"The Wrecking Crew" Eventual commercial release?

I've had this documentary for the last three years and it is great and I'm really glad to see that everyone will finally be able to see it!

My fear is that they might of had to make cuts of the original, due to music fees and/or disagreements? I remember hearing that Carol Kaye was not happy with this, after she filmed her parts for it, but, some have said that she is a bit crazy these days, so who knows for sure?

 

Well they made their goal of bringing in the money, but have failed to release the disc in June. Now it looks like they're going for a theatrical release first, so it could be quite some time before the DVD is released. I'm sure there are lots of unhappy folks and mixed feelings about this. I've waited this long, so it's really no big deal to me, but this could take a while. Denny hasn't even tried to come up with a date. I have no idea how long we're talking but I suspect it could be years.

 

Looking forward to buying this on DVD if and when it comes out.hopefully soon. Last year i bought a book on the wrecking,,The Wrecking Crew:The Story Of Rock & Rolls Best Kept Secret. really enjoyed it..Only read it once,time for a rereading of it again soon

 

I just hope they have recut it or added something to make people want to go again. I think going for a theatrical release is way too late at this point. They should do a HBO, Netflix or PBS deal and then straight to video with extras. Instead they are just going to end up with 250 ( if that..) dollar per showing take-ins in the one week it will play at the art house in the 10 cities that will bother and that barely 5 figure box office will taint the chances of success for the video release.
It's think it's a great documentary but almost everyone who would have wanted to see this in a theater already has seen one of the 100 plus screenings and probably has a Mp4 of it sitting on their iPad too.

 

I've seen it twice but don't have a version of it here.

I've been offered a DVD copy by a friend but I've held off so far since I'm very anal about that type of thing and wanted to support their effort. That said, if it doesn't come out soon, I may change my tune. After all, I believe that I've already paid for the license to view it during their Kickstarter campaign.

I also hope that it is in a better format than what I saw at the showings which was a 4x3 standard quality version. I wasn't sure if that was a playback limitation or the format of the film. I'm surely hoping it's the former but of course DVD is not a HD format.

 

I think the picture quality theatrically is a problem too and HD or Blu-ray won't do it any favors. Even apart from the archive video from the earlier Tedesco doc used, some of the prime interview footage was shot on video now close to 20 years ago and certainly not upscale friendly.
And I do want to restate , I think it is one of the BEST music docs ever made. Period. I have watched it well over a dozen times.

 

Yes, picture quality could be an issue. I saw this in a one-off quasi-theatrical showing a few years ago. I'm not quite sure how they deemed it appropriately licensed at the time; perhaps it was treated as a fundraiser; I don't remember. In any event, it's a very important document. I hope it gets out and gets seen.

 

is bassist Carol Kaye taking part in the doc?, as she hates the name The Wrecking Crew, she calls them The Clique

 

I contributed and frankly, forgot all about it. They really need to get this to those of us that paid for it, and who really want to see it. They risk that few are going to care about it by the time it does come out. I am not going to pay to see it at the movies anyway when I am owed a DVD. I am kind of to the point where life has moved on and I am not that excited anymore to even see it. And I hate it when something like this gets funded and then plans or priorities change. Come on guys....get the DVDs to those that helped you out!

 

Nice interview with Denny Tedesco on a recent WTF Podcast with Marc Maron

http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episodes/episode_517_-_denny_tedesco

 

She's in it, but boy does she seem to hate it.

http://www.fenderforum.com/forum.html?db=&topic_number=765493

 

This kind of sours me towards funding other products. Very disappointed but what options do we have? My guess is it will take years. I like Denny but it's not looking very good at this point. I kind of feel like I was taken but I'll reserve my judgment for a while to see how this plays out.

I wonder if we could request refunds? I kind of doubt it.

 

Well, I think someday it will come out, but what irks me is when they cast us aside to chase another plan. I did get the signed book quickly, but since they are showing the movie around the country, the least they could do is get that version to us.

 

I've heard so many positive comments about this documentary, and as a massive Brian Wilson/Beach Boys fan it would be great to learn more about the session players behind some of my all time favourite music (not to mention a wealth of other '60s masterpieces, including the original SMiLE tracks). Incredibly, the "Making Of" book that came as part of the Pet Sounds Sessions boxed set and Chuck Granata's book on the creation of this album still weren't enough - having discovered the secret of the Wrecking Crew* there's no way I can be satisfied without knowing more, especially if there's such a film already in the can...

*Apologies to Carol Kaye, but this name deserves to stick!

