The Wrecking Crew! Page #11

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ladies and gentlemen.

I'm Glen Campbell.

I'd mixed, actually,

the first record.

That record that he made

for Capitol...

I mixed that record.

And it was like a really

surprise to see him come in

and say, "I'm singing

on this record, I'm gonna..."

you know...

And the record was a hit

and his vocal career

was launched.

And when he got out

and became a singing star,

guess who he called

to back him up?

- That's right, yeah.

- We were all there for him.

I remember Tedesco playing on...

I forget what it was.

He said, "You still talking

to us peons?"

I said, "Well, some of 'em."

But it was great having

the guys do the sessions.

I knew who all the good

players were.

Playing Wichita Lineman,

it had a chord to it.

I don't think

it had any part written.

you know. She says,

"How about this for a kickoff

on Wichita Lineman?"

She came up with that.

Glen Campbell was a heck

of a guitar player,

and I had this Dano bass guitar

that had special pickups

and bridge and strings on it

and it got a really great

gutty sound.

And he picked it up

and did the solo on it.

It was great.

I heard W ichita Lineman

at a drugstore one time

and it just brought tears

to my eyes,

'cause that tune

meant a lot to me.

I did all that early

Glen Campbell stuff,

all of it...

up to Southern Nights,

when he changed producers

and I didn't do anymore.

Glen by this time was trying...

recording... using his own band.

I'm sitting in Martoni's

one night there in Hollywood,

and Steve Turner, his drummer,

walked in.

And he said, "You're not gonna

believe what just happened."

"What?"

And he said, "I'm just coming

from a session with Glen,

and we're trying to get this kid

to play some decent

rhythm guitar."

Glen says, "Well, give me that

big, full Al Casey sound."

I said, "Does he know that

I'm available tonight?"

you know.

But I understand

he was trying to use

his own band.

But when stuff like that

starts happening,

that's... that's a signal.

I think a lot of us felt

this just might go on forever.

And that was

the first great shock

for many of us who had

setbacks in our careers

and realized that,

"Hey, this is an up-down...

up-down thing."

Sports figures seem to have

a ten-year period

when it all happens for them.

So what you get

is you get the ramp up,

you get ten great years,

and you get the ramp down.

And the trick is to make

the ramp down

last as long as

you possibly can.

Who would hire me

at my age then,

to be in a rock group?

They weren't doing that anymore,

because now the rock guys

were doing their stuff.

And writing,

which they always did,

but they were able

to perform it.

As Dylan said, "The times,

they are a-changing."

it just changed.

New game.

new way of doing it.

I don't think it was

a conscious decision

that, you know, these musicians

play a certain way

and now we better

get more contemporary.

In my case, it had to do

with the artist

or who the artist

brought with them.

In the case of Carole King,

she brought a rhythm section

with her.

She brought James Taylor

on guitar.

I think the bands

learned to play.

It was more important

for the public to know

that the bands were really

playing the music.

You had these groups

that came up

in the late '60s

and into the '70s...

The Buffalo Springfield that

became Crosby, Stills & Nash.

And these were all

self-contained groups that,

for the most part,

never used studio musicians.

And those things became huge.

And that's where album artists

became really big.

Well, it had a huge effect

and...

you know, the singer/songwriter

acts

became very important to people.

They started wanting bands

that played their own stuff.

It really had an effect

on the session musicians.

I'd kinda left by then.

We all went into it

knowing it could stop

any second.

It was never meant to last.

I was just like this

magical bubble

that just kind of...

blossomed for a second...

hung there in the air...

Hal plays on seven

records of the year in a row.

Seven in a row...

and then the bubble... poof.

Pops.

It's new people.

it's a new regime.

We came in at a certain time,

when we were all new.

All the new people

are coming in now,

when they are new...

Young, vibrant,

playing today's sounds.

It's that simple.

As the record dates with

The Wrecking Crew diminished,

my father was one of the more

fortunate musicians.

His versatility,

combined with his ability

to read music in seconds,

led to thousands of recordings

in film and television.

He worked with some of

the greatest composers

in American music:

John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith,

Henry Mancini, Bill Conti,

James Horner, Burt Bacharach,

Lalo Schifrin,

just to name a few.

In the '70s,

my father started playing

for his own enjoyment.

It was the first time

I remember seeing him at home

with the guitar.

He got into doing seminars

and that's what he really

enjoyed.

He was flying around

the country.

And he arranged his seminars

on weekends

so that he could be home

during the week...

in case there was any calls.

Let me give you what I call

"the creative

studio guitar player".

About a year ago,

I got the call

to do a John Denver special.

It was John Denver in Mexico,

and they wanted some...

He was on a fishing vessel

and they wanted some Mexican

music, so I gave them this:

Got a call to do

Charlie's Angels.

They were in Puerto Rico.

They wanted Puerto Rican music,

Starsky & Hutch

was in a big revolt

in Bolivia in one show.

They wanted Bolivian music.

In 1975, my father, in jest,

wrote a song called

Requiem For a Studio

Guitar Player.

Always looking to carry

a joke a little further,

my dad dressed up

as a 280-pound ballerina

and went on The Gong Show.

You should think about

what he's saying

in the lyrics to his song.

Don't dwell on the costume

too much...

because it tells a lot about

the way the business

in this town works.

And for being a person

with a sense of humor,

I think Tommy's

had to put up with

a lot of really stupid things.

It was not until I tracked

these musicians down

to tell their story

that I fully understood

Frank Zappa's words.

In 1992, my father had a stroke

that pretty much ended

his career as a guitarist.

Two months before

my father passed away,

he said to me, "You know,

the stroke came

at the right time

in my life."

I knew exactly what he meant.

The phone had stopped ringing,

and his day as

the Los Angeles session king

had come to an end.

Now he had an excuse as to why

the phone didn't ring.

It was something

he had no control over.

If I learned anything

from my father,

it was to give more

than you take.

He loved his family and friends

and would always help

the younger guitar players,

knowing it was only

a matter of time

that they soon

would take his place,

just like he took someone else's

seat 40 years earlier.

Right on!

This is the moment

we've been waiting for.

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