The Wrecking Crew! Page #6

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But once I made

my commitment, they've got

- to wait for me, right?

- That's right.

When I go up there,

I did my date, and he loved it.

And then he tells me,

"You won't believe

what Bill Pitman said.

"I called bill and asked him,

'Can you come down?

I'm stuck.

How long will it be?'

And Bill says,

'Well, I'm having breakfast.

I should be finished

in about 45 minutes,

and I'll be there in an hour.'"

And if anybody ever

figured Bill Pitman out,

that was a Bill Pitman...

straight life, not thinking.

And I'm the opposite, like,

"What will work right now?"

Now it's time for another take

of what probably will be

another smash hit

in the wondrous world

of Sonny and Cher.

Sonny himself writes

most of the songs

he and Cher record.

Musicians often work

with the couple,

and they're excellent

sight readers.

Today, they're recording

several songs

that will be part

of an album called

The Wondrous World

of Sonny & Cher,

the second album

they've made together.

Now they're ready to record.

The engineer is set...

and they call, "Take one."

Were you ever intimidated

by the guys?

No, I was too stupid to know.

Well, I was kind of shy

of everybody.

First of all, they were

a lot older than me too.

I mean, the first time...

session I went to,

I was 16 years old,

and I didn't...

I'd never been

inside a recording studio.

You know, I just didn't want

to step

any place I wasn't

supposed to step,

which I thought was everywhere.

And they all knew each other,

they were really relaxed.

I mean, everybody

was nice to me.

I really don't think I knew

for a long time

just how great they were.

And then later,

when I would meet other players

who would ask me, you know,

did I...

Was I ever on a session

with any of these guys?

There was a lot of honesty

in those records

and that's why

a lot of 'em were hits.

When I thought of the music,

I thought I was a 13-year-old

trying to learn

how to play music.

Every time I'd play.

You know,

there was all them hits

that was on...

The Marketts, Routers,

all them solos. And then,

- I brought myself back.

- Tongue in cheek.

I said,

"How would a kid play this,

that's so stupid, that

doesn't know what he's doing,

and play that?"

I did that sh*t,

didn't know what I was doing,

bending notes,

didn't care, didn't...

Awful, out of tune.

- Yeah.

- What is this tune?

- Beatles? Cockroaches?

- Some young group.

- I had no idea.

- Cockroaches.

I didn't know

them kind of names then.

Well, my personal feeling

about the music

was that it was all wonderful

and I was making

millions of dollars...

period.

I didn't give a damn

if Tommy liked it or not.

I didn't make it for him.

Like the artist.

Cher said she didn't like it.

Well, I didn't make it

for her anyway.

I made it for people to buy,

not for Cher to listen to.

She never listened

to Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves

or any other record

I made with her... again.

It was Diamond Ring.

We cut that record, and I said,

"Oh, my God. I hate this sh*t."

Two weeks later,

it was number ten or something.

So I have to give it to Snuff

in terms of

a certain kind of pop awareness.

He had it, but it was not

exactly my cup of tea.

The music that we cut

in the '60s,

nobody thought that was gonna

last, like, past ten years.

In fact, Bill Pitman says...

We were doing a

chugga-chugga-chugga date,

he says, "Can you see the kids

dancing with their wives

20 years from now,

saying, 'Darling,

they're playing our song'?"

I remember coming home

from a session one day,

and it was just one

of those three-chord sessions.

And when you're sitting there

playing rhythm guitar,

there's not much you can do.

You just do it, get your money

and go home.

And I remember coming home,

and I was not in a good mood.

I said to my wife, "I could do

this when I was 14 years old."

And she said, "Yeah,

but not nearly as well."

I didn't care

for rock and roll that much.

I was basically a jazz drummer.

But I realized that I'm

making my living off of it.

If I'm gonna continue

to do that,

I got to play that

like that's my favorite music.

That's not professionalism

to me.

It's not beneath you

if it's supporting you.

If it's beneath you,

don't play it.

I actually enjoyed it,

because when I heard the records

on the radio,

I realized, really,

what an incredible sound

that group of people had.

We're going

up to Capitol Records

- right up here.

- Oh, right.

God, the streets

are so friggin' torn up,

it's unbelievable.

This is where

we used to do all of,

you know,

Glen Campbell's records

and Ray Anthony

and everybody, man.

Peggy Lee, Nat King Cole.

We did everyone

down in the bowels.

Pretty amazing.

As soon as we got

in those studios

and we found out

that this made a lot of bucks,

it was like, "Hey, man,

we don't have to go on the road.

We can stay home

with our kids," you know.

Unfortunately, I didn't.

I went through six wives.

Yeah, but that was 'cause

of your personality...

...not your playing.

No, I had two major marriages,

and they both fell apart

because I was in the studio

too much.

I think

it's a very hard balance.

Yeah, it was tough.

When I got out of the army,

I took my G.I. bill,

went to Chicago,

went to a percussion institute.

I was going to school

from about 8:
00 in the morning

to 4:
00 in the afternoon. And

then I was playing strip clubs

from about 8:
00 at night to

4:
00 in the morning,

which was pretty wild.

But it was great

sight reading training.

You got all these new women

coming and dancing,

throwing this music at you,

and you got to, you know,

read it immediately.

It was great training

to relax you and to play,

because to this day,

I could sit down,

you can throw any kind of music

in front of me,

and I will...

You know, it might be

the hardest thing in the world,

but I'll be completely relaxed.

Nobody will know that inside,

I'm saying,

"Holy cow, this is

really something."

So there was a lot of great

basic training going on

while I was there,

which really was preparing me

for the studios.

I wound up at "the" nightclub

in Hollywood,

where all the movie stars

hung out.

There was a manager,

called me over one evening,

and he said,

"Look, I've got a kid

who's gonna be signed

by Capital Records pretty quick,

and we need a drummer."

This kid's name was Tommy Sands,

a wonderful young man,

became a major teenage idol,

and we went on the road.

But it was during that time

that I was with Tommy

that I got to work with people

like The Diamonds,

who were really hot

in those days. The Platters.

These were shows

that I was playing.

Great experience. And now

I was learning rock and roll,

which was still a dirty word

to most of the musicians.

When I got back to L.A.,

there was a man

by the name of H.B. Barnum.

And H.B. started using me,

Carol Kaye on bass,

and Glen Campbell on guitar.

There were a bunch of us that

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