Wow...Extreme denial regarding Wrecking Crew replacing Beach Boys

[Jon Stebbins]

Over on Facebook, whoever runs the Wrecking Crew Film page has a daily quiz which gives multiple choice answers to select regarding that day's question. yesterday's question was "what was the first Beach Boys track to feature ALL Wrecking Crew on the session?"

 the choices were...
A) I Get Around
B) Don't Worry Baby
C) God Only Knows

AGD, Mark Linnet and I pointed out that none of those answers are correct. Why Do Fools Fall In Love is probably the right answer. But the Wrecking Crew offspring dude ((Tedesco?) is obviously not interested in the actual truth as today he posted that the correct answer is B) Don't Worry Baby...and used a thin anecdote to back his answer. Mark L. pointed out he's heard the multi-track for Don't Worry Baby and it features ONLY Beach Boys playing on the track. I also pointed out that I've heard the multi-track and it only features Beach Boys on the track. AGD pointed out that the AFM documentation that is on the Wrecking Crew Film website that is used as proof the Crew played on IGA and DWB are both sheets from NON-Beach Boys covers of those songs. Whoa man...this is some serious denial going on over there in Wrecking Crew Film land...
http://www.facebook.com/WreckingCrewFilm

[SMiLE Brian]

Glad to see the fight for the truth in this matter continues. Props to Jon, AGD, and Mark Linnet.

[bgas]

It's simply CKSyndrome affecting everything Wrecking Crew.
So Sad for Tedesco

[Lowbacca]

@Stebbins, AGD etc.: I already 'liked' all your Facebook comments on the matter.    That stuff is a shame...

[filledeplage]

Glad to see the fight for the truth in this matter continues. Props to Jon, AGD, and Mark Linnet.

Here's for accuracy in "who did what." I'd hate to see either; claiming work that was not performed, or reported inaccurately, and "wreck" (pun intended) the story that is being told.  Having seen it about a year ago, what I took away was the important and largely "anonymous" place that these musicians fit in the history of American music.  

Brian and the Boys are certainly headliners, but alongside an evolution of sound and revolution of styles that took place at warp speed and the shift from the East to the West Coast as the epicenter.  And in the context of the times.

And here's hoping that error correction by some of our "resident experts" will be taken graciously and without hostility.  The story is too important "taken as a whole" for sloppy detailing to get in the way.  Maybe the WC project can bring someone on board whose job it is to verify and authenticate the sessions, without exaggeration and bad feelings.  

[Jon Stebbins]

Glad to see the fight for the truth in this matter continues. Props to Jon, AGD, and Mark Linnet.

Here's for accuracy in "who did what." I'd hate to see either; claiming work that was not performed, or reported inaccurately, and "wreck" (pun intended) the story that is being told.  Having seen it about a year ago, what I took away was the important and largely "anonymous" place that these musicians fit in the history of American music.  

Brian and the Boys are certainly headliners, but alongside an evolution of sound and revolution of styles that took place at warp speed and the shift from the East to the West Coast as the epicenter.  And in the context of the times.

And here's hoping that error correction by some of our "resident experts" will be taken graciously and without hostility.  The story is too important "taken as a whole" for sloppy detailing to get in the way.  Maybe the WC project can bring someone on board whose job it is to verify and authenticate the sessions, without exaggeration and bad feelings.  

AGD told Tedesco two years ago that those AFM sheets he was posting as evidence that the Wrecking Crew replaced the BB's on I Get Around and Dont Worry Baby were not Beach Boys sessions, they were from Challengers, Hollyridge Strings etc... sessions...but no response, no correction. Don't hold your breath.

[lance]

It is so frustrating. I honestly think it's a lost cause. Too many classic rock drones would be forced to really listen to the music if they accepted that as fact. Nevertheless I applaud the tireless efforts of you all(especially Jon Stebbins) for continuing to fight the good fight.

[filledeplage]

Glad to see the fight for the truth in this matter continues. Props to Jon, AGD, and Mark Linnet.

Here's for accuracy in "who did what." I'd hate to see either; claiming work that was not performed, or reported inaccurately, and "wreck" (pun intended) the story that is being told.  Having seen it about a year ago, what I took away was the important and largely "anonymous" place that these musicians fit in the history of American music.  

Brian and the Boys are certainly headliners, but alongside an evolution of sound and revolution of styles that took place at warp speed and the shift from the East to the West Coast as the epicenter.  And in the context of the times.

And here's hoping that error correction by some of our "resident experts" will be taken graciously and without hostility.  The story is too important "taken as a whole" for sloppy detailing to get in the way.  Maybe the WC project can bring someone on board whose job it is to verify and authenticate the sessions, without exaggeration and bad feelings.  

