The Wrecking Crew! Page #10

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And then, he'd come over

and do one of our sessions.

And then off to do

somebody else, I guess.

I knew they played on virtually

all The Beach Boys records.

You know, we got a lot of sh*t

for it,

but I think finally, you know,

some of those guys

are coming clean.

Barry McGuire had found this

song called California Dreamin'

that he wanted to record.

And these four,

kind of scruffy looking,

two guys and two girls

came to the studio

because Barry wanted

them to sing

background parts on his record.

And he said to Lou, "They're a

great sounding vocal group.

You should hear them sing."

John Phillips wrote this song,

California Dreamin'.

So while the band was on a ten,

Lou and I went down the hall

to studio two,

with the four of them.

And John had a guitar and they

sang California Dreamin'.

Lou said, "What do you think?"

And I said, "If you don't take

them, I will," you know.

After hearing their vocals...

their background vocals,

I thought it should be

their record.

When I started to do

The Mamas and The Papas,

I put Joe Osborn in that group

with Hal Blaine.

And that's when Hal, and Larry

and myself worked together

as a group for the first time.

I wasn't really busy.

At that point,

I wasn't busy

as a studio player.

And Hal helped get me

into that area.

Those kinds of combinations of

what Joe brought to Hal Blaine,

and what Hal Blaine brought to

Joe Osborn was great.

In the case of

The mamas and Papas,

John Phillips would run the song

down on rhythm guitar.

At the same time,

Hal would be taking notes,

Glen Campbell

might be taking notes.

And then we say,

"Okay, let's run it down."

They had parts in mind

so that you could then edit,

"Yeah, that's good,

let's keep it.

That's not, can you try

something else?"

But they had a lot to do with

the arrangements.

Members of The Mamas

and The Papas teach the song

to the musicians.

There is no arrangement

or score.

The musicians decide

what they should play

against the vocals.

A rhythm gets going.

Producers presented the

musicians with a road map.

It was just chord symbols.

And that was about as far

as it went.

Now, these musicians

took that information and, you

know, added a little flavor

to it that was unexpected.

A lot of times it was,

you know, much more than you

had hoped for.

People come over and say,

"Did you this?

Would you work with this group?"

I said, "I don't remember."

"Well, I saw your name

on the album."

"Then I did."

You know, that's...

- Right.

- 'Cause you work so much,

you have no idea.

The studio player of 1999,

they would...

If they're not playing all

the time,

they would need to do

what we never needed to do,

was practice.

All the time you're practicing,

while being paid.

It's funny. Earl and I were

talking one time.

It's like, you couldn't judge

anybody by how much

they were working 'cause

everybody was working

all the time.

You had to just go by how much

work you turned down.

Most of us were so fortunate

to have been in

at the original beginnings of

rock and roll.

F***, I say it, I made more

money playing rock and roll

than I ever made playing jazz.

There was one point

in the mid '60s that

I was making more money than the

president of the United States.

I remember I used to kid

Carol. I'd say,

"Do you realize, Carol,

if I got a divorce and you...

We could get married and

what a year we'd have of money.

Between all your money

and my money,

we'd be killing everybody."

Including each other.

This is where we did Sinatra,

Dean Martin,

Sammy Davis Jr.

We did everybody in there.

It's just an amazing place.

In my particular case,

I bought an incredible mansion

in Hollywood.

I had a magnificent yacht.

I had a gorgeous Rolls Royce.

But, out of nowhere,

I had a wife who all of a sudden

declared, "I want a divorce."

"What? What are you talking

about?

I just went for a sandwich

and..."

It's, like, impossible

to believe.

And in order for her

to get paid off,

you sell everything you own.

I had 170-something gold

records.

I had to sell them all.

The house was sold for a third

of what it was worth.

I had to let the yacht go.

The yacht was repossessed.

I never had anything

repossessed in my life.

It's just a shame to get

wiped out that seriously.

I had been working with

John Denver,

almost 5 grand a week

for almost ten years,

and all of a sudden,

that job ended.

Terrible, terrible thing

to have to go through.

I mean, it's...

You certainly,

in the realm of suicide,

you certainly think about it.

I was working

in Scottsdale, Arizona,

and I was a security guard,

plain and simple.

Here I went from...

all this money

and this magnificent estate

and everything else involved,

and all of a sudden

I was reduced to

living in a clothes closet.

Came out of about 23 rooms

in Hollywood.

And it was like

the end of the world.

This was Gold Star.

So this is it.

This is what's left.

And it was an amazing time,

and it was such

a historical place.

They had a lot of first-time

big hit people

come here and make their

records.

Across the street, we recorded

The Captain & Tennille

doing Love Will Keep Us

Together.

Boy, they had a number one,

it was record of the year

that year.

It was my last record

of the year.

In L.A., I'd heard that things

were picking up again...

you know '82, '83,

something like that.

And then I was also

getting a few calls,

and all of a sudden,

I was working again.

One of the great highlights

was when I was inducted

into the Rock and Roll

Hall of Fame.

So in the year 2000,

me and Earl Palmer

were both inducted.

You know, Earl was just...

I can't thank him enough.

Earl recommending me

in the beginning,

it made a name for myself.

It really was that simple.

You know, I've always said...

if you love your work,

it's not work,

you know?

We loved our work, man.

That's how we could work

day and night,

'cause we loved it.

I'll never forget a session

we were all doing

with Don Costa.

And I start playing rhythm

and he stopped and he said,

"Glen, you got the lead there."

And, boy, I said...

I said, "Mr. Costa,

I can't read notes."

He said, "Well, you know

the melody, don't you?"

And I said, "Yeah."

He said, "Well, just...

That's the melody."

I said, "Oh, okay, great."

He would ask Tedesco,

"How does that figure go

- or this figure go," you know?

- Right, exactly.

And then he would sit there

and work it out.

And we'd make the records

and it was always perfect.

Yeah. Well, he had

a certain thing that he offered

that they wanted.

Wonderful ear and a wonderful

facility on the instrument.

Glen came up with great ideas,

and his solos were just super.

And then all of a sudden,

he's a singing star.

Well, he always could sing.

We used to kid him about,

"Oh, he's standing up

and singing now,

he's gonna be a big star."

But he became a big star.

Good evening,

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