The Wrecking Crew/Kent Hartman

The Wrecking Crew/Kent Hartman (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2012)

Like a fine wine, Wrecking Crew works on multiple levels. It exudes subtle scents and hints, the chords from “Last Train to Clarksdale,” for instance, or the feeling you had when you first head “California Dreaming.” This can lead to euphoria, a kind of drunkenness on the teenage memories and imaginary worlds defined by Rock. Deep down Wrecking Crew also satisfies a  bodily need for information that is meaningful—more, if you’re really into rock and roll, essential. I need to know who those anonymous drummers and guitarists were that laid down the tracks on the music of my youth. 

Or do I? These were union musicians—AFM Local 47—doing paid gigs, often endless, boring sessions for songs that would never crack the top ten. And it was clear the producers were calling the shots, serving up the same formula that worked last time, sometimes betting on a new group on a hunch, sometimes walking out in the middle of a session. The world of the producers, well-paid and sometimes glamorous, intersected with the Wrecking Crew but did not coincide with it. The artists got the glory, the producers and the recording companies got the profits, and the Wrecking Crew not no mention, normally. In a way Hartman is trying to rectify that, by showing how essential they were to the process and product. Even though there were always replacements waiting int he wings. His book lists some 53 members considered part of the loose grouping called the Wrecking Crew. They were really the best recording musicians during a specific period of rock history, the late 50s through the mid seventies. More than a formal grouping, hey were a generation that gave us the sounds of many hit songs. 

Hartman has done all the research, including interviews where he could, to give us a fine-grained picture of that epoch. He organizes his chapters around individuals, especially Hal Blaine, Carol Kaye, and Glen Campbell, giving us their roots and how their careers panned out. The drummer Hal Blaine, for instance, was the “unofficial dean” of the Crew who played on a broad range of songs, from “Little Old Lady from Pasadena” to “Bridge Over Troubled Waters.” Eight of the songs he played on were Grammy winners. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. Hartman goes on to describe scores of other artists, from the Byrds to Dylan to The Beach Boys to James Taylor, and the session musicians like Blaine who did the heavy lifted that ensured the success of their hits. 

The book can be read as a sourcebook, a collection of basic information on players. But for me it brings up macro-level issues as well. Why this time period? Why LA? And why this group of people? Last question first—they were simply good. While anyone could move to LA and try to break into the business, you had to have the chops, and there was no greater screening mechanism than the other musicians you worked with. To be accepted into this milieu you had to be more than competent—you needed instrumental skills, stylistic flexibility, a strong work ethic, and a generally cooperative disposition. While a few also dabbled in the drug culture of the period, Hartman makes it clear that most of the Crew didn’t. You don’t get anywhere in the music industry by taking anything for granted.

Which brings up the second question—the industry. Why did it concentrate in LA? Why does any industry concentrate? There are any number of economic factors, from concentrations of wealth and taste in a major urban area, to the presence of related industries. It certainly didn’t hurt that LA was the center of film making, or that wealth grew substantially in the post-war period. The clubs, the youth culture, the weather, all made a difference. But the reality is that major labels were based there, and so were recording studios, sound engineers, song writers, orchestrators, conductors, and a ready supply of session musicians. The industry clustered in other places as well—Nashville, New York, Detroit, Muscle Shoals. But LA was already a music center well before Rock arrived. It simply blossomed with the presence of creative producers like Phil Specter and Bones Howe (the Fifth Dimension).

And why did all this happen in the late fifties and sixties? Why in other words were we blessed with such a spate of great music? That’s a question about Rock and Roll. If you’re not clear about that one, read this book.