AGD told Tedesco two years ago that those AFM sheets he was posting as evidence that the Wrecking Crew replaced the BB's on I Get Around and Dont Worry Baby were not Beach Boys sessions, they were from Challengers, Hollyridge Strings etc... sessions...but no response, no correction. Don't hold your breath.

It would be interesting to know whether other artists are experiencing the same problem with session accuracy.  It might be easier to get through with "similarly situated allies." 

[Lowbacca]

Wouldn't it be cool to get one of the official Facebook pages of the individual Beach Boys in on this?

An original Jardine comment beneath it would torch that quiz for sure. 

[SMiLE Brian]

Wouldn't it be cool to get one of the official Facebook pages of the individual Beach Boys in on this?

An original Jardine comment beneath it would torch that quiz for sure. 

Al Jardine- "I remember recording vocals for that song on a milkcrate."

[lance]

Thing is the Beach Boys themselves seem to have hazy memories about it all...

[bgas]

Yeah, funny what 50+/- years will do to a memory

[guitarfool2002]

I'm curious, is it just the Beach Boys whose information via the contracts and popularly held beliefs of who-played-what is getting mixed up, or are there other bands and fans/historians of those bands who are saying similar things about those artists?

And I mean beyond the decades-old debates about Jimmy Page playing solos on Kinks records and whatnot, with cases similar to these with the BB's.

[Jon Stebbins]

Thing is the Beach Boys themselves seem to have hazy memories about it all...

Well...Brian knows. He could listen to DWB or IGA and instantly tell you if its Carl and Dennis playing on the session. But there's no upside for him to do that...part of the romantic scenario celebrating Brian's genius is that he used the Wrecking Crew on his brilliantly produced tracks because the BB's couldn't cut it as players (and some people still think of the Beach Boys as his vocal group but not his band)...so even a good amount of knowledgable Brian fans automatically  think of the Wrecking Crew when they think about the instruments on the tracks. And if the facts are opposite then you have to talk them backwards towards the truth because they've already swallowed this myth that all the tasty parts on those records are played by studio pros and not the boys. Just today someone was telling me its obviously not Carl playing the solo on I Get Around because it was beyond his ability. It was not only safely within his ability, but that solo is so perfectly Carl that if you know anything about Carl's style and quirks as a guitarist the IGA solo SCREAMS nothing but Carl Wilson!!! Just like that heavy backbeat on Don't Worry Baby screams Dennis. I don't know why this stuff isn't obvious to more people, its as if they can't hear the signature sound that the Beach Boys band produced when they played together...you can definitely hear on parts of Today and Summer Days when it goes away and becomes something slicker and smoother and not them.

[the professor]

The attempt to affirm a near wrecking-crew-only responsibility is what's known as revisionist history. That they were not publicly recognized and given enough popular credit does not justify this attempt to diminish the BB 's actual work.  I recall the keyboard player in the Pet Stories segments on the Pet Sounds live DVD say that "we were the underscore."  Such gracious humility was, I thought, the watchword of the WC in terms of respecting the BB. Perhaps Tedesco is off the reservation. While I would not undermine the the WC did, for heaven's sake, I will always defend the rockin' sound and even the artfully sophisticated sound of the BB as musicians. One short example: HB plays the drums on FFF, and it sounds, in fact, like a virtuoso piece played by a Juilliard-trained musician. Surfing Safari drums are played by a teenage kid who learned to play in his garage in Hawthorne. Tell me why they both work equally well (he says rhetorically).

[guitarfool2002]

This issue could be solved with a capital "S" by doing one simple thing:

Let folks hear the Shut Down v.2 missing session tape which has the Don't Worry Baby tracking sessions. They'll hear Dennis, Chuck, Brian, the whole lot of them recording that song in the studio.

And when people hear it with their own ears, it sinks in more and as "proof" would stand up in any court of public opinion, if not court of law if it were ever challenged.

There would be people lining up to buy such a track if that were ever offered.

Personally, short of this ubiquitous box set talk, that is one item which I bet your average fan would pay for as some kind of release separate from the box set.

And it would solve the mystery-controversy about Hal playing or not playing on the track once and for all.

[Don Malcolm]

You know, it's such a complicated and twisted history even without adding in the revisionism of Wrecking Crew offspring. And Jon is right that Brian's aura has had the extremely unfortunate effect of eclipsing the clearly first-rate talents of the working band for, oh, about forty years now. A good bit of what was written about Carl, Dennis, Mike and Al was nothing more or less than libelous. Anyone who saw the band play in the 70s knew that all of that was a bunch of tripe, but that myth has persisted, perhaps because the "romance" (excellent choice of words, Jon) of Brian's version of the Icarus myth is so compelling. And, of course, there is some truth in that, too, which just muddles things that much more. Remember director John Ford's dictum ("print the legend") and sigh.

