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I was listening to Coast to Coast a little while ago, which usually discusses aliens, big foot, time travel, vampires, etc. But for some reason they had on Kent Hartman, who wrote (is writing?) a book about the wrecking crew. Interesting stuff.

http://www.coasttocoastam.com/guest/hartman-kent/56343

Not exactly sure why he was on this show. Is Carol Kaye a vampire? Hal Blaine a big foot?

Book is out now - generally OK, but with some horrible factual errors and some long-discredited BB canards trotted out one more time.

Do you really believe the Wrecking Crew existed?  

Show was pretty interesting.  Don't think we're the only ones here hooked on Coast to Coast, although I still miss Art Bell...

Yeah, he kept saying that the Beach Boys didn't play on any of their hits outside of the early stuff like Surfin. I know that's not true. But would you say that the Beach Boys were more involved in the studio then most bands back then?

They were all a figment of Brian's imagination! As was Phil Spector! :)

Great show! I learned for the first time that Creed from the Office was a part of the Grass Roots. I knew several of their songs, but didn't know much about them. I also recall Coast to Coast doing a thing on the Paul is dead rumors. I started to believe it myself. :)

If anyone from this board runs across this Kent Hartman fellow, please let him know that he's perpetuating a categorically debunked myth by saying the Beach Boys didn't play on anything other than their earliest records. I will do the same. Stop him before he further embarrasses himself. I'm sure its just a case of not researching any deeper than the slippery surface. The truth is the Beach Boys played instruments on approx. 70% of their top 40 hits.

He claims that it was a myth in the past that bands played on their own records. Perhaps he is trying to over compinsate the other way since the wrecking crew got little recognition back then, or that they weren't give credit on the record sleeve. He claims that outside of the Monkees, most people assumed that bands played their own instruments. Although, that myth of studio musicians playing for the BBs was around longer then his book wasn't it?

I pointed this out to the publishers in an email back in late December/early January. Not a peep.

Just checking for my understanding:

I believe that the Beach Boys contributed relatively little INSTRUMENTALLY to the album Pet Sounds, but that they contributed, far and away, the MAJORITY of the instruments on all other major hits, up until the very late 70's/early 80's?

Is that about right?

There's an appendix that lists, and I quote, "a small sample from among the Wrecking Crew's hundreds of hit recordings". These titles are included:

"Surfin' USA"...
"Surfer Girl"...
"I Get Around"...

What did you do when reading this "information"?

Snorted loudly then sent an email. Thus:

"The book arrived a few days before the 25th (I'm seriously impressed) and I've been reading it ever since whenever possible. Like it a lot, the structure is nicely done and the writing style is informative without being too dry or, conversely, too loose.
 
However, there is something of a problem with some of The Beach Boys' sections in that a percentage of it is wrong, or misleading. The first BB tracks that any of the Crew played on were on the summer sessions for the SURFER GIRL album, and then barely. Hal played on two tracks: "Hawaii" & "Catch A Wave" (percussion, not drums). Further, he didn't play on "Little Deuce Coupe" session - I have a copy of the AFM contract - or the LDC album sessions (the track he's on was originally intended for The Honeys). The AFM contracts for those two albums are missing, but session tapes reveal no audible Crew members beyond Hal as noted before. The first BB session he played drums on was for the 45 version of "Be True To Your School" in mid-September 1963, and the first BB song to use the Crew extensively was that for "Why Do Fools Fall in Love", 1/7/64. Hal did play on "I Get Around", but again, timbales, not drums. No Crew member played on any BB recording before summer 1963, thus the credit for them playing on "Surfin' USA" and "Surfer Girl" is in error (again, I have copies of the AFM contracts. Only the BB are listed, and guitarist David Marks confirms that no-one else was in the studio)
 
The biggest problem is with pp144-146 of the advance copy you so kindly sent me, and the "Help Me, Rhonda" session that Murry attended where Carol Kaye is stated to have flipped Brian the bird. Bluntly, she couldn't possibly have done so, as that session was held on 3/3/65 and was a purely vocal session: there were NO musicians present, as the session tape reveals. The track session was held slightly earlier, on 2/24/65. I suspect the source for this claim is Carol Kaye herself, which wouldn't surprise me as her memory for sessions she claims to have played on has now and then been proven to be faulty (she claims to have played guitar on "Surfin' USA" but is not listed on the AFM contract). It's entirely possible that she became frustrated with Brian at the February track session, but the event as described in those pages cannot possibly have happened - and didn't, as the 30-minute outtake confirms.
 
I hope you don't think I'm being ungrateful - I've enjoyed the book very much and learned quite a few things into the bargain, but The Beach Boys is my area of expertise and I feel compelled to point out that, while the Crew did increasingly contribute to their studio sessions from 1964 onwards (PET SOUNDS has hardly any BB playing on it), prior to that the band played on their own sessions almost exclusively: check out the respective tour/recording dates here -
 
http://www.esquarterly.com/bellagio/gigs63.html
 
http://www.esquarterly.com/bellagio/gigs64.html
 
http://www.esquarterly.com/bellagio/gigs65.html
 
Even then, as recently rediscovered session tapes reveal, the band played on a lot of their own recordings (i.e., "Don't Worry, Baby") previously assumed to be the Crew."

A week or so later, I sent this one:

"Finished the Wrecking Crew book and by and large, I was impressed - the backgound info on the various key members was great to read, and the structure, by song rather than chronologically, is a neat idea and moreover one that works.
 
