of just a barely higher class.
     
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  19. motownboy

    motownboy Senior Member

    Location:
    Washington State
    For weeks now I have been scratching my head that this movie is being shown in theaters now yet it came out in 2008. Has it been updated or is it the same exact film from 2008?

    If it hasn't been updated, then I have already seen this... Haven't many of us here already seen it too when it was first released?
     
    Last edited: Apr 4, 2015
  20. SKBubba

    SKBubba Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tennessee
    Think it has a couple of newer interview segments (Leon Russell?) and scenes. Also, wasn't the 2008 release only shown at a couple of film festivals, and this is wider release (plus streaming, DVD, and Blu Ray)?
     
  21. motownboy

    motownboy Senior Member

    Location:
    Washington State
    Thanks, I did see it at a film festival in L.A.... I presumed it had been in wide release. I contemplated seeing it at a theater this weekend until I saw the trailer and realized it was the same movie I saw many years ago. Plus so many clips from it have been on YouTube for years.
     
  22. Larry Loves LPs

    Larry Loves LPs Forum Resident

    Location:
    Alexandria, VA
    The Byrds wanted to play on Mr Tambourine Man but we're told they couldn't by the label. McGuinn played but I believe the drummer Michael Clark was really upset about not playing.
     
  23. toptentwist

    toptentwist Forum Resident

    Location:
    Houston, TX
    I saw the film last night at the Sundance Theater in downtown Houston.

    I'm glad I got to see it on a big screen.

    I greatly enjoyed the film - and think it would appeal to more than hardcore music fans - in part because SO much of the music is familiar.

    I knew the film was a son's tribute to his father - and I had no problem with that.

    I was somewhat surprised to learn a fair amount about Tedesco. I was familiar with his name, but now I'm familiar with the person.

    I left the theater wondering what the context was for the Zappa interview where he talks about Tedesco - apparently referring to his appearance on the Gong show.

    I was somewhat surprised by the Leon Russell segments... my thought watching Russel in the film, is he seemed surprisingly unproud of his time as a session musician.

    I was somewhat surprised by the amount of television/film work Tedesco was involved with... I'm not sure that holds true for other
    musicians mentioned in the film. Some songs that apparently feature Tedesco I wouldn't have even guessed had a guitar (i.e. the theme from M*A*S*H) if they didn't play the clip of the song.

    I do think it's a very complicated story - in part because there is no clear membership in "the crew".

    I'm somewhat surprised to read Carol Kaye is unhappy with the film - especially since she's an integral part of it - AND - she
    is portrayed in a good light.

    The closing credits sure seemed to list a lot of different names. I thought it was kind of funny that some names were highlighted and
    others weren't. I think the intent was to show that the highlighted names were the primary set of musicians.

    Having seen the Funk Brothers film, I think it's fair to point out the following:

    1.) Even though membership in the Funk Brothers was somewhat fluid - it seemed to be a much more well defined set of musicans.
    2.) The Funk Brothers didn't have to hustle all over town - to constantly fill requests from far and wide. There was one main studio "A" in
    Detroit, and eventually a second studi0 "B" that emerged but the core group of musicians were usually found every day and night in the same location (studio "A").
    3.) The Funk Brothers were never paid union scale. Gordy put them on a retainer and they were paid a yearly salary that paled in comparison to the money the LA studio musicians got. They were happy because they were doing something they loved, and they
    have a helluva lot to look back on with pride - but they were treated much more harshly. I still can't imagine how it felt to show up one day at the famous studio "A" and find a note saying "Sorry, the studio is closed. The company has left Detroit."

    I think the film explained the end of the era as inevitable but incorrectly suggested that work dried up because session musicians went out of vogue... there are other examples of session musicians who were successful after the decline of this set... for example, "The Section" did a helluva a lot of work after the wrecking crew faded... one key difference, is I believe sessions musicians started getting credits on records shortly after the peak years for the wrecking crew. I think that created more opportunity for more musicians - which translated into less calls for the older musicians who were on a very short list.