 

There's a book available also that covers a lot of the same ground as the film:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Wrecking-Crew-Inside-Best-Kept/dp/1250030463

I finished it the other week and I enjoyed it. It's not the world's best-written book, but it was very interesting.

 

Does anyone know if this one is any good as well?

http://www.amazon.com/Hal-Blaine-Wrecking-Crew/dp/188840812X

I might be enjoying quite a lot of "retail therapy" online next month...

 

I haven't read it but the reviews look pretty good, overall.

 

Apart from being their proverbial heart, Hal Blaine is a drummer I often name as one of my personal favourites. Of course, it's difficult explaining to those who don't know about him - rather than just saying he was in "this group" or "that band," I'm stuck listing him as a session player on various tracks from different artists, which leads a lot of people I mention him to in conversation unfairly dismissing the Wrecking Crew as mere historical footnotes rather than musical pioneers. Along with Carol Kaye and a few of the other core members associated with this loosely connected unit, is there anyone else out there as prolific from the same era yet destined to remain so obscure?

 

I agree that this is an excellent doc, and also hope we will get it on DVD/BR soon.
One of the things I really like about it is that the great tenor sax player Plas Johnson is included
in their round table discussion (Hal Blaine, Carol Kaye, Tommy Tedesco, etc). He's been my favorite
sax player since I was 13 (in 1963) on all of the great sixties Mancini recordings plus all of the sax
solos on the great rock and roll hits he played on.
My favorite "Wrecking Crew" album has always been the stereo Marketts "Out Of Limits" album,
although back in 1963 we of course didn't know there was actually no Marketts group, just the
studio musicians we now know as the Wrecking Crew. Besides Hal Blaine's drums being up front
and dynamic, Plas Johnson has some remarkable sax work, especially on my favorite track, "Bella Dalena".
Here's the stereo version of it ..........



And here's a vinyl rip of the entire stereo LP:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcLctO2gPEA

I have the OOP Sundazed CD of it, plus of course my original WB stereo LP. Any fan of the
Wrecking Crew should at least hear it once. Classic early sixties instrumental rock and roll.......

 

Carol Kaye was (and is) a great bass player, but she's wrong about the "$500 per song" rate. It costs a lot more than that to get a real release of a movie into theaters and home video -- more like $50,000+ per song, part payable to the publisher, part payable to the record label.

I think she's being much too hard on the film. Several interviewees do mention that they were never called The Wrecking Crew during the 1960s, a lot of them talk about how much they did love the music they played, and I don't remember any stories of feuds between Kaye and Hal Blaine.

 

I jumped at the chance to honor Hal Blaine in his native town of Holyoke Ma. when he was on his book tour in the early 90's. Put together a twelve piece band, wrote out the drum charts for the seven songs we were to perform...He aced them, and he hadn't played most of them since he recorded them some 30 years before. What a great night, and we've remained good friends. Hal Blaine is one of the founding fathers of pop music's Constitution, whose work and approach is still the benchmark for how to play drums on a recording. A true gentleman, with a warm sense of humor and that twinkle in the eye...My wife and I love him dearly !!!!

 

Off Topic:

 

Wow. Is a performance royalty (or whatever its called) priced for a whole song or a portion, like usually heard?

 

I personally rate Hal Blaine on the same level as Gene Krupa when it comes to how influential he was, and back in the mid to late '90s I even started playing with a reduced kit not only because a lot of groups were suddenly doing this - perhaps in reaction to the excessively large rigs played by metal band members especially? - but also due to my then recent discovery of Pet Sounds, thanks to the Sessions box. Also, it was just as much of a revelation to see what Ringo Starr could do with a similar setup after my first real exposure to prolonged footage of his playing within the Anthology series of documentaries. However, it's a shame that of the three musicians I've just named, one is considered a pioneer and the other was once described by a colleague as not even being the best drummer in The Beatles, while the The Wrecking Crew as a whole remain such a minor footnote in recording history, always seemingly audible in the distance behind more household names. As for the suggestion that Carol Kaye is wrong about royalty figures, I wouldn't make such a claim in the open... she doesn't like to be anything except always right, particularly on the subject of her bass guitar credit for Good Vibrations, even if there is substantial proof her takes weren't used for the final track.

P.S. Welcome back (for now), Vidiot!

 

You have the option of paying for it when it gets a proper release through the 'normal' channels. Just like films, albums, singles, etc, were produced for a 100 years. I never understood this beg-the-public-for-money-upfront mentality.