The Smiley Smile Message Board

While it is known that Bruce had made a name for himself prior to joining the BBs, I find those years to be a bit of a mystery.

We know he was a record producer/arranger with Terry Melcher and had a surf band which released a few albums.

I always read and hear that he was at one point in a time a session musician. I have heard he played guitar, bass, piano, drums, etc... which surprises me, because I thought he didn't play bass until he joined the BBs. Also, I always hear he was in Phil Spector's band, which was perhaps why the BBs reached out to him in the 60's(?)

Bruce was never a full-time professional session player -- he started out making records when he was a 15 year-old high school student, and then continued in the surf/hot rod genre while attending UCLA.

I believe he only worked with Spector while Spector was himself a teenager just starting out -- Bruce wasn't a Wrecking Crew/Wall of Sound guy.

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,17509.0.html (http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,17509.0.html)

This is only slightly O/T...

It's the lineup (allegedly) on the original version of "Moon Dawg". I found it five years ago at an unnamed site:

MOON DAWG! - The Gamblers [2:15] (Derry Weaver)
DERRY WEAVER: lead guitar
ELLIOT INGBER [later of The Mothers/Magic Band]: rhythm guitar
BRUCE JOHNSTON [later of...]: piano
LARRY TAYLOR [later of Canned Heat]: bass
ROD SCHAFFER: drums
NIK VENET: dog howls
Produced by NIK VENET
World Pacific single #815 (1960).

Another source credits Sandy Nelson as drummer on #815; and that Leon Russell played piano----as well as Bruce, apparently----which is possible judging from the full, almost Spectorian sound.

Yeah, it's one of those records that everyone claims to have been involved in in one way or another -- so there were claims that Russell played on it, that Kim Fowley is on there, that Sandy Nelson was on there, that the piano player was actually Howard Hirsch (who played on the Gamblers' later singles), that Derry Weaver was a pseudonym for various other famous guitarists... it's one of the ones where if you believe everything that was claimed about it, half of LA was in the studio.
But I looked into it a few years ago, and came to the conclusion (though I couldn't now tell you *why*) that the lineup you list is the correct one. Certainly Bruce is in the harmonies on that track, and it sounds to me like his playing, too.

The first minute or two of this Interview wit Bruce Johnston pretty much sums up everything about Bruce and his history of being  a session player! he did quite a bit back in the 50s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohWG0nz_DVo

Bruce also contributed a song to the 1959 A.I.P release GHOST OF DRAGSTRIP HOLLOW, called "I Promise You."

The song is at about 12:46 into this clip...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3694Xyiw27s

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0426552/?ref_=ttsnd_snd_6

I Never realized bruce did quite a bit of session work in the late 50s and a lot with Ritchie Valens