The use of session musicians on Beach Boys “Pet Sounds”

The band was no where near as cohesive as they are made out to be, it was a band of revolving musicians since the late 50's. There are two former members from the 60's variation that actually dispute the history in almost complete opposite terms. The one that came up with the term "the wrecking crew" was a former drummer, who actually first coined it in the 90's when he wrote a book. Another member of that same period says the concept of them even being a sort of band was vague and nobody ever called them "the wrecking crew" at the time. I don't mean to disparage the musicians, it's just that their importance has been totally played up retroactively.

 

What AnalogJ said.

Brian Wilson never picked up the phone and said “give me the wrecking crew”.

Fallacy number one.
The Beach Boys didn’t play on most of their records. Total bs and rather ridiculous on a forum such as this, in this day and age people still believe that. They played on most of their records. They had some studio people here and there from the get go including Mike’s sister on a harp but they didn’t just sing to tracks created by other musicians. That was primarily through a two year period late 65-66. They played on tons of great tracks on All Summer Long such as the monster hit I Get Around. They played on tons of great tracks on Today. It was mainly Summer Days, Pet Sounds and the Smile stuff where the “crew” dominated. By 67 with Smiley The Beach Boys were recording in Brian’s home and the “crew” was history. Correct me if I’m wrong but they didn’t stop making records in 67 did they?

Fallacy number two. The “crew” made Pet Spunds great. They sure helped…. But it was Brian that made Pet Sounds great. They did exactly what he told them to do. A suggestion here or there by one of the studio musicians again sure didn’t hurt but those were anomalies. Listen to the session tapes. Brian is in command totally. Pet Sounds is a masterpiece because of Brian Wilson. Tony Asher wrote most of the lyrics and he was an ad guy not Bob Dylan. Again… those lyrics were guided by Brian discussing to Tony what the subject matter of his songs would be.

 

the "wrecking crew" was not a "band". nor was it ever purported to be. it was an unofficial assemblage of the top LA session players of the time.

the term "wrecking crew" may have been coined initially by hal blaine ( if that's who you attempted to namelessly reference? ) but dave gold of gold star would tell you differently.

i think you don't really know much about which you are claiming to. but that's ok too.

a good way for you to clear up what you don't yet recognize as flawed information as to the "wrecking crew's" value and contribution to 1000's of records that many of us all know and love, would be to watch the film made by tommy tedesco's kid.

wherein the "wrecking crew" members all share their versions of the time.. and how they became to be known as "the wrecking crew".

so, until then?

You don't know what you're talking about, do you?

 

that's more like it.

 

Some people say they were never the same after Maureen bailed.

 

Hey, I love Gary Lewis and the Playboys, and the fact that the "Playboys" was mostly a Murderer's Row of LA's finest session players doesn't bother me a bit.

 

The fact is that there's a lot of BS among the musicians claiming that """the wrecking crew""" was what they claim it was. Maybe you're just gullible enough to fall for aging musicians trying to fluff up their legacy and history. A few quick searches and readings will tell you that their history and reputation as "the wrecking crew" as we know them now is disputed. Their importance has been played up significantly retroactively. I'm not buying what you or them are selling.

 

Yes it can never be said enough… The Beach boys played on most of their albums.

 

They were a truly talented group of young men and even teenagers… For those who don’t know Carl Wilson was 16 years old on surfin safari, surfing USA surfer girl and little deuce coup albums and all those guitar solos one hears

 

Of course. Even in my post, I still tried to acknowledge the band’s instrumental involvement on even certain songs from this era.

 

He definitely did a really solid “Miserlou”. And the fact that Brian would let him play with these top flight players later on should tell you how good Carl was.

That Brian decided to use session musicians for this period of Beach Boys stuff says more about him and his artistic vision and ambition than it does about The Beach Boys.

 

And you’re talking about the players he played with later on in 1965,66- in the early days it was just the Beach Boys - gotta clarify that

 

Are you sure you’re looking up the right information? Say what you will but they were all over the place in the 60s. Not sure what you’re talking about here

 

ain't nobody selling **** pal i was merely trying to mitigate some of your misguided and woefully inaccurate "presumptions" and disabuse you of your fallacious claims..

i knew at least 1/3 to 1/4 of those people casually at the time as a young industry connected person and my family has history with many of them as well - from their also decades in the LA music business. so, while my "career" post dates the "heyday" of the "crew". my education and instruction inside the la recording business does not.

so, my information does not come secondhand. it is experiential and accurate. you've never been to the legendary gold star studio or with phil spector lol. i have.

so - you're barking up the wrong tree, and have now been unpersoned lol. buh bye.

 

It doesn’t matter whether The Beach Boys, the Wrecking crew or a group of trained Chimpanzees played on the album. ‘Pet Sounds’ is one of the great works of art of the 20th century or any century for that matter.

 

Is this a Wrecking Crew conspiracy theory?

 

umm, yes but. can we please draw a line somewhere? lol

 

I want Beethoven on a Telarc recording of Moonlight Sonata, myself, otherwise no sale.



Dan

 

there's a thought! never seen chimpanzees demand and get triple scale!

 

why not? pet sounds recording budget - as understandably inflated as it was? - pre-dates cocaine regularly being included in LP budgets as "tape costs" ha.

 

This thread seems to exist in an unfortunate alternate reality where Pet Sounds is the only album The Beach Boys ever made.

The band was out touring (ie: bankrolling the whole operation) while Brian had to get an album done. The group came back to record the vocals, which they did to absolute perfection. Carl plays some guitar. He and Dennis play guitar and drums on That’s Not Me. One song is a co-write with Mike and he gets a couple lines n such sprinkled in here and there, Carl and Mike get some lead vocals and Bruce comes out of it as one of only 3 humans on the planet who are singing on God Only Knows. The band is pretty decently represented on what is ultimately a Brian labor of love. All is good.

 

What did Van Dyke Parks mean when he said that "'Pet Sounds' is the first thing Brian and I worked on together," stated in the 1976 "It's OK" NBC documentary. He had nothing to do with that album, or did I miss out on something?

 

A case where the band just could not produce what the leader and main composer of the band wanted the songs to sound like on an instrumental level.
The vocal work of the Beach Boys proper is amazing enough to make it a Beach Boys album.
When I first heard the album, their voices were what really affected me. Not the session musicians.
The session musicians just filled in the blanks. Listen to the Pet Sounds box set vocals discs and you may hear what I mean.

 

His bass vocals are pitch perfect and an extremely important part of the band’s blend. You don’t have to personally know and adore the guy to accept this fact.

 

Always loved that album and as Al Jardine, I think, said much of what Brian was making by that time was so esoteric and beyond their abilities that it was needed.