Posted on 08/14/2017 1:28:25 PM PDT by RoosterRedux
Good point. And his diction does not detract from his delivery.
I have read much about them, via Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys, but I missed that one.
Carol once said that, when applying for a job and being asked what she had done, when she said she played on the Pet Sounds sessions, it was ‘nuff said.
Do you know it was Carol Kaye on the Barney Miller theme?
The surprising thing is they were actually pretty good musicians!
The Wrecking Crew were indeed amazing.
However, the situation was a bit more complicated than that. The Beatles and The Beach Boys were two of the first rock bands to play their own instruments, and to do their own producing, especially the latter group.
When Brian Wilson retired from the stage, and went full-time into the studio (replaced at first by none other than Glen Campbell), he began such ambitious and demanding experimentation that it required experts on the many varied instruments - he was using many, many musicians together.
Also, The Beach Boys were touring endlessly. They did not have the time to devote to polishing their technique, or to record in the studio.
Carl Wilson was a legitimate guitarist who contributed before and after that period on their recordings (and, I think, On Pet Sounds as well), but he was not a virtuoso like Glen Campbell.
Members of the Crew have said that they thought Brian Wilson was just another teen idol that they would have to carry along - for about three days.
By the end of the third day, the Crew realized they were in the presence of musical genius, and they gave Wilson whatever he wanted.
(The Eagles started out as studio musicians, too.)
Another hit-making music machine that gets even less recognition than the Wrecking Crew is the Anita Kerr Singers.
She (an exquisitely pure soprano) and her singers created the Nashville Sound: They were the common musical backing element that created the distinctive Nashville Sound -
much like the Motown Sound.
The Singers did a one-off as a lark at the 20-minute surplus end of a recording session for the producer who wrote it, Buddy Killen (who had successfully brokered “Heartbreak Hotel” to Elvis Presley in 1956), and with the future hall-of-famer Floyd Cramer on piano, called “Forever” under the recording pseudonym The Little Dippers.
It became a Top Ten hit in 1960, and created the problem of needing to tour it when there was no actual group. (Substitute musicians comprised the on-stage performing group.)
The Anita Kerr Singers are as ubiquitous in country music of that era as the Wrecking Crew are in pop music.
It’s a canned track and he’s lip syncing but I think he may have actually played the solo. It’s conceivable they would have mic’d him up and mixed in his live guitar. For one, thing he’s plugged in. Normally they wouldn’t bother with a cord if they didn’t need to. For another, he works the volume control like he’s really playing. He turns down once the solo’s over which is what you’d do to keep the pickup hum out of the mix. Of course he might just be doing that out of habit. Last thing is his tone and phrasing seem a smidge different from the studio recording, although I’d need to listen side by side to confirm. Whatever the case, I love that song.
The guitar he's playing would actually sound similar to what was on the album. On the album, Glen borrowed Carol Kaye's Dalelectro 6 string bass for the solo, and in the video, he's playing a "Fender 6 Bass," a 6 string, short scale bass, tuned an octave below a guitar. They were very popular in the 60s and 70s, the Beatles, Lovin Spoonful, and even Jack Bruce of Cream played them.
Mark
A baritone guitar would normally be tuned a fifth below a standard guitar tuning.
Glen is playing a Fender Six Bass, which is a short scale 6 string bass, tuned an octave below a guitar.
On the recording, Glen borrowed Carol Kaye's 6 string Danelectro Bass for the solo.
Mark
Good info...thanks. I was on the Concert Commttee at Mizzou in 1969 - 1972 and we had the Beach Boys perform in ‘71 or ‘72. It was a fantastic show.
Didn’t know that about the Eagles.
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