Idea: a full on-line sessions list, building off the research of AGD and others, would be the best way to combat the mixed-up history that the WC site is promulgating. That would be more than a bit of work, but what a great reference base that would be!

[Jon Stebbins]

The attempt to affirm a near wrecking-crew-only responsibility is what's known as revisionist history. That they were not publicly recognized and given enough popular credit does not justify this attempt to diminish the BB 's actual work.  I recall the keyboard player in the Pet Stories segments on the Pet Sounds live DVD say that "we were the underscore."  Such gracious humility was, I thought, the watchword of the WC in terms of respecting the BB. Perhaps Tedesco is off the reservation. While I would not undermine the the WC did, for heaven's sake, I will always defend the rockin' sound and even the artfully sophisticated sound of the BB as musicians. One short example: HB plays the drums on FFF, and it sounds, in fact, like a virtuoso piece played by a Juilliard-trained musician. Surfing Safari drums are played by a teenage kid who learned to play in his garage in Hawthorne. Tell me why they both work equally well (he says rhetorically).

Just FYI...there are two drummers on Fun Fun Fun...Hal and Dennis.

[guitarfool2002]

Idea: a full on-line sessions list, building off the research of AGD and others, would be the best way to combat the mixed-up history that the WC site is promulgating. That would be more than a bit of work, but what a great reference base that would be!

A sessions list wouldn't carry near as much weight as the actual tapes from the session floor.

Because, as the researchers would mention too, you cannot take the word of what got listed on the AFM session sheets as the Gospel truth for what happened on any given session. It lists the players who were contracted for that session and the players and staff who would be paid for that session: It doesn't list exactly who played what during the hours the session actually took place.

Look at the Good Vibrations film footage: Carl is clearly shown playing two different Fender basses, through a tweed Fender amp...yet why isn't he listed as playing bass on that session? He's clearly there, he's clearly playing electric bass, he'd be listed on the union contract as a result...but he's not. Without that film, would we know Carl Wilson was playing the Beach Boys' electric basses that day at Western if all we had was the contract?

The contracts aren't 100% accurate either.

[DonnyL]

The funny thing is that 'Don't Worry Baby' doesn't even sound like a Wrecking Crew recording ... why would anyone even want to claim that it's them? It's really more in the BBs 'garage band' style ... super-goofy guitar break, no real drum fills, a couple bass flubs, etc.

[Awesoman]

Glad to see the fight for the truth in this matter continues. Props to Jon, AGD, and Mark Linnet.

You want the truth?  The truth is, who gives a $hit what a Facebook page says?

[DonnyL]

What about 'The Surfer Moon'?

[the professor]

The attempt to affirm a near wrecking-crew-only responsibility is what's known as revisionist history. That they were not publicly recognized and given enough popular credit does not justify this attempt to diminish the BB 's actual work.  I recall the keyboard player in the Pet Stories segments on the Pet Sounds live DVD say that "we were the underscore."  Such gracious humility was, I thought, the watchword of the WC in terms of respecting the BB. Perhaps Tedesco is off the reservation. While I would not undermine the the WC did, for heaven's sake, I will always defend the rockin' sound and even the artfully sophisticated sound of the BB as musicians. One short example: HB plays the drums on FFF, and it sounds, in fact, like a virtuoso piece played by a Juilliard-trained musician. Surfing Safari drums are played by a teenage kid who learned to play in his garage in Hawthorne. Tell me why they both work equally well (he says rhetorically).

Just FYI...there are two drummers on Fun Fun Fun...Hal and Dennis.

Thanks Jon.  HB often discusses and lists that, among others as his; I would never have known DW is on there too (if you have published that information somewhere, please forgive my ignorance, which I will have to remedy). I love every time we hear of the BB themselves playing, thus dispelling the myth of their inability.  To answer my own question, these songs work with HB or Dennis (or both) because they are great songs. I never perceive myself to be listening to inferior art on BB songs without hired guns.

[Aegir]

The funny thing is that 'Don't Worry Baby' doesn't even sound like a Wrecking Crew recording ... why would anyone even want to claim that it's them? It's really more in the BBs 'garage band' style ... super-goofy guitar break, no real drum fills, a couple bass flubs, etc.

I wish the post-66 recordings were as easy to identify. It's obvious what a '64 Carl solo sounds like, but what does a1980 Carl solo sound like, or a 1972 one?

[Andrew G. Doe]

What about 'The Surfer Moon'?

Brian originally cut it as "The Summer Moon" for Bob & Vicki, then used the track for the BB release. The Bob & Sheri version is a completely different  - and earlier - recording.