See Hear Podcast Episode 110 - The Wrecking Crew

Most working people have that day gig – accountant, engineer,
admin, hospitality. The job pays the bills and puts food on the
table. We don’t tend to think of being a musician as a day job
category. Welcome to episode 110 of See Hear Podcast. Through the
20th century, there was always some group of musicians who had
that “day job” status – playing for corporate functions, teaching
people to instrumental skills, and being the faceless people
providing the grooves and melodies behind your favourite records.
Remember the shock you felt realising that the Beach Boys weren’t
playing their own instruments on Pet Sounds? Or The Monkees? The
collective of Los Angeles session musicians who became known as The
Wrecking Crew (via drummer Hal Blaine’s autobiography) provided the
music for tons of songs that music fans consider pop pantheon.
There were other collectives of course – Motown had the Funk
Brothers, Stax had Booker T and the MGs, and there were the
collectives in Muscle Shoals and Nashville. Film maker Denny
Tedesco is the son of Wrecking Crew guitarist, Tommy Tedesco. In
the mid 90s, Denny started making a documentary that took nearly 20
years to make. Financing for licensing rights was a big part of
that duration, but in the end, he created a wonderful film that
opens a window to the world of that period of time when Sonny and
Cher, Frank Sinatra, The Mamas and the Papas, The Ronettes, and The
Beach Boys all had one thing in common – The Wrecking Crew. Even if
the general public had no idea who Carol Kaye, Hal Blaine, Tommy
Tedesco, Earl Palmer or Plas Johnson were, the “name” artists
certainly did and revered their work. For episode 110, Tim, Kerry
and myself discussed Denny’s documentary as well as our own
favourite records from that period, the difference between WC and
other famous session groups, British session musicians, social
context, and economics. Tim also has an interesting spin on why
session musicians may not feel the need to brag about their work…….
If you want to catch up on the film, it’s currently available on
Beamafilm, Prime and (in October / November 2023) SBS On Demand.
Very excitingly, we will be having Denny Tedesco on See Hear in
early 2024 to talk about his new film The Immediate Family about
another group of LA session musicians from the 70s. If you’ve been
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