Tag: wrecking crew

Having a ball with the Wrecking Crew

Friday on WBUR in Boston, Robin Young talked with legendary session drummer Hal Blaine, who is himself from Massachusetts.

[audio:http://audio.wbur.org/storage/2012/04/hereandnow_0420_musicians-wrecking-crew.mp3|titles=WBUR – Robin Young on Here and Now]

There’s a new book about the Hollywood studio musicians of the 60’s and 70’s who were collectively and informally called The Wrecking Crew.

http://youtu.be/jvXvTySfWMU

Elsewhere, at the same time that Blaine & Co. were plying their trade, in another recording studio there was a totally different but equally good sound being created. Having been a kid in the Sixties I’m prejudiced, but no other period of time has ever approached, let alone equaled, its variety and quality of music.

http://youtu.be/cu023iV_atg

Whole lotta wreckin’ goin’ on

Some years back, for one of Denro’s birthdays I got him a book called Hal Blaine and the Wrecking Crew, about the session musicians who reigned in the Los Angeles recording studios of the 60’s, into the 70’s. Later, I heard about a documentary being made about the Wrecking Crew, but the production was delayed so many times I forgot about it.

Robbie Leff has pointed out that the documentary finally exists, but has not yet been released. Some of the interviews obviously were filmed quite some time ago — and good thing, too. What a shock it is, seeing Dick Clark as he was before his stroke, but I don’t believe he didn’t know about session musicians until the Monkees.

http://www.wreckingcrewfilm.com/