The Wrecking Crew! Page #9

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we didn't take it up

as a profession.

What my father did teach us

was common sense.

I got called many years ago.

I show up on this date and now

there's 70 musicians

sitting there.

And I'm looking

and I say, "70 musicians?

Wow. Where do I sit?"

And they said, "Over there.

There's the guitar."

You know, I sit there

and I look at a part.

The only problem is starting at

bar 95, you know,

and all the rest, rest.

Now the guy starts, right.

And you know what this is to me

at the time.

This is in a nightclub, you

know, you see a chick,

"Hey, there she is.

Hey, hey..."

When he did this and there was

no music, I said,

"Oh-oh, they're at bar 95,

I knew it."

"Guitar. Where's the guitar?"

"Over here."

"We're at 95,

I didn't hear you."

"Oh, okay," you know.

One, two, three, four,

"Okay, forget it.

Let's go from 96.

And they have somebody come in

the next day to do it."

Elvis Presley came back there

a few years

and I started getting hot

in records, and Elvis

started using me when he'd come

to the coast for movies.

So nobody told Elvis who to use.

To that day I never knew if they

knew I was the same guy, though.

But I wasn't about to tell them,

"Remember me?

About three years..."

Oh, no, no, no.

You see, the one thing I have,

common sense.

I studied common sense more

than I did guitar.

In the '60s,

The Wrecking Crew played

on thousands of recordings,

but you would never

have known it.

Producers made a big mistake

when they didn't put

the credits on the back

of the albums

of all the people that have

played on the albums.

Not only did they deserve it,

but I think it was misleading.

Maybe one of the reasons they

left the names off was

the same musicians played on so

many people's records

it would have been an

embarrassment if anybody

had ever listed them.

I was used to it

'cause when a guy hired me

with his last $25

and he had a bomb,

I never gave him his

money back, you know.

So I really treated it

as a business

and I understand how you

feel too. But I just felt,

"Just give me my money

and I get lost."

Snuffy always let myself

and The Playboys

lay down all the basic tracks.

And then Snuff said,

"Now we're gonna sweeten it,

do some overdubs and stuff,

and I'm gonna bring in

the people that I want to use."

And I had no experience in this,

and Snuffy had.

So I said, "Well, great.

If you think that's the way to

do it, let's do it."

The drummer came in, but

Snuffy let him, you know,

play some kind of percussion

like a tambourine

so it could say,

"Gary Lewis and The Playboys."

But it was really studio guys

that made the track.

And I remember my guitar

player and our keyboard player,

after hearing the session

musicians coming in

and putting down the parts,

you know, they were saying,

"Oh, my God, I never could have

done anything like that."

I'll never forget working

with Gary Lewis and The Playboys

- doing all that record.

- Oh, yeah.

And I'll never forget I had

one real, real hot lick

on this one record... Spanish

stuff all over the place.

And finally, his guitar player

come up to me, he says,

"You drove me crazy

with that thing.

First of all, I can't play it,

so I don't play it.

And then, everybody comes up to

me, complimenting me

on what I did on the thing."

I said, "Well, just take the

compliments and forget it."

So, while my guitar players

played a much simplified

version of it, because nobody

could play that.

That was inside stuff.

I think that the public at large

was oblivious to the fact

that there was a secret star

maker machinery,

that a very important component

of that were these teams,

like hitmen, studio hitmen.

Nobody cared.

All they wanted was the product.

They just wanted the name

and the sales.

Who created it?

Psh.

That was incidental.

Tell him your story, Hal,

about The Monkees.

Because the newspapers came in

to talk to them

and we were in the next studio

cutting their stuff.

And then they were pretending

that they were doing it

there in the studios.

- Well, you just told it.

- Tell him the story.

Well, you told the story.

Did you get it?

I'd never considered myself

a musician.

I... You know, 'cause to me a

musician is someone

who does session work,

who shows up and reads charts.

And I always approached

The Monkees as an actor,

playing the part of a drummer

in this imaginary group,

that lived in this imaginary

beach house

and had these imaginary

adventures.

To me, that always... always

been what it's about.

Peter does tell the story of

going into some

of the early sessions. And he

walked in with his guitar

and his bass, and they said,

"What are you doing here?"

"Well, we've already done the

track. Micky's gonna sing."

"So, what...? You invited me

for a recording session."

He said, "Yeah." I said,

"Well, what are you doing?"

He said, "We have the record, we

just need to put a vocal on it."

They said, "Just go home.

Relax."

One, two, three, four.

- Mikey, you like it?

- You like it?

That's terrible.

That's the worst thing...

I had no idea who these guys

were in these early sessions.

It was my first session.

And I was introduced to them,

"These are the musicians."

I was the vocalist.

I remember Hal Blaine giving me

some pointers

in the sessions, and Earl Palmer

would give me some pointers.

But I didn't have to play

at that point.

They said, "You're gonna start

drum lessons on Monday."

And I did.

And I had about a year.

So, by the time I had to

actually play on stage, live,

I wasn't that bad.

I mean, I only had to play

our songs, obviously,

and they were pretty simple

pop tunes.

Hal and Earl do this stuff

with one hand in their sleep.

The fans, they didn't know

or care, and I was like,

"What's the deal?

This is a television show

you know.

What is the big deal?"

But you know, back then,

and even to this day,

a lot of people take their

rock and roll very seriously

and, you know... And it's,

you know,

rock and roll is

no laughing matter.

You're not supposed

to have fun, you know.

It has to be very serious.

It makes sense now to me.

If I were doing the project,

I would do it exactly

the same way.

Uh, but, uh, at the time, it

didn't make any sense to me.

I didn't understand.

- Were you upset?

- Yeah, I was upset.

I thought that... I mean,

I was very naive.

I regard how upset I was as a

function of my naivet.

I always thought I was gonna be

in a recording session,

and play the guitar,

and do the things,

and sing the background vocals,

and all the rest of that.

I had no idea that they had

just gone

and made the tracks without us.

I don't think there was any

backlash to the discovery

that The Monkees didn't play

their own instruments initially,

because everybody knew

it was common practice.

I saw them in everybody's

session.

I remember in RCA Victor going

to The Mamas and Papas,

who were next door,

and there was Hal Blaine.

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