Posted on 06/17/2024 5:02:04 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The group of studio musicians nicknamed the Wrecking Crew are largely responsible for the timeless musical arrangements on the Beach Boys’ most iconic records, but that doesn’t mean every Wrecking Crew alum approves of a 2024 Disney+ documentary about the Californian group. Legendary bassist Carol Kaye, for example, is decidedly not a fan.
Kaye played bass on many of the Beach Boys’ most memorable albums, including ‘Pet Sounds,’ ‘Beach Boys Today,’ ‘Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!),’ and ‘Smile.’ And while one might assume the musician would be happy to have directors Frank Marshall and Thom Zimmy highlighting a musical era of which she was part, that assumption would be wrong.
The bassist’s disdain for the documentary goes far past negative indifference. In a since-deleted Facebook post, Kaye described just how much she disliked The Beach Boys.
The Wrecking Crew Alum Denounced The Beach Boys Documentary As Fake
Although the Wrecking Crew is all over the Beach Boys’ records musically speaking, the group of musicians (who, at the time, loosely called themselves the Clique—their “Wrecking Crew” moniker would come retrospectively in the 1990s) didn’t tour or perform with the band after cutting the records. Despite this, the editing in the Disney+ documentary seems to imply that the studio musicians and public-facing band had a closer working relationship than they did.
…or, at least, that’s what Carol Kaye would say if you asked her. In a since-deleted Facebook post, the bassist wrote, “Disney movie about Beach Boys tries to show Studio Musicians in the studio recording the Beach Boys tracks while they were singing. That was ALL Staged! And PHONEY … Brian Wilson recorded ALL the voices later on — MUCH LATER than when we recorded the Beach Boys tracks with Brian.”
Kaye re-emphasized that the session instrumentalists and the bands they played for never crossed paths in the studio. “But it fools you and everyone doesn’t it? Disney film shows false scenes” (via Reddit).
This Isn’t The First Documentary Carol Kaye Has Had A Problem With Decades after cutting some of the most iconic records of the 60s and 70s, Carol Kaye has no problem speaking her mind about the going-ons of the time (and how people describe them today). She maintains an active presence on social media, consistently sharing musical morsels of decades past in the studio on her Facebook page. Kaye will share anecdotes, photographs, and, perhaps most of all, her opinion on the retelling of the history she helped create.
Sixteen years before Disney+ released “The Beach Boys,” director Denny Tedesco made a documentary titled The Wrecking Crew, which detailed Kaye and her contemporaries’ time in the studio. Kaye appears throughout the documentary, but she later expressed her disapproval for the film. In a statement on her website, Kaye said she believed people should recognize the talent and influence of 1960s and 1970s studio musicians like herself.
“The Denny Tedesco-Hal Blaine ‘wrecking’ film-doc doesn’t tell the real story as he said it would. The bassist argued the movie makers “skewered” and “re-edited” the footage. “We were never known as the Hal Blaine-invented 1990 self-promo ‘wrecking crew’ term – like Leon Russell, Al Kooper others say, that’s pure baloney. The 50-60 of us (out of 400+ hard-working recording musicians) were sometimes called the CLIQUE, and most were successful jazz musicians with fine reputations before ever doing studio work.” Kaye’s commentary goes to show that everyone’s a critic—even the stars of the show.
You mean a Disney production is false and inaccurate? Shocking.
So just know some of the story offers a fascinating glimpse into the real musicians of our youth.
And what you may find is on a lot of those 80s Heavy Metal songs, the guitar solos were not done by the band members, there was a Heavy Metal version of “The Wrecking Crew” as well.
The Tedesco documentary is great, and Kaye comes off very well in it. Getting mad about what year the nickname was invented seems to miss the point that everyone is praising you and you should receive it graciously.
Truth is, the whole thing is based on fake and phoney. Virtually everyone buying those records looked at those photos and did so believing they were hearing th actual Beach Boys playing and singing (an illusion the record companies work hard to maintain). So I don’t much care about Carol’s butthurt over the specifics of the fakery. The important thing was they were well paid and the checks didn’t bounce.
What does it matter, Carol? Most people assume the recording is done if not all performing at once, then very close together. Just paying attention to how the Beatles and most of Motown produced records back then, I always knew that wasn’t so. Some stars don’t want to cut their vacations short just to fly back and record together.
After some group members hit the big time, they may have tired of working together any more than absolutely necessary, so they create new work in various stages and various studios.
Why be so bitter, Carol, when your legacy continues to be appreciated and to live on?
Oh, and I guess any money you get is kinda nice too, huh?
Disney = Fake and Gay
Steely Dan had their own version, they just kept bringing in musicians until they got the sound Donald and Walter wanted. There are some interesting videos on YouTube about this process.
Poppa Doo Run Run does Beach Boys better than the Beach Boys.http://www.papadoo.com/
👍
Playing notes on bass that somebody else created makes you a musician... It doesn’t make you a genius. The person who created the notes, Brian Wilson, is the genius. Some others added lyrics and those are important too... But Brian Wilson was the genius behind the Beach Boys and the documentary makes that more than clear. Others were along for the ride, but he was master of that circus
The Wrecking Crew was a great group of very talented studio musicians who played his music very well. Period!
“Virtually everyone buying those records looked at those photos and did so believing they were hearing th actual Beach Boys playing and singing “
Well, it mostly was them *singing* (though you occasionally had guest vocals from the likes of Jan & Dean, Brian’s wife Marilyn or other friends of the group). As far thinking that the Beach Boys played the instruments on their records, that’s certainly an understandable misunderstanding on the early surf-guitar-bass-drums songs. But once Brian started throwing in French horn on songs like God Only Knows or the cello on Good Vibrations, it would have been ridiculously naive to think that Beach Boys had proficiency in all those instrument.
Soon as I saw the headline, I knew it was Kaye. As a bass player myself (but of the “local band” variety), I’ve always had an interest in her stuff, but she’s quick to call out the BS even when the BS is just how things are done. It’s like an actor saying a movie is BS because the actor wasn’t doing his own stuff. “That’s not really him!”
Yes, we know a lot of male actors were standing on boxes during some scenes with their leading ladies. It’s not a conspiracy.
However, she’s a good source to call it out. And presenting it the way they apparently did in this movie does make it a case of “based on a” true story, but not the real story.
interesting that most of these musicians wanting to claim some fame were no where to be found at the MANY live performance concerts. having grown up as a performing musician and spending an uncomfortable amount of time on stage just doing my job at the time, it really doesn’t matter who wrote or did the studio version of any song. either you can pull it off successfully on stage or you can’t and SUCK! THAT is the reality. live albums have the musicians on stage performing the songs. that is a simple fact. signed:been there, done that...and the life of a musician mostly sucks.
“ Kaye re-emphasized that the session instrumentalists and the bands they played for never crossed paths in the studio”
That’s the crux of it. And all of it.
These musicians were hourly workers. That’s all.
“Virtually everyone buying those records looked at those photos and did so believing they were hearing th actual Beach Boys playing and singing “
That’s the music industry.
For the most part.
And she has every right to call b.s. on Disney or anyone else who says they played on the recording when they didn't.
Unless it was a charted-out movie score, the studio musicians had a lot of flexibility to come up with their own lines and riffs.
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