The Wrecking Crew! Page #3

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coming out of New York,

having a lot to do with,

I guess, the musicians

that we were using, 'cause

they were fresh to the sound.

Hal, you started the surf

and Earl started

that double time, you know.

You know... You know, we

doubled it up and made it sweet.

Yeah, it was sort of like

east coast/west coast jazz.

There was really

a distinct difference.

And at... for those years,

the record producers

- chose the west coast.

- Yeah,

and the hits started

coming out of here.

This was where

the youthful movies

were being made.

Everybody wanted to be a surfer.

Whether you were white

or black or lived

in the middle of the desert,

you wanted to have a surfboard.

It was crazy.

And along with it

came young music,

and it was created here.

Beach beauties everywhere,

and art lovers willing to look.

This is paradise for thousands

of sun worshipers,

Californians by birth

or adoption.

I remember the perfumed air,

the night-blooming jasmine,

and all the kind of plants

that grow

in Southern California,

and how dreamy it all was.

It was the sound

of The Beach Boys

kind of wafting through

from house to house,

you know, almost the same record

just repeating,

and the idea that,

"Hey, this is real.

this is the culture here,

is this beach thing."

The Beach Boys!

Thank you very much.

Right now, we'd like to show you

how The Beach Boys

go about making a record.

We start with Denny Wilson

on the drums...

...followed by Al Jardine

on rhythm guitar...

...helped out

by Carl "lead guitar" Wilson...

...and filled out instrumentally

by our leader,

Brian Wilson on the bass.

When we're ready to sing,

we step up to the microphones,

and it comes out

something like this.

I went to Gold Star,

and I met musicians' favorite,

Phil Spector,

And I immediately had

Steve Douglas start booking,

you know, the re...

They're called the regulars,

The Wrecking Crew.

And he started booking them

for me in my studio in Western.

Session players were

brought in by producers

for a variety of reason.

In fact, most of the mid-1960s,

beach boys backing tracks

didn't feature

any of The Beach Boys.

It was Brian Wilson's decision

to push the music

to another level.

And to do that,

he enlisted the best of L.A.

We were on the road

150 days a year.

Brian was getting a little bit

more complex

in his arrangements. And

it just got to be too difficult

to... to coordinate

our itineraries.

And that's when

The Wrecking Crew stepped in.

When I heard that

some of the guys sat in

for some of The Beach Boys,

that surprised me.

But in truth, at that point,

The Beach Boys were

Brian Wilson.

He created it all.

He was very self-assured,

very much in control.

He brought in the charts

that he wrote himself.

And most of the time, I mean,

the music was entirely his.

I mean, there were

very few times that we made up

- licks on his stuff. Yeah.

- ...musically correct.

He had in his head

what he wanted.

First album, it was...

Summer Days,

The Beach Boy album.

Ray Pohlman was a great

bass player, really good.

Steve Douglas was,

like, so on-the-mark

as a saxophone player.

He just blew my mind.

He played with such finesse,

you know?

And he used to get real close

to the microphone

to get the best benefit

of his instrument.

They were all... The Wrecking

Crew... They were just great.

Brian was a genius.

I mean, he would just...

He was just good

as I've ever seen, I believe,

about putting things together.

Western studio,

and there was probably...

fifteen, 20 guys in that studio.

He'd start at the first guy...

and he'd sing 'em their part

until they got it,

and second guy,

he'd sing their part,

and the third guy,

all the way around the room.

Then he'd go back

to the first guy.

Well, the first guy

had forgot his part

and he'd sing it again,

sang a second...

He taught the whole thing

by rote.

And all of a sudden,

that whole band

could play that sh*t.

I mean, Brian is...

When you want to talk

about genius,

he's... There's not any more

like him that I know of.

I mean, he's unbelievable.

Pet Sounds was

an incredibly important record,

and still stands there, like,

"Okay, top this," you know?

George Martin told me

Sgt. Pepper was an attempt...

It was an attempt

to equal Pet Sounds.

So it was an incredibly

influential record

and I think it had

an electromagnetic field.

And people were drawn here,

and wanted to be a part of that,

and wanted to make records

like that.

Good Vibrations, we must have

done 25, 30 sessions.

It might take six months to do.

Some days,

we worked five minutes.

- Some days, four hours.

- Yeah.

- On the same song.

- We just... We experimented.

And they would ask me,

"Well, what do you want?"

And I'd say, "well,

I don't know," you know?

and we'd go home, and

the next time we get together,

then we would fall together,

and we'd do the thing.

Three months,

two, three dates a week,

but Capitol Records

was picking up the tab.

And we liked to work for him.

The word was,

"Do you have the date

with Brian Wilson

tomorrow?"

I'd say, "Yeah, I do."

"Oh, good."

Well, Carol played

on Good Vibrations

and California Girls,

and she was, like,

the star of the show.

I mean, she was

the greatest bass player

in the world.

And she was

way ahead of her time.

She would play

a tonic in a fifth

or a third instead of a fifth,

you know.

She was one

of the first bass players

to start playing that way.

But he definitely wrote out

some neat lines on the bass,

like, for instance:

I'd never played that.

I'll just go into this...

Now, that's a jazz walking line.

You knew that this kid was into

something really, really great.

The room had a spirit to it,

with Hal being the leader,

you know, and all the guys

working together,

and thumping and pumping.

He would get things

like he wanted to hear them.

And when he got 'em that way,

it was good.

When I heard Good Vibrations

the first time on the radio,

I just...

It just blew me away.

Now.

Very good.

I remember Carol though.

I still have to remember,

'cause your favorite thing,

no matter what day we went on

after that, "Would you like me

to use my Beach Boy pick?"

And so she'd

impress the sh*t out of...

This one, and...

She picked it up

on her way to the studio.

And they're looking

at this pick,

- and they're looking at her.

- You have to sell it,

- you know.

- She was selling this sh*t

like I couldn't believe.

One little pick made this girl

hundreds of thousands

of dollars.

I was very jealous of the guitar

when we were first dating

and got engaged,

and he paid a lot more

attention to the guitar, I felt.

So I gave him an ultimatum,

"It's me or the guitar."

And he said, "Honey,

the guitar doesn't have legs.

you do."

I got so upset with him,

I took my ring

and I threw it at him.

Then I went looking for it.

And I was one of these

late starters in life.

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