However, as stated before, I have issues with the accuracy of the sections concerning The Beach Boys and, although I'm not anything like an expert on Jimmy Webb, the part about how "MacArthur Park" was recorded is also seriously badly researched. Here's the problems:
 
The sessions are stated as being in mid-May 1968, yet in the notes the AFM contract is listed as being 12/21/68, which is impossible as both the single **and** album were released in May. In fact the date for the first tracking session was 12/21/67. The whole album was recorded - vocals excepted - by January 1968.
 
It's stated that the Crew played the entire song all the way through, start to finish, yet on the contracts, the various sections are listed individually, and with their own timings.
 
It's further stated that the song was recorded on a 16-track machine, but in fact there was no such thing in Los Angeles in December 1967.
 
Harris didn't record his vocals in LA, but at Lansdown Road Studio in Dublin, some time later.
 
My point here is not to knock down the book but to point out that if someone such as I, with minimal knowledge of Jimmy Webb, can pick up on such basic errors, then the real experts on the other artists mentioned will also do so. I'll give the book a favorable nod, because overall i do like it a lot, and it's a fine read covering an area of the sixties that has been previously neglected, but I do think you should perhaps contact the author and request a rewrite here and there, if possible."

AGD,well played responce to the  "insane factual indequacy" of the Book.

I had a chance to look at it--working in a bookstore does have its perks, though I'm a little surprised we got a copy in.  In some ways I'm glad it's not great, because it leaves room for a truly definitive book on the subject that is actually researched and not anecdotal. 

Some of the photos were nice, but nothing jaw dropping.

That's way too generalised to be true. Certainly, as AGD has said, the early hits are the group. But Good Vibrations? California Girls?

You could just about get away with saying A Beach Boys played on all their hits.  Not quite, but close.

To just say the "early" hits are the group is not factual as there are later hits than the two you mentioned that are "the group". Also the two you mentioned are primarily studio players, but they both do have Beach Boys on them too ...Carl (guitar) on Ca. Girls, Dennis (keyboards) on GV's.

Hey, Dennis is on organ on GV! :)

And Carl played 12 string on CG.

Hal Blaine annoys me!

All his yelling and bragging about having played drums on everything is pathetic. First off, what has he ever played on that is so drum-centric to where you give a damn who's playing? Sure, some of his Spector playing is cool and his drumming on California Girls, Kiss Me Baby, Our Car Club is absolutely awesome, but other than that..... hmmmmm, not trying to discount his talents, I just feel he's created this myth that really isn't all that impressive when you examine it. His playing on the two songs on Forever Changes pales against Michale Stuart's playing on the rest of the album, and the only Byrds song I can think of where the drums blow me away is Eight Miles High, which he didn't even play on (but he still has ruined Michael Clark's reputation by suggesting he played on most Byrds records) .... So, there is a lot of respect deserved for him being a reliable and quick studio study, but it's not like he played on Live At Leeds, or My Generation, or A Day In The Life, or Eight Miles High, or I Can See For Miles, or Ticket To Ride, or anything where the drums stand out so impressively. Jim Gordon did just as impressive stuff, as did other cats like Ken Buttrey, Jim Keltner etc....

Well, Hal's greatness flows out of his sheer number of contributions and hits, not just one or two.

You make a good point though, that he was one of many--and there were lots of very good drummers out there who played on lots of great tracks.

We've noted before that the Wrecking Crew people have become very protective of their work.  It started because it was necessary to claim credit away from people who didn't merit it.  But now, it has gone the other way, to where books like this one are written and tend to discount the bands.

But come on, Hal's record is impressive by any stretch of the imagination.  Even if he was a terrible drummer, playing on that many hits is impressive.

Is it possible that the wrecking crew did more for the Beach Boys then is credited? Is it possible that the Beach Boys are given credit for playing something they didn't play? How do we know that the documents are correct and not the claims of the wrecking crew?

I often wonder what would happen if somebody like you, or Ian Rusten(I hope I spelled his name right), or C-man would write a book on the true facts of the Wrecking Crew.  ;D

Its generally not documents that support the fact that the Beach Boys played on the majority of their sessions...its the audio evidence. When you listen to raw session tapes, you can hear who is on the floor, you can hear Brian or Chuck Britz talking to who they are setting levels for. On something like Don't Worry Baby you can hear Chuck dialing in the drum intro with Dennis, on Dance Dance Dance you can hear him getting excited about the snare sound Dennis is getting as the session begins. These verbal exchanges between musicians and engineers, while the session is underway, are the best way to ascertain who is there and playing the instruments. Often documentation is just a redundant piece of information confirming what you already know by listening to the session.

Fair point, which I will counter with the incident that made Carol Kaye flounce off the Bloo over a decade ago when I suggested her memory was at fauly. She pitched a fit and screamed she'd get her buddy Russ Wapensky to check his research for his book and prove I was wrong by looking at the relevent AFM sheet. I pointed out he'd only be reading from the same document as I was quoting, which was when she called me a liar and a thief. Point is, she always bangs on about the AFMs being reliable, which is correct to a point as if they weren't listed on the AFM, they didn't get paid union scale and the pension fund wasn't credited.

Plus what Jon said.

Thank you. I wasn't sure how many song sessions were accessable.

I just finished this - not too good.  The Beach Boys history isn't the only inaccuracy here. Mostly anecdotal with very little in the way of hard facts.