    One reason Tedesco may have stopped getting calls is best explained by the funny little story he tells during the film that was shot during a seminar. He (hilariously) explained how he played the exact same thing every time there was a request for latin guitar. Make no mistake, I think Tedesco's ability to laugh at himself was probably a big reason he got so many calls. Plus his ability to promise he'd be there in twenty minutes (and not mention that he's eating breakfast and might be able to get there in 90 minutes). If nothing else, this set of musicians knew how to HUSTLE.

    As the credits ended, I did contemplate how cool it would have been if the theater could have scheduled a double feature with "The Wrecking Crew" coupled with "Standing In the Shadows of Motown"

    The story about the spanish guitar at the beginning of Frank and Nancy Sinatra's "Something Stupid" was well worth the price of admission. Especially since Frank knew EXACTLY what he wanted - and pushed for it.

    Was Don Randi a significant other to Nancy Sinatra? They looked like a couple during their interview segment. Reading about him on wikipedia, he played piano for her often - but there was still something there that seemed like it may have been more than professional.
     
  24. toptentwist

    toptentwist Forum Resident

    Location:
    Houston, TX
    McGuinn's comments on this were interesting.

    McGuinn was a former NY session musician so he wasn't surprised - AND - he claimed to be happy that *HE* got to play with the Los Angeles session crowd for those two songs (much to the dismay of his other band members).

    McGuinn then explained that his bandmates needed 77 takes for their follow-up single.
     
  25. DrJ

    DrJ Senior Member

    Location:
    Davis, CA, USA
    I saw this doc a couple weeks ago, and loved it. They didn't try to make the Wrecking Crew's story into something epic or controversial or over-reach in any way, which would have just been so typical and disappointing had it happened - that would have been same old crap you get with just about everything else these days, no subtlety, all hype. I guess attention spans have shortened, and many documentary filmmakers feel like the public need to be titillated to get into anything.

    I'm SO glad Tedesco DID NOT go for that kind of angle, and just let the story tell itself, in proper scale/proportion - it has more than enough weight on its own. Some of the reviews in this thread question the musicians' accounts of what happened, their interpretations of things (like, why they stopped getting so much work). I think that kind of misses the point - this doc is not about what you or I think, or what is "generally considered to be true," it's about what the musicians think/thought. They're certainly entitled to their views and after all, they were there, and we were not. Memories may be faulty at times, of course, but to me that's part of the charm (e.g., the couple of segments where they purposely juxtaposed several of the musicians all telling conflicting accounts of some event).

    What more do you really need than these fabulous, down to earth musicians telling their stories, in their own modest, non-sensational, matter of fact ways? Were people expecting, I dunno, freaking ego maniac front line artists? That's so not what this is about.

    So for me the doc was a really touching, heartfelt tribute from a son to his father and the people who his father worked with so often over a period of years, and made history with, many times over - but, ironically, anonymously - THAT is the kicker, the whole point/hook for this documentary - the most highly exposed popular musicians of the time (or likely of any time) that hardly anybody knew/saw.

    Beyond that, the music featured was/is great, and most of the interview segments I thought were very entertaining, and many were again so touching. I found myself tearing up more than once.

    The fact Denny Tedesco had to make this on a shoestring and go through so much to get it to release makes the achievement more remarkable to me.

    My only EXTREMELY mild critique is that I would have liked just a little bit more about the studios themselves, and about the players' gear, as those things sometimes mattered in the narrative. For example, I really liked the bit where Carol Kaye talks about a new guitar she got that had a nice "growl" to the sound that she brought to Glen Campbell's "Wichita Lineman" session, which he then picked up spontaneously and used to play the solo on that tune - priceless story. I could have used a bit more of those types of stories. By contrast, they alluded briefly to Gold Star's echo chamber, but didn't pick up that thread at all. That's a case where the sounds available at the studio really mattered to the sound and impact of the recordings - and so I think could have been elaborated on a bit, without having things degenerate into something too gearhead wonk-ish for a general audience.

    But that's a very minor quibble - and this documentary was, after all, about the musicians.

    Anyway, I'm very glad to have seen this - $6.99 was a bargain - and I will be buying the Blu-ray.
     
    Last edited: Apr 12, 2015
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