Brianland

Pet Monkees & Other Oddities

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So … hold on — the guys who made Pet Sounds were the same people who made the The Monkees’ “music”?!  And the goofy band on those Sonny & Cher albums were the same cats who played The Byrds’ Mr. Tambourine Man?  What?!  Crazy!  But true.  And they have a great story — told by the players themselves in this new documentary The Wrecking Crew — which was the name they were dubbed by the old guard they replaced — because these whippersnappers and their new-fangled rock n roll was “wrecking” the music business.

What happened was — because L.A. was where television and movies were being made, they built a lot of different recording studios — and they were very busy.  Add to that the Beatlesization of the world, and by ’63 or so, the star-maker machinery for pop music was in full rage.  The old maestros of the musicals were suddenly getting invaded by smoking, bearded, dungaree-wearing beatniks.  Who could play.  A few years hence, groups of young people would form themselves into bands and this whole manufactured record-company-creation of pop stars would become obsolete, but while it happened, this same loose collective of 20 or so players made the music on everything from Sam Cooke to Paul Revere & The Raiders.

You’ll hear more Top 10 hit records in this documentary than in any film you’ve ever seen. And they’re all played by the same people! You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’, Strangers In The Night, Everybody Loves Somebody, Good Vibrations, California Girls, Help Me Rhonda, Surf City, California Dreamin’, Monday Monday, Aquarius/Let The Sun Shine In, Be My Baby, Da Doo Ron Ron, Up Up and Away (In My Beautiful Balloon), These Boots Are Made For Walkin’, Windy, Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves, Love Will Keep Us Together, Wichita Lineman, Galveston, Eve of Destruction, Mr. Tambourine Man by The Byrds, A Little Less Conversation by Elvis, and The Beat Goes On and on and on …

And besides all that, members of the Crew also played the famous sax melody on The Pink Panther Theme, the galloping electric guitar on the Bonanza theme, that ridiculous Green Acres song, the acoustic guitar behind the M*A*S*H theme, the Mission Impossible theme! … and Batman fer gawdsakes! Not to mention the music in Cool Hand Luke, The Deer Hunter, Cocoon, Field of Dreams, Caddyshack, Around The World In 80 Days and on and on.

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And that’s a whole backstory on the film — it was made by Denny Tedesco, the TV producer son of the main guitarist in The Wrecking Crew — but in order to include the music that makes the story he actually had to do a Kickstarter campaign to raise the funds for the music rights!  He wisely started shooting interviews back in the ’90s when the Crew were all still alive, and it was finished as a film in 2008, but has taken until now to get the licensing fees paid!

The documentary itself is really fast-paced and snappy, with choice stories of how licks were written and what life was like for a working session player.  One of the producers had a great line — “If you want to be successful in this business — never say no until you’re too busy to say yes.”

The story’s told by not only a bunch of the core Crew themselves, but also Brian Wilson, Leon Russell, Frank Zappa, Cher, Nancy Sinatra, Glen Campbell, Jimmy Webb, Lou Adler and a host of others. Basically these musicians were The Beach Boys. The Mamas & The Papas. The Association. The 5th Dimension. Gary Lewis & The Playboys. Glen Campbell’s band. Phil Spector’s band. Herb Alpert’s band. They were taking on more different roles than the busiest Hollywood actors.  And as the wonderful bass player Carol Kaye put it: “I was making more money than the President of the United States.”

There is a stark contrast between the lives and the music in this documentary and that depicted in other recent excellent behind-the-scenes docs including the one about another studio scene, Muscle Shoals, and about another batch of unknown but widely heard musicians, Twenty Feet From Stardom, but put together they weave a rich tapestry of the stories behind the music you’ve been dancing to your whole life.

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In select theaters starting Feb. 20th, 2015.  DVD release to follow.

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For another great music doc — check out Festival Express.

For another one also coming out this year — check out Johnny Winter: Down & Dirty.

For another story on the behind-the-scenes of making a hit — check out Seinfeld, The Beatles and The Beats and such.

And speaking of The Beats you might wanna check out — The Beat Movie Guide.

Or the world premiere of the final cut of On The Road at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Or here’s sumpthin on that wild Dylan movie I’m Not There.

Or for another great ’60s music story check out My Dinner With Jimi by The Turtles’ Howard Kaylan.

Or here’s a linked list of 500 of the greatest movies ever made.  😉

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by Brian Hassett      karmacoupon@gmail.com        BrianHassett.com