The Wrecking Crew.................

[Grog]

After hearing a friend of mine brag this book up, my wife bought it for me as a Christmas gift. I'm not much of a book reader, but after I finally got started on it, I read it in two nights. Much of the time frame the book was written about, was a bit before my time, but I grew up listening to all of the songs the book mentioned. I was unaware of how many recordings were produced that didn't have any of the band members actually playing their own hit records. Check it out!

http://wreckingcrewbook.com/

[Aussie Mark]

The film is awesome too

[Dave W]

I looked at the blog on the site and saw that Sean Bonniwell (of the Music Machine) had passed away last January. That was news to me.

Carol Kaye has been saying for years (i.e. long before the book and movie) that they were never known as the Wrecking Crew back then, that the name was made up.

[nofi]

there was a guy at the old pit who claimed to have been a member of the music machine at some point. anyone remember?

[Dave W]

there was a guy at the old pit who claimed to have been a member of the music machine at some point. anyone remember?

That rings a bell. Can't remember who. I doubt if it was true, though it's possible he recorded with Bonniwell later. The band was only around for 2 or 3 years and the only bassist was Keith Olson, who went on to become a record producer in L.A. Bonniwell then changed the name to Bonniwell Music Machine and did some recording after that but AFAIK he never again toured with a band.

[westen44]

I don't know who all might have been in the band at this time (since the Music Machine is something I never knew much about,) but this is always the song I associated with them.  I'm pretty sure I even have the album that is on somewhere. 

[fur85]

Carol Kaye wrote this review of the book on Amazon...

1.0 out of 5 stars Please don't buy this book, skewered, mis-quoted, phony title., July 16, 2012
By
Carol Kaye
This review is from: The Wrecking Crew: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll's Best-Kept Secret (Hardcover)
I was totally mis-quoted in this wrong skewered and silly book. Quotes from me are totally wrong and un-true, and I'm sure with others also. Our group of 350-400 1960s-70s studio musicians were never known by this Hal Blaine 1990-invented term, invented by someone who wanted to be famous - this book is full of slander also. The person who invented that clownish term never was good enough to be a movie film musician, so the fine movie-TV-film studio musicians are slandered...they never said that, they complimented us.....I know, I was there doing 100s of movie scores 1,000s of record date with them. No-one ever said "wrecking" at all, that's all invented by a jealous musician...

Please don't buy this phony book by a "writer" who made false promises of the "truth" (for a magazine article, never a book!) he changed my words, and others' words too, to fit his own needs for $$$ -- he wanted to be in "our studio business" etc. This is another bad poorly written wrong phony book, please don't buy.
CAROL KAYE 1st Call Bassist All Hollywood Studios, 1960s-1970s, author & leading educator, over 30 courses and tutors.

[GonzoBass]

Am I safe in assuming that Carol didn't see any of that "$$$"?

[Dave W]

Am I safe in assuming that Carol didn't see any of that "$$$"?

Ya think? 

Still, despite the grudges she holds, that doesn't mean she's wrong here. There's no shortage of false history out there. We just don't have enough info to know one way or the other.

[Psycho Bass Guy]

Ya think? 

Still, despite the grudges she holds, that doesn't mean she's wrong here. There's no shortage of false history out there. We just don't have enough info to know one way or the other.

Sadly, her credibility is questionable enough to the point that anything from her is suspect, too. I don't particularly care for her playing anyway; I am more a fan of Brian Wilson's arrangment.

[westen44]

Sadly, her credibility is questionable enough to the point that anything from her is suspect, too. I don't particularly care for her playing anyway; I am more a fan of Brian Wilson's arrangment.

From what I've read, she just played exactly what Brian Wilson told her to play.  That's what I read on her website a long time ago anyway.  Also, I got the impression that Carol Kaye thought Brian Wilson was brilliant. 

[Dave W]

Sadly, her credibility is questionable enough to the point that anything from her is suspect, too. ...

Sad and true. She may be right about some things but when you dispute as many things as she has, it makes most people leery.

[westen44]

Sad and true. She may be right about some things but when you dispute as many things as she has, it makes most people leery.

She is a great bassist, but does seem to have a difficult personality, IMO. 

[Pilgrim]

She is a great bassist, but does seem to have a difficult personality, IMO. 

That's nicely said.  I believe both statements are quite true.

[Dave W]

She was a member of the old TBL mailing list back in the late 90s. I emailed her after she mentioned a certain elderly upright bassist from Minneapolis who once played with Gene Krupa. She was very nice and gracious in her reply. Later she left the list after a couple of listmembers disagreed with something she had posted. It was nothing personal as far as I could see, just a simple disagreement as part of a discussion, but she wrote me that she thought it was a campaign against her by the listowner because he allowed it. She's a nice person who has her own views and doesn't take disagreement well.