Music documentaries can be distracting. Especially the ones that boast some of the best pop songs ever recorded. What can happen is that a familiar song will play during an interview and pull you of what is being said and explained, leaving you a bit bewildered and with a catchy song stuck in your head. This happened quite a bit during The Wrecking Crew, a documentary on the backing band used for such songs as Good Vibrations, Twisting The Night Away, These Boots Are Made For Walking, Something Stupid, various jingles and theme tunes (like the Batman TV series). Phil Spector wouldn’t go into the studio if they weren't available (You've Lost That Lovin’ Feelin', River Deep, Mountain High, and Be My Baby, being just a few of his songs that boasted the musicians).
Try concentrating on what’s been said during that. The Wrecking Crew is like a Greatest Hits greatest hits.
In similar vein to the Funk Brothers documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown, Muscle Shoals and Twenty Feet From Stardom, The Wrecking Crew investigates those responsible behind the sound of pop music’s most recognisable songs. Directed by Denny Tedesco, whose father Tommy was the guitarist of the loose collection of session musicians making up the titular backing band, this documentary rustles up the surviving members including drummer Hal Blaine, bassist Carol Kaye, Bill Pitman, Leon Russell and more.
While less a personal journey of the individual players and more of a collective, there are discussions on the time spent in the studio, how the crew would have to work long hours every day, and the toll it had on family life. There’s a sense of pressure, of being unable to turn down a session because you may not get another one - you’re only one cancelled session away from never working again.
There's a discussion about the difference between producer’s recording techniques: Brian Wilson’s laid back style versus Phil Spector and Brian Wilson's meticulousness and micro-management. The crew were used to knocking out an album in a day for Capitol - six tracks in the morning, six in the afternoon, five days a week - but took to Wilson’s months-long process to recording Good Vibrations.
It's a fascinating insight into the life of a jobbing session musician. If The Wrecking Crew has a fault, it's in its non-linear structure that flits back and forth through the '60s and '70s as it tries to incorporate the crew and their affiliations.
